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.    First nurse takes command at Landstuhl.  Throughout Landstuhl Regional Medical Center’s long, storied past, medical doctors have almost always been in charge. But on Thursday, Col. Barbara Holcomb became the first registered nurse – and second woman – to take command of the hospital.
 
2.    Marine general: Women’s infantry training will be same as men’s.  The first female Marine officers to attend infantry training will encounter the same rigorous physical demands men face while learning how to lead ground troops into battle, a 3-star general told Marine Corps Times.
 
3.    Bin Laden apparently sought operative with valid Mexican passport.  Osama bin Laden instructed his deputies to recruit an operative with a valid Mexican passport who could cross illegally into the United States, said a former U.S. official familiar with the trove of letters and notes seized last year from the terrorist leader’s compound.
 
4.    Afghan general says ‘Americans work side-by-side’ to build Kabul command.  U.S. advisers are working to build a new ground forces command for the Afghan army that will manage the daily operations of local units all over the country. The command is due to open in October, and it would represent a level between the big picture strategists at Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense and the army units out in the field fighting Taliban insurgents day in and day out.

5.    Alzheimer’s smell test not ready for prime time.  University of Michigan Health System News   “Smell tests have been touted as a possible way of predicting Alzheimer’s dementia because of a reported association with decreased sense of smell,” says Gordon Sun, MD, a general otolaryngologist and RWJF/US Department of Veterans Affairs Clinical …

6.    Forest Pines holds seminar about little-known benefits for veteran families.  Columbia Star  The Aid and Attendance benefits program was designed by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to assist senior veterans and surviving spouses. But the benefits remain one of the VA’s most underutilized. Families can receive up to $2019 per month …

7.    Cedar Creek inmates help train service dogs for war veterans.  Bellingham Herald  The program was made possible by a partnership among the Bellingham-based Brigadoon Service Dogs, the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs and the state Department of Corrections. Denise Costanden, founder and executive director of Brigadoon …

8.    Military Order of the Purple Heart Salutes the City of Branson, Missouri.  EON: Enhanced Online News  Already regarded as “The most veteran friendly city in the United States,” by proclaiming itself a “Purple Heart City,” Branson pays special tribute to the almost 2 million dedicated and brave servicemen and women who have either been killed or wounded …

9.    Disabled vets finally receive some justice.  TheChronicleHerald.ca  Veteran Bill Maguire looks at his medals as he speaks to the media in Fall River on Feb. 13. Maguire urges the Conservative government to make reforms to the Department of Veterans Affairs. (INGRID BULMER / Staff) After fighting for their country, …

10.  Vietnam Veterans to be honored by Haviland Legion.  Kiowa County Signal  He’s offered to speak to any veteran or family of veterans and help direct them to their local American Legion or Veteran’s Affairs office. Hannan also said that if any veteran across the state of Kansas wants to spend a lovely afternoon with him.

More Veteran News

•   Returning troops put strain on VA.  UPI.com  US troops returning from Afghanistan are providing a challenge for veterans-affairs organizations straining to meet the needs of veterans, analysts said. There are currently 91000 troops in Afghanistan …

•  VA To Provide 1,000 iPads To Family Caregivers.  NextGov  “The Veterans Affairs Department plans to provide 1,000 family caregivers with Apple iPad tablets equipped with health care applications and tools to help them care for veterans at home as part of a pilot project to field mobile applications to all veterans through a VA app store that will open in early 2013.” Jo Schuda, a spokeswoman for VA, “said the pilot Clinic-in-Hand project for family caregivers will host apps integrated with VA data systems that will allow the exchange of health-related data between the department, veterans and caregivers. District Communications Group LLC, a Washington-based disabled-veteran-owned small business, won a sole-source contract for the mobile health pilot project on April 13 to develop Clinic-in-Hand.”

