"Strategies for veteran success" at Florida University

Colleges dedicate staff, facilities to ease veterans from war to student, civilian life
By Associated Press
October 18,2013

TOLEDO, Ohio — Many veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have embarked on a new mission, but this transition from battlefield to university classroom isn’t always easy.

Colleges and universities are offering an array of services, from tutoring to setting up vets-only lounges, to help them succeed.

Some of the challenges that the veterans face are medical.

Adam Fisher, a freshman at the University of Toledo, deals with post-traumatic stress disorder by participating in group therapy.

“It’s hard for me to be around so many people,” he said.

Other challenges are academic. Veterans often have to sharpen their math, reading and study skills after being away from school for so long.

They face cultural hurdles too.

While many other freshmen are testing their independence after moving away from home for the first time, some of the veterans back in school are supporting a family, working evenings and weekends.

About 500 veterans attend Florida State University, an increase of about 40 percent from the previous fall.

The school offers a class just for veterans called “strategies for veteran success.” It’s designed to boost their confidence and allows them to meet other veterans. The university holds a job fair for all students but opens it up a day early for veterans on campus. It also allows students to defer many expenses, such as their books and meal plan, because of the time it takes to get VA payments processed.
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Veterans in college face loss of GI Bill

Student veterans may lose stipends
Indiana Daily Student
By JAKE WRIGHT
OCT. 15, 2013

Adam Argenti spent the first part of his 20s in the 25th Infantry Division of the US Army. Enlisting in 2005, his years of active duty included two deployments to Iraq.

Now 26 and a junior criminal justice major at IU, Argenti receives $2,000 a month through GI Bills he earned for his service.

As a married homeowner, he said he relies on the monthly stipend to pay many of his bills.

Come Nov. 1 , he may not get that check he depends on.

If Congress is unable to approve a budget by late October, Argenti is one of 463 IU students who won’t receive their monthly stipend, Margaret Baechtold, director of IU Veteran Support Services, said.

Federally funded through the Department of Veteran Affairs, students can qualify for GI Bills for their service or the service of certain family members.

In total IU students collect more than $451,000 a month from GI Bills, and without that money, Argenti said he would have to start using his savings to get by.

“It’s a little ridiculous that the government is acting like children,” he said. “It hurts a lot.”
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Combat to College Veteran rebounds from ‘low, low place’ to inspire others

Veteran Benjamin Congleton rebounds from ‘low, low place’ to attend EKU, inspire others
KY Forward
October 7, 2013

Like many of his some 1,300 fellow military veterans enrolled at Eastern, former Marine Benjamin Congleton suffers from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). His stems from two eight-month deployments in Iraq with the 3/8 India Co., often in close-quarters combat.

Upon returning to Kentucky, though, the Lexington native found himself “essentially homeless, couch-surfing,” relying on the generosity of friends for food and shelter for a couple of years.

“I was in a real low, low place,” he said.

When friends suggested he consider higher education, Congleton recoiled, initially thinking he “wasn’t smart enough.”

Subsequent conversations and therapy sessions with VA counselors, however, raised his confidence and hope, and he enrolled at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond in fall 2012.

After all, with the G.I. Bill covering much of his college expenses, what was there to lose, he said?

“They’re paying me to go to school, so it’s my job right now,” said Congleton, a sophomore wildlife management major and officer in the EKU VETS Club. Though still struggling occasionally with PTSD, he freely shares his story in an effort to help others, including a recent presentation at a VAMC conference in Lexington.

Several years and thousands of miles removed now from the battlefield, are there still bad days? Sure, he said.

“But I’m going to school with 1,300 other vets,” Congleton noted, “and if I’m having a bad day, these guys always have my back.”
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Iraq War veteran speaks college students about PTSD

A hero's message
Iraq War veteran speaks to PTSD, mental health awareness
Pocono Record
By RICARDO MORALES
October 09, 2013

During a deployment to Iraq in 2004, Bryan Adams, a Purple Heart recipient, was performing reconnaissance in Takrit when he was spotted by two children on the sidewalk.

"They had this terrified look in their eyes, like they were seeing a ghost," Adams said. Seconds later, the children had run away and Adams heard gunshots all around him.

"I was in the middle of an ambush," he said. "They opened up on us from across the street, three guys with AK47's ... I could feel the heat from the bullets going past my face."

Adams ran as fast as he could, barely making it around the corner of the street, oblivious to the pain of a gunshot wound in his leg. "I was certain I was going to die," he said.

