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Before Thanksgiving, many JINSA Reports readers took the time to nominate Hal Koster, formerly of Fran O'Brien's, for the "Above and Beyond Award" sponsored by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. (See JINSA Reports #720 and 721) This month, Hal was chosen as the representative of the District of Columbia. The citation from the Society reads, in part: Hal Koster of Washington, DC for going above and beyond with his unwavering commitment to wounded American soldiers and their loved ones. Koster, a Vietnam veteran, has hosted Friday night dinners for wounded soldiers and their families for the past five years....

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society called on Monday. You can stop now. Hal Koster's name has been branded into their consciousness. "We are thrilled to have the passionate support of JINSA's members behind the "Above & Beyond" initiative," the representative said, enormously impressed with your efficiency. Thank you all for taking the time and effort - we know some of you had trouble working the website and took multiple shots to get it right. Special thanks to "Ooh-Ah", who posted it on Free Republic and to all of the Freepers who pinged and responded; to David in New York...

Readers know JINSA's support of the Fran O'Brien's dinners out for young soldiers - primarily amputees - recuperating from their wounds at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospital. For four years, Hal Koster has ensured that soldiers and their families have the benefit of food and fellowship, easing their way back into a society that all-too-often wants to forget them. The dinners began in Hal's restaurant, Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steakhouse, but when the restaurant lost its lease, Hal made sure the soldiers never missed a Friday night out. Leading a dedicated band of volunteers, he corralled restaurants, Embassies, groups and...

Photos by Plea Deal and [Mrs] Trooprally Washington, November 17, 2006-- There is a faraway, yet penetrating look in the eyes of parents who have buried a child, no matter how well they have gotten on with their lives, no matter how much they are doing to honor their hero. It is a look that says, "Nothing is worth getting worked up about. Can you not see that small matters are insignificant? I am here, but part of me is here no longer; I live to honor that part." This 83rd week of the DC Chapter's Friday night troop-support rally...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2006 – Over the past two and a half years, about 500 severely wounded servicemembers and their families have enjoyed 5,000 free dinners out on the town thanks to Hal Koster and Marty O’Brien. “Some of them have come to multiple dinners because some of them are here for years,” Koster said Aug. 18, as he looked over the 60 or so guests dining on the rooftop of The Exchange restaurant here. About 20 servicemembers, many in wheelchairs and prosthetics, family members and other guests dined overlooking a panoramic view of the U.S. Capitol, and the Washington...

Corporate Hillton Apparatchiks have given credence to the old adage, “No good deed goes unpunished” by their not renewing Fran O’Brien’s renewable lease. Since October of 2003 Hal Koster, a two-tour Vietnam veteran and Jim Mayer, a combat injured Vietnam veteran and long time advocate for veterans and a small group of volunteers have been hosting a dinner each and every Friday night for the severely injured patients of Walter Reed Army Medical Center's Ward 57 and severely injured sailors and Marines at Bethesda Naval Medical Center and their families. This was begun as part of a promise to insure...

All too often all we get are the bad stories about this war on terror from our Mainstream Media. Not only that but we only hear about our allies when they are quitting their support for US led efforts to combat terror in the world and never when they are in support or do something to help the effort. So, I suppose it isn't beyond belief that we never heard this heartwarming story anywhere in the US Media. For the last two years, Fran O'Brien's Steak house in Washington D.C. has treated our wounded servicemen from Walter Reed Army Medical...

Joe Gromelski / S&S Italian Ambassador to the U.S. Gianni Castellaneta and his wife, Lila, talk with Sgt. Neil Duncan, right, of Minneapolis, Minn., and Spc. Rob Lliteras of Tampa, Fla., during a dinner Friday night for wounded U.S. servicemembers at the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Click here for more photos from the event. ARLINGTON, Va. — Grazie, Italia. You have fulfilled the wish of American Sgt. Timothy Gustafson. “Now I can say I’ve eaten real Italian lasagna,” Gustafson, a Tennessee National Guardsman, said Friday night at the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C.Gustafson, forward observer for the 278th...

