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
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
Join the Veterans Breakfast Club and the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown for a lunch lecture with historian Todd DePastino about the millions of American women who were mobilized for World War II. In 1941, Wonder Woman appeared as the first female superhero. The timing was apt because with the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, women began serving in occupations which had been barred to them just months earlier. Women’s lives not only changed during WWII, but the whole culture changed to accommodate these radically new gender roles. Come hear about Rosie the Riveters, the WAVES, the WACS, and the much disparaged WASPs, who only achieved official recognition decades after the war.
Todd DePastino is founder and executive director of the Veterans Breakfast Club and author of the award-winning Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front and six other books. A dynamic speaker with a Ph.D. in history from Yale, Todd has a gift for making the past come alive with insight, humor, and humanity.
This event is free and open to the public.
You don’t need to be a veteran to attend. Lunch is included.
We’d appreciate your RSVP and a suggested donation of $10 per person.
To RSVP, contact:
JCC Youngstown: 330-746-3250 ext #106 or bwilson@jewishyoungstown.org
Veterans Breakfast Club: 412-623-9029 or JoAnn@veteransbreakfastclub.org
The Veterans Breakfast Club brings American history to life. Join us to listen and learn, connect and heal, and say thank you to those who’ve served.
Thank you to the Youngstown JCC and the Thomases Family Endowment for Supporting this Event!
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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.
