Vietnam Veterans and writers Bruce “Doc” Norton and Harry Kantrovich join us to talk about their new book and stage production, Voices From Vietnam: Interviews, Letters, Vignettes, and Reflections, 1964–1982. This unique conversation will explore their collaborative journey in bringing the Vietnam War’s deeply personal stories to life—both on the page and on the stage.

Voices From Vietnam is a powerful tribute to those who lived through the Vietnam War, drawing together 67 firsthand accounts from soldiers, Marines, sailors, airmen, nurses, prisoners of war, family members, a Vietnamese refugee, and others whose lives were forever changed by the conflict. Originally envisioned as a stage play, the project evolved into a published book and a moving stage production. Through interviews, letters, poems, and vignettes, Norton and Kantrovich offer a wide-ranging, authentic portrait of the war’s human cost and enduring impact.

Their stage adaptation premiered in November 2024 at the Journey Theater in Warrenton, Virginia, earning praise for its raw and emotional storytelling. Performed as a series of intimate monologues and readings, the play draws audiences into the lived experiences of those who served, struggled, and sacrificed during one of America’s most divisive wars.

In this livestream conversation, Doc Norton and Dr. Kantrovich will share behind-the-scenes insights about creating Voices From Vietnam, the process of gathering stories, and the challenges of translating wartime experiences into both written and dramatic form. They will also reflect on their own military careers—Norton’s as a Marine Corps Force Recon veteran and historian, and Kantrovich’s as a Navy Command Master Chief—and how their service shaped their commitment to honoring the voices of Vietnam.

Whether you’re a veteran, a student of military history, or simply interested in the personal narratives of war, this is an opportunity to hear directly from two remarkable storytellers and veterans dedicated to preserving memory and truth.

We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

We welcome our own Naval Academy-bound Trey Burman on the program to discuss the history of the WWII Liberty Ship. Trey has volunteered on the SS John W. Brown for years and will share the history and details he’s learned on board the ship.

During World War II, the United States faced an urgent need to transport troops, equipment, and supplies across oceans under threat from enemy submarines. The solution came in the form of the Liberty ship—an unglamorous but revolutionary cargo vessel that played a vital role in the Allied victory. Conceived as a mass-produced, quickly built ship based on a British design, the Liberty ship program became one of the great industrial feats of the war.

The standard Liberty ship measured 441 feet long and could carry over 10,000 tons of cargo. Powered by a triple-expansion steam engine, the ships cruised at a modest 11 knots. Their real strength, however, lay in their numbers. From 1941 to 1945, American shipyards produced 2,710 Liberty ships, an astonishing pace that helped offset staggering losses at sea. Shipyards across the country adopted assembly-line techniques and prefabricated sections to slash construction time from months to mere weeks. The record was set by the SS Robert E. Peary, launched just 4 days and 15 hours after its keel was laid.

Though initially derided as “ugly ducklings” or “dime a dozen,” Liberty ships proved durable and indispensable. They carried two-thirds of all cargo transported from the U.S. to overseas fronts and were manned by merchant seamen and Navy Armed Guard units, who braved enemy attacks to keep supply lines open. More than 200 Liberty ships were lost to enemy action during the war.

Among the surviving few today is the SS John W. Brown, one of only two operational Liberty ships still afloat. Built in Baltimore in 1942 at the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, the John W. Brown served in both the Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters, delivering cargo and supporting troop movements. She also served as a floating high school in New York City for decades after the war, offering vocational training to students until 1982.

In the late 1980s, a group of preservationists rescued the John W. Brown from scrapping and returned her to her birthplace in Baltimore. Today, she operates as a museum ship and living memorial to the Merchant Marine and Navy Armed Guard. Maintained by Project Liberty Ship, a volunteer organization, the vessel offers public tours, educational programs, and occasional “Living History Cruises” where visitors can experience life aboard a World War II-era cargo ship in motion.

The Liberty ships, and the John W. Brown in particular, stand as enduring symbols of American industrial might, civilian sacrifice, and the often-overlooked heroism of the Merchant Marine. Their story is not just one of steel and steam, but of the human effort to move the machinery of democracy across perilous seas.

We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a special Memorial Day virtual event on Monday, May 26, 2025, at 7:00pm ET. This live, online conversation invites veterans, families, and friends to gather in an open, heartfelt space to honor and remember those who have fallen in service to our nation. The event will take place on Zoom and will also be streamed live to Facebook and YouTube. Join us on Zoom here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6402618738

Memorial Day is a time of national reflection and remembrance—a day dedicated to honoring the men and women of the United States Armed Forces who made the ultimate sacrifice. Originally known as Decoration Day, the holiday began in the aftermath of the Civil War and has grown into a solemn tradition observed across the country with parades, ceremonies, and personal acts of remembrance. At the Veterans Breakfast Club, where our mission is to create communities of listening around veterans and their stories, we see Memorial Day as a powerful opportunity to ensure that the stories of the fallen continue to be shared and remembered.

