While this was a Great Gesture, on the part of the Redskins Organization teaming up with other Advocacy Groups, this is much more than a one day need. We who serve don't serve for singular organizations We Serve The Country and an Oath and Contract is made for our service. It is the Responsibility, Every Day, for the Country Served to aid our Brothers and Sisters who have given much more than just their Service, Physically and Mentally, because of these Wars of Choice!!
Redskins take timeout for veterans, Host locker room health exams
The Washington Redskins opened up their home to area veterans Saturday, offering free health screenings to recognize their service protecting the country and to encourage them to protect their health.
Three days before Veterans Day, the Men's Health Network and 13 other organizations provided screenings and health education to male and female veterans in the players' locker room at FedEx Field in Landover.
From Service to Streets......
Issues aren't going away for veterans
Modern warfare adding to problems Department of Veterans Affairs faces
The strident language of Fox talk show host Bill O'Reilly contending there are no homeless veterans in America brought a smile of incredulity to Michael Charles.
When Charles, 52, was about to be discharged from the Danville VA hospital, a staffer there called Goodwill Industries of Central Illinois Veterans Home.
"There was an opening, and I came straight over here," Charles said.
"Every VA Center I've been to says that at one time in their lives, 50 percent of all veterans will be homeless."
At any one time, there are 10 homeless veterans in the facility on South Olive Street.
From desert to streets
Homeless veterans find life again through a city-run service that helps to employ those who kept us safe.
To Listen
The issue of homeless veterans has long been seen as an important one for Jacksonville, which because of geography and demographics, attracts a larger-than-average number of such people. By some estimates, as much as 40 percent of the city's chronically homeless - those who are continuously homeless for a year or more - may be veterans.
Looking at everyone in the city who has been homeless, the Emergency Services and Homeless Coalition of Jacksonville has found that 26 percent of the homeless population has served in the military, slightly more than the 23 percent of the national homeless population.
Veterans are more likely to appear among the chronically homeless because they're better equipped to survive such a life, said Diane Gilbert, executive director of the coalition, but such self-sufficiency also can lead to problems.
"Part of the problem of dealing with homeless veterans," Gilbert said, "is that they have such strong survival skills, they're unwilling to ask for help."
Homeless female veterans find few options to get help
VA's shelters don't always take in women, so a housing program is being initiated
The reasons are varied why military veterans become homeless.
Repeated deployments make it difficult for them to keep their finances in order and for reservists to hold on to their civilian jobs. Fallout from military service — which can include post-traumatic stress disorder — can seriously damage family and other relationships. Those stresses can lead to withdrawal and depression, which can make it difficult to land a job. The lack of income makes it hard to pay rent or a mortgage.
Few Veterans Affairs centers offer residential mental health treatment specifically for women with post-traumatic stress disorder, said Amy Fairweather, director of the Iraq veterans program for Swords to Plowshares.
"The services are really behind the curve," she said.
Veterans affairs: Tighter records controls urged
For the record
Military veterans dealing with the Department of Veterans Affairs benefits offices need to guard against their records being lost or destroyed. Tips from veterans advocates:
**Keep a complete copy of your military medical records.
**Update VA files once a year and make copies.
**Never send the original paper work. Send copies.
**Call (800) 827-1000 to request an appointment to view your VA claims folder, also know as the C-file, at the regional office.
**Make sure all the records in the file are yours.
**Make sure all correspondence with the VA is in the C-file.
**Correct mistakes, then request a hard copy of your C-file.
“How long has this been going on, and how many veterans and their families have been deprived of benefits they have earned?” said Army veteran Mike {testvet6778} Bailey of Springdale.
Army General Probes - Suicides of Recruiters
Recent Suicides in Houston-Area Recruiting Unit
An Army-wide problem?
Houston battalion recruiters have said they regularly work 12 to 14 hours a day, six or seven days a week. Many have to deal with long commutes to rural stations far from a military base. They have said if they don't sign at least two new recruits a month, they're punished with even longer duty hours and threatened with losing rank or receiving bad evaluation reports.
"I want to make sure this is not an Army-wide problem," Cornyn said. "If it is, then that's an even more serious issue than what's going on in this one battalion."
Widow pleads for recruiting overhaul
Iraq vet asks Army to evaluate high-stress duty
Two weeks ago today, Sgt. First Class Patrick Henderson walked into a shed behind his house, locked the door and hanged himself from a rafter.
The 35-year-old soldier was the fifth Houston-based Army recruiter to commit suicide in seven years.
VA officials investigate....
mishandled documents at benefits offices in S.C.
Veterans Affairs officials are investigating why 95 records were erroneously dumped in a shredder bin at the VA office in Columbia.
An unidentified employee at the Columbia office is under investigation for mishandling the documents, which include new benefits claims and other personal files, VA officials said.
"I can't discuss in detail what action may be taken against an employee in this instance until the investigation is complete," VA press secretary Alison Aikele said Wednesday.
In South Carolina, the possible destruction of benefit claims could affect some of the state's 413,000 veterans. The shredding probe involves the VA's benefits offices, not the hospitals.
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The shredding issue was first reported by VA Watchdog, a Web site run by Army veteran Larry Scott, of Vancouver, Wash.
All residents should care about veterans past and present
I particularly want to pay tribute to all our Reserves and National Guard. Before Iraq and Afghanistan became battle zones, these so-called "weekend warriors" joined to gain another paycheck — not that they weren't patriotic. After completing their basic training and boot camps, they were in uniform one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer. Whoever thought they would be thrust into combat situations? We have to look at them in a different light now; they've turned into heroes, fighting for our freedom, many being wounded and some paying the ultimate sacrifice.
"The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten"
-Calvin Coolidge
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