Latest Information for Blue Water Vietnam Veterans. Find out the most recent information on Blue Water Veterans and Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam War at VA’s VAntage Point.

 

Prayers and blessings for you and your loved ones and for our brave Troops and their loved ones everywhere.

 

Best.....Wayne

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Veterans News for Wednesday, June 15, 2011.  Thanks to Kevin Secor at VA HQ!

 

1.    Tammy Duckworth leaving VA post.  Washington Post  Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran who drew national attention with her 2006 run for Congress, is resigning as an assistant secretary in the Department of Veterans Affairs, administration officials confirmed Monday. ...

2.    Symbolism of flag is lost when flying it is mandatory.  The Patriot Ledger  Giving families the right to honor deceased veterans with graveside flags is a reasonable accommodation for the survivors of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. It is a credit to the US Department of Veteran Affairs that it reached an agreement ...

 

3.    Vets express concern over VA office closure.  TheRecordLive.com  “The Orange office has a great track record of dealing with disabled veterans and their spouses and helping them deal with the US Department of Veterans Affairs. They have the knowledge to deal with the forms and other confusing things that face ...

 

4.    Ribbon cut at East End Veterans clinic in Riverhead.  Long Island Business News
The East End Veterans Clinic has opened and is up and running at the County Center in Riverhead, giving veterans a new place to obtain health care on Eastern Long Island. The clinic, operated by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, ...

 

5.    Laguna office is for all veterans.  Cibola County Beacon  Because of the lack of services he proposed that the Laguna Tribal Council create a full-time veterans' office, which would help tribal veterans' efforts in communicating with federal and state VA facilities. The LTC approved Trujillo's proposal and he ...

 

6.    Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan create need for new technology.  Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
His dedication to improving the lives of veterans through advanced engineering and medical rehabilitation research and development earned him a spot this month in the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs Hall of Fame. ...

 

7.    Local veterans urged to make better use of benefits available to them.  Muskegon Chronicle - MLive.com  The Muskegon Chronicle Michigan has the 11th-largest veteran population in the country, but is ranked last in the amount of money spent on veteran benefits, local veterans were told at a public forum Monday. The state comes in 53rd out ...

 

8.    Where's the Great Novel About the War on Terror?  The Atlantic  Horton, a staff writer for the US Department of Veteran Affairs new media team, also spent 15 months in Iraq from 2006-07 as an infantryman with the Second Infantry Division. "There's not been enough time to reflect on it ... big ups to those who can ...

 

9.    HUD, VA to Provide Permanent Housing.  “Our mission is to end Veterans' homelessness,” said VA Secretary Shinseki. ... with state and local agreements to confront the root causes of homelessness, ... People wishing to receive e-mail from VA with the latest news releases and ...

 

10.                       2 Virginia housing authorities to receive funding to help homeless veterans.  Washington Post  Two Virginia public housing authorities will receive federal funding aimed at providing permanent living arrangements and case management for homeless veterans. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development and US Department of Veterans Affairs ...

 

11.                       City's homeless population decreased, but number of military vets.  Contra Costa Times
Arnold hopes the trend will be reversed soon, noting the US Department of Veterans Affairs has created a number of programs in an effort to end veteran homelessness in five years. Meanwhile, LAHSA counted 9218 homeless family members in 2011, ...

 

12.                       Black Civil War veterans buried in Woodland Cemetery to get monument.  Plain Dealer (blog)  Volunteer Bill Stark has been filing the paperwork to get headstones from the US Department of Veterans Affairs so that the graves of all of Woodland's soldiers are marked. But it's a tedious process that takes months. Woodland Cemetery, which opened ...

 

13.                       Milwaukee's Soldiers Home named to national list of endangered places.  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (blog)  The US Department of Veterans Affairs owns the property, which includes 25 buildings and is part of the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center campus. “They (the VA) have allowed these buildings to deteriorate,” said David Brown, chief preservation ...

