Veterans Breakfast Club

Memorial Day Open Conversation

Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a special Memorial Day virtual event on Monday, May 25, 2026, at 7:00pm ET. This live, online conversation invites veterans, families, and friends to gather in an open, heartfelt space to honor and remember those who have fallen in service to our nation. The event will take place on Zoom and will also be streamed live to Facebook and YouTube. Join us on Zoom here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6402618738 We especially welcome the family of Capt. William Boyd Graves, a Wyoming soldier killed in Vietnam whose voice has unexpectedly returned nearly 50 years later. After decades of silence, Graves’ family recently discovered a series of audio tapes he recorded during the Vietnam War—an extraordinary time capsule of humor, fear, longing, and daily life from a young American officer serving far from home. The discovery became the subject of a widely read article, “Voice From Vietnam: Nearly 50 Years After Wyoming Man Died, Family Discovers Tapes.” Joining us live will be Graves’ sister Linda Fabian and other members of the Graves family, who will share memories of William, reflect on hearing his voice again after all these years, and discuss what the tapes have meant to their family. During the program, we will also play selections from the recordings themselves, allowing audiences to hear Capt. Graves in his own words. This special Memorial Day conversation is about remembrance, family, loss, and the enduring humanity behind military service. It’s also a rare opportunity to encounter the Vietnam War not through history books, but through the preserved voice of one man who lived it. The Veterans Breakfast Club creates communities of listening where veterans, families, historians, and the public come together to share stories and preserve personal history. Our programs are informal, conversational, and open to all. #MemorialDay #VietnamWar #Veterans #WilliamBoydGraves #VietnamVeteran #MilitaryHistory #POWMIA #VeteransStories #OralHistory #USArmy #Vietnam #MemorialDay2026 #VeteransBreakfastClub Often remembered as the calm, steady “GI’s General” of World War II, General Omar Bradley commanded more American soldiers in combat than any other officer in U.S. history. Yet compared to Eisenhower, Patton, and MacArthur, Bradley remains a surprisingly enigmatic figure. Was he the humble soldiers’ general of popular memory? A cautious strategist? A political insider? Or something more complicated? Join Greatest Generation LIVE for a fascinating conversation with military historian Dr. David W. Hogan, Jr., former Director of Histories at the U.S. Army Center of Military History and one of the nation’s leading experts on Bradley. Hogan has spent decades researching the U.S. Army in World War II and is currently completing a major biography of Bradley, Omar Nelson Bradley: The GI’s General. Drawing on years of archival research, Hogan will explore Bradley’s rise from small-town Missouri to the highest ranks of the American military, his relationships with Eisenhower and Patton, his command during Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, and his postwar role as the nation’s first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the early Cold War. This program will examine not only Bradley the general, but Bradley the man — modest, disciplined, intensely loyal, and still debated by historians today. #OmarBradley #WWII #GreatestGeneration #MilitaryHistory #WorldWarII #Dday #BattleOfTheBulge #USArmy #Veterans #History #Patton #Eisenhower #KoreanWar #VBC #VeteransBreakfastClub

Who Was Omar Bradley?

Who was Omar Bradley? The answer is more elusive than generally understood. Often remembered as the calm, steady “GI’s General” of World War II, General Omar Bradley commanded more American soldiers in combat than any other officer in U.S. history. Yet compared to Eisenhower, Patton, and MacArthur, Bradley remains a surprisingly enigmatic figure. Was he the humble soldiers’ general of popular memory? A cautious strategist? A political insider? Or something more complicated? Join Greatest Generation LIVE for a fascinating conversation with military historian Dr. David W. Hogan, Jr., former Director of Histories at the U.S. Army Center of Military History and one of the nation’s leading experts on Bradley. Hogan has spent decades researching the U.S. Army in World War II and is currently completing a major biography of Bradley, Omar Nelson Bradley: The GI’s General. Drawing on years of archival research, Hogan will explore Bradley’s rise from small-town Missouri to the highest ranks of the American military, his relationships with Eisenhower and Patton, his command during Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, and his postwar role as the nation’s first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the early Cold War. This program will examine not only Bradley the general, but Bradley the man — modest, disciplined, intensely loyal, and still debated by historians today. #OmarBradley #WWII #GreatestGeneration #MilitaryHistory #WorldWarII #Dday #BattleOfTheBulge #USArmy #Veterans #History #Patton #Eisenhower #KoreanWar #VBC #VeteransBreakfastClub

