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.
Featured Stories
UPCOMING EVENTS
Join us for an evening with Colonel Chuck Bechtel, whose new memoir, Sent to War, Returning for Peace: My Reconciliation with the Vietnam War, traces a long soldier’s journey from the jungles of Vietnam to a quiet reckoning half a century later.
Chuck was drafted in 1966, a kid from Pennsylvania who suddenly found himself leading a 43-man infantry platoon with the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in 1968–69. His book tells that story—training, combat, fear, loss, and the strange return home to a country that didn’t know what to make of its soldiers. But it also reaches beyond the war. Chuck writes about the decades that followed, the invisible weight so many veterans carried, and the hard work of finding peace in the long after.
A centerpiece of the memoir is his return trip to Vietnam in 2022 with his wife and a small group of veterans organized by Mrs. Lei Williams, whose own life was shaped by the war. That journey—walking old ground with former enemies and longtime friends—became a turning point. The book captures the tenderness, the surprises, and the healing that can happen when you’re finally ready to face the past.
Over thirty-five years in uniform, Chuck rose from Private E-1 to full Colonel, commanded at every level from company to brigade, deployed during Desert Storm, and later played a key role in building the Army’s 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team. His record includes the Bronze Star with “V” for valor, Air Medal, Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, Combat Infantry Badge, Legion of Merit, and many more. After retiring, he continued serving as a volunteer Ambassador for Veterans’ Outreach of PA, helping launch Veterans Grove, a 24/7 therapeutic community for unhoused veterans. Ten percent of his book royalties support that mission.
Chuck lives in Hershey, Pennsylvania, with his wife Joan. They have two children and three grandchildren.
This livestream will be a conversation not just about a war, but about what it means to come home from one—and how reconciliation can grow, even decades later. We hope you’ll join us.
We’re grateful to UPMC for Life for sponsoring this event!
Come to our live, in-person breakfast in Sewickley, PA.
We meet at Christ Church Grove Farm (249 Duff Rd, Sewickley, PA 15143). You’ll walk in, pick up your name badge, pay $20 ($15 for VBC Members, no cost for those who don’t eat), and meet others who are there to hear and share the stories. Breakfast is served at 8:30am. At 9:00am, we start the program. For the next 90 minutes, we circulate the room with the microphone and have veterans share a slice of their service experience. You never know what you’re going to hear, and there’s always new people with new memories to offer.
RSVP by calling 412-623-9029 or emailing betty@veteransbreakfastclub.org. Please make sure to RSVP for events at least two days in advance. We understand that your schedule can change quickly, but advance notice of attendance always helps us and our venues prepare the program. Thank you!
Thank you to our sponsors!
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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