It was one of the incidents that gave rise to Adams' post-traumatic stress disorder.

Speaking to students and community members at East Stroudsburg University's Keystone Room, Adams recounted the story of his tour in Iraq and subsequent struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder Tuesday night.

Detailing his personal experiences first rejecting, then finally acknowledging and accepting help for his mental health condition, Adams called on students to treat mental health seriously and assist in changing the conversation surrounding mental health disorders.

"Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students," Adams said, adding that one in four college students has a diagnosable mental illness. The same way people should see professionals after breaking an arm, they should also seek help for mental health, he added. "It's not going to get better on its own."

Adams used his own life as an example of how isolation and shutting others out was not the answer.
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Veterans tuition assistance suspended during shutdown

Tuition assistance suspended during shutdown
Army Times
Oct. 1, 2013

Tuition assistance for all classes starting today or after Oct. 1 has been suspended as a result of the government shutdown, the Army announced today.

“Effective 1 October, all soldier accounts in GoArmyEd will be placed on hold and they will not be able to process any new TA requests,” the Army said in an emailed statement, which was also posted on the GoArmyEd website.

About 20,000 soldiers have requested TA for classes in fiscal year 2014, the Army said in an email to Army Times. About 2,000 soldiers have classes scheduled to start this week.

The Army also will not fulfill TA requests submitted before Oct. 1, for classes that start on or after Oct. 1.
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Inspiring Marine amputee says "I just put it on and walk"

Marine who lost leg inspiration at Great Bay Community College
Brady to receive Distinguished Leader Award
Seacoast Online
By Joey Cresta
September 28, 2013

PORTSMOUTH — A U.S. Marine who lost his right leg in Afghanistan is charting a new course that is inspiring teachers and officials at Great Bay Community College.

Craig Brady, 25, a native of Norwood, Mass., who now lives in Madbury, will be a recipient at the college's Distinguished Leaders Awards event at the Wentworth by the Sea hotel in New Castle on Thursday night. The event highlights community leaders who have all achieved success and supported the college and their community in different ways.

Other award recipients are Jackie Eastwood, chief executive at Salient Surgical Technologies, and PixelMEDIA, a full-service Web strategy and application development company founded in 1994 by Erik Dodier and Thomas Obrey.

Brady's career path has been decidedly different from the other honorees. Straight out of high school, he enlisted in the Marines. He served in Iraq then Afghanistan, where, in January 2010, he stepped on an improvised explosive device.

Brady said he lost his right leg below the knee and spent two years recovering at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. After he was discharged, he said he found a new passion to pursue: therapeutic recreation, which was a major part of his recovery.

"I don't even think about my prosthesis. I just put it on and walk," he said.
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Marine veteran fought to aid veterans until suicide claimed his life

Marine veteran fought to aid veterans
By Jenn Smith
Berkshire Eagle Staff
Posted: 05/14/2013

During the years of his service, the time after he left active duty and in the wake of his death, Passetto indicated his struggles relating to his association with the military, from mental-health issues to his long-term fight to claim disability benefits through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

PITTSFIELD -- It will have been a month ago this Thursday since 28-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran Edward S. Passetto stood before the flagpole at Berkshire Community College to speak about the importance of the American flag and raise it in awareness of Student Veterans Week at the college.

Passetto never showed. His body was found around 10 a.m. on the Monument Mountain Reservation in Great Barrington, the victim of an apparent suicide.

"We're all very, very shocked," said Harding, who serves on the Chapter 65 board and is a past sergeant of arms for the Marine Corps League and junior vice commander for the Disabled American Veterans (DAV).
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Coast Guard Suspends Tuition Assistance

Coast Guard Suspends Tuition Assistance
Mar 11, 2013
Military.com
by Richard Sisk

The Coast Guard has joined the Army and the Marine Corps in suspending new enrollments for the popular tuition assistance programs to meet the cost-cutting demands of the sequestration process, Coast Guard officials said Monday.

The order to suspend new enrollments was circulated internally over the weekend in the Coast Guard and has yet to be announced formally, but the Coast Guard has now ceased accepting applications for tuition assistance, said Lt. Paul Rhynard, a Coast Guard spokesman.

