At the Veterans Breakfast Club,
Stories Unite Us.
Check out our upcoming in-person veterans storytelling event schedule below. All are welcome to join us!
Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for an evening of stories, burgers, and craft beer at a former Cold War missile command bunker—now Grist House Command Brewery. Hear firsthand accounts from Nike missile veterans who once stood guard over Pittsburgh during the tensest years of the Cold War.
DATE: Tuesday, March 10 at 5pm
LOCATION: 301 Sgt Messerschmidt Rd, Oakdale, PA 15071
COST: $20 per person ($25 at the door) and includes one beer and one burger/hot dog with fries.
REGISTER: Please register for this event here: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/b4uq4s9/lp/bd55f95b-7496-4faf-bc28-4b5fe9103a0b
We’re having a special event at one of Pittsburgh’s most unusual venues: Grist House Command, a former U.S. Army Nike missile command site turned a veteran-managed craft brewery.
During the Cold War, Pittsburgh was ringed by Nike missile batteries designed to defend the city’s steel mills, bridges, and population from a Soviet bomber attack. The command facility that now houses Grist House Command once coordinated radar, tracking, and missile launches for this regional air defense network—part of a nationwide system that stood guard from the early 1950s through the 1970s.
Today, the blast doors and concrete bunkers remain, repurposed as a taproom with much of the history on display in signs, artifacts, and photos. You can learn more about the site’s transformation here:
We’ll have former Army “missileers” join us to share their stories, including George Millerschoen, a veteran Nike missile crewman who served at Cold War missile sites in the Pittsburgh region. George will share what it was like to stand nuclear and conventional missile watch in total secrecy during one of the most anxious periods in American history. (Read more about his story here: https://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/tour-a-former-cold-war-missile-site-in-moon/)
Other veterans who served at Nike sites and in Cold War air defense will be invited to share their memories of service.
The Veterans Breakfast Club has been bringing veterans and civilians together for face-to-face storytelling since 2008. Our events are informal, welcoming, and open to all. People come to listen and learn, connect across generations, and say thank you to those who served.
The Veterans Breakfast Club is bringing its signature storytelling conversations to Northern Virginia. Meet veterans, hear firsthand accounts of military service, and take part in a respectful, informal discussion about war, service, and memory. This is a FREE event open to veterans, families, and the public. RSVPs required—limited seating.
Where: Sunrise of McLean • 8315 Turning Leaf Ln, McLean, VA 22102
When: 6:30–8:00 PM • Drinks and refreshments served
How: RSVP required • Limited space
Join us for a welcoming evening of conversation and storytelling at Sunrise of McLean. You do not need to be a veteran to attend.
The Veterans Breakfast Club (VBC) is a nonprofit that brings American history to life through veterans’ stories. Since 2008, we’ve hosted hundreds of in-person events and livestream conversations, creating communities of listening where veterans can share what they’ve seen and done—and where the public can learn, connect, and say thank you.
Our gatherings are informal, respectful, and often deeply moving. There are usually a few tears, and always a lot of laughter.
This is a conversational storytelling evening—no speeches, no panels, no pressure. Here’s what to expect:
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6:30 PM: Doors open. Enjoy drinks and light refreshments, meet other attendees, and pick up a name badge.
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7:00 PM: We begin the storytelling. A moderator will welcome everyone and invite veterans to share brief stories, memories, or reflections from their service.
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We’ll pass the microphone around the room, hearing from as many veterans as possible.
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Listeners are encouraged to ask respectful questions and engage in conversation.
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8:00 PM: Wrap-up and informal conversation.
Veterans can share as much or as little as they wish. Some stories are funny, some poignant, some unexpected. Every story matters.
The VBC and the Armed Forces Heritage Museum in New Jersey is teaming up for a Veterans Storytelling Breakfast at the Town & Country Diner (177 US-130, Bordentown, NJ 08505) in Bordentown, NJ, on Saturday, March 21. All are welcome to join us.
What: Veterans Storytelling Breakfast, FREE and open to the public.
Where: Town & Country Diner (177 US-130, Bordentown, NJ 08505)
When: Saturday, March 21, from 8:30am-10:30am.
How to RSVP: Leave your name and names of those in your party and a phone number to: 412-623-9029 or JoAnn@veteransbreakfastclub.org
We’ll show photos of veterans on a screen and hear from as many veterans as possible during the program.
You’ll walk in, pick up your name badge, and meet others who are there to hear and share the stories. Breakfast is served at 8:30am. At 9:00am, we start the program. For the next 90 minutes, veterans share slices of their service experience. You never know what you’re going to hear, and there’s always new people with new memories to offer.
The Veterans Breakfast Club (VBC) is a nonprofit that brings American history to life through veterans’ stories. Since 2008, we’ve hosted hundreds of in-person events and livestream conversations, creating communities of listening where veterans can share what they’ve seen and done—and where the public can learn, connect, and say thank you.
RSVP by calling 412-623-9029 or emailing JoAnn@veteransbreakfastclub.org. Please make sure to RSVP for events at least two days in advance.