Recon Marines in I Corps, 1969-70

In 1969–1970–at the start of “Vietnamization”– a small, exposed rise south of Da Nang became one of the most contested observation posts in I Corps. Known simply as Hill 119, it overlooked the Thu Bon River Basin and Go Noi Island — terrain Marines called “Indian Country.” From this barren patch of ground, rotating platoons of Recon Marines watched, reported, called artillery, and launched patrols into enemy-held territory. Our guest, Col. Michael O. “Deli” Fallon, USMC (Ret.), served there as a young officer and later set out to reconstruct the full story. In writing Hill 119, Defending a Reconnaissance Marine’ OP, Vietnam, 1969-1970, Fallon interviewed more than one hundred Marines and artillerymen who rotated through the position and analyzed hundreds of debriefing reports and command chronologies to piece together what daily life — and nightly danger — truly looked like. Hill 119 was an observation post and a patrol base, a radio relay site monitoring Recon frequencies, and even a testing ground for new battlefield technology, including early laser range-finding systems that sharpened artillery accuracy. Yet as President Nixon’s policy of Vietnamization accelerated, fire support diminished and missions continued with fewer resources. Fallon writes candidly about what that shift meant to Marines holding an exposed hill while political decisions were made far away. We’ll also explore the harder questions: operating among civilians whose loyalties were uncertain, the strain of constant rotation as platoons “flipped” in and out, the reliance on helicopter crews who flew into enemy fire to extract teams — and the court-martial that followed the shooting of a Vietnamese woman outside the perimeter, a case that unfolded in the shadow of My Lai. Hill 119 could feel like the moon — one Marine joked on the night of the Apollo landing, “You’re already on the Moon.” But it was no abstraction. It was close combat, long watches, and young men navigating the line between aggression and restraint. Join us for a conversation about small-unit war, memory and documentation, leadership under scrutiny, and what Vietnamization looked like on the ground.

WWII Okinawa Veteran James Wheeler

At 104 years old, WWII Army veteran James Wheeler is one of the last surviving American tankers to witness firsthand the brutal Battle of Okinawa. A member of Company C, 193rd Tank Battalion, Wheeler fought in one of the most punishing armored campaigns of the Pacific War, where American Sherman tanks were sent headlong into the deadly defenses of the Japanese Shuri Line. In April 1945, the 193rd Tank Battalion took part in the disastrous assault on Kakazu Ridge and Kakazu Village—what historians later called the “Death Ride of the Shermans.” Trapped without infantry support, Wheeler’s battalion drove into a maze of mines, hidden anti-tank guns, artillery fire, and suicide attacks. In a single day, the battalion lost 22 tanks, the greatest single combat loss of American tanks in the Pacific Theater. Join us for a rare and extraordinary conversation with James Wheeler as he reflects on survival, combat inside a Sherman tank, and the savage realities of Okinawa, one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. Wheeler’s memories offer not just a window into armored warfare in the Pacific, but a living connection to a rapidly vanishing generation. #WWII #WorldWarII #Okinawa #BattleOfOkinawa #TankBattalion #ShermanTank #USArmy #PacificWar #GreatestGeneration #MilitaryHistory #WW2Veteran #TankCrew #Okinawa1945 #Veterans #VeteransBreakfastClub

Linebacker I: The Air Battle of 1972

In the spring of 1972, North Vietnam launched the massive Easter Offensive, a conventional invasion that nearly broke South Vietnam. The response: Operation Linebacker I—a sustained U.S. air campaign that reshaped the battlefield and helped halt the advance. Join the Veterans Breakfast Club (VBC) for a powerful live conversation on this pivotal moment in the Vietnam War. Our guest, Brian Harrison, served in Vietnam in 1972–1973 with the legendary 1st Cavalry Division’s “Centaurs” (air cavalry)—flying in the thick of the fighting as U.S. airpower supported South Vietnamese forces on the ground. His firsthand perspective brings us closer to the reality of the Easter Offensive and the air war that followed. We’ll explore what triggered the 1972 Easter Offensive and how Operation Linebacker I differed from earlier bombing campaigns like Rolling Thunder. We’ll look at the role of air cavalry and helicopter operations in the fight, and what it felt like on the ground and in the air during one of the war’s most intense phases. Finally, we’ll consider why 1972 marked a turning point in U.S. strategy in Vietnam. #VietnamWar #LinebackerI #EasterOffensive #MilitaryHistory #AirWar #USAirForce #ArmyAviation #VietnamVeterans #VeteransStories #ColdWarHistory