Veterans! Here’s your Top 10 News stories of the day compiled from the latest sources

We encourage you to browse our list so that you can take what you want and keep what you need

1.    Veteran recalls bombing runs over Europe.  Anniston Star  According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, 28900 WWII veterans are still living in Alabama, 780 of whom are in Calhoun County. However, Veterans Affairs also estimates that approximately 1000 WWII veterans die every day nationwide. …
2.    Mobile Vet Center to be at SIC.  Harrisburg Daily Register   The Mobile Vet Center, sponsored by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), will be at Southeastern Illinois College’s Harrisburg campus next week. The mobile unit is a full resource center providing private one-on-one counseling to
3.    Fighting for Homeless Vets Who Fought for Us.  Huffington Post (blog)  Eventually, my father connected with the US Department of Veterans Affairs for help. He sought counseling, got sober, remarried, and by all accounts was a good husband to his second wife. But he never saw his children again. Had he and my mother known …
4.    Army suicides decline for second consecutive month. Sixteen active-duty soldiers and six reservists apparently took their own lives in September, the second month of decline in suicide numbers since a record high in July, according to Army figures released Friday.
5.    Air Force mulls change to deployments.  The Air Force is considering sending airmen downrange with members of their home-based unit as part of a new deployment system that could be phased in starting October 2012.
6.    Obama: U.S. combat troops sent to hunt African rebel leader.  President Barack Obama announced Friday that U.S. combat troops are in central Africa helping local forces pursue the leadership of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a violent rebel group.
7.    VA Rolls Out New Campaign to Help Homeless Veterans.  Huffington Post  The “Make the Call” campaign is part of the Veterans Administration’s push to eliminate veteran homelessness by 2015. These local programs will explore the dimensions of veteran homelessness and encourage community members and military families to …
8.    US Department Of VA To Benefit From Xerox Technology.  Internet Ink  A Xerox company, ACS, will help the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) make it easier to convert its paper-based processing system into an electronic one. The ink cartridges firm’s subsidiary claims it will make it easier and faster for veterans to …
9.    Vet-owned firms face stricter verifications.  Dayton Business Journal  When the US Department of Veterans Affairs recently went looking for a vendor on a $5 million data management project, Dave Judson had to sit by and watch the opportunity pass. The president and CEO of Beavercreek-based JJR Solutions was confident his …
10.  Campaign Wants “Veteran” Put Back In Veterans Day.  American Forces Press Service  “A new campaign is working to put the ‘veteran’ back into Veterans Day and to rally public awareness of the sacrifices made by injured veterans and their caregivers. The Wounded Warrior Project, which focuses primarily on wounded veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan and their caregivers, kicked off ‘Believe in Heroes’ on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.” It will end on Veterans Day, according to Jonathan Sullivan, executive vice president of the nonprofit organization. AFPS adds, “‘Believe in Heroes is a call to action,’ he said, to recognize the meaning of Veterans Day, and to support the needs of wounded warriors and their caregivers.”

 More Veteran News

• VA, DoD Moving Toward SOA As iEHR Takes Shape.  Government Health IT  “The Defense and Veterans Affairs Departments are much more alike in the healthcare services they deliver than they are different. That is critical as they build the components of their integrated electronic health record (iEHR), which will be based on common services applications instead of a large proprietary technology system, said Mark Goodge, chief technology officer” of the Military Health System (MHS), while speaking “at an Oct. 12 conference sponsored by Defense Strategies Institute.” Government Health IT adds, “The Military Health System is moving toward service-oriented architecture (SOA) and away from siloed systems as plans take shape for the iEHR…said” Goodge.

•   VA Campaign Aims To Educate Public About Women’s Role In War. Fayetteville (NC) Observer  “The Department of Veterans Affairs is asking its employees to rethink their definition of a veteran and has launched a national campaign to do the same in the public sphere. Specifically, the VA wants people to rid themselves of pre-conceived notions about women veterans.” The “campaign was announced Thursday with a conference call and the release of a 60-second video that features images of women at war.”

