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.  With membership numbers inevitably dropping as the World War II cohort disappears – this generation of citizen-soldiers, in which everyone in their age group was called to serve – veterans organizations are finding limited success at attracting younger replacements.
 
2.   Laid-off sailors say job firm hired by Navy a waste of time, money.  When the Navy announced last year that it would eliminate the jobs of 3,000 enlisted sailors, it did something unprecedented – it turned to a private job placement firm to help them find jobs. It was a waste of money, say at least a half-dozen members of the service who worked with the firm – and a waste of their time.
 
3.   Colleges asked to cover any VA holdup on payments. 
 
4.   Female pilots few, but proud.  On May 22, 1912, 1st Lt. Alfred Cunningham reported to Annapolis, Md., for duty, marking the birth of Marine Corps aviation. It was another 81 years, in 1993, before 2nd Lt. Sarah Deal was selected as the first female Marine to attend Naval aviation training.
 
5.   US postpones training of Afghans after ‘insider’ attacks.  American special operations forces have suspended the training of new recruits to an Afghan village militia until the entire 16,000-member force can be rescreened for possible links to the insurgency, U.S. officials said Sunday.

6.   Do more: New programs great for veterans, but other improvements needed.  Pacific Daily News  The expedited change was made by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to give veterans who are getting an education under the GI Bill a housing allowance based of what the Department of Defense pays in housing allowance in the territories. Veterans …
7.   Measure boosts vets’ services.  New Philadelphia Times Reporter  John Kasich recently signed into law House Bill 490, legislation that will improve the state’s veteran services. The bill enables county veteran service officers to be certified and trained to immediately have access to discharge forms (DD-214s), which …

8.   Veterans United Home Loans surpasses 1000 employees.  Columbia Daily Tribune  It specializes in selling mortgages backed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, one of the many benefits available to veterans. The company’s volume has soared since the real estate crash tightened credit and made subsidized loan programs such …
 
9.   Shinseki Warns Costs Of Treating Veterans Will Rise “For A Decade Or More.”  Huffington Post  Obama is “responding to unprecedented waves of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans suffering from combat trauma,” and although his Administration “has taken steps in the past to meet the rising demand for mental health and other veterans services, the experience of many veterans is that the hospitals and medical centers of the Department of Veterans Affairs are overwhelmed.” Yet, “VA officials have insisted that they are meeting the challenge. Since 2009 the VA, under the direction of former Army Chief of Staff, Eric Shinseki – a Vietnam War amputee – has increased its mental health staff by 41 percent and boosted its spending on mental health services by 39 percent, to about $6 billion a year.” It also began using a 70 “mobile outreach vans” in hard-to-serve areas, while “with secure teleconferencing, expects this year to hold 200,000 mental health consultations.” HuffPost notes Shinseki’s comments Friday in his statement and says “he warned that the costs of taking care of veterans will continue to rise. … ‘for a decade or more after the wars have ended.'”
 
10.  Order Reflects Some Steps VA Already Has Taken. NBC News  Obama’s order “reinforces some initiatives that VA has already undertaken.” It also notes that Shinseki “praised the order in a statement released Friday morning, saying that the agency would work to implement its requirements immediately.” NBC said CDC figures “show that about 18 veteran suicides occur daily.”