← BACK TO VBC BLOG Who Are Your Favorite WWII Generals? Historian Stephen Taaffe, author of Marshall and His Generals, joins us on Greatest Generation Live to discuss how General George C. Marshall, chief of staff of the U.S. Army during

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Missing in Korea: The Curious Case of Major Samuel P. Logan, Jr. In honor of National POW/MIA Recognition Day, we welcome David and Mike Logan to our VBC Happy Hour to talk about their father, B-29

← BACK TO VBC BLOG WWII GI’s “Trail of Broken Hearts” Included a Stop at Arlington Farms, a.k.a., “Girl Town” (Library of Congress) Ed Kolasinski (Dave Kolasinski) Dave Kolasinski

← BACK TO VBC BLOG September 6, 2021 September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. It’s important that veterans are provided with resources when they need help. The number of veterans reaching out to the VA’s Veterans Crisis Line skyrocketed during the

← BACK TO VBC BLOG American Paratroopers Jumped Out of Airplanes. Russians Slid Off the Wings. This video clip of Russian airborne troops sliding off the wing of a Soviet heavy bomber in 1937 seems almost comical, as if it’s some

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Travel overnight to the National Museum of the US Army & National Museum of the Marine Corps! September 30 - October 1, 2021 $289 (double occupancy; $60 single supplement) Join us on our overnight trip to

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Marine Corps Letter We Should All Read Right Now As we mourn the recent deaths of 13 US Service Members and witness the ongoing disaster in Afghanistan, it is good to read this thoughtful letter sent

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Salute to National Guard Veteran and VBC Board Member, Amber Spells! Last week’s Steelers preseason game against the Detroit Lions featured a third-period Salute to Service in honor of Amber Spells, former Fire Control Repair

← BACK TO VBC BLOG August 23, 2021 WWII Coast Veteran Recalls a Torpedo Hitting the USS Cavalier Manila Bay, 0130 hours, January 30, 1945: Explosion rocks a quiet night  aboard the USS Cavalier (APA-37) as a Japanese torpedo rips into

← BACK TO VBC BLOG August 23, 2021 C-17 Out of Kabul Broke Passenger Record Still, the last C-130 out of Saigon in 1975 should get at least an honorable mention. (USAF) Years from now, people will reference this

← BACK TO VBC BLOG August 21, 2021 What the heck is that noise outside my window? by Ellie DePastino flickr.com Yesterday, I found it very difficult to get any work done. And not just because it was a

← BACK TO VBC BLOG The Fall of Kabul: Resources for Veterans and Civilians by Shaun Hall If you're like me, a civilian who has been watching the events in Afghanistan unfold, with people trying to flee after the

← BACK TO VBC BLOG August 18, 2021 Navy Veteran Reacts to Shock Trials  Today, we're bringing you a shocking Scuttlebutt Short! he US Navy conducted its first shock trials of an aircraft carrier in 34 years during a

← BACK TO VBC BLOG August 17, 2021 What Veterans Are Thinking About the Fall of Kabul Last night, we heard a number of veterans respond to what is happening in Afghanistan right now. Listen to these vets share

← BACK TO VBC BLOG August 16, 2021 Air Force to Allow Airmen to Put Hands in Pockets Ever since pockets were invented, the military has frowned upon using them. Even when Army, Navy, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine

← BACK TO VBC BLOG August 16, 2021 A Short History of Jumping Out of Perfectly Good (and not so good) Airplanes Almost from the moment the Wright brothers proved that powered, heavier-than-air machine flight was possible, people have wanted to jump.

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Meet the Marine Pilot Who Flew Missions in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Wars in Between by Pete Mecca At age 6, Jim Lawrence would get dropped off at Hawkins Field in Jackson, Mississippi, to watch airplanes land

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Can You Spot the Difference? Last week, a Command Sergeant Major (CSM) at Fort Hood noticed something wrong with the new 1st Cavalry Division patches distributed to troops to wear on their sleeves. Seems like the patch manufacturer

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Longest-Running Film in History Has Played in Navy Boot Camp Since 1973 If you served in the Navy or Coast Guard since 1973, you’ve watched Trial by Fire, a harrowing 18-minute, 44-second film of the

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Do You Know These Donut Dollies of Vietnam? One morning in 1971 in a village in Binh Phuoc province, South Vietnam, Jim Roberts’ Mobile Advisory Team received a call about an incoming helicopter. Jim and two team members

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Remembering 9/11 with Heather Penney, Fighter Pilot Hero As the nation and the world prepare to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, join us live in-person or online on Saturday,

