Our Veterans Breakfast Club’s Open Conversation gathers veterans, military family members, history buffs, and interested people of all sorts together in a Zoom room without an agenda. We then talk for 90 minutes.
Once a month, we dispense with the scheduled guest and prepared program and turn the microphone over to the people who show up. Bring a story, a question, a memory, something you’ve been thinking about, or simply your curiosity. You never quite know where the conversation will go.
A question about a veteran’s hat might lead to a discussion about coming home from Vietnam and what “thank you for your service” means. A conversation about flying drones can become a debate about technology, combat, and moral responsibility. Someone might introduce a veteran we’ve never met before, pull out an old photograph, remember a friend who has died, recommend a book, ask how things were done in the military 50 years ago, or raise a question that sends the whole group down an unexpected historical rabbit hole.
There is no featured guest and no predetermined topic. We all create the program as we go. Veterans from different branches, generations, ranks, specialties, and eras compare experiences and discover where they overlap—and where they don’t. Non-veterans ask the questions they’ve always wanted to ask. Sometimes the conversation is serious. Sometimes it’s funny. Often one story triggers another, and we wind up someplace none of us expected when the evening began.
You don’t need to be a veteran to participate, and you don’t need to have a story ready. Some people come to talk. Others come to ask questions. And some simply come to listen.
Join us Monday, November 2 at 7:00pm ET on Zoom, Facebook, or YouTube and be part of the conversation!