The Coast Guard, part of the Homeland Security Department, has 42,000 active duty personnel and 8,200 reservists, but Coast Guard officials could not immediately provide information on how many personnel currently take advantage of the continuing education assistance or the annual costs.
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Air Force joins Army, Marines in cutting tuition assistance
The Air Force has been providing $250 per semester credit hour and up to $4,500 a year to airmen pursuing associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Former Marine who was expelled from SMU seeks justice

Former Marine who was expelled from SMU in 2011 as “security concern” sues university in federal court
Dallas Morning News
By Robert Wilonsky
February 28, 2013

Two years ago in the pages of the student newspaper, SMU police called Daniel Hux a “safety concern” who needed to be removed from campus before he hurt someone. Today, in a lawsuit filed in Dallas federal court, Daniel Hux claims he was the victim, and that his explusion in March 2011 was nothing short of a violation of his constitutional rights.

Hux, a former U.S. Marine, also alleges wrongful arrest, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and myriad other violations of his rights.

According to the 33-page complaint filed this afternoon, Hux enrolled at SMU in 2010, and was the recipient of an academic scholarship. At the same time he applied for a job as a resident assistant, which he claims he needed “to be able to afford to attend SMU.” He was placed in Hawk Hall, which is located behind the Perkins School of Theology.
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American River College Professor anti-veteran rants

Aside from the thousands of news reports on this blog proving why our veterans fight for this country, there is one post that I believe answers that question loud and clear.

For those I love I will sacrifice.

Professor Caught on Tape Giving Anti-Veteran Rant
FOX 40
7 hours ago
by Ben Deci
SACRAMENTO

Not all Professor Tom Brozovich’s students believe that the lessons they are getting in his American River College art history class are appropriate, especially when it comes to the question of patriotism.

Shiloh David Helman, a veteran, was one of what he describes as handful of students who walked out on a lecture given by Professor Brozovich last semester, after he says Brozovich went on an anti-vet rant.

“He told me that I’m the problem with America,” Helman told FOX40.

Since then, another Iraq-era veteran has given us some lecture tapes from the same art history class, from last Spring, to demonstrate why he says he walked-out a number of times himself.

“Americans have been mislead to believe that the folks killed on 9/11 were all innocent victims. That’s not entirely true,” Brozovich can be heard saying on the tape.
read more here and watch video report

How many student veterans graduate? No one knows

How many student veterans graduate? No one knows
By LEO SHANE III
Stars and Stripes
Published: January 7, 2013

ORLANDO, Fla. – Veterans advocates worry that lawmakers will consider trimming GI Bill benefits as part of their deficit reduction plans unless they can show that student veterans are graduating and succeeding in their education goals.

But no one knows whether they are.

Neither veterans affairs nor federal education officials have reliable data on student veterans’ graduation rates, student grade point averages, or post-college employment success. Without it, proving the value of the more than $20 billion spent to send veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan war era becomes problematic, if not impossible.

This week, Student Veterans of America – which boasts more than 21,000 members at 700 college campuses nationwide – announced a partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Student Clearinghouse to research those graduation figures, with the goal of showing the return taxpayers are getting on the money spent.
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USC film student's PTSD project after returning from Iraq

If you want to understand what all the talk is about with Combat and PTSD, this is a must see video.

Uploaded by BlueThreeProductions
Dec 2, 2010

I went to film school at USC after returning from Iraq. This is what life was like for me then, and this is 100% a true story. Hopefully others - especially those who've lived it - can get something out of this film. It was one of the first I ever made...

by SSG Kyle Hausmann-Stokes
US Army, Infantry, OIF 07-08


Disturbing images and haunting flashbacks plague a young soldier recently returned from the war in Iraq. Re-adjusting to his former life as a college student proves to be more difficult than he ever imagined - connecting with veterans of wars past may be just what he needs.

Law firm accused of telling a disabled Army veteran that he “should have died

Disabled Vet Sues Law Firm Over Collection Abuses
Oct 17, 2012
Stars and Stripes
by Erik Slavin

A law firm accused of telling a disabled Army veteran that he “should have died” rather than collect disability payments is being sued for violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, according to Arizona court documents filed last week.

Michael Collier, a 100 percent disabled veteran, and his wife, Kim Collier-Dingman, alleged that the Gurstel Chargo collection firm engaged in abusive practices after a judge ruled in favor of the Colliers over money that the firm illegally garnished in May.

In April, Gurstel Chargo had $6,143.88 in Collier-Dingman’s savings account frozen to collect on a defaulted student loan incurred by Collier, whose disability is the result of head and spinal injuries.

A judge ruled in May that the money be returned. The funds were veteran benefits that Collier-Dingman received as a result of her husband’s injuries, and therefore exempt from collection.

