The Greatest Generation Live Podcast

Author Eric Setzekorn gives us a new look at World War II’s China-Burma-India (CBI) theatre through the eyes of Joseph Stilwell, the tough-minded American general entrusted with command over all U.S. forces in China, Burma, and India. His new book is Uncertain Allies: General Joseph Stilwell and the China-Burma-India Theater. Most Americans know little about the CBI, an awkward, sprawling command that stretched from eastern India across Burma into China. It was created mainly to keep China in the war against Japan and to defend British India, using a mix of Chinese, Indian, British, East African, and American forces against Japanese and local Axis-aligned troops. Japan seized Burma in 1942 and cut the Burma Road, China’s last overland lifeline to Allied aid. The U.S. responded with two desperate improvisations: flying supplies over the Himalayas on the dangerous “Hump” air route and carving a new jungle highway—the Ledo Road—through Assam in India to reconnect with the old Burma Road into China. Into this tangle stepped Lt. Gen. Joseph “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell. A career officer, fluent in Chinese and with long experience in Asia, Stilwell was chosen to be Chiang Kai-shek’s chief of staff and the commanding general of all American forces in China, Burma, and India. Washington hoped his language skills and blunt, no-nonsense style would bridge gaps between the Allies and turn China’s vast manpower into a more effective fighting force. Instead, Stilwell found himself at the center of a constant political and strategic storm. He clashed with Chiang Kai-shek, whom he saw as corrupt, cautious, and more interested in preserving his regime than fighting Japan. Chiang, for his part, distrusted Stilwell’s plans to rebuild and control Chinese armies and resented American pressure on Chinese strategy. Stilwell also collided with fellow American Claire Chennault, the former Flying Tigers leader who commanded the U.S. Fourteenth Air Force. Chennault believed that a strong air campaign from Chinese bases could batter Japanese cities and lines of communication. Stilwell argued instead for a ground-first approach: reopen Burma, build the Ledo Road, and reform Chinese ground forces before committing to large-scale air offensives. Allied leaders in London and Washington tried to mediate the difference but often ended up deepening the rivalry and confusion over priorities. Each of the Allies, it turned out, had its own priorities. The British wanted to defend India and recover Burma. The Americans wanted China as a major fighting partner and future base against Japan. Chinese leaders pursued survival in a grinding civil war against Chinese Communists even as they resisted Japan. In Uncertain Allies: General Joseph Stilwell and the China-Burma-India Theater, historian Eric Setzekorn uses Stilwell’s story to make sense of this complicated, often overlooked front. Drawing on American, Chinese, and Japanese sources, he shows how mismatched expectations, clashing personalities, and limited resources shaped the campaigns in Burma and China—and how the CBI became an early example of the political-military challenges the United States would face in later conflicts. Setzekorn’s analysis draws on newly available archival materials, including declassified U.S. records and Chinese- and Japanese-language sources — a research base far wider than most earlier accounts of the CBI. The result is a more balanced, granular, and realistic portrait of war, alliance, and policy than the sweeping, often sentimental narratives that dominated postwar memory. The book doesn’t pretend that Stilwell was entirely right or wrong. Rather, it shows how his blunt, soldierly pragmatism, his insistence on a transactional, militarily efficient approach, collided repeatedly with the political realities of global alliance, Chinese internal weaknesses, and divergent Allied priorities. The CBI campaign emerges not as an unalloyed triumph, but as a case study in the deeper challenges that would continue to haunt U.S. military-political engagements for decades to come. For readers of the Greatest Generation, Uncertain Allies offers fresh insight into a theater of WWII that rarely gets the attention it deserves. We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