Our Memorial Day livestream will not be a formal ceremony but a casual, interactive conversation. We invite veterans to speak from the heart about their own experiences, to share memories of comrades who never made it home, and to pay tribute to those who gave their lives in service. Family members, friends, and civilians are also encouraged to participate, whether by sharing a remembrance or simply listening in respect and reflection. We expect the conversation to be deeply moving, as participants express personal stories of sacrifice and loss.

By hosting the event in the evening—after parades and public commemorations have ended—we aim to create a quiet, meaningful space for community connection and shared remembrance. Memorial Day is about more than ceremonies; it’s about keeping alive the legacies of the fallen through the stories we tell.

We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

Glenn Flickinger, Nancy Putnam, and Marilyn Walton share the history of the liberation of US POWs from German prisoner of war camps in the closing weeks of World War II.

April 1945 marked a period of swift and determined Allied advances into Nazi Germany, resulting in the liberation of dozens of Prisoner of War (POW) camps scattered throughout the Reich. These were not the infamous concentration camps of the Holocaust, but German-run military camps—Stalags (for enlisted personnel) and Oflags (for officers)—which held tens of thousands of captured Allied servicemen, including large numbers of American infantry and airmen. The liberation of these camps was often hasty and chaotic, occurring as Allied forces moved deeper into German territory amid collapsing German resistance and growing humanitarian urgency.

By April, many of the German guards at POW camps were either fleeing westward, surrendering, or in some cases, preparing to evacuate prisoners toward the interior of Germany to avoid capture by the Soviets. American and British forces liberated many of these camps in Central and Western Germany as they advanced on a broad front from the west.

One of the first major American POW camps liberated in April was Stalag VII-A, located in Moosburg, Bavaria. It was the largest POW camp in Germany, holding over 76,000 prisoners of war by war’s end, including a substantial number of American airmen. On April 29, 1945, the U.S. 14th Armored Division of General George Patton’s Third Army captured the camp after a brief firefight with German forces in the vicinity. The American tanks rolled into Moosburg to find the camp severely overcrowded, with prisoners of multiple nationalities held in worsening conditions due to months of inadequate rations and medical supplies.

Another key liberation occurred at Stalag Luft I, a camp near Barth on the Baltic Sea coast in northeastern Germany, which held approximately 9,000 airmen—mostly American, along with some British and other Allied flyers. As Soviet forces approached from the east, German guards abandoned the camp. On May 1, 1945, Soviet troops officially entered and liberated the facility. Prior to that, the senior American officers in the camp had refused German orders to evacuate westward, correctly anticipating that Soviet forces would soon arrive. The camp’s American commander, Colonel Hubert Zemke—an accomplished fighter ace himself—played a crucial role in maintaining discipline and morale until the Red Army arrived.

Further south, Stalag Luft III, located near Sagan (now Żagań, Poland), had been evacuated by the Germans in January 1945 ahead of the Soviet advance. The prisoners, including many Americans, were forced to march west in freezing conditions in what came to be known as the “Long March” or “Death March.” They eventually reached Stalag VII-A or other camps deeper inside Germany. Though Stalag Luft III was not liberated in April itself, many of its former inmates were among those rescued when American forces overran camps like Moosburg.

Stalag IX-B in Bad Orb, one of the more notorious camps due to poor conditions and mistreatment of American prisoners, especially Jewish GIs, was liberated on April 2, 1945, by units of the U.S. 44th Infantry Division. The camp had housed thousands of Americans, many of whom were suffering from malnutrition and disease. Several hundred American POWs had been singled out there for forced labor based on their religion or ethnicity.

Another important liberation took place at Oflag XIII-B near Hammelburg on April 6, 1945, by elements of the U.S. 14th Armored Division, just a few days after an earlier ill-fated attempt to free the camp. That earlier mission had involved Task Force Baum—a controversial unauthorized raid ordered by Patton to rescue his son-in-law, Lieutenant Colonel John Waters, who was imprisoned there. Though the March 26 raid failed and resulted in heavy casualties, Waters survived, and the camp was successfully liberated ten days later.

Stalag Luft VII-A, in Moosburg, also deserves mention for the sheer diversity of its prisoner population by April 1945. In addition to American troops, it held British, French, Russian, and other Allied servicemen. American airmen made up a substantial portion, many having been shot down during the strategic bombing campaigns of 1943–1945 over Germany.

