Weekly steak dinners for wounded troops at Fran O’Brien’s restaurant Credit: Stars & Stripes

Tonight, the weekly free steak dinner for wounded vets takes place at Fran O’Brien’s, the D.C. restaurant on the verge of losing its lease from the Hilton Corporation. Milbloggers in town for the first Milblog conference will be there in full force to help save this great tradition.

John Noonan at Opfor also notes:

The good news is that Fran O’Brien’s will be swarming with milbloggers tomorrow evening, all of them with their BS detectors flipped to full power. I suspect that this is going to be a major discussion point at the milblogging conference on Saturday, and rightfully so.

Coverage won’t be limited to milbloggers either. Buzz wrote that Hannity and Colmes will be all over this story tomorrow evening, and mentioned in an email to a few of us conference panelists that he’ll be taking owner-operator Hal O’Brien to the Fox News Studio around 730ish, presumably for the H&C spot. CNN and CBS will also be covering the story.

This is turning out to be a major black eye for the Hilton Hotel chain, which is starting to look absolutely sleazy. With milbloggers nationwide converging on DC this weekend, they simply could not have picked a worse time to pull a stunt like this. Keep your eyes on the milbloggers, Foxnews, CBS, and CNN for updates.

If you’d like to help save Fran O’Brien’s, you can bypass the Capitol Hilton and go straight for their corporate comm chief:

Lisa Cole, Director of Communications

305.503.6503

786.866.7567

Lisa_cole@hilton.com

Smash is calling for a new location to hold the 2006 Army Birthday Ball (currently scheduled to take place at the Washington Hilton).

And the American Legion weighs in:

The leader of the world’s largest veterans organization expressed deep concern over the soon-to-be evicted restaurant that provides free steak dinners to severely wounded troops receiving care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center every Friday night.

For more than two and a half years, the owners of Fran O’Brien’s Stadium Steakhouse have been serving up steak dinners and libation to troops severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It’s truly a shame these Friday night outings for our wounded heroes will come to an end at Fran O’Brien’s,” said American Legion National Commander Thomas L. Bock who supports the dinners.

“I can tell you first-hand after talking with the troops that this weekly event is truly therapeutic in their healing and recovery process,” Bock said.

The owners along with the legion of combat veterans and other volunteers who make these evenings possible are to be greatly commended,” Bock said. “The American Legion takes great pride in recognizing Hal and Marty for their generosity and hospitality toward military personnel injured during service in the war on terror.”

Last year, The American Legion presented the restaurant owners with a plaque in appreciation for their efforts on behalf of our nation’s wounded heroes. The Legion has helped fund the endeavor and senior staff volunteers assist the wounded troops with veterans benefits and employment needs just to name a few.

The restaurant has also become a Friday night haven for veterans of previous wars, where the newly injured share their stories with fellow comrades from other generations.

“It’s a healing process for many, especially my generation who didn’t feel as welcomed home upon returning from service during Vietnam,” Bock said, “and I will be saddened to have it end with the closing of Fran O’Brien’s.”

“The owners selflessly demonstrate week in and week out that feeding troops and their family members is far more important than any bottom line,” he said.

“It is The American Legion’s understanding the Capital Hilton management has made a ‘business decision’ not to renew a renewable lease,” Bock said. “It is my sincere hope that not every ‘business decision’ is based on the bottom line or perception that the hotel doesn’t want severely wounded troops on its premises each week,” he added.

According the Koster, negotiations broke down after repeated requests by the owners for the hotel to install a wheel-chair lift or elevator so injured troops would have access to the restaurant which is not handicap accessible.

Bock said there’s still time to reach an agreement between the Capital Hilton management team and Fran O’Brien’s.

“It’s not May 1st yet,” Bock said. “We’ll lend our support any way we can, even if it means having to help raise money for an elevator.”

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