Join us for a Veterans Breakfast Club livestream conversation with author Edward Aldrich about his compelling dual biography, Partnership: George Marshall, Henry Stimson, and the Extraordinary Collaboration That Won World War II. In this richly researched work, Aldrich brings into sharp focus one of the most consequential collaborations in twentieth-century American history: the wartime partnership between Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. While the canon of World War II history is filled with battlefield commanders and frontline exploits, Partnership shifts the lens to the strategic heart of the U.S. war effort in Washington. Marshall and Stimson, working from adjacent offices with the door intentionally left open between them, built and directed the Army’s dramatic expansion, oversaw logistics on a global scale, and helped shape the Allied strategy that would defeat the Axis powers. Their decisions touched virtually every dimension of the war—from training and equipping millions of soldiers, to strategic planning and coordination with Allied leaders like Winston Churchill, to considerations about the postwar world order. Aldrich’s book is more than a military history: it is a dual biography that traces how two very different men—Marshall, the Army organizer of victory, and Stimson, the seasoned statesman and civilian leader—came together under President Franklin D. Roosevelt to manage the greatest industrial mobilization in U.S. history. It draws on primary sources including Stimson’s wartime diary and Marshall’s papers to illuminate not only their accomplishments but the character, disagreements, and mutual respect that defined their long collaboration. In our livestream, Aldrich will reflect on what it meant to write this book: the gaps in the historical record he sought to fill, the insights he gained into how civilian and military leadership can function in concert, and how Marshall’s and Stimson’s partnership shaped not just the Allied victory but the postwar international order. We’ll explore why understanding their relationship matters for the broader story of World War II, and why their example resonates with readers interested in leadership, strategy, and the often invisible networks of decision-making that define war and peace. Whether you’re a lifelong student of the Second World War or are discovering these towering figures for the first time, this conversation will shed light on how two leaders behind the scenes helped win the most vast and complex war in history—and why their extraordinary collaboration still matters today. We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Veterans Breakfast Club hosts a special livestream conversation with historian David Nasaw, focusing on one of the most searing chapters in his new book, The Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War II: the experiences of Black veterans returning to the United States in 1945–46. More than one million Black men and women served in World War II, fighting for democracy overseas while living under segregation at home. Many embraced the war as a chance to claim full citizenship, inspired by the “Double V” campaign—victory against fascism abroad and racism at home. What awaited them, as Nasaw shows, was not gratitude or equality, but a wave of intimidation, violence, and repression aimed squarely at returning Black veterans. Through Black newspapers like The Pittsburgh Courier, government reports, and contemporary scholarship, Nasaw traces how the simple act of coming home—stepping off a ship, boarding a bus, wearing a uniform—could trigger confrontation and punishment. Returning veterans were assaulted on public transportation, targeted by police, and warned, often brutally, that Jim Crow still ruled. The story of Sergeant Isaac Woodard, blinded by a South Carolina police chief while still in uniform, stands as one of the most infamous and devastating examples of this campaign of terror. The discussion will also examine why Black veterans were seen as such a threat. White officials and politicians feared that men who had worn the uniform, carried weapons, and fought overseas would challenge segregation at home—by voting, organizing, and demanding respect. In response, Southern leaders mobilized law enforcement, courts, and vigilante violence to “put them back in their place,” often with deadly consequences. Nasaw will help us understand how the treatment of Black veterans after World War II shaped the early civil rights struggle, hardened resistance to Jim Crow, and revealed the deep contradictions at the heart of American victory. It is a story of courage, trauma, and resistance—and a reminder that for many veterans, the war did not end when they came home. We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

Historian Bruce Henderson joins us to discuss Operation Carpetbagger, a secret war in Europe in World War II that is subject of his new book, Midnight Flyboys: The American Bomber Crews and Allied Secret Agents Who Aided the French Resistance in World War II. In Midnight Flyboys, Bruce delivers a masterful, richly detailed chronicle of that secret war. Beginning in 1943, the precursor to the CIA — the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) — recruited volunteer crews from American bomber squadrons and assembled them at a hidden airfield just west of London. Given the choice to stay with conventional bombing duties or sign up for an entirely different kind of mission, these flyers volunteered. Under codename Operation Carpetbagger, these men flew heavy B-24 Liberators across the English Channel, not to bomb enemy targets, but to fly low over pitch-black countryside, in the dead of night, hoping to pick out faint ground signals marking drop zones. Into those dark fields they dropped steel containers filled with rifles, ammunition, grenades, medicine, even bicycles, the essentials of insurgent warfare. On many nights, they also parachuted Allied secret agents into the maquis strongholds of Nazi-occupied France. For decades the story remained classified. But as Henderson shows, the Carpetbaggers and the agents they supported played a vital role in preparing the ground for the Normandy invasion and the liberation that followed. Those who served eventually earned the highest military honors: a Presidential Unit Citation for the bomber crews, and later a Congressional Gold Medal for OSS personnel. What makes Midnight Flyboys particularly powerful are its vivid portraits of the men and women behind the missions: the bomber crews risking night after night, the secret agents dropped into unknown danger, and the members of the French Resistance who awaited them. Critics have praised the book’s clarity and narrative power. A starred review in Library Journal calls it “immersing readers in the peril and heroism of covert World War II missions,” noting Henderson’s ability to “simplify complex military operations without losing emotional depth or detail.” We are honored to present this story with Bruce Henderson, live on our VBC Greatest Generation Live — Thursday, January 8 at 7:00 pm ET. Join us! We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

