By Todd DePastino We've been talking a lot about helicopters lately at the Veterans Breakfast Club, especially with Vietnam veterans who flew them (see our August 10, 2026 VBC LIVE and our September 14, 2026 VBC LIVE conversations). During these conversations, I keep asking pilots to explain how helicopters actually fly and, more particularly,
by Albert BoehmAlbert Boehm joined the U.S. Air Force in 1964, a young Pittsburgher with a girlfriend back home and little idea where military service would take him. In this story, Albert looks back with humor and considerable self-awareness at the chain of love, bad decisions, and Air Force wisdom that eventually landed him at
by Wayne WadeRichard “Dick” Cavazos commanded the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment—the “Dogface Battalion”—in Vietnam before becoming the Army’s first Hispanic four-star general. Wayne Wade served in Cavazos’s battalion and, in his new memoir, Legacy: A Pathway in the Darkness, draws on his own experience, research, and interviews to tell its story.This excerpt takes place
By Todd DePastinoAuthor Jack Cheevers piqued my curiosity the other week when, on our VBC LIVE, he talked about the infamous "Green Light Cable" sent from President John F. Kennedy's State Department to the new American ambassador in South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge. The secret message was known as Cable 243, sent on Saturday, August
By Don Wolfe One of the greatest gifts I took home from Vietnam was lifelong friendship. I want to tell you about one of those friends, George Rothnie. We met in the summer of 1968 at the Navy's Equipment Operators School in Davisville, Rhode Island. After training, we were separated for a year of
By Richard Berliner Richard Berliner's new book, A Different Journey: Vietnam 1965–1973 offers the rare perspective of an American civilian aid worker who lived, traveled, and worked alongside Vietnamese communities during the war. Richard served in Vietnam in 1966–67 as a volunteer with International Voluntary Services (IVS), making him a witness to war as