 

14.                       Post 212 escalating service to transitioning vets.  Your Houston News  Although roughly 2900 of the nation's 22.7 million veterans make their home in San Jacinto County, according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Post Commander and Post American Legion Riders Director Felton “Reb” Adkison said the post's ...

 

15.                       Iraq Veteran Tammy Duckworth Resigns Veterans Affairs Post.  Chicago Sun-Times reports Monday that Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki says Duckworth submitted her resignation," after having served VA well, according to Shinseki. Duckworth "lost a close bid for Congress in 2006," and running for seat in the US House of Representatives "remains an option for her."

 

16.                       Letters From Home May Help Protect Happily Married Soldiers From PTSD.  Washington Post A study in the "June issue of the Journal of Traumatic Stress" found that for "soldiers who reported being highly satisfied with their marriage, frequent communication with their spouses while deployed was associated with fewer" post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. This was especially so "when the communication involved letters and e-mails rather than phone calls, instant messages or video chats." The Post adds, "As many as 20 percent of the US veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan develop PTSD, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs."

17.                       New Center At VA Hospital Aims To Treat PTSD. Roanoke Times "Nine years ago, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem offered only inpatient treatment for veterans" with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But on "Monday, a $1 million, single-story brick building was officially dedicated to providing outpatient treatment to veterans with PTSD and other mental health needs that arise from military service."

 

18.                       USF, MacDill Form Partnership. Tampa TribuneMartin Steele, a retired Marine lieutenant general, is "taking charge of a new program at the University of South Florida to forge tighter links between USF and MacDill Air Force Base." After noting that Steele will lead the USF World Military Partnerships office, the Tribune added, "USF was chosen last year to pilot a Veterans Administration program designed to help Iraq and Afghanistan veterans return to college. It was ranked eighth 'Best for Vets' in the country by Military Times EDGE magazine."

 

19.                       Shriver, Tribe Call On VA To Provide Shelter To Homeless Vets In LA. MSNBC's Jansing & Co.  An interview with Santa Monica City Council member Bobby Shriver and Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe, who have "both...helped file a lawsuit on behalf of homeless veterans in Los Angeles," seeking that Veterans Affairs use property it owns in there to shelter such vets. The "point of the lawsuit," according to Tribe, "is to make sure that our wounded veterans...can sleep at homes near the places where they can get medical treatment, and as Bobbie Shriver says, this facility was dedicated to that specific purpose for 80 years." Tribe goes on to say that both President Obama and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki "have repeatedly said, and I believe them, that they want to end homelessness among our veterans, but they're only going to do that if they use this property for the purposes that it was donated for."

 

20.                       Feds Release Funding To Combat Veteran Homelessness. Huffington PostChris Birk, "director of communications for the VA Mortgage Center, which specializes in VA loans for veterans and active duty service members," says the $5.4 million is the "final funding round of the $75 million Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program (HUD-VASH), an initiative aimed at helping the nation's homeless veterans secure permanent housing and comprehensive case management." Birk notes, "'Our mission is to end veterans' homelessness,' VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said in a news release," adding, "This effort is an excellent example of how VA works with HUD and our community partners in that shared mission. The project-based vouchers will provide dedicated permanent housing for veterans and allow them to live in support of each other, as neighbors."

 

21.                       Homes Opened For RI Homeless Veterans. AP "New subsidized rental homes for homeless veterans have been dedicated" in Providence, Rhode Island. On Monday, the homes were "officially named...in honor of Army Reserve Sgt. Gregory A. Belanger," the "first Rhode Islander to be killed in action in the Iraq War." Tenants in the new homes will "have access to Veterans Affairs services, substance abuse counseling, job training and medical and psychiatric referrals." 

22.                       St. Cloud VA Selected As Site Of New Building For Homeless Vets.  Alexandria (MN) Echo Press "The St. Cloud VA Health Care System has been selected as a site for development of a new building for homeless or at-risk Veterans and their families through public-private partnerships and VA's enhanced-use lease (EUL) program." According to the Echo Press, this "project will support VA's goal of ending Veteran homelessness by providing safe, affordable, cost effective, and sustainable housing for Veterans on a priority basis." 

