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UPDATE: HILTON HOTELS / HILTON FAMILY CLOSED
THE WOUNDED VETERANS STEAKHOUSE DOORS FOR BUSINESS REASONS...
Please pass the word about this HOTEL HOTELS / HILTON FAMILY's
Disgrace... Leave your comments at the above petition.
Thank You
"The willingness with which our young people are likely
to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were
treated and appreciated by our nation."
- George Washington
Hilton Hotels / Hilton Family to oust veteran-honoring
steakhouse on this Monday, May 1, 2006
(PLEASE PASS THE
WORD ABOUT THIS DISGRACE)
D.C. restaurant serves free dinners
every Friday to disabled soldiers.
Hilton to oust veteran-honoring
steakhouse (Story Below)
"These vets need all the help they can get."
As of 11 PM Eastern, Sunday April 30, 2006, there were 1,256
readers and signers to our petition to the Hilton Hotels Corporation/ Hilton Family. Please sign the petition
and enjoy some of the comments at: http://www.petitiononline.com/mistake/petition.html
Some signers are actually posting their location as Iraq.
Many more signers have already served in this War on Terror. Please don't let these brave and honorable men and
women in America's military down. The American military has never let America down.
Please tell all your family and friends about this disgraceful,
and extremely, disrespectful business deal of the Hilton Hotels Corporation/ Hilton Family.
Thank You
Vietnam
Veteran
Sussex, NJ
PLEASE NOTIFY EVERYONE ON AND OFF THE
INTERNET ABOUT THIS PETITION.
There is no commitment from Hilton -- simply short-term damage control. (More Details Below)
--------------
Please review these two other issues.
The below comments are taken from Jack Cunningham's petition, which is linked below.
Thank you to everyone who has already taken (And takes) the time to care.
| 298. |
Mike Foley |
I don't understand this! If the state of new jersey doesn't clean up its own government, why doesn't the
federal government get involved? Why make a PTSD vet do this alone. He served for America, but our federal govenrment is not
serving him. We expect this from the state of New Jersey, but not our federal govenrment. There's crime here! |
Mike Foley, thank you very much for your support!
Jack
----------------
"Support Your Troops By Supporting Their
Benefits"
A MUST READ FOR ALL
AMERICANS, WHO CARE ABOUT AMERICA'S HONORABLE MILITARY MEN AND WOMEN.
Coming Home
from War on the Cheap ~ Shortchanging the Wounded
There is no commitment from Hilton -- simply short-term
damage control.
----- Original Message -----
Subject: More on Fran O'Brien's...
To All Concerned Americans,
That EXACT "personal response" to Michael Mitchell (below) from Brian
Kelleher, General Manager, of the Capital Hilton (but e-mailed by someone else at Hilton) has apparently been sent to everyone who wrote the Hilton
contact published early-on.. I received the same response myself and have been forwarded the same exact response from
at least ten others who got it. And now Hilton is offering to do ONE week's free meal and has "expressed interest" in
"working closely" with Walter Reed to continue the tradition. How shallow is that? There is no commitment here
from Hilton -- simply short-term damage control.
If they're serious about supporting our amputee military veterans,
how about Hilton Hotels putting their world-wide resources and money where their mouth is -- as Fran O'Brien's has done.
O'Brien's is but one single restaurant, Hilton is a world-wide conglomerate. Here is a proposal for Hilton to redeem
themselves with the American veterans. Are they up to the challenger?:
I propose Hilton corporation publish a
letter on their home page on the Internet that can be printed and used by any U.S. soldier amputee veteran wounded in the
defense of the United States, to be good any Friday night at any Hilton Hotel anywhere in the world, for a free dinner and
drinks of his or her choice. This offer from Hilton will to be available to any U.S. amputee veteran injured defending
the United States in any conflict with any enemy, declared or undeclared, and the offer is to remain in affect with no expiration.
All an amputee veteran has to do to receive this offer is to produce the letter to a Hilton hotel or restaurant manager and
provide satisfactory evidence that he or she is a veteran and an amputee.
Anything short of acceptance of this proposal
says to me they're not serious about our amputee veterans, and their reactive offer to host the Friday night dinners after
they've destroyed Fran O'Brien's is just empty, hollow rhetoric.