Glenn Flickinger marks the anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge with historian Walter S. Zapotoczny, author of The 28th Infantry Division and the Battle of the Bulge: Combat, Faith, and Perseverance. The book is a close study of how the men of Pennsylvania’s “Keystone Division” held the line in the Ardennes in December 1944–January 1945, and what kept them fighting when the odds were against them. Drawing on extensive firsthand accounts, he follows the 28th as it stretches across the 25-mile front on the German border, absorbs the shock of Hitler’s last offensive, and defends key positions in Belgium and Luxembourg. Zapotoczny is less interested in re-telling the battle map than in examining motivation, morale, and belief. The book looks closely at how soldiers understood “the American way of life,” how Army chaplains ministered under fire, and how faith and camaraderie shaped endurance in combat. Based in part on his doctoral research on the 28th Division at the Bulge, the study blends operational history with social and religious history to explain why these citizen-soldiers kept going when retreat seemed like the only rational option. It’s a focused, 240-page narrative—illustrated with photos and maps—well-suited to readers who want to understand what the Battle of the Bulge looked and felt like from the foxhole level, especially in one hard-hit American division. We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

Glenn Flickinger will continue his discussion of the the VBC’s WWII Tour of Italy in October 2026, where VBC 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, beginning with Operation Husky, the massive Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943 that opened the road to Europe’s soft underbelly. From the hard-fought landings at Gela and Scoglitti to the urban battles in Palermo and the mountainous defenses near Messina, Sicily tested the courage and coordination of American and British troops. From there, the campaign moved to mainland Italy, first at Salerno, where American soldiers fought to hold their beachhead against fierce counterattacks, and then up the rugged spine of the Apennines. We’ll visit key battlegrounds of Cassino, where Allied forces waged a costly struggle for control of the ancient Abbey of Monte Cassino, and Anzio, where troops endured months of shelling in a desperate bid to outflank German defenses. The campaign culminated in the liberation of Rome on June 4, 1944, two days before D-Day in Normandy. Our trip will visit these storied sites—Catania, Syracuse, Agrigento, Palermo, Salerno, Cassino, Anzio, and Rome—accompanied by historians and local guides who will help us connect the landscape to the history that unfolded there. Along the way, we’ll also enjoy the beauty that drew the world to Italy long before and long after the war: the turquoise waters of the Amalfi Coast, the golden temples of Agrigento, and the ancient beauty of Palermo and Rome. We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

Naval historian Craig L. Symonds talks about his new book, Annapolis Goes to War: The Naval Academy Class of 1940 and Its Trial by Fire in World War II. Symonds follows one cohort from plebe year to the fleet, using the Class of ’40 to tell a larger story about America’s rapid transition from peace to global war. These midshipmen arrived at the Academy the year Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland and graduated the week of Dunkirk; more than a hundred were on duty at Pearl Harbor, where ten were killed—seven still entombed in USS Arizona. It’s a tight, human-scale history that shows how the Academy shaped young officers who would face combat within months. Annapolis Goes to War gives a fresh view of training, leadership, and loss in WWII. Early reviews call the book “often-moving” and recommend it to anyone interested in military history; another notes how vividly Symonds shows young officers thrown into war scarcely 18 months after graduation. Craig L. Symonds is Professor Emeritus at the U.S. Naval Academy and a former Ernest J. King Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Naval War College. A leading naval historian, he’s written widely read works including World War II at Sea (2018), The Battle of Midway (2011), and Nimitz at War (2022). His honors include the Lincoln Prize, the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Neptune, and the Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement (2023). We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