When Collier followed up by phone to ask when the money would be returned, he was told he wouldn’t get it back without suing, according to the couple’s complaint. When he persisted, Collier claims in the complaint that he heard a profanity-laced tirade from a legal assistant.

“[Expletive] you! Pay us your money!” the assistant said, according to the complaint. “You can’t afford an attorney. You owe us. I hope your wife divorces [you]. If you would have served our country better you would not be a disabled veteran living off social security while the rest of us honest Americans work our [expletive] off. Too bad; you should have died.”

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Returning vets swell ranks of entrepreneurs

Returning vets swell ranks of entrepreneurs
Michael Melia
Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Oct 6, 2012

HARTFORD, Conn. — As a truck driver for the U.S. military in wartime Iraq, Ed Young racked up 7,000 miles, facing a constant threat of attack that left him struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts.

Four years later, he is driving long hauls again, but now in the U.S. as one of a growing number of veterans turning entrepreneur. The Navy veteran who had seen his post-war life spiraling out of control says his Connecticut-based car transportation business has helped to put him on the road to recovery.

Young received training to run his enterprise through a program for disabled veterans at the University of Connecticut, one of many efforts emerging nationwide to help returning service members start small businesses.

“The biggest thing I got out of it was, no matter what, don’t give up on your idea,” said Young, 26. “Basically it’s like in the military. Just accomplish the mission. That is your job, to accomplish your mission, no matter what.”

More than 200,000 people are discharged from the U.S. military each year, and advocates say they often possess qualities that make good entrepreneurs: resourcefulness, a taste for risk-taking and a can-do attitude. Nonprofit groups, state governments and U.S. agencies are all providing business training aimed at giving them new purpose and easing their transition to civilian life.
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Veterans hired to help others not getting their paychecks?

'I can't afford to live like this': VA weeks, months late paying student veterans
By Bill Briggs
NBC News contributor

Student veterans hired by the Department of Veterans Affairs to help fellow ex-service members transition into college have routinely waited four to six weeks — and, in one case, four months — for unpaid wages, prompting eviction worries and mounting debt, according to a survey of program members obtained by NBC News.

Ashley Metcalf, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan — and the student veteran who organized the survey of other VA "work-study" employees at 18 campuses — said he’s been living on credit cards since June and was forced to obtain an emergency loan because the VA has failed to compensate him for about 100 hours he's logged in the VA program.

“How can this happen? If I was working for McDonald’s and they said they’re not going to pay me for 10 weeks, I’d have a lawsuit,” said Metcalf, an Air Force veteran now enrolled at the University of Colorado Denver.
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Student vets grapple with feelings of suicide

Student vets grapple with feelings of suicide
In Health
By Sharon Wittke, special to the Beacon
09.18.12

Student veterans are more than twice as likely to think about suicide as other college students, but they are far less likely to seek professional counseling because of cultural stoicism.

Forty-six percent of student veterans have thought of suicide, compared with 18.7 percent of students overall, according to the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah.

More military veterans are sitting in college classrooms today than in previous years because of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008. More than 400,000 veteran students applied for spring 2012 enrollment, according to the Student Veterans of America, a nonprofit coalition of student veterans organizations.

Veteran students are typically older and more experienced than traditional college students and have acquired skills and knowledge that help them in the classroom.

But many combat veterans have mental-health problems stemming from post-traumatic stress disorder that may strain the collegiate mental health-care system.
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Increase in Ohio PTSD cases

Increase in Ohio PTSD cases
Kelsey Anne Smith, Contributing Writer
September 17, 2012
The Guardian
Wright State University's Campus Newspaper

It would be impossible to deny that Wright State University is located in an incredibly military-heavy area. With Wright-Patterson Air Force Base regularly buzzing the campus with C-17’s and the presence of a very large ROTC program at the University, students at Wright State should be familiar with the military.

However, an aspect of some military members’ lives that often goes unnoticed is that of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, more commonly referred to as PTSD. Although PTSD is a disorder that can appear in anyone who has gone through a traumatic event, most research on it has been concentrated on its effect on military personnel.

According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, there are more than 200,000 cases of PTSD that have been documented from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Every year, the military conducts what is called the Military Times Poll. The poll for 2012 showed that PTSD had risen significantly over the past year. Of those serving on active duty, 22% of women and 14% of men stated that they had been diagnosed with PTSD. This is an increase from 15% and 9% in 2011, respectively.
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88 percent of veterans drop out of school during their first year

It is not that they were out of education for so long. I'm proof of that. Not as a veteran but as a 51 year old going back to college for Digital Media. I finished before I turned 53. It wasn't easy and I had to work harder than students in their 20's but I managed to finish with a 3.1 GPA.

