The Scuttlebutt: Understanding Military Culture

Edward Ford and Alan Chiasson came to Afghanistan with long résumés in uniform and out. Ford was a Force Recon Marine with combat tours in the Gulf War, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan before moving into high-end security contracting. Chiasson was a Navy Hospital Corpsman and Texas paramedic who’d spent years providing high-risk medical support on PSD and convoy details in Iraq and Afghanistan. When the private security firm SOC (Sp...

Join us for an evening with Colonel Chuck Bechtel, whose new memoir, Sent to War, Returning for Peace: My Reconciliation with the Vietnam War, traces a long soldier’s journey from the jungles of Vietnam to a quiet reckoning half a century later.

Chuck was drafted in 1966, a kid from Pennsylvania who suddenly found himself leading a 43-man infantry platoon with the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in 1968–69. His book tells that sto...

Join us for a special Veterans Breakfast Club Monday Night Livestream on November 24 marking the 58th anniversary of the Battle of Dak To, one of the fiercest and bloodiest engagements of the Vietnam War. We’ll be joined by veterans who fought there—men who endured the steep jungle slopes, relentless artillery, and desperate close-quarters combat of the Central Highlands in November 1967. Their firsthand stories will bring to life ...

Glenn Flickinger and Todd DePastino discuss the VBC’s WWII Tour of Italy in October 2026, where they will spend 14 days following the path of the Allied forces through one of the most grueling campaigns of World War II. Todd and Glenn will also talk with Italian Campaign expert, 45th Infantry Division Historian Professor David D’Andrea, who will also be joining us on our trip.

We’ll trace the course of the Italian Campaign, beginni...

For the 250th birthday of the United States Marine Corps, the Veterans Breakfast Club goes deep with Marine Corps veteran and classical scholar Dr. Josh Cannon about the ancient truths of war.

Join this conversation with an  Iraq veteran, anthropologist, and author, whose new book Fatal Second Helen: A Modern Veteran’s Iliad bridges the 2,600-year-old world of Homer’s Iliad with the modern battlefield of Iraq.

Cannon served as an A...

Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for an open and wide-ranging virtual conversation about the military experience, past and present.

We believe every veteran has a story to tell and wisdom to share. This event is a chance to listen, learn, and connect with others who understand the unique bonds and challenges of military service. If you have something on your mind—whether a personal memory, a question, or a topic you think deserves ...

Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a special livestream conversation with Elliot Ackerman, decorated Marine, CIA officer, acclaimed novelist, and co-chair of the Global War on Terror Memorial Foundation. Ackerman served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Marine Raider and special operations officer, earning the Silver Star, Bronze Star with Valor, and Purple Heart. His experiences on the front lines, particularly dur...

Legendary journalist and author Elizabeth Becker, who has spent her career bearing witness to the frontlines of history, joins us to talk about her new book, You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War ,a riveting account of three trailblazing female correspondents who shattered gender barriers to cover the Vietnam War.

The book tells the stories of Frances FitzGerald, Kate Webb, and Catherine Leroy, but Elizabe...

The Veterans Breakfast Club invites you to join us on Thursday, October 16 at 7:00pm Eastern for a special online conversation with author Brenda Partridge-Brown about her new book, Echoes of a Little Brown Soldier Girl. The program will be held on VBC Zoom and livestreamed to our Facebook and YouTube pages.

Brenda’s book tells the story of her mother, Willie Belle Irvin-Partridge, who served in the 6888th Central Postal Directory ...

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 tha...

Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for an open and wide-ranging virtual conversation about the military experience, past and present.

We believe every veteran has a story to tell and wisdom to share. This event is a chance to listen, learn, and connect with others who understand the unique bonds and challenges of military service. If you have something on your mind—whether a personal memory, a question, or a topic you think deserves ...

Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for an unforgettable evening with Colonel John R. Bates, USMC (Ret.), whose extraordinary 39-year career in the United States Marine Corps (1966–2005) spans three wars, five decades, and a lifetime of service defined by courage, conviction, and grit.

Col. Bates enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1966, dropping out of college to join the fight in Vietnam. There, as a young infantryman with Company G, 2n...

We’ve asked 26-year Army and Pennsylvania National Guard veteran Matt P. Cahill to join us to talk about his Green Star Families of America (greenstarfamilies.org) nonprofit. Matt served as a medic in Iraq and later endured his own battles with PTSD, a traumatic brain injury, and the lasting wounds of war. Out of these experiences, Matt founded  a nonprofit dedicated to honoring and supporting the families of veterans who have died...

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, ...

Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a special Open Conversation as we come together to remember the events of September 11, 2001, reflect on their lasting impact, and honor the lives lost and forever changed.

This is not a panel or a presentation—it’s a space for listening and sharing, open to all. Whether you recall exactly where you were that morning or you’ve only known a post-9/11 world, we invite you to bring your memories, y...

Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for conversation with M.P. Woodward, Navy veteran and bestselling author of Tom Clancy: Line of Demarcation, the newest installment in the legendary Jack Ryan series. We’ll talk spycraft, storytelling, and how real-world experience in military intelligence shapes his fiction writing.

Before becoming a full-time writer, M.P. Woodward served as a Naval Intelligence Officer with the U.S. Pacific Comman...

Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for an unforgettable conversation with Marine veteran and author Brennan Morton, whose acclaimed memoir Valhalla Boys: Marine Recon Sniper in Iraq is being hailed as one of the most powerful and literary war memoirs of the post-9/11 generation.

Valhalla Boys isn’t your typical “boots-on-the-ground” war story. It’s a raw, reflective, and often poetic meditation on combat, brotherhood, and the darknes...

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...

Thirty-five years ago, in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, the United States launched Operation Desert Shield, the largest American military deployment since Vietnam. On Monday, August 11 at 7:00pm ET, the Veterans Breakfast Club hosts a special 90-minute livestream conversation with veterans who served during this critical moment in modern military history.

Operation Desert Shield began in August 1990, just days after Saddam...