Join us on Thursday, December 4 at 7:00pm for a special VBC livestream with Dr. Jim Blackwell, author of the new book Gunners! B-29 Machine Gunners in the Korean War. Jim Blackwell brings to life the stories of ten B-29 gunners—ordinary young men who climbed into the big Boeing Superfortress and flew some of the toughest missions of the Korean War. Now in their nineties, these veterans represent the last living voices of a chapter too often misunderstood. Blackwell sets the record straight, showing how B-29 crews adapted, fought, and prevailed in the skies despite harsh conditions, MiG attacks, and a rapidly changing air war. He explains their remote-controlled turrets, their astonishing air-to-air victories, and even the small comforts that carried them through—like landing low on fuel just to enjoy fresh eggs in Japan. Blackwell knows the terrain. A retired Army officer and longtime defense analyst, he’s spent decades studying military strategy, technology, and history. His book gives these men the tribute they earned but never sought. As a thank-you to those who served, the Veterans Breakfast Club is giving away free copies of Gunners! to any veteran who orders through our site. Order here: https://veteransbreakfastclub.org/pro... Join us for an evening of good stories, sharp history, and a rare look at the quiet heroes of the Korean War. We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

We’re thrilled to welcome 103-year-old 82nd Airborne veteran Gene Metcalfe to talk about his extraordinary World War II experience, which included a combat jump in Operation Market Garden, being counted among the dead at the Battle of Nijmegen, a face-to-face meeting with Heinrich Himmler, and months as a POW in Stalag VII-A. Gene’s story began on On November 10, 1942, at DeKalb (Illinois) High School, when he stood up, walked out, and joined the Army, inspired by what he’d seen at the movie theater while watching Parachute Battalion. Gene trained at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, with the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, then more training at Fort McClellan, Fort Benning, and Camp Mackall. Eventually he was assigned to the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. He didn’t reach England until June 6, 1944—D-Day itself—joining a veteran outfit that had already fought in Sicily, Italy, and Normandy. Three months later came Operation Market Garden, the ambitious Allied plan to leapfrog into the Netherlands, seize a string of bridges, and open a highway into Germany. On September 17, 1944, Metcalfe climbed aboard a C-47 bound for Groesbeek Heights outside Nijmegen. When Gene jumped, German 88s and machine guns were already zeroed in. He watched his own aircraft roll over in the air and slam into the ground in flames and realized the planners had badly underestimated German strength around Nijmegen. Once on the ground, Gene and his comrades of the 508th fought through scattered woods and villages around Groesbeek and Nijmegen, taking fire from German tanks and anti-aircraft guns used in a ground role. During a night battle, he pushed forward into an advanced position and, partly deafened by shellfire, never heard the order to fall back. A German shell detonated nearby and hurled Gene through the air. Gene was listed as killed in action, the only member of his patrol who did not make it back. But he wasn’t dead. When he came to, he was a Prisoner of War. Elements of the 10th SS had overrun the area. Taken behind the lines, he was brought to a 16th-century castle where he found himself standing in front of a senior SS officer he recognized from photographs: Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. Gene stuck to what he’d been taught—name, rank, and serial number—while Himmler’s men quizzed him about his unit and mission. From there, Metcalfe was sent deeper into the Reich. His first stop was Stalag XII-A, a transit and labor camp, then he moved to the Luftwaffe POW camp Stalag Luft III, and from there crammed into a boxcar for a five-day, five-night journey without food, water, or sanitary facilities to Stalag VII-A near Moosburg, outside Munich. At Stalag VII-A, Gene did some of the ugliest work the Germans could find for POW labor: clearing roads and digging out corpses from the rubble of bombed-out Munich after air raids. Later he was assigned to a farm detail with a German family. As Soviet forces approached in 1945, Gene was recalled from the farm back to Stalag VII-A. He escaped with two fellow POWs and headed toward Lake Constance, aiming for the Swiss border and neutral territory. They got as far as the lake but were captured trying to cross and marched back to the camp. Not long after, in April 1945, American forces liberated Stalag VII-A. Liberation didn’t mean going straight home. Gene and a fellow DeKalb soldier, Billy Carey, “borrowed” a convertible from the liberated area, stopped in Munich, and even met General George S. Patton before making their way to Paris. He spent about ten days there, then was processed at the American Camp Lucky Strike staging area and shipped back across the Atlantic. He hitchhiked the last leg home to DeKalb in late May or early June 1945—the same way he’d left, only now with a Bronze Star, a future Purple Heart and POW medal, and months of combat and captivity behind him Metcalfe has said that World War II showed him both the depths of human cruelty and the everyday beauty still left in the world. His story became the subject of an acclaimed book, Left for Dead at Nijmegen: The True Story of an American Paratrooper in World War II. We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

