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!
Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a remarkable conversation with William S. Reeder Jr., the last U.S. Army soldier taken prisoner during the Vietnam War and author of Through the Valley: My Captivity in Vietnam.
In 1972, then-Captain Reeder was flying Cobra gunship missions in support of South Vietnamese forces near the besieged Special Forces camp at Ben Het, close to the Cambodian border. During an intense battle, his helicopter was shot down. After evading capture for three days, he was taken prisoner by North Vietnamese forces.
What followed was an extraordinary ordeal. Reeder spent weeks confined in jungle cages before enduring a brutal forced march along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Seven men in his group of twenty-seven POWs died during the journey. Eventually imprisoned in Hanoi, he spent nearly a year in captivity before returning home during Operation Homecoming in 1973.
Reeder’s memoir, Through the Valley, vividly recounts not only the horrors of captivity but also the bonds among prisoners, the strength drawn from family and country, and the determination to survive under unimaginable conditions.
A decorated Army aviator, Reeder flew dangerous reconnaissance and attack missions throughout Southeast Asia, including classified operations over Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam. His service earned him numerous decorations, including the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Prisoner of War Medal.
During this live conversation, Reeder will reflect on his service and, as always, we’ll leave plenty of time for audience questions and conversation.
About William S. Reeder Jr.
William Reeder is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, combat aviator, and former prisoner of war. Captured in 1972 after his helicopter was shot down near Ben Het, he spent nearly two years as a POW before his release in 1973. His acclaimed memoir, Through the Valley: My Captivity in Vietnam, is considered one of the most compelling firsthand accounts of the American POW experience during the Vietnam War. His story has also been featured by the Smithsonian’s Air & Space magazine and numerous military history organizations.
In December 1972, President Richard Nixon ordered one of the most intense bombing campaigns of the Vietnam War. Known as Operation Linebacker II, or the Christmas Bombings, the operation sent waves of American B-52 bombers against targets around Hanoi and Haiphong, North Vietnam, in an effort to force a breakthrough in stalled peace negotiations.
From December 18–29, B-52 crews flew hundreds of missions into some of the most heavily defended airspace in the world. Fifteen B-52s were shot down during the campaign.
We invite all who flew and supported these dangerous missions to join us for the conversation.
Our special guest is Lt. Col. Calvin “Cal” Augustin, USAF (Ret.), a B-52 aircraft commander who flew 128 combat missions during four tours in Southeast Asia, including Operation Linebacker II. A recipient of three Distinguished Flying Crosses and eight Air Medals, Cal later flew the legendary SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft and enjoyed a long career in commercial aviation.
We would also like B-52 pilots and crew members, tanker crews, maintenance personnel, and anyone else involved in Linebacker II to join our live conversation and share their memories.
We’ll want to hear especially what it was like to fight North Vietnamese MiGs, anti-aircraft fire, and SAMs.
Whether you participated in the Christmas Bombings, served in Vietnam, or simply want to learn more about this dramatic and controversial chapter of the war, we welcome you to join the conversation.
Learn more about Cal Augustin: https://www.calvinaugustin.com/aviation-resume.php
#LinebackerII #ChristmasBombings #B52 #VietnamWar #VeteransBreakfastClub
Tonight we will talk about the future of war, rather than the past. By all accounts from the battlefields of Ukraine and elsewhere, unmanned aircraft have transformed modern warfare. Once expensive, highly specialized weapons used primarily for surveillance and targeted killings, drones have become inexpensive, widely available tools of war. They locate the enemy, strike targets large and small, and do so from long distances.
Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a conversation with two leading experts on drone warfare: Brett Velicovich, a former U.S. Army special operations intelligence analyst and author of Drone Warrior, and Erik Lin-Greenberg, an MIT political scientist and author of The Remote Revolution: Drones and Modern Statecraft.
Velicovich takes us inside America’s secretive drone campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, where intelligence teams tracked terrorist leaders and helped direct lethal strikes. Lin-Greenberg offers a broader perspective on how drones are changing military strategy, international relations, and the political calculations behind decisions to use force.
Together, we’ll explore the remarkable evolution of drone technology, its role in the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and what it means for the future of American military power. We’ll also consider the difficult questions raised by remote warfare: Who decides when to kill? How does distance change the experience of combat? Do drones protect soldiers and civilians, or make wars easier to start and harder to end?