Here's a chance for the Hilton Hotel corporation to
redeem itself and to prove to the American people and all military veterans that they're not the money-hungry, calloused,
uncaring, and unpatriotic group they are coming across as.
It also appears to me Hilton is not just interested in the
"business reasons" for reacquiring the space in their Washington hotel that Fran O'Brien's presently occupies, but they want
to destroy the restaurant and put them out of business. I can only guess at their motives. They have readily admitted
they have "no plans" for the space after O'Brien's goes. They just want them out. For an upscale restaurant in
the Washington DC area to be given only about 30 days notice to vacate is effectively a death sentence. The administartive,
legal, and financial challenges of finding another location to accommodate the restaurant, get it ready, move all kitchen
and other equipment, get the place decorated, and get moved in within 30 days is absurb. Hilton really seems vindictive
and heartless in their treatment of Fran O'Brien's. Marty O'Brien and Hal Koster (the co-owners) really deserve better.
You
know, as an aside, if Hilton does succeed in closing down Fran O'Brien's and then turn around and offer a free dinner to the
same amputee veterans that O'Brien's has honored for so long, I'll bet you a free steak dinner (huh?) that NONE of the veterans
would attend. I'll bet not a ONE of them would accept such a hollow platitude.
I'd love to hear back from Hilton
about the above proposal, but I'd hope it's not the same personal response I've already received from Mr. Kelleher.
Jim
McDaniel 174shark4@cox.net
174th AHC Webmaster
http://www.174ahc"Hal Koster's front-seater in Shark helicopter
gunships in 67-68"
Please
sign the petition at: http://www.petitiononline.com/mistake/petition.html
=========================================
I received this in
response to my email. This won't go to many addresses listed, I'm not on all. Please reforward if you are.
Thanks:
[Addressed to me, but no salutation]
Your e-mail has been forwarded to me, Brian Kelleher, General Manager, of The Capital Hilton.
Thank you for your expression of concern regarding the Fran O’Brien’s restaurant. I
appreciate your interest and would like to take this opportunity to respond to you personally.
For strictly business reasons related solely to the inability to reach a new lease agreement, the Capital Hilton
has elected to terminate the lease with the operator of Fran O’Brien’s restaurant at the hotel. This decision
was not at all related to the Friday night dinners for disabled veterans but rather a result of lease negotiations that failed.
The hotel has offered to host and sponsor the May 5, 2006 dinner and expressed interest in working closely with Walter
Reed so that the Friday night tradition can continue. Furthermore, the hotel is in discussions with one of the sponsors
of the Friday night dinners to continue their support of the dinners.
The Capital Hilton prides itself on its involvement and support of many community organizations
and events and has provided complimentary or discounted rooms to families with veterans in the hospital,
donated facilities to military organizations and most recently hosted a meeting for 300 people.
Sincerely,
Brian Kelleher
General Manager, Capital Hilton
Fran O'Brien's Restaurant in Washington, DC should
be given a special award for true American Patriotism, instead the restaurant is being closed by the Hilton Hotels.
Fran O'Brien's Stadium
Steakhouse
1001 16th Street NW Washington DC 20036
888-802-5730 / 202-783-2599
info@franobriens.com
----- Original Message -----
FYI, Hal Koster (co-owner of Fran O'Briens) was on
CBS Channel 9 news in Washington DC last night. Short bit, but not bad. See it at http://www.wusatv9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=48429. Don't know how long they keep the clips on the website.
Also, Hal is going to be on
Chris Dickson's radio show tomorrow morning (Saturday) along with Buzz Patterson. They'll be on between 9-10:00
a.m. on WKBV 1490, broadcasting in East Central Indiana and West Central Ohio (Wright-Patt
AFB). His station is not on the Internet, but Chris said he'll put an audio tape on his website at http://chrisdickson.blogspot.com after the interview.
Interesting comments from the Hilton on the World Net Daily site (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49731): Tell me the following doesn't sound like damage control:
----------------
"The Capitol Hilton elected to terminate the lease, but that had absolutely nothing to do with
the Friday night dinners," Lisa Cole, regional director of communications for Hilton, told WND. "It was strictly a business
decision."
The restaurant's lease, which was extended for six months last year, is set to expire as of May
1.