Award-winning historian David Nasaw, author of the new book The Wounded Generation: America After the Greatest Generation, talks with Glenn Flickinger about the human costs of WWII in the United States. In his deeply researched and powerfully written history, Nasaw reveals the hidden cost of victory in World War II—the long and often painful homecoming of millions of American veterans who returned to a nation unprepared for their wounds, visible and invisible. Drawing on letters, diaries, and oral histories, he paints a vivid portrait of men and women struggling to rebuild their lives amid postwar shortages, racial inequities, changing gender roles, and the lingering trauma of combat that was then dismissed as “battle fatigue.” Nasaw, one of America’s most respected biographers and historians, re-examines the familiar myth of the “Greatest Generation” and restores to the story the complexity and hardship that marked the postwar years. He shows how the experience of homecoming—filled with readjustment, silence, and resilience—shaped families, communities, and the nation itself for decades to come. This conversation will explore what World War II veterans faced when the cheering stopped and the work of coming home began—and why their experiences still matter today. Hosted by the Veterans Breakfast Club, this program continues our mission to create communities of listening around veterans and their stories, honoring not just their service in war but their journey back to peace. We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

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, beginning with Operation Husky, the massive Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943 that opened the road to Europe’s soft underbelly. From the hard-fought landings at Gela and Scoglitti to the urban battles in Palermo and the mountainous defenses near Messina, Sicily tested the courage and coordination of American and British troops. From there, the campaign moved to mainland Italy, first at Salerno, where American soldiers fought to hold their beachhead against fierce counterattacks, and then up the rugged spine of the Apennines. We’ll visit key battlegrounds of Cassino, where Allied forces waged a costly struggle for control of the ancient Abbey of Monte Cassino, and Anzio, where troops endured months of shelling in a desperate bid to outflank German defenses. The campaign culminated in the liberation of Rome on June 4, 1944, two days before D-Day in Normandy. Our trip will visit these storied sites—Catania, Syracuse, Agrigento, Palermo, Salerno, Cassino, Anzio, and Rome—accompanied by historians and local guides who will help us connect the landscape to the history that unfolded there. Along the way, we’ll also enjoy the beauty that drew the world to Italy long before and long after the war: the turquoise waters of the Amalfi Coast, the golden temples of Agrigento, and the ancient beauty of Palermo and Rome. We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a moving conversation with author Kevin M. Callahan about his book Brothers in Arms: Remembering Brothers Buried Side by Side in American World War II Cemeteries. Drawing from years of research, hundreds of family interviews, and a personal pilgrimage to American military cemeteries around the world, Callahan tells the powerful and often heartbreaking stories of brothers who fought and died together in World War II. Brothers in Arms features over 700 historic photographs and original artifacts, collected from the families of the fallen, that put faces and voices to the names carved in white marble. In meticulously maintained cemeteries across Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific—each operated by the American Battle Monuments Commission—visitors occasionally come across two or even three graves with the same last name. These are brothers who served in the same war, often the same unit, and who now rest side by side in foreign soil near the battlefields where they fell. Callahan’s book chronicles these stories in vivid detail, drawing readers into the lived experiences of American families during the war—sons lost, letters kept, grief endured. From Normandy and Ardennes to Sicily, Manila, and Tunisia, the book traces not only the geography of the war but also the deeply personal cost borne by a generation. This livestream offers a chance to reflect on duty, family, sacrifice, and remembrance—through stories that span continents and generations. Kevin M. Callahan will share his research, the process of uncovering these personal histories, and what he has learned from visiting each of the 14 overseas World War II cemeteries maintained by the United States. Learn more about Brothers in Arms and the American Battle Monuments Commission: ABMC.gov Brothers in Arms book website: https://brothersinarmsbook.com #VeteransBreakfastClub #BrothersInArms #KevinMCallahan #WWII #MilitaryHistory #GoldStarFamilies #AmericanBattleMonumentsCommission #VBC #WarStories #WWIICemeteries #VeteranVoices #WWIIHistory We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

