By Todd DePastino Sixty-one Americans wear the Medal of Honor. On December 17, one of them walked into a Veterans Breakfast Club event. On Wednesday, December 17, at the JCC in Youngstown, Ohio, Medal of Honor recipient Kenneth J. David joined us and talked about Vietnam, the day in May 1970 when his life
By Todd DePastino On January 12, 1962, the United States quietly crossed a threshold in the Vietnam War. What came to be known as Operation Chopper was, on paper, a limited advisory effort that featured American helicopters flying South Vietnamese troops into combat against Viet Cong (VC) or National Liberation Front (NLF) guerrillas near
VBC veteran Jerry Augustine published harrowing accounts, with photos, of his service in 1966-1967 with B Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 196th Light Infantry Brigade in Vietnam. Jerry's first book is Vietnam Beyond, which was followed by Combat, Suffering and Renewed Passion in Life: A Veteran-to-Veteran Oral History. Below is part one of
By Donn Nemchick The United Service Organizations (USO) established a tradition of sending comedian Bob Hope and a troupe of entertainers to Vietnam and other Southeast Asia bases during the holiday season to entertain American troops. Hope became widely known as “a one-man morale machine,” bringing variety shows — complete with comedy routines, songs,
By Ed Fender The Vietnam War—officially a “Conflict,” since Congress never declared it—has been written about endlessly. Rather than re-analyze it, I set down my own experience in a memoir titled Vietnam (1970–1971) – My Way, which now sits in the Hazel Braugh Records Center and Archives of the American Red Cross in Washington,
By Todd DePastino On November 3, 2025, Navy Corpsman Steve Giordano joined our Open Conversation livestream, and shared some of his story of serving aboard the USS Sanctuary (AH-17) off the coast of Vietnam in 1967. Steve offered eye-opening testimony life and work on the most advanced floating trauma hospital in the world,
