Sunday marked Vietnam Veterans Day in the U.S. In advance of this annual recognition, WBFO received never-before-released audio from the VA Western New York Healthcare System featuring Buffalo businessman Michael Militello who, before founding some of the area's longtime establishments, was a combat-wounded Vietnam veteran.
The interview was conducted by the VA's Terry McGuire in 2015. Militello, who has served on the veterans committees of Governor Andrew Cuomo and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, is known by many in Buffalo for his business ventures, beginning with the Brick Bar in 1970, and later establishments including Sunset Bay Beach Club and the Bijou Grille.
McGuire offered the audio to WBFO in early March, inviting the radio station to release the interview for its first time. Though the interview was not studio quality, the conversation begins with Militello explaining his story, from getting drafted while still in high school, to being shot through both legs during an ambush, to coming home and continuing his education, and opening Brick Bar in 1970 for $12,000.
He also shares some stories of misadventures which included being on a plane that was meant for Miami but instead hijacked to Cuba. Toward the end of the interview, he speaks of his first-ever visit to the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.
It should be noted, the interview does contain expletives, sporadic though very few. In the interest of preserving the emotion of Militello's thoughts at the time of the interview, they have not been cut.