"It's a camaraderie thing:" Friday Morning Breakfast Club at Solly's Grille helping Vietnam vets heal
GLENDALE -- Six days a week, you can sit wherever you like at Solly's Grille on N. Port Washington Road in Glendale, and order breakfast. But not on Fridays.
On Fridays, you don't dare go to the right-side counter -- unless you were in Vietnam.
Solly's Grille
Milwaukee's George Baldus was.
George Baldus
"I'm sitting on the top of an armored personal carrier. The squad leader was killed -- and they said 'you're up,'" Baldus said.
Baldus, a now-retired police officer, is one of several Vietnam veterans who wouldn't think about missing the "Friday Morning Breakfast Club."
It's a bull session, mashed up with a therapy circle, and it's 100% needed by the men who come to Solly's Grille on Fridays, as it's a long-overdue chance to talk to people who get it.
"Everybody came home and you didn't talk about that stuff. If you did, you got an adverse reaction from a lot of people, so guys just went about their lives," Baldus said.
Jim Pedriana
Jim Pedriana was in Air Force special operations. He was just 19 years old.
"I was a helicopter door gunner supporting special forces recon teams in Laos and Cambodia," Pedriana said. "More guts than brains. You don't realize what you're going to do."
What he did every day for a year is part of who he is now. He is proud of his service, but can't help but wonder if he could have, and should have, done some things different.
"It's a mental rollercoaster. You got highs and lows. You either live or die. Then you have to deal with it mentally -- whether it's good or bad. Dealing with it is the more challenging thing," Pedriana said.
He knows the guys at the "Friday Morning Breakfast Club" understand that better than anyone.
Friday Morning Breakfast Club at Solly's
"It was supposed to be forgotten. You were suppose to just go hide in your corner and forget about it, but as you get older, you start reflecting on what you did and it's good to lean on a friend because if you did something horrible you know he did the same thing. It's just bonding," Pedriana said.
Glenn Fieber owns Solly's Grille. He has devoted two walls to these veterans' service, but his most generous role is that of host -- making sure each new visitor to the "Friday Morning Breakfast Club" feels welcome.
He's not just honoring them -- he's healing with them.
"I had to wake up one morning and take body count of 40-50 Vietnamese that were terribly shot up by the enemy the night before," Fieber said.
Glenn Fieber
Fieber too is a Vietnam combat veteran.
"You see these things and you don't know what it's doing to you psychologically," Fieber said.
Six years ago, he started to spread the word to other vets that they had a safe place to come each Friday. There has rarely been an open seat since.
"It's a camaraderie thing. It's the psychological outlet, the need to be together, talk together, laugh together," Fieber said.
And there is laughter -- something lacking for far too long. Time has helped. It brings perspective.
"Because I'm here to listen to it -- but there a lot of vets who passed away since who never got to hear it," Baldus said.
Fieber knows there are more who haven't heard, and he'll leave the grill on for them.
Friday Morning Breakfast Club at Solly's
"I can't be more proud to be a part of this -- to help any Vietnam vet that I can to come here and be happy, and let things go," Fieber said.
Want to join the "Friday Morning Breakfast Club?" The vets usually get started at Solly's Grille around 7:45 a.m. each Friday.