Produced by the World War II Foundation and broadcast on PBS, this documentary explores Bob Hope’s extraordinary wartime commitment to America’s fighting forces. During World War II, Hope traveled more than 80,000 miles, performing in combat zones and remote outposts across Europe, North Africa, the Pacific, and beyond. At a time when mail was slow, leave was rare, and the war’s end uncertain, Hope and his troupe brought laughter, familiarity, and a tangible reminder of home to millions of service members.

The film weaves together archival footage, photographs, radio recordings, and interviews to show how Hope’s relentless touring became a vital morale operation — one that often placed him close to danger and demanded physical endurance as well as personal sacrifice. Narrated by actor and veterans’ advocate Gary Sinise, the documentary places Hope’s work in historical context while examining the broader role of entertainment in sustaining troops during a long and brutal war.

Following the screening, Tim Gray will join us for a live talkback and conversation, discussing the making of the film, Bob Hope’s complicated legacy, and what morale meant to soldiers far from home. Gray will also reflect on how stories like these help us understand the human side of war — not just how wars are fought, but how people endure them.

This program is open to veterans, family members, historians, and anyone interested in World War II, popular culture, and the overlooked power of morale in wartime.

During the Vietnam War, amid the chaos of Saigon in 1968, a young American actor made an unusual decision. Rather than serve in the U.S. military, 24-year-old Pittsburgh native Richard Hughes traveled to Vietnam on his own, determined to find some way to help civilians caught in the conflict.

What he encountered were homeless street children—boys who survived by shining shoes for American GIs, sleeping in parks and alleys, and regularly being swept up by police. The Vietnamese called them bụi đời—“dust of life.” Hughes rented a modest apartment on Pham Ngu Lao Street and began offering the boys a place to sleep, shower, and eat. What started with eleven children soon grew into something far larger.

Over the next eight years, the Shoeshine Boys Project evolved into a Vietnamese-run network of homes in Saigon and Da Nang that provided shelter, schooling, and job training for hundreds of homeless children. By the end of the war in 1975, the project included eight homes, two farms, and a technical training center serving roughly 300 children at a time. Between 1968 and 1976, an estimated 1,500–2,000 boys and girls passed through the program.

The effort was remarkable not only for its scale but for its spirit. Hughes worked closely with Vietnamese students, teachers, and community leaders who ultimately took charge of the homes and helped return many children to their families and villages. Despite the upheaval of war and its aftermath, the project became one of the few successful Vietnamese-managed, foreign-funded humanitarian initiatives of the era.

Hughes remained in Vietnam for more than a year after the fall of Saigon, finally leaving in August 1976—likely among the last Americans to depart. In the decades since, he has continued to advocate for Vietnamese friends and colleagues, including a successful campaign in the 1990s to secure the release of two former project associates imprisoned in Vietnam. He has also remained involved in efforts to address the lingering human consequences of the war, including work related to Agent Orange.

Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a special conversation with Dick Hughes as he reflects on the Shoeshine Boys Project, the children and Vietnamese colleagues who made it possible, and the complicated legacy of the Vietnam War. His story offers a rare civilian perspective from inside wartime Saigon—and a reminder that even in the midst of conflict, acts of compassion and solidarity can take root in unexpected ways.

As always, we welcome questions and reflections from veterans and others who served in or remember the Vietnam era.

We invite all Persian Gulf War veterans to join us and share their stories. After our recent VBC Live conversation marking Desert Shield and Desert Storm (1990–1991), we heard from many of you: Thank you for doing this. I don’t often get to speak about it. People forget we were there. The First Gulf War often slips between the memory of Vietnam and the long shadow of 9/11.

So on Monday, April 6, we’re offering an Open Mic and Open Conversation focused on Gulf War-era service. We have no agenda or presentation, just casual and focused conversation from those who served in 1990-1991. Please join us to connect, compare notes, swap stories, ask questions, and remember what this moment in history felt like from the inside.

In August 1990, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded Kuwait. The U.S. and a broad international coalition responded first with Operation Desert Shield, which was a massive buildup to defend Saudi Arabia and deter further Iraqi advances. It was followed in January 1991 by Operation Desert Storm, the air campaign and then the ground offensive that liberated Kuwait in just 100 hours.

The war was large and fast. It involved hundreds of thousands of service members fighting the war through logistics, maintenance, intelligence, medical care, transportation, communications, air defense, and a thousand other jobs that made everything else possible.

Some deployed to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Gulf, Turkey, the Red Sea. Others served stateside or in Europe working supply, airlift/sealift, vehicle maintenance, air defense, communications, or medical operations.

Wherever you served, please join us to talk about what you were doing, thinking, and feeling 35 years ago.