VBC programs connect and heal,
educate and inspire.
Everyone is always welcome.
educate and inspire.
Everyone is always welcome.
The Veterans Breakfast Club (VBC) is the nation’s premier non-profit for connecting veterans with their fellow Americans through inspiring stories of service.
Our goal is to build a nation that understands and values the experiences of our military veterans so that every day is Veterans Day.
We do this by bringing together–in-person and online–men and women from all walks of life, all ages and eras, and every branch of service to talk about what they’ve seen and done. We want to hear how people’s military service has shaped them. “Every Veteran Has a Story” is our slogan. We want to hear every one.
We share the stories we hear in our weekly VBC Bulletin email newsletter and our quarterly VBC Magazine. We also record a weekly podcast, The Scuttlebutt, about military culture from the people who lived it.
We do all this because we believe the best way to thank a Veteran is to listen.
Listening is what the VBC has been doing for the past 15 years, when we held our first small event outside of Pittsburgh. Since then, we’ve held over 1,000 programs in-person and online and have welcomed over 20,000 different people at our events, Veterans and non-Veterans coming together to listen.
We value every veteran’s experience, no matter who they are or when or how they served. We’ve seen up close the power of storytelling, as the memories shared at VBC events connect, heal, educate, and inspire an ever-expanding circle of listeners.
At any given event, you might hear from the newest members of Space Force to a 101-year-old World War II veteran.
We’ve welcomed Tin Can Sailors and Montford Point Marines, Vietnam Sky Soldiers and Cold War intelligence officers. We’ve heard stories from the Horn of Africa to Antarctica, the Bering Sea to Diego Garcia, and all points in between.
LORAN Coast Guardsmen and Radar Station Airmen have told us about serving in some of the most remote places on earth.
Korean War veterans have borne witness to their “forgotten war.”
Other “forgotten warriors” shared their memories of Beirut, Grenada, and Mogadishu.
Some of the first women authorized for combat shared stories of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and of the Purple Hearts they received.
Join us at our events and help keep these stories alive.
All you need to do is listen.
UPCOMING EVENTS
VBC Scuttlebutt Open Conversation is a friendly, interactive gathering of veterans, friends of veterans, and history nerds where we discuss whatever aspects of military service, past or present, or the veterans community that are on our minds.
We’re grateful to UPMC for Life and Tobacco Free Adagio Health for sponsoring this event!
Join us for a FREE breakfast with Rocky Bleier at Fort Indiantown Gap on Tuesday, October 15 at 8:30am!
Pittsburgh Steeler and Vietnam Veteran Rocky Bleier will be at the Veterans Breakfast Club to to tell his awe-inspiring story of going to war, coming home, and fighting back to Super Bowl victory.
Breakfast will be served at 8:30am followed by a presentation by Rocky. This event is FREE but registration is required by October 8.
Registration is required for this event by Tuesday, October 8.
You must submit your name, as it appears on your Driver’s License or state ID, with your birthdate.
Questions? betty@veteransbreakfastclub.org or by calling 412-623-9029.
As of Nov. 1, 2023, Fort Indiantown Gap is a controlled-access installation. All visitors who do not have a Department of Defense Common Access Card (CAC), military ID or pre-screened compliant ID must be vetted through the National Crime Information Center Interstate Identification Index (NCIC-III).
Directions: I-81 to Exit 85 (Exit 85B NB) to Rt 934 (Fisher Ave) North. Stop at Main Control Point and show ID. Head north on Fisher Ave to Community Club.
Here is the Google Map location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/m5A9Vi2Y6YSkwu988
Most of us know the outlines of Rocky’s story: son of a Wisconsin tavern owner, all-state athlete in high school, National Champion at Notre Dame, and VERY late round draft pick (417th overall) for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1968.
Rocky makes the team, plays sparingly, then receives his draft notice.
Five months later, he’s in Vietnam, Company C, 4th Battalion (Light), 196th Light Infantry Brigade. On August 20, while on patrol about 60km southwest of Danang, his platoon gets ambushed. A enemy bullet rips into his left thigh. Then, an exploding grenade shreds his lower right leg and foot. Rocky’s war in Vietnam is over.
But his fight had just begun. Doctors reassured Rocky he’s be able to lead a normal life—except for football. Playing again was out of the question.
Out of the blue, he receives a postcard from legendary Steelers owner.
“Rock – the team’s not doing well. We need you. Art Rooney.”
That short note kickstarted a grueling rehabilitation that, in truth, took years. He couldn’t walk without pain and returned to the Steelers woefully underweight.
But he never gave up and ever so slowly climbed the ladder of football success.
1970: works out with the Steelers.
1971: makes the roster.
1972: plays every game.
1974: earns a starting position in the backfield, over five years after being wounded in a Vietnamese rice paddy.
Even without the four Super Bowls that followed, the Rocky Bleier story would be the most inspiring tale of grit in the history of sports.
But those championships made Rocky a household name and introduced millions of Americans to the qualities shaping a hero: commitment, determination, optimism, and humility.
Rocky Bleier has them all and shares what he’s learned from a hard life at war and in football with us.
RSVP by calling 412-623-9029 or emailing betty@veteransbreakfastclub.org.
Thank you to our event sponsors, Forge Health and UPMC for Life!
PAST EVENTS
GET INVOLVED TODAY
The mission of the Veterans Breakfast Club is to create communities of listening around veterans and their stories to ensure that this living history will never be forgotten. We believe that through our work, people will be connected, educated, healed, and inspired.
INTRODUCING THE VETERANS HISTORY PROJECT
Preserving veterans’ stories so that this living history is never forgotten.
We pair passionate VBC volunteers with military veterans for one-on-one oral history interviews over Zoom. If you are a veteran, or you know a veteran, who would be interested in sharing his or her story with us, let us know. If you are someone interested in conducting these interviews, please reach out!
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