The never-before-told story of what went down at the Fort Knox Coffeehouse in Meade County, Kentucky, in 1969 & 1970.
I grew up with a family story of my dad rescuing a soldier’s baby during a police raid, and then delivering the baby to my grandmother in the middle of the night. This was Kentucky in the late 1960s. Fifty years later, I went looking for that soldier and his baby, and what I found was the jaw-dropping, mostly-forgotten history of the active-duty GIs who organized against the Vietnam War from inside the U.S. Army.
This immersive, 5-part audio series examines the larger history of the GI Movement through the intersecting stories of two families — and an incredible cast of individuals — all forever connected by their efforts to end that godawful war.
THE ENLISTEE — FTA Episode 1
Fun Travel and Adventure begins with soldier Tom Jackson and his wife, Kathy, two flag waving kids who end up the caretakers of an antiwar coffeehouse — with no coffee — at the height of the Vietnam War. This is the story of how they got there.
Profound thanks to Tom Jackson, Kathy Jackson, Steve Gilbert, Ellen Mosen James, and everyone else I’ve interviewed for this project, many of whom will be featured in later episodes of the series.
Fun Travel and Adventure is made by Ben James, with editing by Loretta Williams. The series is a work in progress, and will be released in its entirety at Disco Voicebox, a podcast scheduled to launch in fall 2026.
