We Lost; The Soldiers Won’t

“You’re killing us,” a Hilton Deputy CEO told a JINSA supporter who managed to break through the telephone blockade. Would that it was true. You – our readers plus thousands of others infuriated by the Hilton’s tossing of Fran O’Brien’s Stadium Steakhouse Restaurant in Washington, home of dinners for wounded Iraq and Afghanistan vets – made Hilton’s life extremely unpleasant for a while. They turned off e-mails and fielded phone calls from former Hilton Honors cardholders.

“You’re killing us,” a Hilton Deputy CEO told a JINSA supporter who managed to break through the telephone blockade. Would that it was true. You – our readers plus thousands of others infuriated by the Hilton’s tossing of Fran O’Brien’s Stadium Steakhouse Restaurant in Washington, home of dinners for wounded Iraq and Afghanistan vets – made Hilton’s life extremely unpleasant for a while. They turned off e-mails and fielded phone calls from former Hilton Honors cardholders. They got negative – and soldiers got positive – media coverage from The Washington Post, The Washington Times, NBC Nightly News, National Review Online and The New York Sun, along with many smaller outlets.

But in the end, Hilton is Hilton and we are only us. After a final emotional night full of soldiers, families, Rolling Thunder, friends and teary-eyed Fran O’Brien’s staff, the restaurant was locked out by the Capital Hilton Hotel and closed.

But the dinners are not over. As long as there are soldiers at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospital needing an evening out and the company of friends, there will be dinners hosted by Hal Koster and Marty O’Brien. For now, the Hamilton Crowne Plaza-Washington D.C. has taken the soldiers in – and the first Friday night was stupendous! There couldn’t have been a nicer, kinder, more helpful or more gracious staff than the one at the Crowne Plaza, starting with Food and Beverage Manager Melanie Davis. Please consider taking your business there; JINSA will.

And, for the future…

First, we want to assure all of the generous JINSA donors who have made contributions to this program that your gift will be used, as promised, to provide a fun evening out for our young heroes. The Crowne Plaza is only the beginning.

Italian Ambassador Giovanni Castellaneta has invited the soldiers to the Italian Embassy one night this month and the soldiers are already thoroughly excited. The Italians are our allies in Iraq and certainly friends of our soldiers. Finmeccanica, the Italian defense conglomerate and its companies: Oto Melara, AgustaWestland, Selex Sensors & Airborne Systems, Selex Communications, Alenia and Ansaldo Breda have been major, major sponsors of the dinners, as has Italy’s Fincantieri Marine Systems.

And Fran O’Brien’s is considering relocating in Washington with the assistance of a local real estate magnate.

The people who responded to our calls for help on behalf of the soldiers – from the e-mail flood to a lawyer who cheerfully and seriously offered to sue Hilton pro bono – understood what Hilton ultimately did not. Fran O’Brien’s dinners are not about food, they are about fellowship in the community of people who love, respect and honor American soldiers for their service to our country and to freedom.

In that respect, Fran O’Brien’s doesn’t need Hilton and neither do we.