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.

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.

Join us at our events and help keep these stories alive.

All you need to do is listen.

Every Veteran Has a Story.
Hear Them Now.

WHAT WE BELIEVE
OUR PROGRAMS
OUR MISSION

UPCOMING EVENTS

Vietnam Veterans Day Commemoration and Recognition Event | March 29, 2024

Date: March 29, 2024
Time: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location: Senator John Heinz History Center, 1212 Smallman St, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
All Events | In-Person Events | Online Events
Vietnam Veterans Day March 29, 2024 630PM – 830pm

The VBC and the Pittsburgh’s Heinz History Center are holding a special Vietnam Veterans Day Event on March 29, 6:00pm to 8:00pm.

The event will be held in-person at the Heinz History Center and will also be available online on Facebook and YouTube

This free Vietnam Veterans Day event will honor and recognize all veterans who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces at any time during the period of November 1, 1955, to May 15, 1975, regardless of duty location.

Non-Veterans are especially welcome to attend and pay tribute to our Vietnam Veterans, hear their stories of service, and thank them for blazing the trail for every serviceman and woman who came after them.

The event will include the presentation of colors by the Vietnam Veterans, Inc., Color Guard and recognition and pinning of our Vietnam-era veterans.

Speakers will include Linh Nguyen, who escaped Saigon in April 1975 and Judge Michael McCarthy, who served in Vietnam as a Navy Seabee in 1970-1971. The evening’s special honoree will be Vietnam Army Combat Medic Ted Debiak who lost his left arm in an artillery attack on December 25, 1967. But the attack was friendly. It was an errant American shell that struck his tent on Christmas Day. It took until 2023 for Ted to receive a Purple Heart on his DD-214. At our event, Brigadier General John Pippy will present Ted with his Purple Heart.

Every Vietnam Veteran registered for this event will receive a gift bag as a token of our gratitude for your service.

We also want to recognize Red Cross Volunteers and Donut Dollies who served with the U.S. Armed Forces between 1955-1975. They deserved to be honored with a Welcome Home Bag also!

For those who will be joining us virtually, the gift bag will be shipped to the home address provided.

Register for the event here Register for the event here .

Thank you to our sponsors!

Sponsorship Opportunities Available

We have a range of sponsorships available with speaking opportunities, social media logo placement, and vendor tables and signs. If you have ideas for sponsoring not covered in the information below, let us know.

Sponsorship Information

Welcome Home Gift Bag

Now is your chance to say thank you to a Vietnam Veteran who did not get welcomed home 50 years ago.

Every Vietnam Veteran who attends online or in-person will receive a Welcome Home Gift Bag, either in person or in the mail.

Please consider sponsoring a Welcome Home Box for a Vietnam Veteran for $25. We can include a custom thank you note from you to the veteran.

Just click the button below and add a note that your donation is for a Vietnam Veteran Gift Bag.

How to Research Family Veterans in Military Records

Date: April 1, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Location: Zoom, Facebook, YouTube
All Events | Online Events | VBC Happy Hour
Researching Veterans in Your Family

 

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PAST EVENTS

Streamed live on Mar 21, 2024 Experts Colin Heaton and Joe McCarthy join Glenn Flickinger to discuss the tactics of aerial combat in World War...
Ray Mabus served as the 75th United States Secretary of the Navy, the longest to serve as leader of the Navy and Marine Corps since...
Author and Vietnam veteran Bob Orkand discusses what he calls the “tragic failure” of the M16 rifle in Vietnam, a story captured in his book,...
We turn our attention to the Eighth Air Force’s little brother, the Ninth Air Force which, among other things, played a crucial role in supporting...
The VBC celebrates Women’s History Month with writer, filmmaker and VBC member Daria Sommers hosting a conversation with three remarkable veterans and leaders. Retired USAF...
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GET INVOLVED TODAY

The mission of the Veterans Breakfast Club is to create communities of listening around veterans and their stories to ensure that this living history will never be forgotten.  We believe that through our work, people will be connected, educated, healed, and inspired.

INTRODUCING 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!

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Your weekly dose of veterans’ stories, military news, and the latest headlines, all in one place

Watch and listen to the Scuttlebutt, the VBC’s podcast dedicated to understanding military culture. Hosted by Shaun Hall, Director of Programming. New episode every Monday at 6AM ET.

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Get the latest on military headlines and VBC news sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for the VBCBulletin! 

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Latest Blog Posts

written by Marilyn Walton  WWII Eighth Air Force historian and US POW expert, Marilyn Walton, sent us a response to her viewing of Masters of...
written by Rona Simmons Simmons aboard Italian ocean liner with father I’m a brat. My father was a retired, career-military lieutenant colonel in the US...
written by Todd DePastino In November and December, 21 of us—including five veterans who had served in-country during the war—traveled to Vietnam, from Hanoi and...
written by Todd DePastino I continue to be enthralled by Bill Bonnamy’s immense effort to trace the footsteps of his father, William M. Bonnamy, who...
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VBC Magazine of Veterans Stories
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