Cole says the hotel's general manager, Brian Kellaher, has "reached out" to Walter Reed, hoping
to work out a way to host the dinner at another location in the hotel.
"We're in discussion with the Walter Reed group … to see if we can't make this work for the
future," the spokeswoman said.
Cole would not say specifically why the lease was terminated or what the hotel will do with the
space after April.
"We don't have anything that we're definitely going to do with the space," she said.
----------------
What?? Cancellation was strictly a business decision, but they
have no plans for the space? Now isn't losing the revenue from a high class restaurant an excellent business decision.
That space ain't cheap. Now how shallow is that?
Hal personally told me the Hilton has not helped them with the
Friday dinners ONE BIT in three years, and as a matter of fact recently canceled the Hilton ballroom they had reserved for
their annual reunion of the amputee vets. Looks like Hilton is bringing in the big guns to run damage control.
What's
sad is that they could turn this into a winner if they'd join forces with Hal and become a supporter and sponsor. I
see no way they're going to win this now, even if they do throw Hal out in the unemployment line in May. This story
will LIVE for YEARS!
Keep up the pressure, and BRING ME HOT!
Jim McD 174shark4@cox.net174th Webmaster
(Hal's "front seater" in 67-68)
========================================
Steakhouse To Close, Ending Tradition For Wounded War Vets
http://www.wusatv9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=48429
Written By Doug Buchanan
9News
Created:4/13/2006 11:00:03
PM
Last Updated:4/14/2006
11:09:59 AM
A two-year tradition for wounded war vets is about to go by the wayside.
A downtown DC steak house that’s catered to injured troops every Friday night is about to close.
Fran O’Brien’s
landlord is forcing out the steakhouse of the same name.
“We're not feeling very good about leaving and especially
the Friday night dinner,” O’Brien said.
With the restaurant soon to close, so too will go a hang-out spot
that troops have been able to call home while healing, if only for a few hours every week.
In a statement from Hilton
hotels, a spokesperson writes: "this is a business decision whereby Hilton Hotels is exploring several options to utilize
this space."
But the decision impacts more than just the business that's getting the boot.
A Hilton hotel spokesperson
say they are -- on some level -- hoping to keep the Friday night alive without Fran O’Brien’s. But those who vow
to wage an up-hill battle have their doubts about this hotel chain's claim.
And if it's not the free Friday night steak
dinner for injured veterans ... The same statement from the hotel concludes: "the capital Hilton prides itself on its involvement
and service to the community and will continue to support these organizations in the future."
But what has eventually
turned into a sponsored event began out of Hal Koter's heart and generosity as a token of his appreciation to the veterans
... after he was not welcomed home after serving his country in Vietnam.
Just as much as finding a new permanent location,
Fran O'Brien's is hoping to find a place where the comradery between the troops can continue ... with or without steak.
http://www.wusatv9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=48429
-------------------------------
FYI, I forwarded the following letter to Hilton:
Jim McD.
174th AHC Webmaster
http://www.174ahc.org
=====================================
To: Daniel
Boyle, Hilton Hotels (daniel_a_boyle@hilton.com)
From: James I. McDaniel
Dear Mr. Boyle,
I
am a Vietnam veteran, a career federal government employee (who
travels frequently), and a proud American.
I have
just learned what the Hilton Hotel is doing to Fran O'Brien's
Steak House, the in-hotel restaurant at the Capitol Hilton
in
Washington, DC. I have been in your hotel often and have eaten in Fran O'Brien's several times.
I have
leaned that you have refused to renew their lease and have given them an eviction notice for April 31, 2006. I have
also leaned that, although you have refused to give the owners any specific reason why they're being evicted, it is undoubtedly
connected with the restaurant owner's support of our Iraq war veterans and the weekly dinners they provide free to our American
veteran amputees recovering from their wounds at nearby military medical centers. The restaurant owners provide transportation
for the wounded veterans, a free steak dinner (or other dinner of their choice), and a WONDERFUL opportunity for our veterans
to get out of the hospital, socialize with people again, and begin to put their lives back together. I have personally
been to these dinners, and you cannot believe what a lift it provides these young troops.
I would like to hear back
from you. I would hope you will tell me this
has been a mistake and there is no intent for Hilton Hotels to shut
down Fran O'Brien's Steak House. If it is true that you do intend to shut them down, I would like for you to tell me
why Hilton Hotels is doing this.
