📅 Live August 18: Ross Meador – Carried Away and the Orphans of the Vietnam War
🕖 Sunday, August 18, 2025 | 7:00–8:30pm ET
🎥 Watch live at: veteransbreakfastclub.org/events/online-events

The Veterans Breakfast Club is honored to welcome Ross Meador, author of the critically acclaimed memoir Carried Away: A Memoir of Rescue and Survival Among the Orphans of the Viet Nam War, for a 90-minute livestream conversation on Sunday, August 18 at 7:00pm ET.

Ross Meador’s story is not your typical Vietnam War narrative. In 1975, just before the fall of Saigon, 17-year-old Ross was living in Vietnam with his missionary parents. Amid the chaos and collapse of the South Vietnamese government, Ross became swept up in the desperate efforts to evacuate and protect hundreds of orphaned children left behind in the final days of the war.

Carried Away recounts Meador’s personal experience as a teenager witnessing—and helping with—what became known as Operation Babylift, the humanitarian effort to rescue thousands of Vietnamese orphans. But Meador’s account digs deeper. His story is one of survival, identity, moral conflict, and healing, all told with the clarity of a witness who saw the war not from the battlefield, but from the margins—among the displaced, forgotten, and frightened.

This event will explore:

Ross’s unique perspective as a young civilian during the fall of Saigon
His firsthand role in the rescue and evacuation of orphans
The emotional and moral complexities of wartime humanitarianism
How he came to write his memoir decades later—and why it matters today
🎖️ Read more about Carried Away:
🔗 5-Star Review – Novels Alive
🔗 Author Q&A – The Faerie Review

As noted in the Novels Alive review, Meador’s memoir “treads unfamiliar territory in Vietnam War literature,” offering “a rare glimpse into a lesser-known front of compassion and courage.”

📺 Join us for this unforgettable conversation on August 18 at 7:00pm ET:
👉 https://veteransbreakfastclub.org/events/online-events

#RossMeador #CarriedAway #VietnamWarMemoir #OperationBabylift #VeteransBreakfastClub #VBCLive #VietnamOrphans #FallOfSaigon #WarAndCompassion #VietnamHistory

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

We welcome veterans of the now-gone Army Security Agency, which was first created on September 15, 1945, in the immediate aftermath of World War II. ASA veterans John Peart and others will share their stories of service with this shadowy intelligence agency that played a critical role in the Cold War.

The Army Security Agency (ASA) operated under the authority of the National Security Agency (NSA) and was tasked with intercepting, analyzing, and exploiting enemy communications. Its mission included codebreaking, electronic intelligence gathering, direction finding, and secure communications. The ASA played a central role during the early Cold War period, collecting intelligence on the Soviet Union and its allies. ASA units were composed of highly trained personnel, often fluent in foreign languages, skilled in radio operations, cryptography, and electronic surveillance.

The ASA’s role expanded during the Korean War and reached a peak of operational activity during the Vietnam War. ASA personnel were deployed across Southeast Asia, conducting covert and direct support operations for U.S. and allied forces. They established field stations and remote intercept sites near conflict zones and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Using direction-finding equipment and advanced signal processing tools, they intercepted enemy radio traffic, provided early warning of enemy movements, and monitored North Vietnamese and Viet Cong communications. Their intelligence was vital to strategic planning and tactical decision-making.

One of the most significant and symbolic events involving the ASA during the Vietnam War was the death of Specialist 4 James T. Davis on December 22, 1961. Davis, part of the 3rd Radio Research Unit—the ASA cover name in Vietnam—was on a joint operation with South Vietnamese forces near Saigon when his convoy was ambushed. He and ten South Vietnamese soldiers were killed. Davis became the first American battlefield casualty of the Vietnam War recognized by the Department of Defense. His death marked a turning point, highlighting the increasing U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the dangerous nature of ASA missions in the field. The ASA compound at Tan Son Nhut Air Base was later named “Davis Station” in his honor.

