Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a conversation with Vietnam veteran, writer, and longtime veterans advocate Doug Bradley, whose new book The Tracks of My Years: A Music-Based Memoir uses popular music to trace his own life story from first loves and hometown restlessness to Vietnam and coming home. Wisconsin Public Radio describes the book as a memoir in which Bradley lets music guide memory “like a playlist.”

Bradley is also one of the best-known writers on the soundtrack of the Vietnam War. In his widely read co-authored book We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War, he argues that music was a lifeline and a bridge back to the world at home

In this livestream, we’ll talk with Doug about:

• How a “music-based memoir” works and why songs can unlock memory more honestly than chronology ever can

• Vietnam and the long coming-home. Bradley served as an Army combat correspondent in Vietnam (Long Binh) in 1970–71, then helped build veteran community support after the war

• What Vietnam-era music meant in country vs. what it meant back home and how those meanings still collide today

• The difference between nostalgia and memory, and why certain songs can still hit like a flashback

• Why Doug keeps returning to music as a way to talk across divisions of class, politics, generation

If like music or are someone for whom songs are tied to life chapters, this program is for you!

Join us for a special livestream about the history of the Battle of Monte Cassino and what it will be like to talk its grounds as part of our VBC WWII Italian Campaign Tour, October 17–30, 2026.

In the spring of 1944, the rugged slopes above the Italian town of Cassino became the scene of one of World War II’s most desperate, costly, and consequential struggles. For four months — through repeated assaults, bitter weather, and brutal terrain — Allied forces fought to break the German Gustav Line and open the road to Rome. The fighting around the ancient abbey and the Liri valley exacted a terrible toll and left a mark on every unit that passed through.

We’ll discuss what made Monte Cassino so formidable: the Abbey, the Gustav Line, the rivers, and the hills that dominated the Liri Valley. We’ll also discuss some of the human stories behind the statistics, from infantry assaults to artillery duels and the multinational Allied effort. And we’ll talk about how this history ties to our itinerary, especially the portion of the trip centered around Cassino:

• • Day 10 (Mon, Oct 26) — travel into Cassino via the Winter Line and iconic sites of the Italian Campaign.

  • Day 11 (Tue, Oct 27) — a full day on the ground in Cassino — visiting the Cassino War Museum, both Commonwealth and German cemeteries, the Abbey of Montecassino, and the Polish Cemetery and exhibit.

  • Day 12 (Wed, Oct 28) — continuing our exploration of battlefield landscapes at Anzio and Piana delle Orme, and then on to Rome.

We’ll touch on the larger arc of the tour — from the landings in Sicily through Salerno, down the Amalfi Coast, across the Winter Line, and up to Rome — and how each segment sets the stage for understanding Monte Cassino in its full historical context.