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Orange Alert on the Pinetree Line, Goose Bay, Labrador, 1957 Our program with Francis Gary Powers, Jr., three weeks ago prompted stories and responses from participants, including a memory from Air Force veteran Ron Stachevich about

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Gene Bowser, a WWII Navy “Jack O’ the Dust” The Beaver County Times captured a great shot of Gene Bowser in his WWII Navy jumper at our picnic last week, the VBC’s first in-person event since

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Donate blood with Vitalant and support the VBC! The Veterans Breakfast Club has partnered with Vitalant (formerly, Central Blood Bank) to address our nation’s critical blood shortage. The VBC Blood Drive is part of Vitalant’s “Give

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Music Memories in Vietnam We received notes from Vietnam veterans about our Scuttlebutt episode on the music of war, especially Vietnam. Here are two remembrances by Vietnam veterans Rich Doerr and George Dvorznak:   Music to

← BACK TO VBC BLOG The Importance of Listening to Veterans by Todd DePastino  Ten years ago, I toured the United States Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, with a group of World War II veterans, including Charles Utz. We stopped

← BACK TO VBC BLOG The Disappearance of Air-to-Air Combat since 1991 Syrian Su-22 being shot down by US F/A-18E (US Navy) Our guest with Pete Mecca on Thursday night at 7:00pm, USAF Col. (Ret.) Cesar “Rico” Rodriguez, is

← BACK TO VBC BLOG What Made D-Day an Unsurpassed Masterpiece of Planning by Derek Sansone (wikipedia.org) Military history is rife with D-Days—but none like the one that took place 77 years ago on June 6, 1944. Operation Overlord,

← BACK TO VBC BLOG The Confusing History of July 4 and Independence Day Thomas Jefferson was a brilliant man who, if he had felt free to pursue any profession he wanted, might have become the world’s leading mathematician. But he

← BACK TO VBC BLOG A Man Whose Life was Saved in Korea by a MoH Recipient Samuel S. Coursen by Todd DePastino Yesterday, I spent the best afternoon imaginable at The Residence in Bethel Park retirement community, where I met

← BACK TO VBC BLOG “Duck Tape” or “Duct Tape”? Either Way is Right, and Its Sticky History Fascinating The world’s most useful tool was the brainchild of a Blue Star mother and WWII war plant worker from Illinois named Vesta

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Today in History: Assassin’s Dumb Luck Sparks World War I by Todd DePastino (wikipedia.org) On June 28, 1914, a driver made a wrong turn in Sarajevo, and the world stumbled across an unseen geopolitical

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Jack Dempsey’s 1918 Publicity Stunt Backfired and Inspired his Service in WWII Several years ago, WWII veteran George Herwig told a story at the Veterans Breakfast Club about turning out for physical training in 1943 at

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Juneteenth and the Crooked Road to Emancipation “Contrabands,” escaped slaves enlisted in the Union Army, 1861-1865(courtesy Library of Congress) The Civil War ended slavery. But it didn’t do so everywhere, all at once, on

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Captured Vietcong and NVA Flags Might Not Be What They Seem In the wake of our conversation about returning Japanese WWII flags to families in Japan, Vietnam veteran Jim Roberts casually mentioned he used hoax souvenir

← BACK TO VBC BLOG The US Army Was Really Born in Western Pennsylvania Celebrate the Army Birthday with us! June 14 @ 7pm ET Colonial Americans disliked standing armies so much, they fought a war for two months before creating

← BACK TO VBC BLOG 7 Things Vets Should Know About VA Loans with the hot housing market, more veterans may be looking to use their VA mortgage benefits. Here, courtesy of Money Magazine is the 2021 Guide to VA Loans: 7 Tips for Veterans. 

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Happy Women Veteran’s Day! Let's hear their stories.  It was 73 years ago today that President Harry Truman signed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, allowing women to serve in the military as regular members.  Not

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Thich Quang Duc, the Buddhist Monk Who Lit a Match and Sparked a Revolt in 1963 (Malcom Browne for AP) On one of our VBC trips to Vietnam, a sight at the Pagoda of

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Tommy Clack’s Cost of War Data Sheet For over forty years, wounded Vietnam veteran Tommy Clack has kept up-to-date one-page data sheets accounting for the all the KIA, MIA, WIA, and captured from our nation’s wars

← BACK TO VBC BLOG What Was a “Tech Sergeant” in World War II? With the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US Army was in sudden need of skilled tradesmen from across the labor market. Blacksmiths and cable splicers,