•  All About Face Time.  Government Executive “Since 2009, Brandon Friedman, director of online communications for the Veterans Affairs Department, has helped launch a VA blog, 150 Facebook pages and 70 Twitter feeds, all of which have garnered a wide audience of veterans.” Friedman, a veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, says his mission is to use social media get the “right information to the right veteran at the right time.” Friedman “says his next goal is to figure out how to harvest the material vets post on VA sites to help them even more.”

•   New, Consolidated Veterans’ Center In Pittsburgh.  AP  On Wednesday, the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System was scheduled to dedicate a “new $76 million building that will offer consolidated services for military veterans in one location. The five-story Consolidation Building is set to open this summer” in Pittsburgh’s Oakland section. The new facility “combines three buildings into two and means veterans who need a variety of treatment won’t have to split time between the facilities and will enable the VA Pittsburgh to close its campus in the city’s Lincoln-Lemington neighborhood.”

•  Nassau Vets Agency Upping PTSD Services.  Newsday “Nassau County’s Veterans Service Agency is preparing for the expected return of local troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan by increasing” its post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) “services and resources. The agency has partnered” with the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the “Mental Health Association of Nassau County and the Veterans Health Alliance of Long Island to offer a number of free programs for veterans suffering with PTSD. Counselors can help returning vets fill out and submit benefits claims, assist in suicide prevention cases and provide substance abuse treatment and mental health services.”

•    Activist Also Pleased That VA Will Add More Mental Health Employees.  Huffington Post Mental health activist Robert David Jaffee says he has “written on a number of occasions about the need for better mental health care for our veterans and take it as a victory for all of us that the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has been criticized by the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for its ‘unchecked incompetence,’ announced recently that it will hire an additional 1,600 mental-health clinicians.” Jaffee points out that veteran Frank Baron, an instructor for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has “nothing but good things to say about” the how helpful VA has been to him as he lives with schizophrenia.

•  Understanding PTSD.  Lebanon (OR) Express  “Dr. David Collier of the Salem Oregon Veterans Health Administration will speak at an informative lecture on our returning veterans and post-traumatic stress disorder. The lecture will be held at 7 p.m. on May 10 at Santiam Memorial Hospital Freres Auditorium, 1401 N 10th Ave. Stayton.” The “event is sponsored by the Blue Star Mothers of the Willamette Valley, a nonprofit group of military family members who provide support to military service members and their families.”

• Veterans Hospital, Police Work Together To Combat PTSD.  KSL-TV  “At the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City,” veteran Rick Miller “teaches police about” post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The effort is part of a “Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program that trains officers pm how to deal with people with mental illnesses.

• “Seattle-Based VA Doctors Win Awards For Research.  Seattle Times  “Three Seattle-based Department of Veterans Affairs doctors received national recognition Wednesday for their research helping veterans” with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), amputations and Type 2 diabetes. Dr. Murray Raskind, a Puget Sound Health Care System psychiatrist who received VA’s John Blair Barnwell Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Research, was “honored for a series of studies that have documented the effectiveness of prazosin, a generic drug developed to treat high blood pressure, for helping to improve the sleep of veterans with PTSD.” Dr. Joseph Czerniecki, the “interim director of the VA’s regional amputation center, received the VA’s Paul B. Magnuson Award for Outstanding Achievement for his work to improve care for veterans with limb loss.” Dr. Kristina Utzschneider, who has done research on Type 2 diabetes, got the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

• VA Praised For Blogging About SVA And For-Profit Schools.  Foreign Policy  Tom Ricks listed 26 “for-profit schools kicked out” by Student Veterans of America (SVA). Ricks gave a “hats off to VA for blogging about” the situation.  Ricks linked to the VAntage Point  post by VA’s Alex Horton, who said the SVA “revoked charter membership” for the 26 schools, 14 of which “appeared on a major ‘military friendly’ school list, which is then used by for-profits to attract active duty troops and Veterans.” Horton said the 26 schools, according to SVA’s executive director, had SVA chapters that were not run by student veterans, which “undermines the legitimacy and reputation of SVA.” Horton added, “Be sure to do your own research (along with our handy pointers) so you can make the best informed decision possible” about attending college.