Hi! Welcome to Left Behind.

This is a podcast about the servicemen and women, civilians, families, and others — left behind when the United States surrendered The Philippines mere months into World War 2.

It’s a story we don’t hear much about. Maybe people have heard of the Bataan Death March. But, in my experience, most people can’t explain anything about it.

And that’s a crime.

Because 70,000 Filipino and 20,000 American servicemen men and women were captured when The Philippines fell in April and May 1942. And probably half of them never made it home.

Today, their stories and experiences are being lost to history.

That’s an even bigger crime.

But we — you and I — are going to change that.

I’m a writer, a researcher, a wife, a mother, and a storyteller.

I’ve always been fascinated with World War 2

Like, since I was in high school. Band of Brothers is my desert island movie, or . . . mini-series. Same thing. Regardless, WW2 is one of my passions.

In the early 2000s, I read my great-grandfather’s memoir of his time as a POW in The Philippines.

The stories shocked me and inspired me to learn about the men he mentioned in his memoir, his fellow POWs. I wanted to know their stories from before, during and after the war (if there was an after).

So, I started researching these men’s lives. Off and on at first and then more intensely over the course 15+ years. I tried to put the project down, but I’ve never been able to leave it alone.

I’ve felt driven to share their stories.

My other passion is family history.

Before having kids, I worked for Ancestry.com as the company spokesperson, the research manager for 3 seasons of NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” TV show, research manager for celebrity family trees, and as associate editor of Ancestry Magazine.

I’ve appeared on “Good Morning America,” Martha Stewart, Anderson Cooper, CNN, and many, many local TV stations. 

I’ve taken reporters on journeys into their past — at abandoned military forts, deep in underground mines, in abandoned cemeteries, on Civil War battlefields.

And now I’m combining my passion, expertise, and research to share with you and the world the stories of those individuals left behind during World War 2.

Thanks for joining me!