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Korean War Veteran Profile: Command Sergeant Major Simon Ramos, Special Forces Pioneer Courtesy of Pete Mecca’s Veteran’s Story website archive Simon Ramos came into this world in 1932, one of twelve siblings. His childhood playground, all

← BACK TO VBC BLOG How James E. Hanger, the First Civil War Amputee, Invented Modern Prosthetics James Edward Hanger (Library of Congress) The first amputation of the Civil War came at the hands of a 16th Ohio Volunteer

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Why the Convair B-36 Peacemaker Propeller Engines are on the Rear Side of the Wings by Dana DelBianco (US Air Force) The Convair B-36 was a remarkable aircraft. But anyone with an even vague

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Vietnam Mystery Memorial Still Has People Scratching Their Heads . . . and Mistakenly Declaring it “the First” (American Legion) (American Legion) I somehow missed this an old news item about the

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Should Memorial Day Be Restored to May 30? It was originally called Decoration Day, and it was always May 30. Until 1971, what we call Memorial Day fell invariably on May 30, a date chosen in

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Terror in West Germany, 1972: How a Mysterious Voice Stopped Me from Killing a Suspected Red Army Faction Bomber By Charles Nesbitt US Army Nineteen-seventy-two was a year of terror in West Germany. The

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Why Was May 22 Chosen as Maritime Day? When Congress created Maritime Day in 1933 hardly anyone noticed. It was in the First Hundred Days of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, and all eyes were upon the

← BACK TO VBC BLOG The Vietnam Memorial Fact Sheet: 99 Things You Should Know About the Wall and the War For many years, National Park Service tour guide Allen McCabe has been producing the Vietnam Memorial Fact Sheet for anyone

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Saigon Fell 46 Years Ago. Here’s the Story of Its Most Iconic Photo. (UPI) One of the most iconic photographs of the Vietnam War, and the most iconic photograph of the Fall of Saigon,

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Glenn Flickinger’s 12 Things to Know about the US Army in WWII (Borrowed Entirely from Rick Atkinson) By Glenn Flickinger The US Army Was Puny: When Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the US Army

← BACK TO VBC BLOG  Post-9/11 Veteran Profile: Amanda Doughty, Coast Guard Courtesy of Pete Mecca’s Veteran’s Story website archive. US Coast Guard veteran Amanda Doughty grew up mostly in Georgia and Florida and recalls her father having one of the

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Happy Patriots’ Day! (For Those Who Don’t Live in Mass. or Maine, it’s Just Monday) April 19 (or the third Monday of the month) is a big holiday in Massachusetts. The kids have a day off

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Bad Weapon of the Week: XM-148, Vietnam Grenade Launcher During our virtual breakfast last Wednesday morning, we talked with John Krul of the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, which saw the largest single

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Join Us Tuesday for a Discussion of the MGM classic, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)!           Join Us Tuesday, April 20 at 7:00pm on Zoom for a Discussion of the MGM classic, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)!          

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Calvin Graham, the Youngest American to Serve in World War II On Monday night, April 19 at 7:00pm, we will welcome two WWII veterans, 99-year-old Phil Horowitz in Florida and 92-year-old Harry Miller in Manchester, PA.

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Never Confuse “Tincture of Benzoin” for “Castellani Paint,” a Lesson My Buddies Learned the Hard Way By Jim Lutz Tachikawa, Japan, in the spring of 1957, was the wettest place on earth. It rained non-stop for

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Henry Link, the Man Who (May Have) Trained President George H.W. Bush to Fly Almost two years after she moved from Pittsburgh to Franklin, Tennessee, Jean Link has joined us again for our Veterans Breakfast Club

← BACK TO VBC BLOG The Domino Theory in Retrospect President Dwight D. Eisenhower during the President’s News Conference, April 7, 1954 On April 7, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower  answered a press conference reporter’s question about the impending defeat

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Happy April Fool's Day! Here are some hilarious military pranks from the past. Todd’s note: April Fool’s Day is terrible for exceedingly gullible people like me. My wife tricks me every year. But I must admit

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Thank you to all who made our Vietnam Veterans Day Celebration a success! Last week, we sent out 100 Welcome Home Boxes to Vietnam Veterans for our Vietnam Veterans Day Recognition. Next week, we plan to

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Today is First Day for the New Air Force Uniforms! The last three iterations, left to right, of the USAF uniform (U.S. Air Force photo / Airman 1st Class Spencer Tobler) Yesterday, the Air