• The Miami VA Effectively Responds To Mental Health Issues Of Veterans. Fort Lauderdale (FL) Westside Gazette  “Society applauds Veterans for their very courageous acts of defending the country but gets the wrong impression of them when they return from duty and face mental health issues, substance abuse, homelessness and find themselves incarcerated. To transform the public’s perception of how Veterans with the aforementioned crisis are portrayed the Miami VA sponsored a seminar titled ‘The Veteran and the Justice System’ on Oct. 5, to start the ball rolling on Mental Health Awareness Week.” The Gazette adds, “The Veterans Outreach Justice Program, which is led by Dr. Giovanna Delgado, a psychologist and outreach coordinator with the Miami VA is responsible for going out into the community to find Veterans that may be either incarcerated or homeless, and many of them are suffering from acute mental health illness.”

•  Rebuilding Soldiers Transformed By War Injuries.  NPR / audio  Interview with combat reporter David Wood, the “author of a new 10-part series for The Huffington Post called ‘Beyond the Battlefield’ that examines some…challenges and setbacks” for US soldiers severely wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq. While praising the “smart and creative and dedicated” people working at Veterans Affairs, Wood said VA is a “gigantic bureaucracy and it’s hard to transform that bureaucracy to take care of the unique problems that we’re seeing among the wounded coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. There’s been a gigantic demand for mental health services, which the VA has scrambled to keep up on, not always successfully. A lot of veterans have difficulty getting services. The wait times are sometimes very, very long. Things got so bad that a federal appeals court in California ruled that the VA was denying veterans their constitutional rights by not providing good services on time.”

•  Steps To Support Small Business.  White House Blog  A meeting of leaders from across federal agencies to discuss small business procurement.” The Administration’s “outreach to small businesses has been truly unprecedented. Since March, more than 22 top administration officials, including Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, and GSA Administrator Martha Johnson, have joined more than 10,000 small business owners at 20 matchmaking events around the country.”

• The Commander’s Capitol Investment.  American Legion   “American Legion National Commander Fang A. Wong had just spent several days in Washington, meeting with dozens of members of Congress and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, when he arrived in Indianapolis last weekend for the organization’s 2011 Fall Meetings,” where members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) had gathered. Wong “told the NEC that his meeting with Shinseki went well, although the commander was troubled after Shinseki told him that 50 percent of veterans using the Post-9/11 GI Bill for education expenses drop out during the first year.” But, the American Legion, adds, VA “has been dedicating more resources, including on-campus counselors, to help reverse the trend.”

•  Healthbeat Report: The Brain Buzz.   WLS-TV  A  “first-of-its-kind study using a magnetic therapy known as transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS” to treat traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). Dr. Theresa Pape, a “clinical neuroscientist and researcher with Hines VA Hospital near Maywood, is running the study. A coil creates a magnetic field, stimulating the brain.” Dr. Pape said, “If we can get these neurons up here to activate and eventually descend down to the brain stem and then ascend back up to the cortex, we should be able to facilitate the repair of the brain.”

•  Obama To Attend Carrier Classic On Carl Vinson.  AP  President Obama, “the nation’s basketball-fan-in-chief, will have the seat of his choice at the Carrier Classic hoops game on Veterans Day on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson, the aircraft carrier that buried Osama bin Laden at sea. The White House announced Thursday that Obama has accepted an invitation to attend the Nov. 11 matchup between North Carolina and Michigan State, the first college basketball game on an active flat top.” The AP adds, “Obama is scheduled to begin Veterans Day by laying a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery before flying to San Diego.”

• House Easily Passes Veterans Employment Bill.   Navy Times On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives “overwhelmingly passed” the Veterans Opportunity to Work Act, or VOW Act, which “hopes to put 400,000 or more veterans to work in the next two years.” Among other things, the legislation would tweak “programs helping current service members” get “prepared for post-service life.” The “VOW Act has the backing of every major veterans organization.”  American Veteran The official blog of the American Veteran Magazine, says that “no single piece of legislation is perfect, AMVETS National Legislative Director Diane Zumatto believes H.R. 2433 – Veterans Opportunity to Work Act of 2011, will positively impact veterans in multiple areas including: making improvements to the TAP (Transition Assistance Program); allowing up to 100,000 unemployed veterans from all eras to receive up to 12 months of Montgomery G.I. Bill benefits; strengthening USERRA (Uniformed Services Employment & Reemployment Rights Act) protections for National Guard/Reserve members; and working with the DOL (Department of Labor) will help to remove credentialing/licensing impediments for transitioning Servicemembers.” The blog adds that “one of the particular points of interest and importance to our members is that this legislation in not limited to only Post 9/11 veterans, but all veterans from age 35 – 60 (of which there are approx. 868,000 according to the House Veterans Affairs Committee).”

