At the Veterans Breakfast Club,
Stories Unite Us.
Check out our online & in-person veterans storytelling programs and see our full event schedule below. All are welcome to join us!
Glenn Flickinger and Todd DePastino discuss the VBC’s WWII Tour of Italy in October 2026, where they will spend 14 days following the path of the Allied forces through one of the most grueling campaigns of World War II. Todd and Glenn will also talk with Italian Campaign expert, 45th Infantry Division Historian Professor David D’Andrea, who will also be joining us on our trip.
We’ll trace the course of the Italian Campaign, beginning with Operation Husky, the massive Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943 that opened the road to Europe’s soft underbelly. From the hard-fought landings at Gela and Scoglitti to the urban battles in Palermo and the mountainous defenses near Messina, Sicily tested the courage and coordination of American and British troops.
From there, the campaign moved to mainland Italy, first at Salerno, where American soldiers fought to hold their beachhead against fierce counterattacks, and then up the rugged spine of the Apennines. We’ll visit key battlegrounds of Cassino, where Allied forces waged a costly struggle for control of the ancient Abbey of Monte Cassino, and Anzio, where troops endured months of shelling in a desperate bid to outflank German defenses. The campaign culminated in the liberation of Rome on June 4, 1944, two days before D-Day in Normandy.
Our trip will visit these storied sites—Catania, Syracuse, Agrigento, Palermo, Salerno, Cassino, Anzio, and Rome—accompanied by historians and local guides who will help us connect the landscape to the history that unfolded there. Along the way, we’ll also enjoy the beauty that drew the world to Italy long before and long after the war: the turquoise waters of the Amalfi Coast, the golden temples of Agrigento, and the ancient beauty of Palermo and Rome.
We’re grateful to UPMC for Life for sponsoring this event!
Award-winning historian David Nasaw, author of the new book The Wounded Generation: America After the Greatest Generation, talks with Glenn Flickinger about the human costs of WWII in the United States. In his deeply researched and powerfully written history, Nasaw reveals the hidden cost of victory in World War II—the long and often painful homecoming of millions of American veterans who returned to a nation unprepared for their wounds, visible and invisible. Drawing on letters, diaries, and oral histories, he paints a vivid portrait of men and women struggling to rebuild their lives amid postwar shortages, racial inequities, changing gender roles, and the lingering trauma of combat that was then dismissed as “battle fatigue.”
Nasaw, one of America’s most respected biographers and historians, re-examines the familiar myth of the “Greatest Generation” and restores to the story the complexity and hardship that marked the postwar years. He shows how the experience of homecoming—filled with readjustment, silence, and resilience—shaped families, communities, and the nation itself for decades to come.
This conversation will explore what World War II veterans faced when the cheering stopped and the work of coming home began—and why their experiences still matter today. Hosted by the Veterans Breakfast Club, this program continues our mission to create communities of listening around veterans and their stories, honoring not just their service in war but their journey back to peace.
We’re grateful to UPMC for Life for sponsoring this event!
Join us for a special Veterans Breakfast Club Monday Night Livestream on November 24 marking the 48th anniversary of the Battle of Dak To, one of the fiercest and bloodiest engagements of the Vietnam War. We’ll be joined by veterans who fought there—men who endured the steep jungle slopes, relentless artillery, and desperate close-quarters combat of the Central Highlands in November 1967. Their firsthand stories will bring to life the courage, chaos, and sacrifice that defined this pivotal and horrific battle.
The Battle of Dak To took place in Kon Tum Province, near the border with Laos, as U.S. Army units—mainly from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, and 1st Cavalry Division—clashed with well-entrenched North Vietnamese Army (NVA) forces. For weeks, paratroopers and infantrymen fought for control of jungle-covered ridges like Hill 875, where heavy bombardment turned the forest to ash and cost hundreds of American lives. By the time the battle ended, over 280 Americans were killed and more than 900 wounded, while NVA losses numbered in the thousands. It was a pyrrhic victory that revealed both the extraordinary valor of U.S. troops and the brutal futility of the wider war.
