By LOIS KINDLE
The recent passing of Bill Hodges left Veterans Corner Radio without a voice and military Veterans around the world without their familiar advocate.
That will change at 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 5, when Ret. Air Force Col. Joe Muhlberger takes the helm.
“Bill Hodges founded Veterans Corner Radio and bestowed upon me the honor of continuing his legacy,” Muhlberger said.
“The plan is to continue the show in a manner that reverently respects him, his family, Veterans and their families, and fans of Veterans.”
The popular radio program will have more than a new announcer. Its flagship station will be WKOT 102.1 FM and also be broadcast by WPHX 101.9 FM and WYPW 90.1 FM and streamed online at www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/ or www.veteranscornerradio.com/. The shows will be produced by Vern Hendricks, formerly of WSCQ 96.3 FM, and sponsored by M & M Printing and The Observer News.
Muhlberger is a combat veteran who served in the military from Oct. 1984 to Oct. 2020 and was deployed five times post-9/11 to Oman, Iraq, Qatar, Lebanon and Jordan.
After retiring from the military, he and his wife moved from Georgia to Florida, where he’s become involved in Veterans events and organizations like Bob’s Vets, Ruskin; MOWW Chapter 226, Sun City Center; MOAA Chapter 42, Sun City Center; AMVETS Post 26, Dover; Disabled American Veterans Chapter 4, Tampa; American Legion Post 138, Tampa; VFW Post 8108, Riverview; and the Veterans Council of Hillsborough County, Tampa.
He’s also an active member of Florida Chapter 316 of the Air & Space Forces Association.
Some further examples of his involvement include
• Serving as an Honor Flight guardian for a Vietnam War Veteran.
• Interviewing Veterans and Gold Star family members on behalf of the Library of Congress.
• Being invited by Ret. Navy Adm. Larry Chambers to speak at the first Retired Officers Corp. event since COVID on Memorial Day 2023.
• Serving as a guardian last July, on behalf of the Gary Sinise Foundation and Soaring Valor, for one of 15 WWII Veterans who traveled and interacted with JROTC students from Bloomingdale High School during a joint visit to the World War II Museum in New Orleans.
Muhlberger is continuing Hodges legacy because “Bill and Phyllis asked” and out of his vested interest in the lives of military Veterans and their families.
Beyond continuing the Veterans Corner Radio program and highlighting organizations doing great things, he will be adding an interview with a Veteran each week,
His first will be with 108-year-old Bill Montfort, the state’s oldest living Veteran, who was a chief petty officer in the Navy on Dec. 7, 1941. At the time Pearl Harbor was attacked, he was serving on a destroyer escorting an aircraft carrier that had departed two days prior.
COURTESY PHOTO
Ret. Air Force Col. Joe Muhlberger will be at the helm of Veterans Corner Radio when it resumes new programming at 3 p.m. March 5. A combat Veteran who served in the military from Oct. 1984 to Oct. 2020, he is honored to continue Bill Hodges’ legacy.
“The Veterans community in Tampa is among the top three in the nation,” Muhlberger said. “While Veterans Corner Radio is based in Tampa, Veterans interests issues are of key interest globally.”
Muhlberger was among a group of 30 Veterans living in Florida’s 16th Congressional District who received an award from Congressman Vern Buchanan to honor their “wartime sacrifices and peacetime community involvement.”
On a personal note, he and his wife of 35 years have a daughter who graduated from Florida State University, a son who’s a University of Georgia graduate, a 3-year-old grandchild and another on the way.