I am not disposed to pose a threat in a letter like this, but I will
indeed pose
a promise. I promise that if this is true, and if I do not
hear back from you, I will NEVER stay in a Hilton Hotel
again as long as I live, and I will spread the word as far, as wide, and as often as I can of the Hilton family's incredibly
callous disregard and disrespect for our wounded American veterans. I will also embark on a campaign to never have any
organization I'm associated with ever do business with the Hilton family again.
These young men and women are the REASON
you're able to be in business and to enjoy our American way of life.
You should be sponsoring these dinners and supporting
our troops, not closing the restaurant and spitting in their faces (as was done when my generation returned from Vietnam).
I
do not write this letter lightly. I hope you will take it seriously.
Jim McDaniel
jim.mcd@cox.net
Vietnam
Veteran
=============
---------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
Don't know if you're familiar with Fran O'Brien's
Restaurant in Washington, which has invited wounded troops from Walter Reed and Bethesda to free Friday night dinners for
nearly three years. The dinners are the highlight of the lives of these troops, both for the evening out and for the
camaraderie they find there. One of the owners of the restaurant, Hal Koster, is a Vietnam vet who is determined to
brighten the lives of these kids.
Now, the restaurant is about to lose its lease, apparently because Hilton Hotels is worried about their liability, or some
such concern. (The restaurant is in the basement of the Capitol Hilton.)
There is an effort underway to change the company's mind on this, and I thought your group might be interested in this battle.
Below is a copy of my story on the dinners at Fran's, as well as the email from the folks who are fighting to save the restaurant.
I plan to do a story next week on the battle.
Here's my story:
From Capitol Hill Blue
America at War
Heaven
for Wounded Vets
By LISA HOFFMAN
Nov 4, 2005, 07:41
There are 20 steps from the street to the steak house, which might seem no small
matter for young veterans who have lost their legs to war.
But the stairs that lead down to Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steak House are not just
another obstacle to the hundreds of GIs severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan who have labored up and down them over the
past two years.
Instead, for those whose future plans exploded the moment they were maimed, the
steps _ and the landmark restaurant they lead to _ are a welcome-mat back to normal life.
"My first dinner was the first time I felt like I was home," is the way Sgt.
Steve Clark, who lost his arm to Iraq combat, describes the experience.
Virtually every Friday evening since 2003, the upscale restaurant three blocks
from the White House has opened its doors to the young vets who are patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National
Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
In a restaurant where a T-bone goes for $30 a pop, each recuperating vet gets
a full-course feast, plus whatever libations they choose, for free.
While a thick steak is ambrosia to those who have lived on institutional food
for months, it is the atmosphere as much as the food that feeds the 50 or so troops and family members who partake each week.
Fran's is a haven for those young men, in the prime of life, who are self-conscious
about their missing limbs, disfigured faces and other battle scars. Here, in a private banquet room, the wounded gather with
their bandages, casts, crutches and still-clumsy prosthetics.
There they find camaraderie, mutual support and, commonly, a lot of laughs. It's
a night out like they enjoyed before they went to war. No one stares at them and no one will let them sink into self pity,
said Staff Sgt. Joshua Olson, now 26, who lost his right leg up to the hip two years ago when an enemy rocket hit his truck
in Tal Afar, Iraq.
"You have to decide if you're going to lay in bed or get up and live," said Olson,
who remains in the Army, where he's on the service's competitive shooting team. His goal now? The Summer Olympics.
Olson says going to Fran's is a therapeutic exercise in resuming a normal life.
Boarding the bus that takes the vets to the restaurant, negotiating the stairs and a crowded restaurant, using a regular restroom,
and, for some, eating one-handed or with prosthetics _ all are part of the rehabilitation process, according to doctors and
others who help guide these troops back to the real world.
And for those whose spirits are dulled by depression and pain, or the monotony
of months of slow recovery, Steak Night is often the only thing they have to look forward to each week. Hal Koster, a co-owner
of Fran's, says one patient with a traumatic brain injury would leave his Walter Reed room voluntarily only to go to the restaurant.
Over time, Koster said, the vet came back to life.