Italian Ambassador Welcomes Wounded Troops for Dinner By Paul X. RutzAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, May 20, 2006 – Beneath the Italian Embassy's clear glass rotunda, wounded servicemembers and their families accepted the ambassador's offer to host them for an evening of food, fellowship and song here yesterday. Italian officers speak with American troops and their families at the Italian Embassy in Washington, May 19. The American servicemembers are severely injured patients recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and the Naval Medical Center in nearby Bethesda, Md. Photo by Paul X. Rutz  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution...

“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...

WASHINGTON, May 1, 2006 – For the past two and a half years, veterans of wars past have been helping heal the latest generation of wounded troops every Friday in a basement steakhouse here. Members of Disabled American Veterans help a wounded servicemember before the final Friday night dinner for wounded troops at Fran O'Brien's steakhouse in downtown Washington, D.C. Groups like DAV and Helping Our Heroes Foundation bring dozens of wounded troops out to the Friday dinners, which now will be held at various locations in the nation's capital, beginning May 5. Photo by Paul X. Rutz  (Click photo...

VETERANS O'Brien's Creates Charity The owners of Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steakhouse in Northwest Washington have created a charity to help fund the Friday night steak dinners they hold for wounded soldiers from Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Organizers and veterans are trying to find a place to keep the dinners going while the restaurant's owners look for a place to reopen. Donations can be sent to: Aleethia Foundation Inc. C/O Fran O'Brien's Steakhouse 1001 16th St. NW Washington, D.C. 20036.

Hilton’s Response to Your Response Thank you for the literally thousands of e-mails generated to the management of the Hilton Hotels Corporation on behalf of Fran O’Brien’s Stadium Steakhouse and the troops. You were so effective that they closed the e-mail addresses we published. You can still reach them through the Hilton Honors website - hhonors@hilton.com In the meantime, Hilton has been hitting the “Reply” button. Some of you received a note that comes partially from a message posted on the Hilton website - “For strictly business reasons related solely to the inability to reach a new lease agreement, the...

After September 11, many American businesses were asking what they could do to help. Among the best to act was Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steakhouse at 16th and L Streets Northwest, which for more than two years has served free steak dinners and beverages on Fridays to wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans from Walter Reed Medical Center in upper Northwest and elsewhere. The restaurant, a cozy nest of sports memorabilia tucked in the basement of the Capital Hilton Hotel, just lost its lease and is in danger of closing for good, for what appear to be very shabby reasons. According to...

4/20/2006 3:52:00 PM WASHINGTON, April 20 /U.S. Newswire/ -- 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...

BUZZ PATTERSON sends: I just had a long chat with Hal Koster. Our worst fears are not only well founded but grossly understated. It's a complete and thorough cluster @#$%. (Sorry, my words not his). I haven't been this pissed about anything in a very long time. Andi, Kelleher's responses to our questions were blatant lies. Despite what Kelleher says, Hilton has done nothing to support the dinners... never met a bus, never contributed a cent, never negotiated for changes to bring the restaurant into ADA compliance, never advertised the restaurant or the dinners within their own hotel, never provided...

Calling on Hilton to be the kinda corp it claims to be. Few Americans would argue that American soldiers should not receive the thanks of our nation for their service, and fewer still would argue that, if returning to our country less than whole and in need of help, soldiers should not receive the support of America's corporate giants. Hilton Hotel Corporation, then, has something to answer for. Every Friday is Veterans' Day at Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steakhouse in Washington, D.C., where owners, Hal Koster and Marty O'Brien, bring soldiers — primarily amputees — recovering from their wounds at Walter...

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...

The steaks are great, of course. But it isn't the T-bones, the porterhouses or the rib-eyes that will be sorely, even painfully, missed when Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steakhouse loses its lease and closes its doors this month. The downtown D.C. restaurant, which has hosted a decade's worth of power lunches, political dinners and salacious hookups, is more poignantly known for its Friday night steak dinners for severely wounded soldiers recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. "It looks like they're kicking us out," sighed Marty O'Brien, son of the late Redskins offensive lineman Fran O'Brien, before closing the restaurant yesterday...

<p>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.</p> <p>Fran O’Brien’s landlord [Hilton] is forcing out the steakhouse of the same name.</p>