I talked to a lot of student/veterans and they thought that it was the way they learn that was changed by the military culture more than anything else. The disconnect between the "civilian" world and them was secondary.

Thousands of veterans failing in latest battlefield: college
By Bill Briggs

Among the approximately 800,000 military veterans now attending U.S. colleges, an estimated 88 percent drop out of school during their first year and only 3 percent graduate, according a report forwarded by the University of Colorado Denver, citing the analysis by U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education and Labor and Pensions.

During a pair of six-month stints in and around Fallujah, Iraq – then a fiercely volatile city – Navy corpsman Lucas Velasquez came to know about life. And death.

From late 2005 through early 2007, not long after nearly 100 U.S. troops and more than 1,350 insurgents were killed in Fallujah during Operation Phantom Fury, Velasquez routinely rendered emergency aid to wounded Marines while ducking bullets, rocket-propelled grenades and IED blasts. In uniform, Velasquez was smart and quick, adept at practicing field medicine literally while under the gun.

In 2007, after retiring from the Navy, Velasquez, then 23, enrolled at Columbus State University in western Georgia. He promptly failed four of his first six classes.
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Twenty States File Settlement To Shut Down Veterans Services Website

Twenty States File Settlement To Shut Down Veterans Services Website
June 27, 2012
by Daniela Perallon
WHNT News

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – Twenty states, including Alabama, will be reaping the benefits of the $2.5 million settlement filed against QuinStreet, Inc. on Wednesday.

The company runs GIBill.com, a website aiming to help veterans make sense of their benefits, but is accused of misleading and deceiving users by directing them to for-profit clients.

“It’s really tragic that organizations would intentionally be deceptive and take advantage of veterans,” said William Webb, a spokesperson for Still Serving Veterans in Huntsville.
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States’ Attorneys General Action A Victory for Veterans and the GI Bill

States’ Attorneys General Action A Victory for Veterans and the GI Bill
WASHINGTON (June 27, 2012) – Officials of the Department of Veterans Affairs applauded a decision by the attorneys general of several states to give VA the rights to use the GIBill.Com website, after the website’s original owners QuinStreet Inc. agreed to give up the internet site to settle a lawsuit by the states.

“This action is a victory for Veterans and a victory for the GI Bill. Veterans and VA applaud the great work by the states’ attorneys general, along with Holly Petraeus and her team,” said W. Scott Gould, Deputy Secretary for Veterans Affairs. “We all want Veterans to be informed consumers and for schools to meet their obligations in training this Nation’s next ‘Greatest Generation.’”

Holly Petraeus is assistant director for service member affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The attorneys general of several states had sued QuinStreet Inc., the owner of the GI Bill.com domain, charging it with deceptive practices by directing Veterans and Service Members on its website exclusively to for-profit schools that were clients of QuinStreet.

The announcement comes as VA is seeking legal authority to trademark the term GI Bill. An executive order by President Obama on April 26 directed VA and the Department of Defense to undertake a number of measures to “stop deceptive and misleading” promotional efforts that target the GI Bill educational benefits of Service members, Veterans, and eligible family members and survivors.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill, which was authorized by Congress in 2008, is the most extensive educational assistance program since the original GI Bill was signed into law in 1944. VA has issued nearly $20 billion in Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit payments to more than 759,000 people and their educational institutions.

All of VA's education benefits are designed to be flexible and give Veterans the power of choice by enabling them to pursue college degrees, technical certifications, or vocational training according to their preferences and needs, at public, private non-profit and private for-profit schools.

For-profit schools are held to the same approval standards as all other schools, and VA education programs at for-profit institutions are approved by the State Approving Agencies, which act independently on behalf of the federal government to ensure quality education and training is provided to Veterans within each state.

Gould said Veterans should not be recruited aggressively by institutions principally because of financial motives, and that VA’s and other federal and state agencies’ oversight activities provide strong monitoring. VA is engaging with other federal agencies to provide this oversight, including the departments of Defense, Education, and Justice, as well as the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“VA looks forward to helping Veterans make informed decisions by accepting this gift of the GIBill.com domain. We will continue to support our Veterans by helping them obtain the best education of their choosing—a right for which they have bravely served, and which they have rightly earned,” Gould said.

For more information on GI Bill programs, please visit www.GIBILL.va.gov or call 1-888-GI-Bill-1 (1-888-442-4551) to speak with a GI Bill representative.