A bear-like, big-hearted man who did three tours in Vietnam on a helicopter gunship,
Koster, 59, wants no publicity for his efforts and shrugs off questions of how much it has cost him and co-owner Marty O'Brien,
son of the famous Washington Redskin who opened the restaurant. But extrapolating from the menu, the bill for each Steak Night
can be close to $3,000.
The two absorbed the full cost for the first several months, but now it is covered
at least in part by donations drummed up by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, the Help Our Heroes Foundation,
the American Legion and other veterans service organizations. The Disabled American Veterans provides the bus.
Koster credits fellow Vietnam vet and longtime Fran's patron Jim Mayer with conceiving
the dinners. A double-amputee himself, Mayer is a "peer counselor" at Walter Reed, where he cajoles, teases and comforts those
newly limbless who think life is over. A natural comedian, Mayer's been known to skip down the hospital halls on his prosthetic
legs to make his point that it isn't.
Both Mayer and Koster said their purpose is a simple one: to ensure that these
kids are treated better than they were when they came home from Vietnam. Ask any of the dozens of vet alums who gathered recently
at Fran's for a two-year anniversary celebration and they'll tell you, emphatically, that it has been a godsend.
"It's the greatest thing. It lets you be normal," said Cpl. Bobby Isaacs, 24,
who lost one entire leg and the other one below the knee after an ambush in Mosul, Iraq. After 39 surgeries, he's now an outpatient
in North Carolina, but said he wouldn't have missed the reunion at Fran's for the world. With him he brought his fiancée,
a prosthetics technician he met during his rehabilitation.
Attending as well were several Iraqi-Americans who came to thank the troops for
their sacrifices. So did Debra Burlingame, sister of the pilot of the jetliner crashed by hijackers into the Pentagon on Sept.
11. With her was John Vigiano, a retired New York City firefighter whose two sons, one a firefighter and the other a police
officer, died at the World Trade Center.
In return, the GIs thanked everyone who helped them during recuperation. Staff
Sgt. Chris Bain, a father of three whose arms were left useless after a mortar attack, said he had particular appreciation
for John Sommer, executive director of the American Legion and a Vietnam vet. Sommer and his wife had "adopted" Bain and other
wounded vets, and brought them to his suburban Washington home for afternoons of brats, beer and football.
Former deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz drew the biggest applause and
cheers from the troops that night. Now head of the World Bank, Wolfowitz showed up at Fran's Friday after Friday during his
term, often spending three hours so he could talk to each vet individually and helping to cut through Pentagon and VA bureaucratic
bogs the troops sometimes found themselves in.
Though Wolfowitz is reviled by those against the Iraq war for his role in precipitating
it, he is a hero to these troops who _ to a man or woman _ not only continue to support the U.S. mission but say they would
sign up to fight all over again if they could.
"In a heartbeat," Sgt. Olson said.
(Contact Lisa Hoffman at HoffmanL(at)shns.com)
© Copyright 2005 Capitol Hill Blue
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Folks,
Marty and Hal need our help. For over
six months they have been asking the Hilton Management for the terms for renewal of their lease. For over 5 months they were
told not to worry they would have the renewal lease in a few weeks. About a month ago the Hilton folks stopped responding
to their emails and voice messages for a status report and last week Hal and Marty received a one page eviction notice. No
explanation was given. We suspect that at least part of the reason is the Friday night dinner Hal and Marty have been hosting
for the last two and a half years. It may be that the Hilton folks are concerned about the increased liability of having so
many severely injured and disabled soldiers in their basement each Friday (several have taken falls on the steep stairs at
the entrance to Fran's (but no law suits or problems have ensued). It may be that there is very limited and problematic wheelchair
access to the restaurant (although no ADA complaints have been filed). The truth is that we don't know for sure but
what we do know is that this is unfair. Unless we can change the minds of the folks at the Hilton Hotel Fran's will be out
of business on May 1st and we will not have any place to hold our Friday night dinner for the injured soldiers and marines
of Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospitals. If you are so inclined I would like to ask you to call and/or email the following
two officials at the Hilton and voice your support for Hal and Marty and express your concern for the reasoning behind this
seemingly arbitrary decision.
Please call them tomorrow or Friday and feel free to share this with anyone else who might
be willing to call.
Dan Boyle (212) 838-1558
daniel_a_boyle@hilton.com
Brian Kellaher (202) 393-1000
-------------------------------
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