VA HQ Veterans News for Tuesday, November 15, 2011.  Thanks to Kevin Secor at VA HQ!

1. American Veterans Mobile Van Visits KC Campus.  WJBD Online  Kaskaskia College will be welcoming the US Department of Veterans Affairs “Mobile Vet Center” to the KC main campus on Tuesday, November 15th from 9:00am to 4:00pm, and on Wednesday November 16th from 8:00am to 10:00am. The Mobile Center will be ...

2. US Veterans Department Announces RFP for Nationwide RTLS Solution.  RFID Journal  The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is seeking proposals for its Veterans Health Administration (VHA) division from real-time location system (RTLS) software and hardware vendorsundefinedwhich it plans to begin accepting next monthundefinedfor a ...

3. Marlboro Hosts Take a Veteran to School.  Atlantic Highlands Herald  Mayor Jonathan Hornik and Representatives from the US Dept. of Veterans Affairs and the Jewish War Veterans Participate Marlboro, NJ – Eighth-grade students at Marlboro Middle School today honored veterans of all ages who have served in the US Armed ...

4. Vacant Fort Snelling buildings to be fixed up for homeless veterans.  Pioneer Press  St. Paul-based CommonBond Communities will serve as the lead developer on a housing project at the Upper Post of Fort Snelling in Minneapolis, the US Department of Veterans Affairs announced Monday. CommonBond and Sand Companies ...

5. War veterans homeless in America.  ABC Online  An estimated 200000 American war veterans are living on the streets or in shelters, a state of affairs likely to be exacerbated when another 1 million servicemen and women stream home from Iraq and Afghanistan over the next five years. ...

6. State Veterans Entrepreneur Conference set for Wednesday. MLive.com General Michael A. Stone, assistant adjutant for Michigan's Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, Gerald Moore, director of the SBA's Michigan District office as well as a veteran entrepreneur and Bill Webster, assistant commissioner of the ...

7. Five years after being wounded in one war, amputee soldier re-enlists in another.  A little more than five years after a bomb blast took part of his right leg, Staff Sgt. Brian Beem was lucid and upright on a prosthetic limb as he re-enlisted at a remote base in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, extending his contract with the military. The decision to stay in the Army was easy, he said.

8.   The Conversation: Vets Homes In Budget Crossfire.  Sacramento (CA) Bee  State officials in California "and construction managers are bursting with pride as they show off a new $88 million veterans home nearing completion in Redding." While "construction is nearly 90 percent done and on track to be finished in January, there's no" state budget "money yet to hire staff." The "same delay is slowing a 300-bed, $159 million veterans home in Fresno scheduled to be finished in April."

9.   Job Front: State's Community Colleges To Lend Veterans A Hand.   Sacramento (CA) Bee  "California Community Colleges and the state's Department of Veterans Affairs want to smooth veterans' transition from military service to the civilian workforce." Last week, the two organizations "signed a memorandum of understanding allowing CalVet to help vets leaving active duty to streamline their applications to community colleges and find information on how to use federal veterans benefits to pay for college."

10.               $27 Million Veterans Home Dedicated In Tucson.  Tucson (AZ) Citizen   "Aging and disabled Tucson-area veterans who require skilled nursing care now have a brand-new facility to address those needs." On Friday, Arizona "officials, including Gov. Jan Brewer and Secretary of State Ken Bennett, dedicated the 130,000-square-foot Arizona State Veterans Home in Tucson." The Citizen added, "The new veterans home cost $27 million to build and is a joint venture between the Arizona Department of Veterans Services" and the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

11.               For Dover AFB Mortuary Whistleblowers, Echoes Of Arlington.  Washington Post Both the Arlington National Cemetery and the Dover Air Force Base mortuary are "trying to restore their reputations and reassure furious veterans, service members and members of Congress that they will never allow...errors" in how fallen servicemembers are treated "to happen again." According to the Post, it has been alleged that at both places, "whistleblowers were punished for speaking out." At a recent news conference on the Dover situation, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta "said that the alleged reprisals were 'a serious issue' and that he will 'ensure that all appropriate action' is taken."

12.               Proper Burial For Vets.  Bozeman (MT) Daily Chronicle  Legislation that would ensure proper burial for veterans. Called the 'Veterans Missing in America Act of 2011,' it directs the VA to work with service organizations and others to help determine if unidentified remains of a veteran are eligible for burial at a national cemetery, according to a news release." The Daily Chronicle added, "The legislation also calls on the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a searchable public database of the veterans identified in this project."