In this livestream, veterans of Dak To will share their memories of combat, loss, and survival—and reflect on what the battle means today, nearly half a century later. We’ll explore the human dimension behind the headlines: the fear, the brotherhood, and the haunting aftermath carried home. Join us for an evening of remembrance and reflection as we honor those who fought at Dak To and keep their stories alive.
We’re grateful to UPMC for Life for sponsoring this event!
Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for an open and wide-ranging virtual conversation about the military experience, past and present.
We believe every veteran has a story to tell and wisdom to share. This event is a chance to listen, learn, and connect with others who understand the unique bonds and challenges of military service. If you have something on your mind—whether a personal memory, a question, or a topic you think deserves attention—we encourage you to bring it to the conversation. Veterans are also invited to email Shaun Hall at shaun@veteransbreakfastclub.org with any specific topics or issues they’d like to discuss.
Author Nancy Vogl will join us to talk about her new book, A Soldier’s Promise: The Story of Jan Scruggs and The Vietnam Memorial. This illustrated children’s book tells the story of the Purple Heart veteran of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade who returned from Vietnam determined to honor the comrades he’d seen killed and the thousands more whose names the country risked forgetting. In early 1979, after research on combat trauma and a jolt from the film The Deer Hunter, Scruggs concluded the nation needed a simple, apolitical memorial that would recognize service and help heal divisions. He formed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund that year, built a bipartisan coalition, and won congressional authorization in 1980 for a site on the National Mall. A national design competition followed, producing the minimalist, name-inscribed wall by Yale student Maya Lin; despite controversy, the memorial was dedicated on November 11, 1982. Scruggs has said the faces and names of lost friends were the idea’s animating force.
Also joining us will be Don Matthews, Cold War veteran of the Army Security Agency (ASA) during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. The crisis began when US aerial photographic intelligence from high-altitude overflights detected Soviet medium- and intermediate-range missiles in Cuba. The ASA moved mobile communications and monitoring assets into south-Florida locations to support surveillance of Cuban and Soviet communications traffic. The agency tracked Soviet logistics, ship movements and communications as the U.S. enforced its naval “quarantine” of Cuba.
The Veterans Breakfast Club’s mission is to create communities of listening around veterans and their stories, and our Open Conversations are one of the most dynamic ways we do that. These sessions are often wide-ranging, emotional, funny, and thought-provoking, providing a welcoming space where everyone’s voice is valued.
This event is free and open to all. To join the conversation live on Zoom, please use this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6402618738. Whether you have something to share or simply want to listen and learn, we welcome you to be part of the conversation!
We’re grateful to UPMC for Life for sponsoring this event!
Naval historian Craig L. Symonds talks about his new book, Annapolis Goes to War: The Naval Academy Class of 1940 and Its Trial by Fire in World War II. Symonds follows one cohort from plebe year to the fleet, using the Class of ’40 to tell a larger story about America’s rapid transition from peace to global war. These midshipmen arrived at the Academy the year Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland and graduated the week of Dunkirk; more than a hundred were on duty at Pearl Harbor, where ten were killed—seven still entombed in USS Arizona. It’s a tight, human-scale history that shows how the Academy shaped young officers who would face combat within months.
Annapolis Goes to War gives a fresh view of training, leadership, and loss in WWII. Early reviews call the book “often-moving” and recommend it to anyone interested in military history; another notes how vividly Symonds shows young officers thrown into war scarcely 18 months after graduation.
Craig L. Symonds is Professor Emeritus at the U.S. Naval Academy and a former Ernest J. King Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Naval War College. A leading naval historian, he’s written widely read works including World War II at Sea (2018), The Battle of Midway (2011), and Nimitz at War (2022). His honors include the Lincoln Prize, the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Neptune, and the Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement (2023).
We’re grateful to UPMC for Life for sponsoring this event!