Glenn Flickinger sits down with historian and author Paul R. Bruno to trace the Jeep’s unlikely birth—from a desperate 1940 Army request for a ¼-ton 4×4 scout car to a battlefield icon that helped win World War II. We’ll trace the origins in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the tiny American Bantam Car Company built the pilot Jeep in an astonishing 49 days, before Willys-Overland and Ford entered the fray and the Army standardized the vehicle. We’ll talk about how a handful of engineers, procurement officers, and test drivers turned sketches into steel, and why the Jeep mattered so much to the Allied war effort. Paul is one of the leading chroniclers of this story. He’s spent two decades researching the Jeep’s origins and has written a trilogy on it: The First Jeep (a deep dive into Bantam’s crash program and what it teaches about rapid development); The Original Jeeps (a narrative of the three-way race among Bantam, Willys, and Ford, honored with Military Writers Society of America and Global Ebook awards); and the photo companion, The Original Jeeps in Pictures. His work blends archival detail with clear storytelling, showing how the Army’s specs evolved, why Bantam’s breakthrough couldn’t scale, and how Willys and Ford shaped the final wartime Jeep. We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a special conversation with Brigadier General (Ret.) Paul Tibbets IV, whose military career spans more than three decades and includes leadership at the highest levels of U.S. Air Force strategic operations. General Tibbets brings a unique perspective shaped by deep family ties to military aviation. He is the grandson of Paul W. Tibbets Jr., pilot of the Enola Gay during World War II. General Tibbets entered the Air Force in 1989 after graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy with a degree in Human Factors Engineering. Over the course of his career, he flew all three of the Air Force’s strategic bombers—the B-1 Lancer, B-2 Spirit, and B-52 Stratofortress—and served in a wide range of operational and command roles. These included command of the historic 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base and service as Deputy Commander of Air Force Global Strike Command. He flew combat missions in the Balkans and Afghanistan, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross for his role in Operation Allied Force. Tibbets also held key positions in nuclear operations, culminating in his role as Deputy Director for Nuclear Operations at U.S. Strategic Command. Throughout his service, he combined operational experience with strategic oversight, contributing to the readiness and deterrence posture of the U.S. nuclear enterprise. #VeteransBreakfastClub #PaulTibbetsIV #AirForce #StrategicCommand #MilitaryAviation #VeteranStories #LiveEvent #VBC We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

They spun lies to defeat the Nazis. They were Propaganda Girls. Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a fascinating livestream interview. Special guests is Lisa Rogak, bestselling historian and author of Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS (St. Martin’s Press, March 4, 2025). VBC’s Glenn Flickinger and award-winning documentary filmmaker Daria Sommers. During WWII, the OSS handpicked brilliant, daring women—reporters, multilingual diplomats, entertainers—to wage a secret war of misinformation. In her gripping narrative, Lisa Rogak tells the stories of four remarkable women: Betty MacDonald, a journalist from Hawaii Zuzka Lauwers, a Czech-born linguist Jane Smith-Hutton, fluent in Japanese from her embassy life Marlene Dietrich, legendary actress and outspoken anti-Nazi These “Propaganda Girls” produced forged documents, fake newspapers, radio broadcasts, songs—and even deep-cover rumors—designed to break Axis morale. Their cloak-and-dagger work in Europe, occupied China, and Washington went largely unseen—until now. Macmillan describes the book as “the incredible untold story of four women who spun the web of deception that helped win World War II.” The Jerusalem Post highlights how Rogak reveals a “series of believable lies designed to cause the enemy soldiers to lose heart and ultimately surrender,” while exposing the sexism these women faced inside the OSS. Lisa’s storytelling is bolstered by newly declassified documents, 250+ endnotes, and deep archival work—bringing this clandestine mission into vivid, human focus. Lisa Rogak, a New York Times bestselling author of more than forty books, has chronicled figures like Stephen King, Barack Obama, and Stephen Colbert. Her reputation for weaving meticulous research into engaging narratives prepares readers for a bold pivot—fluid prose meets wartime espionage in Propaganda Girls We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

On August 14, 1945, the world breathed a collective sigh of relief as Japan announced its surrender, bringing the deadliest conflict in human history—World War II—to an end. Now, 80 years later, the Veterans Breakfast Club invites you to join us for a special 90-minute livestream conversation to commemorate Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day) and reflect on that moment of peace, triumph, and transition. The event will take place Thursday, August 21 at 7:00pm ET, eight decades and one week after Americans crowded streets, hugged strangers, and celebrated the end of a war that had cost millions of lives. We’ll explore both the history of V-J Day and the personal memories of those who lived through it—veterans, civilians, and family members. It’s a chance to hear firsthand accounts of how the world reacted to the end of the war and to discuss what that day meant for the Greatest Generation and the generations that followed. Topics will include: The lead-up to Japan’s surrender after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki President Truman’s announcement and the spontaneous celebrations that erupted The formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945 Reflections on coming home, rebuilding, and remembering You’ll hear not only the history, but also personal recollections from those who remember where they were when the war ended, how their families reacted, and what the end of WWII meant to them and their communities. #VJDay80 #EndOfWWII #WWIIVeterans #VeteransBreakfastClub #VBCLive #VictoryOverJapan #WorldWarIIHistory #VJDayMemories #GreatestGeneration We’re grateful to UPMC for Life for sponsoring this event!

Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a powerful evening conversation with Susan Servais, daughter of the late Kathe Mueller Slonim, author of Escape from Dachau: A True Story of Survival, Courage, and a Daring Escape in the Face of Unthinkable Evil. In this riveting program, we’ll explore one family’s astonishing true story of rescue and resilience in the face of Nazi tyranny. Also joining us will be Dachau survivor Nate Leipciger who will tell his story and Dachau liberator Hilbert Margol a member of the 42nd Division who participated in the liberation of Dachau. Nate Leipciger was born in 1928 in Chorzów, Poland, and was just eleven years old when the Nazis invaded and his life was thrown into unimaginable horror. After three years in ghettos, Nate and his family were deported to Auschwitz, where his mother and sister were murdered. He and his father endured slave labor, a death march, and imprisonment in seven different camps before being liberated by American soldiers at a subcamp of Dachau on May 2, 1945. They were the only survivors of their family. Nate immigrated to Canada in 1948, built a new life as an engineer. “We managed to survive the impossible,” he says. “The Holocaust did not just happen to us. It was done to us. And the world is responsible.” PFC Hilbert Margol, born February 22, 1924 in Jacksonville, Florida, was drafted in 1943 and served with Battery B, 392nd Field Artillery Battalion of the famed 42nd “Rainbow” Infantry Division, alongside his identical twin brother, Howard. In April 1945 his unit became among the first American forces to enter and liberate Dachau concentration camp—Hilbert and Howard were stopped by a stench in the woods and discovered boxcars crammed with the dead, a sight that Hilbert describes as beyond anything he’d imagined. After his honorable discharge in April 1946, Margol dedicated much of his later life to public education, sharing his firsthand testimony to oppose Holocaust denial and ensure the horrors he witnessed are never forgotten. The program centers around the daring 1938 escape from Dachau—Nazi Germany’s first concentration camp—by Kathe’s father, aided by his cousin, a former Reich official secretly born Jewish. Driving across Germany with forged Nazi credentials, Max Immanuel risked everything to save a family member from near-certain death. Their story, documented by Kathe Mueller Slonim before her death in 2021 and published posthumously by her children, unfolds moment by moment with cinematic intensity and heart-stopping stakes. Susan Servais, who helped bring her mother’s manuscript to publication, will share behind-the-scenes insights into the making of Escape from Dachau and why the story matters now more than ever. As antisemitism rises globally and Holocaust memory grows more urgent, this book is both a harrowing history and a moral call to vigilance and courage. Escape from Dachau is more than a Holocaust memoir. It’s a high-stakes story of deception, danger, and family loyalty in the shadow of the Nazi regime. Rich with historical context and illustrated with 30 archival photographs, it honors the bravery of those who resisted evil with ingenuity and heart. We’re grateful to UPMC for Life for sponsoring this event!

Eighty years ago, in the final days of World War II, the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) completed one of the most critical missions of the war—delivering components of the atomic bomb to Tinian Island—only to meet a tragic fate days later in the Philippine Sea. On July 31, 2025, exactly 80 years to the day after the sinking, the Veterans Breakfast Club will host a special 90-minute livestream conversation with renowned WWII historian and author Colin D. Heaton to reflect on the legacy of the Indianapolis and the harrowing story of its crew. The USS Indianapolis was struck by Japanese torpedoes shortly after midnight on July 30, 1945. The ship sank in just 12 minutes, taking hundreds with her. Of the 1,195 sailors and Marines aboard, roughly 900 made it into the water—only 316 would survive. For days, they endured dehydration, exposure, and relentless shark attacks before a chance air patrol spotted them. Our guest, Colin D. Heaton, brings decades of scholarship and firsthand military experience to the story. A former U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps servicemember, Heaton has authored numerous acclaimed books of military history, including German Anti-Partisan Warfare in Europe 1939–1945 and Night Fighters: The Luftwaffe and RAF Air Combat over Europe, co-written with Anne-Marie Lewis. He has also appeared as a guest historian on the History Channel’s Dogfights and taught military history at American Military University. During this live program, Heaton will explore the Indianapolis’s role in WWII, the circumstances of its sinking, the Navy’s delayed response, and the long-overdue exoneration of the ship’s captain, Charles B. McVay III. He’ll also reflect on the broader implications of the tragedy and how it’s remembered today. This is more than a history lesson—it’s a memorial and a reckoning, told with insight and reverence by one of the most respected voices in military history. #USSIndianapolis #WWIIHistory #ColinHeaton #NavalHistory #VeteransBreakfastClub #Indianapolis80 #VBCOnline #MilitaryHistory #WWIINavy #July31Anniversary We’re grateful to UPMC for Life and Tobacco Free Adagio Health for sponsoring this event!

