Fran O’Brien’s has been hosting a free Friday Steak Night for wounded Soldiers from Walter Reed hospital.

This tradition has given the Soldiers a respite from the hospital once a week.

The weekly dinner is the brainchild of Fran O’Brien’s co-owner Hal Koster and his friend and fellow Vietnam veteran Jim Mayer, who used to come to happy hour at the restaurant after his workday at the nearby Department of Veterans Affairs.

Mayer, who lost both legs to a land mine in Vietnam, has worked for 10 years as a ‘peer counselor’ at Walter Reed’s Ward 57, where the hospital’s amputee patients are placed.

In the fall of 2003, with injured vets continuing to stream into Walter Reed from Iraq and Afghanistan, Mayer asked Koster if he and his partner, Marty O’Brien, would be willing to provide a few free meals for Ward 57 patients and their families.

‘I think it would help them heal quicker to have a night out,’ Koster said Mayer told him.

Hal and Marty agreed, and after a slow start ‘the sponsors had initially forgotten to find volunteers to provide transportation to and from the hospital’ the dinners quickly became popular events for the recovering vets.

Steak Night at Fran’s also became familiar to many readers of the cartoon strip Doonesbury, thanks to creator Garry Trudeau. He said he heard about the dinner during his first visit to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed in spring 2004, and decided to visit Steak Night for himself.

What he observed, he said Tuesday in an e-mail, was ‘a rare respite [for wounded vets] from the rather intense business of getting better.’

‘Since [veterans] are surrounded by family, caregivers and fellow amputees, they can let down their guard, blow off a little steam, and reconnect to the ordinary pleasure of an evening out with good food, drink and company,’ Trudeau wrote. ‘For some soldiers, going to Fran’s is their first foray back into public life. For others, its their first chance to have a few drinks and kick back a little.’ [source: Stars & Stripes]

The First Annual MilBlog Conference attendees are gathering at Fran O’Brien’s tonight to lend their support.

The Save Fran O’Brien’s website says that the Hilton Corporation has given no reason for refusing to renew the lease of the thriving, up-scale restaurant, except to say it’s a ‘business decision’.

According to an op-ed in the Washington Times, Hilton balked at the cost of putting a wheelchair lift to assist wounded soldiers in getting to the basement level restaurant.

In the immediate future, a rival has stepped in to be the goodwill enterprise that Hilton apparently isn’t. Mr. Koster reports that rival Crown Plaza Hotel has agreed to host the dinners temporarily.
The longer term, though, is cloudier: Mr. Koster hasn’t found a suitable location downtown yet. He may have to relocate to Bethesda or Ballston, if he does at all.

You Betcha I’m a Proud Military Mom is hoppin mad and has links and info about the whole affair.

Op-For reports that the Hilton chain has responded to a deluge of emails this way:

General Manager of the Capitol Hilton Brian Kelleher stuck to a common theme: this is a business decision, nothing to do with the troops, Hilton fully supports the free steak Fridays for our wounded vets

He points out the irony of Hilton pulling a stunt like this on the very weekend the first MilBlog Conference is scheduled in DC. What bad timing - for Hilton!

He says Hannity and Cohen are covering the story tomorrow evening as are CNN and CBS.

Contact information for the corporate communications chief for Hilton: Lisa Cole, Director of Communications: Lisa_cole@hilton.com

Op-For also has Buzz Patterson’s complete email about the issue on his post. He is doing updates regularly - so stay tuned there and at other’s covering the MilBlog Conference.

You can watch streaming video of the conference here.

Indepundit is requesting a change of venue for the 2006Â Army Birthday Ball.

The American Legion’s article.

Others covering this: Andi’s World (she’s also got a list of some who will be doing live blogging); The Indepundit; Fuzzilicious; Michelle Malkin; Marathon Pundit; Lucky Dawg News; Doll at Freedom Watch

Much more at the Mudville Gazette.

Much more and Live Blogging at Argghhh! (they also have pics of bloggers at the conference).

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My take on this is that if the Hilton’s don’t feel they can afford the expense of putting a wheelchair lift into one of their profitable restaurants to accommodate wounded veterans, then the least they could do is send Paris and Nicki Hilton over to Iraq to do SOMETHING for the troops.

They could wash a jeep, serve hamburgers, sing and dance. Anything.

They could just do a stop over on their way to one of their Mediterranean vacations. It might do the girls a world of good (especially if they rough it a bit by leaving their little pooches at home). They’d be well protected by the best fighting force in the world and it could provide some entertainment and a diversion for the troops.

It would also provide the little Hilton girls the opportunity to do something that matters.

Then people might get over the Hilton’s using the cost of a wheelchair lift as an excuse for shutting down the Friday Steak Night for the wounded Soldiers.