The Veterans Breakfast Club (VBC) is the nation’s premier non-profit for connecting veterans with their fellow Americans through inspiring stories of service. We’re the place where veterans can share what they’ve seen and done—and where everyone can listen and learn.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Book Launch: In Sha Allah, If God Wills It
The Real-Life Story of an Afghan Combat Interpreter
Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a special afternoon with author and
Vietnam veteran Marine Ron Farina as we celebrate the release
of his new book, In Sha Allah, If God Wills It.
2:00–3:30 PM
Veterans Breakfast Club Welcome Center
5850 Centre Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Admission is free. Registration is strongly requested because space is limited.
Walk-ins will be welcome only if space permits.
About In Sha Allah, If God Wills It
In Sha Allah, If God Wills It tells the remarkable true story of
Abdul Atah Wahedi, an Afghan combat interpreter who spent years
serving alongside American troops in Afghanistan.
Abdul grew up in the centuries-old village of Mata in Afghanistan’s Panjshir
Valley, in a family shaped by war, displacement, faith, and survival. He would
eventually become a combat interpreter working alongside U.S. forces—putting
himself in extraordinary danger as the voice and ears of American soldiers on
the battlefield.
Wounded twice while serving with Americans, Abdul became known to the Taliban as
the “Voice of the Infidel.” His service made him a target, not
only during the war but afterward.
As the United States began withdrawing from Afghanistan, Abdul faced a new
battle: getting his wife and children to safety. With the Taliban hunting him,
the American embassy disrupted by COVID, and his family’s Special Immigrant
Visas nearing expiration, a small network of Americans raced against time to
help the family escape.
Ron Farina follows Abdul from childhood in the Hindu Kush through war, marriage,
fatherhood, battlefield service, and finally the desperate journey to a new life
in America. The result is not simply a war story. It is a story about
loyalty, family, faith, obligation, and what America owes the people who
risked their lives beside American troops.
“A moving biography about family and sacrifice in war.”
Get a Signed Copy at the Book Launch
The VBC has 50 copies of In Sha Allah, If God Wills It
available for the event for $25 each.
Pre-order your copy now and Ron Farina will sign it for you at the
September 19 book launch.
Quantities are limited, so advance purchase is recommended if you would like
to be certain a copy is waiting for you.
Book purchase is optional. Admission to the event is free.
About Ron Farina
Ron Farina is a Vietnam veteran Marine, author, and longtime advocate
for veterans and military families. His books have focused especially
on the experiences of those whose lives have been shaped by America’s
post-9/11 wars.
His previous books include Out of the Shadows: Voices of American Women
Soldiers, Who Will Have My Back, and
Sacrifice, The Final Chapter. His writing has received awards from
the American Society of Professional Journalists and other organizations.
In 2025, he was inducted into the Connecticut Veterans Hall of
Fame for his writing and advocacy on behalf of veterans and their
families.
At the VBC Welcome Center, Ron will talk about how he came to tell Abdul’s
story, what he learned about the role of Afghan interpreters in the war, and
the difficult promises America made to those who served alongside U.S.
forces. There will be time for questions, conversation, and book signing.
At the Event
Ron will discuss the book and Abdul’s story, followed by audience questions
and conversation. Copies of the book will be available for purchase while
supplies last, and Ron will sign books after the program.
Refreshments will be served.
VBC Welcome Center Parking Information
In Sha Allah, If God Wills It is published by Casemate.
Learn more about the book.
Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for an open conversation with veterans of the Army Security Agency (ASA), the once-secretive U.S. Army intelligence organization whose soldiers served around the world during the Cold War.
Created on September 15, 1945, the ASA grew out of the Army’s wartime signals intelligence and communications security operations. Its mission included intercepting and analyzing foreign communications, codebreaking, direction finding, electronic intelligence, and protecting U.S. military communications. Its motto was fitting: Semper Vigiles—Vigilant Always.