•  Beyond The Battlefield: Military Turning To Wounded Vets’ Families As Key Part Of Healing Process.  Huffington Post  “Families, once cold-shouldered by the military, are now considered an essential part of the healing process” for soldiers injured in combat. The military now “immediately flies families to the bedsides of wounded soldiers and puts them up in local housing, courtesy of the Defense Department, for as long as needed.” Child care is also provided, “counseling is available,” and a “network of volunteer nonprofits covers food, clothing, transportation expenses and more.”

•  Filipino WWII Vets Urge Gov’t To Consider Denied Claims.  Asian Journal  “A group of Filipino World War II (WWII) veterans in Nevada will soon ask the US government to reconsider former soldiers’ compensation claims which have been denied earlier. Some 24,000 Filipino veterans’ claims were turned down because their names were not on a roster used by the US government to determine who served in World War II.” A petition request for claims reconsideration “will be presented by the Filipino-American Veterans of NV to members of the White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders at a town hall meeting in Henderson , NV on October 14,” and to President Obama when he visits “Las Vegas on October 24.”

• Vet Center To Start Group In Tahlequah.  Tulsa (OK) World  “The Tulsa Vet Center, in partnership with the Cherokee Nation, will start a veterans support group Monday in Tahlequah to expand those community services to more parts of the state, said Matthew Tiger, readjustment counselor with the Vet Center’s Tahlequah Outreach Station.” The “main goal” of the partnership, added the World, is “to provide group support for veterans readjusting to civilian life after they return. The group is open to any service member from any war, American Indian or not, Tiger said.”

•  Ceremony In Holly Springs To Mark Grave Of Civil War Veteran.  Cherokee Tribune A Cherokee County Civil War veteran will soon have formal recognition for his service. The Landmark Baptist Church Cemetery in Holly Springs on Saturday will host a small ceremony to mark the grave of Moses D. McCollum, a Confederate Army veteran.” The headstone was approved by the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The Tribune added, “The headstone and marker program, coordinated by the VA’s National Cemetery Administration, began providing headstones and markers in July 1862 after Congress authorized President Abraham Lincoln to build national cemeteries, said Michael Nacincik, communications outreach chief for the administration.” Nacincik added, “It’s appropriate to recognize the service to our nation these veterans have provided.”

•  Despite Being Homeless, Vet Given Burial He Deserved.  Palm Beach Post Veteran Joseph Ceberek “was homeless, but when he died, a funeral befitting a man who served his country was due.” On Thursday, Ceberek “was laid to rest with military funeral honors Thursday morning at the South Florida National Cemetery.” His burial was arranged by the Dignity Memorial Homeless Veterans Burial Program, which “works in cooperation with funeral homes, the cemetery, West Palm VA, the county medical examiner, Vitas Innovative Hospice Care, the American Legion and The Vets Place.”

•  Homeless Veterans 2011.  Mobile (AL) Press-Register  A Veterans Affairs mobile health clinic was at a “Stand Down Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011, at James Seals Jr. Recreation Center in Mobile, Alabama. Stand Downs are one part of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ efforts to provide services to homeless veterans.”  “Stand Downs are collaborative events, coordinated between local VAs, other government agencies, and community agencies who serve the homeless.”

• Help Serve Homeless Veterans.  Saint  “The North Georgia Student Veterans of America organization is working” with the Veterans Affairs hospital in Atlanta “to collect blankets for homeless veterans in the Atlanta area. Blankets will be collected through Oct. 24.”

•  Event Shows Homeless Vets What Kind Of Help Is Available.  KEVN-TV  After “serving our country, many veterans find the transition home very difficult, but those with the Veterans Affairs office say help is available. That was the message at Thursday’s Homeless Veterans Stand Down,” which was “meant to shed light on many of the unknown services the VA offers and the difficulties veterans face when returning home from combat.” Linda Kinzler with the VA Black Hills Health Care System “says the VA Black Hills Health Care System recently partnered with the Cornerstone Rescue Mission to offer a walk-in shelter for any veterans in need.”

•  Judge Tosses Iraq Veteran’s Lawsuit Over “Hurt Locker.” AP

• Former Pa. Man Pleads Guilty To Faking Medals.  AP

•   Lodi’s Donald Nakashima Receives Congressional Gold Medal For Bravery.  Lodi (CA) News-Sentinel

•  Young Veteran Finds Much In Common With WWII Vet.  Fort Leavenworth (KS) Lamp