By Todd DePastino On May 20, 1950, Americans celebrated the first official Armed Forces Day with parades, air shows, and military base open houses. President Harry Truman wanted to give Americans an occasion to thank Service Members for their defense of the country. Administration officials emphasized unity, teamwork, and the permanent need for a
By Todd DePastino This account is drawn largely from the memories and research of Norman Silverman, a veteran of the Army Security Agency who served in West Berlin during the height of the Cold War. Norman later helped create the remarkable West Berlin Archive, an extensive online collection of photographs, documents, recollections, and historical
On April 9, 2026, Congresswoman Alma S. Adams introduced a new piece of legislation intended to honor veterans who have long lived in the shadows. H.R. 8211, the Army Security Agency Monument Act, would establish a monument at Arlington National Cemetery honoring the men and women of the U.S. Army Security Agency (ASA) who
The Veterans Breakfast Club is all about storytelling—“living history”—but as we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we thought we’d reach back to our nation’s founding generation of veterans and see how their stories compared to the ones we hear at our storytelling events. Our spring 2026 issue of VBC Magazine
In late February, the VBC, in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators, held its first annual StoryFest in Santa Monica, California. During this three-day storytelling festival, attendees toured the USS Iowa, immersed themselves in Vietnam narratives through new technology, heard from women veterans who smashed the brass ceiling, watched a theatre performance by a Vietnamese American
By Todd DePastino As a historian drawn to veterans’ stories, I sometimes indulge a private daydream. One morning at a Veterans Breakfast Club gathering, just as the coffee is being poured and the conversations begin, the door opens and in walks a small, weathered old man in a dusty colonial militia uniform. He’s bent