Stalag IX-A, located in Ziegenhain, near Kassel, was liberated on March 30, 1945, just ahead of the April wave. It held a mix of American and British prisoners. Nearby, Stalag IX-C at Bad Sulza was liberated by American forces on April 11, 1945, and among the prisoners were American medical personnel and other servicemen who had been captured during the Battle of the Bulge and other late-war operations.

Conditions in many of these camps had sharply deteriorated in the final months of the war, with German logistics collapsing under Allied pressure. Food shortages, overcrowding, and disease were rampant. The liberation of the camps often took place without formal fighting; German guards frequently fled or surrendered without resistance, though some did attempt to relocate prisoners ahead of advancing armies.

In the days and weeks following liberation, the U.S. Army and Red Cross worked to stabilize conditions for the former POWs. Thousands were repatriated quickly through operations such as Operation Revival and Operation Exodus, massive Allied efforts to return liberated prisoners from Germany to their home countries. For many, liberation came not with joy alone but also exhaustion, disorientation, and long-lasting trauma.

The liberation of the POW camps in April 1945 was not a single event but a series of overlapping rescues carried out by converging Allied armies amid the chaotic collapse of Nazi Germany. While some prisoners had been on the move for weeks—relocated on foot or by rail to evade advancing armies—others were found in place, emaciated and sick but alive. Their liberation marked the end of a long ordeal and the beginning of the effort to reintegrate tens of thousands of captured servicemen back into postwar life.

We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

​We talk with members of the famous United States Military Academy at West Point’s Class of 1966, which holds a unique and tragic place in American history. Brian Ashbaugh, Walt Brinker, Rusty Correia, Al Lindseth, and Jerry Cecil all join us to share their memories of that remarkable era.

Rick Atkinson’s book, The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point’s Class of 1966, provides an in-depth and personal account of their collective journey, following a core group of graduates through their cadet years, their deployments to Vietnam, and their lives afterward.

By the time they graduated, the Vietnam War was escalating, and many were sent into the conflict within months of receiving their commissions.

In Vietnam, these young officers faced a brutal baptism by fire. Many became platoon leaders or company commanders, responsible for leading men in deadly jungle warfare against a highly motivated and elusive enemy. The casualties were staggering—of the 579 graduates, at least 30 were killed in action, and many more were wounded.

We look forward to asking our guests how much their experiences align with the story Atkinson tells.

We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a special D-Day 81st Anniversary virtual event on Thursday, June 5, 2025, at 7:00pm ET. This online conversation, hosted by Glenn Flickinger, will bring together historians, family members, and veterans to reflect on one of the most pivotal moments of World War II: the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. The program will be held on Zoom and streamed live to Facebook and YouTube. Join on Zoom here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6402618738

Our featured guests include Michael Paradis, author of The Light of Battle: Eisenhower, D-Day and the Birth of the American Superpower, and Susan Friedenberg, whose father, Staff Sergeant Bernard I. Friedenberg, landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day and went on to earn the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart for his heroism in combat. Together, they will share insights, stories, and reflections on the immense scale and enduring legacy of the D-Day operation.

Michael Paradis’s new book offers a sweeping examination of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s leadership during the Normandy invasion, and how D-Day not only shaped the outcome of World War II but also laid the groundwork for America’s emergence as a global superpower. He will talk about Eisenhower’s challenges in forging and leading the largest multinational military force in history, the decisions that shaped the success of the landings, and what D-Day means in the broader arc of American and world history.

Susan Friedenberg will share personal memories of her father, Bernard Friedenberg, a Jewish American soldier who served as a combat medic with the 1st Infantry Division. Bernard’s D-Day landing was the beginning of months of harrowing combat, and his experiences—detailed in oral history interviews and family remembrances—offer an intimate view of the bravery, sacrifice, and resilience of the soldiers who fought their way across Europe.

D-Day, known as Operation Overlord, marked the beginning of the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control. The landings involved over 150,000 Allied troops from the United States, Britain, Canada, and other nations, who stormed the beaches of Normandy under withering fire. The cost was staggering, but the operation’s success was a turning point in the war, hastening the defeat of Nazi Germany.

This Veterans Breakfast Club conversation will be an opportunity not just to recount the historical facts but to listen to personal stories, explore the human side of history, and honor the courage of those who fought. Expect an engaging and moving discussion that deepens our understanding of D-Day’s significance, both then and now.

The event is free and open to all. To participate on Zoom,click here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6402618738. Or join us live on Facebook or YouTube at 7:00pm ET on June 5.

We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!