ASA soldiers served in an extraordinary variety of places and assignments. They worked at large listening stations in Europe and Asia, at isolated field sites and hilltop positions, aboard aircraft and in mobile units, and alongside combat forces. They were linguists, radio operators, cryptographers, analysts, technicians, and direction-finding specialists. Much of their work was highly classified, and many veterans spent decades unable to talk openly about what they had done.
During the Vietnam War, ASA personnel operated under the cover designation “Radio Research.” They intercepted North Vietnamese and Viet Cong communications, located enemy transmitters, monitored communications networks, and provided intelligence and early warning to American and allied forces. Specialist 4 James T. Davis of the 3rd Radio Research Unit was killed during a direction-finding mission on December 22, 1961, and is remembered as the first American battlefield casualty of the Vietnam War recognized by the Department of Defense.
The ASA continued operating around the globe until 1977, when it was dissolved and its functions were incorporated into the newly created U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM). Its legacy continues in today’s Army signals intelligence, cybersecurity, and electronic warfare capabilities.
For this VBC program, we’re turning the conversation over to the people who actually served there. ASA veterans from different eras, specialties, and duty stations will share what they did—or what they can now tell us they did—along with stories of the strange places they worked, the equipment they used, the people they listened to, and the friendships they formed.
What was it like to spend your Army years listening to communications the other side didn’t know you could hear? What happened when an enemy radio network suddenly “went hot”? How much did ASA soldiers themselves understand about the larger intelligence picture? And what was it like to come home carrying stories you weren’t allowed to tell?
Whether you served in the ASA, knew someone who did, or have never heard of the agency before, join us for what promises to be a fascinating open conversation about one of the lesser-known corners of American military history.
ASA veterans are especially encouraged to join us, introduce themselves, and share their own stories.
Semper Vigiles—Vigilant Always.
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VBC programs connect and heal,
educate and inspire.
Everyone is always welcome.
The Veterans Breakfast Club (VBC) is the nation’s premier non-profit for connecting veterans with their fellow Americans through inspiring stories of service.
Our goal is to build a nation that understands and values the experiences of our military veterans so that every day is Veterans Day.
We do this by bringing together–in-person and online–men and women from all walks of life, all ages and eras, and every branch of service to talk about what they’ve seen and done. We want to hear how people’s military service has shaped them. “Every Veteran Has a Story” is our slogan. We want to hear every one.
We share the stories we hear in our weekly VBC Bulletin email newsletter and our quarterly VBC Magazine. We also record a weekly podcast, The Scuttlebutt, about military culture from the people who lived it.
We do all this because we believe the best way to thank a Veteran is to listen.
Listening is what the VBC has been doing for the past 15 years, when we held our first small event outside of Pittsburgh. Since then, we’ve held over 1,000 programs in-person and online and have welcomed over 20,000 different people at our events, Veterans and non-Veterans coming together to listen.
We value every veteran’s experience, no matter who they are or when or how they served. We’ve seen up close the power of storytelling, as the memories shared at VBC events connect, heal, educate, and inspire an ever-expanding circle of listeners.
THE VETERANS HISTORY PROJECT
Preserving veterans’ stories so that this living history is never forgotten.
We pair passionate VBC volunteers with military veterans for one-on-one oral history interviews over Zoom. If you are a veteran, or you know a veteran, who would be interested in sharing his or her story with us, let us know. If you are someone interested in conducting these interviews, please reach out!
At any given event, you might hear from the newest members of Space Force to a 101-year-old World War II veteran.
We’ve welcomed Tin Can Sailors and Montford Point Marines, Vietnam Sky Soldiers and Cold War intelligence officers. We’ve heard stories from the Horn of Africa to Antarctica, the Bering Sea to Diego Garcia, and all points in between.
LORAN Coast Guardsmen and Radar Station Airmen have told us about serving in some of the most remote places on earth.
Korean War veterans have borne witness to their “forgotten war.”
Other “forgotten warriors” shared their memories of Beirut, Grenada, and Mogadishu.
Some of the first women authorized for combat shared stories of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and of the Purple Hearts they received.