Throughout the Vietnam War, ASA personnel worked in close coordination with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Air Force Security Service, and Navy intelligence units. Their work remained classified for decades. Despite the high-risk nature of their missions, ASA soldiers were generally non-combatants operating in a military intelligence capacity, though many saw combat or were exposed to hostile fire due to their proximity to enemy forces.

The ASA continued its global intelligence operations through the 1970s but was eventually dissolved in 1977. Its functions were absorbed into the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM), consolidating Army intelligence efforts under a single command structure. Though no longer active, the ASA’s legacy endures in the modern electronic warfare and signals intelligence capabilities of the U.S. Army.

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

They spun lies to defeat the Nazis. They were Propaganda Girls.

Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a fascinating livestream interview:

• Special Guest: Lisa Rogak, bestselling historian and author of Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS (St. Martin’s Press, March 4, 2025)

• Hosts: VBC’s Glenn Flickinger and award-winning documentary filmmaker Daria Sommers

Date & Time: [insert date/time]
Watch live on YouTube: Veterans Breakfast Club
Learn more: VeteransBreakfastClub.org

During WWII, the OSS handpicked brilliant, daring women—reporters, multilingual diplomats, entertainers—to wage a secret war of misinformation. In her gripping narrative, Lisa Rogak tells the stories of four remarkable women:

• Betty MacDonald, a journalist from Hawaii

• Zuzka Lauwers, a Czech-born linguist

• Jane Smith-Hutton, fluent in Japanese from her embassy life

• Marlene Dietrich, legendary actress and outspoken anti-Nazi

These “Propaganda Girls” produced forged documents, fake newspapers, radio broadcasts, songs—and even deep-cover rumors—designed to break Axis morale. Their cloak-and-dagger work in Europe, occupied China, and Washington went largely unseen—until now.

Macmillan describes the book as “the incredible untold story of four women who spun the web of deception that helped win World War II.”

The Jerusalem Post highlights how Rogak reveals a “series of believable lies designed to cause the enemy soldiers to lose heart and ultimately surrender,” while exposing the sexism these women faced inside the OSS.

Lisa’s storytelling is bolstered by newly declassified documents, 250+ endnotes, and deep archival work—bringing this clandestine mission into vivid, human focus.

Lisa Rogak, a New York Times bestselling author of more than forty books, has chronicled figures like Stephen King, Barack Obama, and Stephen Colbert. Her reputation for weaving meticulous research into engaging narratives prepares readers for a bold pivot—fluid prose meets wartime espionage in Propaganda Girls

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

Join us for a  conversation with author Chas Henry, retired Marine Corps captain and award-winning journalist, as he shares the harrowing story behind Fuji Fire: Sifting Ashes of a Forgotten U.S. Marine Corps Tragedy.

On October 19, 1979, a super typhoon struck Camp Fuji, a remote Marine Corps training site on the slopes of Mount Fuji in Japan. Floodwaters from the storm breached a fuel storage area, triggering a gasoline spill that engulfed the camp’s Quonset huts—some of which were heated by open-flame kerosene burners. The resulting inferno killed 13 Marines and injured 73 others, most of them grievously burned. It remains the deadliest peacetime accident in Marine Corps history.

Our program will feature not only Chas Henry but also two Marines who survived the fire:

• Mike Cummings, who suffered second- and third-degree burns over 75% of his body. He was medevacked to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and endured years of grueling treatment and surgeries.

• David Luttenberger, who escaped the burning hut but visited friends in the burn ward soon after the tragedy. What he witnessed there left a mark deeper than the fire itself.

This long-overlooked episode is one of the Corps’ most searing stories of sacrifice, resilience, and institutional failure. With deep archival research and firsthand accounts, Fuji Fire uncovers how this “freak accident” happened—and why it was almost forgotten.

#FujiFire #MarineCorps #VeteransStories #MilitaryHistory #CampFuji #BurnSurvivor #TyphoonTip #USMC #VBC #ChasHenry #VeteransBreakfastClub #ForgottenHistory

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