23.                       Local Officials To Vote On Converting Hotel To Transitional Veterans Housing Facility. Gainesville (FL) Sun  "An application to convert a closed-down hotel near Interstate 75 and Newberry Road into a transitional housing facility for veterans is scheduled to go before county commissioners Tuesday evening." If commissioners "approve the application for a special-use permit, the transitional housing facility for homeless veterans would be located at the Keystone Gator Hotel property, 7417 Newberry Road. The Alachua County Housing Authority would operate the facility while the US Department of Veterans Affairs would offer counseling, medical care and other services to the residents, said Gail Monahan, the executive director of the housing authority." 

24.                       HUD, VA Allocate Over Five Million Dollars To Shelter Homeless Vets. Housing Wire On Monday, the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development "allocated $5.4 million to local public housing authorities...to house homeless veterans across the country," awarding the funds to groups from 18 states. Under the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program, both agencies "award monetary grants to public housing authorities around the country, which then give out housing vouchers to specific housing units or complexes." 

25.                       Labor Also Funding Homeless Vets Assistance Program. Huffington Post The US Department of Labor recently "made grant applications available for the Urban and Non-Urban Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP)." Veterans Affairs Committee "Member Congressman Mike Michaud of Maine predicts that this money will be able to help as many as 3000 homeless veterans find meaningful employment." LaMarche adds, "If you apply for one of these grants I recommend that you partner with area shelters." 

26.                       Hawaii's US Senators Praise Funding Provided By Labor. Maui News  "Hawaii's US senators praised the Department of Labor's decision to extend funding for homeless veterans programs that have offices on Maui for a second year. The $593,000 in federal funding will assist two community service organizations that help homeless veterans reintegrate into society by preparing them to enter the work force and 'establish productive civilian careers,' according to a joint news release from Sens. Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye." The "senators said the money is intended to stem some of the tide of homelessness in Hawaii, particularly among veterans, who make up a considerable percentage of the homeless." 

27.                       VA Works To Provide Post-9/11 Family Caregiver Benefits. American Forces Press Service  "A month after the Veterans Affairs Department began processing applications for primary family caregivers of eligible post-9/11 veterans, officials report steady progress toward delivering the new services and benefits." According to AFPS, VA spokesman Drew Brookie "reported 1,119 applications in process, with caregiver training programs already under way. Five caregivers have completed the training and require only a final VA home visit before they can begin receiving the new entitlements, Brookie said."

 

28.                       VHA Moves Toward RTLS Rollout. RFID Journal Mark Roberti writes, "On June 3, I had the opportunity to speak at an event hosted by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the division of the US Department of Veterans Affairs that manages 152 hospitals and more than 1,000 other points of care, including 965 outpatient clinics, 133 community living centers, 278 walk-in readjustment counseling centers and 96 rehabilitation treatment centers that serve soldiers returning from war. VHA now seeks to deploy RFID-based real-time location system (RTLS) technology across all of its medical centers, starting next year," as part of a "multifaceted transformation initiative" begun by VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. Roberti says he "came away from the event impressed with how the agency is managing this ambitious project."

 

29.                       JPMorgan Chase To Establish Veterans Institute At SU. Daily Orange  "With an initial commitment of $7.5 million, JPMorgan Chase & Co. will continue to strengthen its relationship with Syracuse University and veterans." Meanwhile, the US Department of Veterans Affairs "recently awarded the Burton Blatt Institute at SU a $483,000 grant to help conduct research to improve veteran employment nationwide, according to a June 13 Burton Blatt Institute news release." The Orange adds, "According to the release, this grant provides an opportunity for the Burton Blatt Institute and the Institute for Veterans and Military families to collaborate on research concerning employing veterans, both with and without disabilities."

