Italians Care For Wounded
June 12th, 2006 by Patriot
The Conservative Intelligence Report has a great story on the Italian ambassador filling the need left by the Hilton when they refused to renew Fran O'Brien's lease:
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 Center to a steak dinner on Friday nights. But they recently lost their lease at the Hilton Hotel in D.C. leaving the Friday night dinners in doubt.
Enter the Italian Ambassador and his staff who, on May, 21st, conjured up a full Italian dinner for 27 of our wounded heroes. When Ambassador Gianni Castellaneta, and his wife, Lila, found out that O'Brien's had lost their lease, they decided to step in to substitute lasagna for steak. (See Stars and Stripes article Click here)
Sgt. Paul Statzer, left, of Butler, Pa., and his dad, Jim, chat with Italian Lt. Col. Toscani De Col.
Photo from Stars & Stripes
Patriot,
Thanks for posting this article! I was wondering what, if anything, had happened on this. I am happy to see that someone has taken up this tradition. My thanks to the Italian's and to the Crown Plaza!
Cindy
Patriot, lots of background info via Blackfive.
blackfive.net..._ever_b.html
Thanks for the story. Great read…
Glad to see this article. I was saddened when the Friday dinners ended at Fran O'Briens and I'm thrilled that our wounded servicemen still get this special and well-deserved treat thanks to the Italian Ambassador and the Crowne Plaza. Thanks for sharing this. Sabo
Thanks for adding the link. For those of you that wish to spare the circus of a liberal troll at CIR, my main goal was to have people send emails of appreciation to the Embassy (pretty simple you’d think). Here is the email: culturale.washington@esteri.it
In addition, thanks for the link Cpl M. I am going to add on to my post a number of links. I remember, now, reading much of them back when the lease was ended but forgot about the topics until I got the idea to thank Italy on Newsbusters.
As far as anon goes over at MDConservative's blog, I'm glad you and CJ both stopped over there. As valid as all people's opinions are, there is something to be said for the opinions of soldiers in the field, and your voices do carry weight around. In the least, it served up a fine cup of stfu to "anon".
As far as Ambassador Castellaneta and his wife, God bless them. The gesture of generosity and compassion on their part is an important one, on multiple levels.
I'm so glad to hear about this. I too was one that wrote the Hilton Hotels when they were denying to lease their facilities to Fran O'Brien.
I'm so happy to learn that Ambassador Castellaneta and his wife stepped up and are providing meals to our heroes! God Bless them for doing that!!
Thanks mdconservative, I will be sending my e-mail of appreciation to them!
I hope everyone does send an email of thanks to the Italians. They really went all out to give our troops something special to remember.
Italian Embassy:culturale.washington@esteri.it
We can't say thank you enough to all of you who have served.
During the Winter Olympics, I learned that Italy had the #2 amount of troops in Iraq. I love the pasta and I love the Italians!!