2nd and 4th Saturdays – 10 a.m.

The Broomfield Veterans Museum invites you to join us for Coffee and Conversation, where you can enjoy coffee, donuts, networking and a great presentation by a veteran or historian. In an informal setting, our Coffee and Conversation events provide museum visitors with an opportunity to listen to the stories of service and sacrifice, ask questions of our speakers and other veterans, see short videos and discuss the broader context of their experiences. Coffee and Conversation events in 2023 begin at 10 a.m. on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays each month.

Watch the Livestream

The museum is open and hosting Coffee and Conversation events in a safe and socially distanced manner. However, if you prefer to watch from home, we invite you to tune in via our YouTube livestream.

Upcoming Presentations 

13 May – Lew Moir served 28 years in the US Air Force including Strategic Air Command Operations during the Cold War years. Lew flew a wide range of fighters and strategic bombers, including the F-86 Saber jet and SAC bombers such as the B-47 and B-52. During the Vietnam war he flew 75 B-52 combat missions with over 280 combat hours. Lew will share a variety of personal “Cold War Stories.”

27 May – Gail Elias, will give a special talk about the history and ongoing efforts to preserve the Boulder County WWI Memorial Pillars located at the intersection of Rt. 287 and Arapahoe Road, in Lafayette. The two pillars were erected in 1921 to honor Boulder County soldiers who served in WWI, and are now threatened with collapse. The formal title for the memorial is the “Road of Remembrance Gateway Pillars.” Gail also has self-published a book telling the story of fifty Boulder soldiers who died of the flu during the war. She is Regent of the Indian Peaks Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and a member of the Mitigation Working Group developing a plan to save the memorial. This talk is the capstone of our special museum exhibit, “Colorado In World War I.

10 June – Flag Day Ceremony (in lieu of a C&C)

24 June – Don Scanga served 5 years in the US Army. He initially trained in the Air Defense Artillery and served with a HAWK Missile Battery, Key West Florida. His talk will focus on the history of the Air Defense Artillery (ADA) and how he learned to electronically publish his book about the ADA.

8 July – John “JJ” Mackin is a 1968 graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy. He is a retired Navy Captain, having served 26 years as a nuclear submarine officer. From 2013 until 2018 he served in the volunteer position of Chairman of USS Colorado (SSN-788) Commissioning Committee. His talk will focus on the commissioning of the USS Colorado.

22 July – Neil Ulevich covered the Vietnam War as a photographer for AP and other organizations in the 1970s, departing Vietnam from the US embassy roof on the last day of the conflict. After Vietnam he worked for AP in Thailand, where he won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for images of violent political upheaval in Bangkok. The focus of his talk will be his experiences during the Vietnam conflict.

12 August – Jim Mize served as a US Navy Reserve officer from 1966 to 1969. He was assigned to the Naval Communications Station Greece during the Six Day War between Israel and Egypt. Three days into the war, Jim’s station received an emergency distress message from the Navy ship, USS Liberty (AGTR-5) which was under attack by Israeli planes. Jim’s talk will cover the attack and its aftermath.

26 August – Colleen Sawyer has also been a previous Coffee and Conversation speaker at the
Broomfield Veterans Museum on several occasions. She began reenacting Mamie Doud
Eisenhower at the library in 2014 to celebrate Mamie’s birthday and bring attention to the
Eisenhower connection to Broomfield. Her talk will tell the story of Alice Stokes Paul, an
American Quaker, suffragist, feminist, and women’s rights activist, and one of the foremost leaders
and strategists of the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which
prohibits sex discrimination in the right to vote.

Coffee and Conversation Archive