 

30.                       Low-Fat Diet Affects Alzheimer's Biomarker. MedPage Today "A low-fat diet led to improvements in a putative biomarker of Alzheimer's disease risk in patients with mild cognitive impairment, but it had the opposite effect in healthy older adults, a small, short-term trial found." A "separate longitudinal cohort study reported online this week in Archives of Neurology indicated that changes" in levels of the biomarker "over three years were not closely correlated with changes in cognitive ability." This "stage-dependent pattern was also reflected in the diet study, reported by Suzanne Craft, PhD, of the VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle, and colleagues."

 

31.                       House To Boost Veterans' Programs, Cut Food Aid.  AP "In an otherwise lean budget year, the House is poised to boost funding to take care of the medical needs of the nation's veterans." But the Republican-dominated "chamber will soon resume its budget-slashing ways as it kicks off debate Tuesday on a food and farm spending bill that cuts aid for low-income pregnant women and their children and slashes a key overseas food aid program by about one-third below this year's funding. At the same time, the Appropriations Committee is set to approve a $649 billion measure that slightly boosts the Pentagon's operating budget while cutting costs for overseas military operations by $39 billion, reflecting a drawing down of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan." 

32.                       House Expected To Pass MilCon-VA Bill On Tuesday. CQ The US House of Representatives is "preparing to pass a fiscal 2012 spending bill for military construction and veterans' programs Tuesday after lawmakers finished action" Monday "on two labor-related amendments." The "bill would provide about $128 billion for the VA in fiscal 2012, a $2.4 billion increase over fiscal 2011." For "military construction projects, the bill would provide $14 billion, nearly 16 percent below fiscal 2011 levels, and $752 million less than the president's request."  

33.                       Army Dumps Beret As Official ACU Headgear.  Army Times  "The troops spoke, and the leadership listened: On Tuesday, patrol caps will once again be the official headgear for the Army Combat Uniform," replacing the beret that became standard headgear when Gen. Eric Shinseki was chief of staff. The "beret change is one of several key uniform changes provided to Army Times by Sergeant Major of the Army Raymond Chandler. The changes were prompted by feedback from 'thousands of soldiers' through post-deployment surveys, social media and discussions with soldiers during base visits, said Chandler, who sees himself as a 'scout' for the Army secretary and chief of staff and a 'voice in the Pentagon' for every soldier." 

34.                       Medal Of Honor Recipient, 90, Receives High School Diploma. NBC Nightly News 90-year-old Medal of Honor recipient Robert Maxwell "got his high school diploma this past weekend." While in "combat in France" during World War II, Maxwell "threw himself on a live grenade to save his buddies," costing himself part of his foot in the process.

 

35.                       Remains Of Korean War Prisoner From Detroit ID'd, Will Be Buried In Arlington.  Detroit Free Press  "The remains of a serviceman from Detroit captured during the Korean War have been identified and are being returned to the US for burial." On Monday, the "Defense Department's POW/Missing Personnel Office said...that Army Cpl. A.V. Scott of Detroit will be buried June 22 at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors." The Defense Department "said with Scott's identification, 7,993 service members remain missing from the conflict.

 

36.                       Temporary VA Clinic To Open In Hinesville. Bryan County (GA) News  "Area veterans' long wait for close and convenient medical care nearly is over." The US Department of Veterans Affairs "will open a temporary health-care clinic July 5 in Hinesville." The News adds, "'We're very fortunate to get that VA clinic here,' Hinesville Mayor Jim Thomas said."

 

37.                       VFW Home Hosts Dancing Doctor And VA Nurses. Ocala (FL) Star-Banner "Nurses from Veterans Administration clinics in The Villages, Ocala and Lecanto were joined Saturday by a local cardiologist to bring a cardio exercise program mixed with lots of cha cha cha to residents" of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Retirement Home. The "Dancing With the Vets event...drew smiles and cheers from veterans and spouses, and turned the home's main lobby into a festive dance party. 'These are our veterans,' said program organizer Mary Ellen Pelkey, a registered nurse with the Villages VA clinic," who added, "We want to show our love and respect. This is more fun than a treadmill."