On the morning of June 6, 1944—D-Day—14,000 Canadian troops stormed ashore at Juno Beach, a five-mile stretch of the Normandy coastline wedged between British landing zones. Facing a well-fortified German defense and rough surf, the Canadians fought their way inland in one of the most successful yet costly operations of the day. By nightfall, they had advanced further than any other Allied force. Yet, the Canadian contribution to D-Day remains one of the most underappreciated chapters of the Normandy invasion. Join the Veterans Breakfast Club on Thursday, July 24 at 7:00pm ET for a special livestream conversation about the Canadian experience on D-Day. We’ll explore the planning, execution, and aftermath of the Juno Beach assault, and reflect on how Canadian veterans have remembered and interpreted the legacy of that pivotal moment in World War II. Our guests include: Mark Zuehlke, award-winning author of the Canadian Battle Series, including Juno Beach: Canada’s D-Day Victory and Holding Juno. Zuehlke’s vivid narrative history has made him one of Canada’s most widely read military historians. His work brings to life the grit, sacrifice, and valor of Canadian soldiers on the battlefield. Scott Masters, longtime history teacher at Crestwood Preparatory College in Toronto and founder of the Crestwood Oral History Project, which has documented hundreds of Canadian veterans’ wartime stories. Masters brings a passion for educating the next generation about Canada’s military heritage through personal testimony and lived experience. Jim Parks, D-Day Juno Beach veteran with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles. He recalls his convoy crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Britain, his training in southern England and Scotland, and his experience landing on Juno Beach two minutes before the main assault wave. Together, our guests will paint a comprehensive portrait of Juno Beach and the Canadian D-Day experience—from the strategic high-level decisions to the individual stories of soldiers in the surf. We’re grateful to UPMC for Life  for sponsoring this event!

Join the Veterans Breakfast Club for a special 90-minute online conversation with historian Robert S. Norris, author of Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, the Manhattan Project’s Indispensable Man. This event will spotlight the overlooked military mastermind who turned atomic theory into wartime reality: Lt. Gen. Leslie R. Groves. The Manhattan Project looms large in American memory—Los Alamos, Trinity, Hiroshima—but few remember the man who made it all possible. In Racing for the Bomb, Norris reveals how Groves, often dismissed as a caricature of military bluster, was in fact the indispensable architect of the atomic age. From selecting the sites at Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Los Alamos to coordinating vast industrial-scale construction, international uranium acquisition, bomb design, and the formation of the elite 509th Composite Group of B-29s, Groves ran his own army, treasury, and state department—all under a veil of secrecy. Robert S. Norris, a leading nuclear historian and former analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council, brings to life the driven, brusque, and deeply ambitious general whose personal force of will—combined with keen judgment and boundless energy—shaped not just the bomb, but the postwar national security state that emerged from its use. Groves pioneered “black budgets,” security clearances, and compartmentalized intelligence—hallmarks of Cold War secrecy. Racing for the Bomb is the first full scholarly biography of Groves, completing the unfinished work of historian Stanley Goldberg and offering an authoritative, readable, and revealing portrait based on Groves’s private papers, military records, and firsthand interviews. Don’t miss this chance to explore the atomic age from a new perspective: not from the scientist’s lab bench, but from the general’s war room. Norris will discuss Groves’s pivotal role in the decision to use the bomb, his fraught but productive relationship with J. Robert Oppenheimer, and the lasting implications of his management style on U.S. defense and intelligence structures. We’re grateful to UPMC for Life for sponsoring this event!