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Pete Mecca’s Reflections on Vietnam Veterans Day Courtesy of Pete Mecca’s Veteran’s Story website archive. “Death, like a great eagle, flew over Vietnam and picked out its prey. What a waste.” - Jo Vabolis, journalist

← BACK TO VBC BLOG "Ja' Think I'm A Cowboy?" We here at the VBC love Popeye, one of the few cartoon characters to serve in three branches of service (Merchant Marine, Coast Guard, and Navy). Popeye was funny from his

← BACK TO VBC BLOG The Strange History of the Medal of Honor Thirty-one years ago, Congress designated March 25 as "Medal of Honor Day" to recognize those who have earned the highest decoration for valor in the US military. On

← BACK TO VBC BLOG The Zig-Zag Clock: The Most Important WWII Artifact You’ve Never Heard Of Image from Royal Museums Greenwich Last Wednesday morning, Vietnam veteran Clem Blazewick asked our Navy vets why ships zig-zagged across the Atlantic

← BACK TO VBC BLOG The Secret of File X-26: How Lt. Michael Blassie’s Remains Were Rescued from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Part II) By Pete Mecca Courtesy of Pete Mecca’s Veteran’s Story website archive. Read Part One here

← BACK TO VBC BLOG The Texas Soldiers of “The Lost Battalion” Who Labored on “The Bridge on the River Kwai” Historian Kelly Crager is director of Texas Tech’s Vietnam Center and Archive Oral History Project, but he’s also author of

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Nine Rules of Conduct Card for American Personnel in Vietnam, 1967 In 1967, General William Westmoreland, head of the American war effort in Vietnam, ordered that all servicemen and women arriving in country be given a

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Hollywood vs. History: The Bridge on the River Kwai Join us for a special Greatest Generation Live WWII Roundtable on Tuesday, March 16 at 7:00pm as we discuss The Bridge on the River Kwai, David Lean’s

← BACK TO VBC BLOG The Secret of File X-26: How Lt. Michael Blassie’s Remains Were Rescued from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier By Pete Mecca Courtesy of Pete Mecca’s Veteran’s Story website archive. Mike was a spitting image of

← BACK TO VBC BLOG The Man Who Made Ike By Glenn Flickinger A review of Steven Rabalais’s General Fox Conner: Pershing’s Chief of Operations & Eisenhower’s Mentor(Casement Publishers, 2017) In 1925, no one who knew Major Dwight Eisenhower could have

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Why does everyone in Chicago have off work today? by Ellie DePastino I’ve lived in Chicago for nearly 3 years. But every once in a while, I learn something new about Illinoisans. Such as the fact

← BACK TO VBC BLOG The Story of WWII Code Breaker and Navy WAVE Julia Parsons as told to Todd DePastino The war came at a perfect time for me. I was a senior at Carnegie Tech about to graduate with

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Tuesday at 7pm: The Man Chuck Yeager Called, “The Best Fighter Pilot I Ever Saw” Join us Tuesday night at 7pm on Zoom, when we talk with Clarence “Bud” Anderson, WWII P-51 Ace, USAF Test Pilot,

← BACK TO VBC BLOG 30 Years After the Iraqi Scud Attack, I Still Count Myself Lucky by Rick Altman Rick Altman in Vietnam, 1966 Every February 25, I think of what might have been and am grateful.  

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Here’s the History of Yellow Ribbons, and It’s Stranger Than You Think Last week on the VBC Happy Hour, I speculated about the origins of yellow “Support the Troops” ribbons, which were much displayed in 1991

← BACK TO VBC BLOG I Saw First-Hand Why They Called General Schwarzkopf “Stormin’ Norman” by Brad Washabaugh, Colonel, USMC (ret) Norman Schwarzkopf photo from wikipedia.org Bright Star 89 was the dress rehearsal for Desert Storm conducted in the

← BACK TO VBC BLOG VBC Vet Shares Hilarious Story About Drill Instructor Misunderstanding by James Lutz image from rallypoint.com In the summer of 1956, after completing six weeks of Basic Training at Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas, I

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Submarine Sailors Made History Thirty Years Ago. Tonight, on VBC Happy Hour, We Talk with Them. Image from wikipedia.org Desert Storm saw the largest assembly of war ships since WWII. You can find a

← BACK TO VBC BLOG Reddit Asked, What Was the Weirdest Punishment You Got in the Military?  7,600 Vets Answered. Here are the 7 funniest stories (revised for clarity and language). Oscar the Grouch We had a guy that somehow got