Thank you to the Armed Forces Heritage Museum for supporting this event!
The VBC returns to Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pennsylvania, for its 3rd annual Veterans Storytelling Breakfast on Monday, March 23, from 8:30am-10:30am.
Join us to listen and learn, connect and heal, and say thank you to those who’ve served. You don’t need to be a veteran to attend.
What: Veterans Storytelling Breakfast, FREE and open to the public.
Where: Bucks County Community College (275 Swamp Road Newtown, PA 18940) Gallagher Room in the Rollins Building (see parking instructions below)
When: Monday, March 23, from 8:30am-10:30am.
How to RSVP: Leave your name and names of those in your party and a phone number to: 412-623-9029 or JoAnn@veteransbreakfastclub.org
The Veterans Breakfast Club brings American history to life. Join us to listen and learn, connect and heal, and say thank you to those who’ve served. You don’t need to be a veteran to attend.
Where else, but at the Veterans Breakfast Club, can you gather for a casual meal and meet a 101-year-old Navy WAVE codebreaker from World War II, a Silver Star recipient from Vietnam, and a Top Gun F-18 pilot all at the same time?
The Veterans Breakfast Club has been bringing these people and more together for face-to-face storytelling events since 2008. People come to listen and learn, connect and heal, and say thank you to those who’ve served.
These breakfasts began informally in 2008 with some 30 World War II veterans. They grew to give our organization its name and serve as the flagship for a growing array of storytelling programs where veterans of all eras and branches of service could share their experiences with the public. Most of these in-person events are held in the Pittsburgh region, but we’re branching out to other locations to reach more veterans and hear more stories. One week we might might be in a VFW hall, then next week a country club or a banquet room.
We serve breakfast at 8:30am, start the program at 9:00am, and bounce around the room with the microphone until 10:30am listening to as many veterans as we can. You never know what you’re going to hear. There are often a few tears, and always a lot of laughter. Join our community of listening by coming to one of our face-to-face storytelling events!
Thank you to Bucks County Community College and Bucks County Department of Veterans Affairs for underwriting this event!
Join the Veterans Breakfast Club and the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown for a lunch lecture with historian Todd DePastino about Vietnam: the country, the war, and place it holds in American memory. Todd has traveled back to Vietnam with veterans who fought there in the 1960s and will tell what surprises them about the country now . . . and what they learned about the land they thought they knew. Come hear how Confucianism determines traffic patterns, why Vietnamese people always ask how old you are, why many young Vietnamese thanked us for the “American War,” and what it was like for our veterans to meet their former battlefield enemies.
Todd DePastino is founder and executive director of the Veterans Breakfast Club and author of the award-winning Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front and six other books. A dynamic speaker with a Ph.D. in history from Yale, Todd has a gift for making the past come alive with insight, humor, and humanity.
This event is free and open to the public.
You don’t need to be a veteran to attend. Lunch is included.
We’d appreciate your RSVP and a suggested donation of $10 per person.
To RSVP, contact:
JCC Youngstown: 330-746-3250 ext #106 or bwilson@jewishyoungstown.org
Veterans Breakfast Club: 412-623-9029 or JoAnn@veteransbreakfastclub.org
The Veterans Breakfast Club brings American history to life. Join us to listen and learn, connect and heal, and say thank you to those who’ve served.
Thank you to the Youngstown JCC and the Thomases Family Endowment for Supporting this Event!
For the fourth consecutive year, the Veterans Breakfast Club will gather on March 29—Vietnam Veterans Day to remember the war and the generation who fought it. The official federal commemoration period (2015-2025) has ended, but the VBC believes the stories must continue. This day is not about politics or arguments of the past; it is about people—those who served from the earliest advisory missions to the final days in Saigon, and the families who carried the weight at home.
The program will combine history and first-hand testimony. We’ll have some history shared by the Veterans Breakfast Club and Heinz History Center staff, followed by veterans sharing memories from the Advisory Era before 1965 through the major combat years across I Corps at the DMZ to IV Corps in the Mekong Delta and through “Vietnamization” after 1969.
Our goal is simple: to hear from every branch, every region of the war, and every kind of service—grunts and Marines, Airmen and Sailors, nurses and support troops and personnel of all sorts. These stories remind us why March 29 matters: it marks the day in 1973 when the last American combat troops left Vietnam, a homecoming that for too many came without welcome.
Join us for an afternoon of remembrance, conversation, and community as we continue the work of saying what should have been said long ago: Welcome home.
Doors Open at 1:30pm. Guests may tour the museum and open exhibit spaces. Refreshments and socializing in Mueller Center on the 5th Floor. Program begins at 2:00pm.
Please RSVP to betty@veteransbreakfastclub.org or 412-623-9029
Parking: Parking is best at the Eleventh & Smallman Lot located at 1101 Smallman St. across the street from the History Center and next to the Hampton Inn. Rates are usually $5, though sometimes they raise it for special events.
