As our nation gathers to celebrate Veterans Day this week, and all of us pause to say “grazie” to the millions of brave men and women in uniform who have served our country in war and peace, we’d like to turn our attention to remembering the Italian American legacy of our Armed Forces. There’s no better guest to guide us than Colonel Renato “Ron” Bacci (Ret.) of the Italian American Veterans Museum in Chicago.

In this week’s episode, Col. Bacci tells us the story of how this museum was founded in 2006 to encourage and promote the awareness of Italian American involvement in the defense of our nation from the Revolutionary War to the present, and how it now serves as a resource center for scholars, students, and the general public, and most importantly, as a source of comfort and assistance to all those who served, no matter what their ethnicity is!