The Veterans Breakfast Club (VBC) is the nation’s premier non-profit for connecting veterans with their fellow Americans through inspiring stories of service. We’re the place where veterans can share what they’ve seen and done—and where everyone can listen and learn.
UPCOMING EVENTS
We welcome helicopter pilots in Vietnam to VBC LIVE to discuss their service with these iconic machines. Nothing, in fact, is more closely associated with the Vietnam War than the helicopter.
More than 12,000 helicopters served in Southeast Asia, carrying troops into battle, evacuating the wounded, escorting convoys, directing artillery, scouting enemy positions, and providing close air support. For the men who flew them, every mission demanded skill and courage, plus some luck.
Joining us are Army helicopter pilots whose combined experiences span some of the most important aircraft and missions of the war.
Barry Lloyd flew UH-1 Huey gunships and OH-23 Raven scout helicopters during two combat tours in Vietnam. Twice wounded in action, he survived being shot down before going on to a distinguished civilian career as Chief Pilot for CAL FIRE.
Barry Desfor flew UH-1 Hueys and AH-1 Cobra gunships in Vietnam before returning as an instructor pilot. After the war, he founded HeliValue$ and created The Official Helicopter Blue Book®, the worldwide standard for helicopter valuation.
Gil Ferrey flew OH-23 Ravens and UH-1 Hueys, first in Korea and then with the legendary 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment during its deployment to Vietnam. As a command-and-control pilot, he witnessed firsthand how helicopters transformed modern warfare.
Together they’ll discuss what it was like to fly low over jungle canopies, insert troops into landing zones, escort convoys, search for enemy forces, and survive one of the most dangerous jobs of the Vietnam War.
If you flew helicopters in Vietnam or served in Army aviation we especially invite you to join us and share your own memories and questions.
Among the helicopters we’ll discuss are some of these icons of the war:
- UH-1 Iroquois (“Huey”) – the workhorse utility helicopter used for troop transport, medevac, command and control, and gunship missions.
- AH-1 Cobra – the Army’s first purpose-built attack helicopter, developed to escort Hueys and provide devastating fire support.
- OH-23 Raven – a light observation helicopter used for scouting, artillery spotting, and command-and-control missions during the early years of the war.
- OH-6 Cayuse (“Loach”) – a tiny, agile scout helicopter famous for flying dangerously low in search of enemy forces.
- CH-47 Chinook – the Army’s heavy-lift helicopter, capable of carrying troops, artillery, vehicles, and supplies.
- CH-54 Skycrane – the giant flying crane used to recover downed aircraft and move heavy equipment.
Join the Veterans Breakfast Club and the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown for a lunch lecture with historian Todd DePastino about the anniversary of V-J Day and the end of World War II. The Japanese surrender on August 14, 1945 is perhaps the most celebratory event in 20th century American history. Come hear how it came about, why it was never certain, and who the two people were in that famous Times Square Kiss (one was a Holocaust survivor).
Todd DePastino is founder and executive director of the Veterans Breakfast Club and author of the award-winning Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front and six other books. A dynamic speaker with a Ph.D. in history from Yale, Todd has a gift for making the past come alive with insight, humor, and humanity.
This event is free and open to the public.
You don’t need to be a veteran to attend. Lunch is included.
We’d appreciate your RSVP and a suggested donation of $10 per person.
To RSVP, contact:
JCC Youngstown: 330-746-3250 ext #106 or bwilson@jewishyoungstown.org
Veterans Breakfast Club: 412-623-9029 or JoAnn@veteransbreakfastclub.org
The Veterans Breakfast Club brings American history to life. Join us to listen and learn, connect and heal, and say thank you to those who’ve served.
Thank you to the Youngstown JCC and the Thomases Family Endowment for Supporting this Event!
Latest Blog Posts
VBC programs connect and heal,
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.
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!
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.