13. Klobuchar Praises Advances In Veteran Care, But Says More Work Is Needed.  Grand Forks (ND) Herald  US Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) says the Federal "government has implemented an 'historic increase' in health care funding for veterans in the past few years...while also increasing education benefits to help returning soldiers get the training and experience they need to be successful." The lawmaker, however, "said more needs to be done to address lingering issues and new problems that are popping up as more and more veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan return home." Klobuchar made her comments when she "was in East Grand Forks to meet with about a dozen city officials and representatives of local veterans groups on Saturday."

14.               Rehabilitating Wounded Warriors.  Time  Tthe Center for the Intrepid, located at the Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) outside San Antonio, Texas is a "state-of-the-art, $50 million rehabilitation facility for amputees and patients with salvaged limbs." Time added, "Seriously injured troops, including those with severe burns and mangled limbs, are coming to bases like this one where teams of doctors, physical therapists and prosthetic engineers push the warriors, as they call them, to be as active as they were before their injuries."  Time   Sergeant First Class Travis Parker, who was hurt in Afghanistan, has been treated at the BAMC, "one of the front lines of America's third war: the struggle to heal survivors of Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom suffered injuries that in any past conflict might have killed them. A severely wounded service member is usually sent to one of three places: Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, Naval Medical Center San Diego (known in the Navy as 'Balboa Hospital'), and BAMC in Texas." Time points out that "BAMC opened the Center for the Intrepid" in 2007.

15.               War Damaged Vet Kills Girlfriend; PTSD To Blame?  CBS News   "It was Iraq that broke John Needham," who killed Jacqwelyn Villagomez after coming "home shattered physically and emotionally." After noting that Needham was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), CBS said an Army "team surveyed more than 650 Fort Carson soldiers who, like John Needham, had experienced high-intensity combat while deployed." The "team's findings made headlines when the Army acknowledged there appears to be a link between the stress of combat and soldiers' crimes back home." Officials, though noted that combat stress is only one factor of many that causes violence.

16.               Therapeutic Dog Training For Vets.  Bozeman (MT) Daily Chronicle  US Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) recently "announced legislation that would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to establish a program allowing veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to participate in therapeutic dog training-including the training of their own service dogs. The trained dogs would then be given to physically disabled vets." In a statement, Baucus said, "This bill is a step forward in providing an alternative treatment to PTSD while providing service dogs for our physically disabled veterans. This is a win-win approach to serving our wounded warriors."

17.               Veteran-Owned Suppliers May Gain $3 Billion From VA Griddle Fight.  Washington Post  "A dispute over" an attempt by the US Veterans Affairs Department to buy "kitchen equipment from a government list of pre-selected vendors who typically offer" discounts "may result in as much as $3 billion in additional federal spending each year with companies owned by veterans." In commenting on VA's use of the vendor list, critics, "including a potential bidder, say that approach violates a so-called Veterans First law that requires the VA to steer work to veteran-owned suppliers. Both sides agree the matter will likely end up in court, and one group of disabled vets has collected money from as many as 25 businesses for a separate lawsuit."

18.               Retiring Chaplain Served God And Country.  Omaha World-Herald  86-year-old World War II veteran Richard Wolbach "retired last month after 30 years as a chaplain" at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Omaha. Wolbach's "military background connected him to veterans no matter their age, no matter whether they fought in the jungles of Vietnam, the rocky ranges of Korea or the streets of Baghdad. His experience in war not only shaped his priesthood, but led him to it."

19. Raynham Man Needs Help Storing 56,000 US Flags.  Raynham (MA) Call  Paul Monti is "looking for help in storing" 56,000 flags that were "placed on graves for Veterans Day." The "Raynham resident's scholarship fund, Flags for Veterans, recently raised $56,000 to pay for a flag to be placed at every one of the graves in the National Cemetery in Bourne. Monti is the father of Army Sgt. Jared Monti, who was killed in action in 2006 and later received posthumously the Medal of Honor from President Obama."

20.               CareSource Gives Blue Star Mothers $10K.  Dayton (OH) Daily News

21.               Montana Veterans Court Designed To Help Service Members Get Back On Track.  Missoulian

22.               Local Veteran Raising Awareness Of VA Services.  Adrian (MI) Daily Telegram

23.               WVHS Student Runs Successful Coat Drive For Veterans.  Warwick (NY) Advertiser