John McCain Defends Colleges Over Veterans

This makes sense today considering it is Halloween. Is this trick or treat? Trick is McCain is pulling a switch on who is getting the treat and who the trick is being played on. Does the word delusional come to mind?

Senator John McCain (R-AZ), in a speech on the Senate floor yesterday afternoon, charged that fellow Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) has "orchestrated" a "shameful ... vendetta against for-profit universities." McCain upped the ante by asserting that Durbin has a "well-known record of not supporting the men and women who are serving in the military."

Yep! He really said that even though we all know how much McCain does not support veterans as he constantly reminds them he is one of them.

In his own floor speech yesterday, Durbin encouraged the Pentagon to continue its investigation. Durbin noted that Paul Rieckhoff, founder and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said that the University of Phoenix was the "worst by far" for-profit college in terms of taking advantage of the vets who are members of his organization.

Top that off with the fact McCain strongly opposed Jim Webb's GI Bill calling it "too generous" and now he is defending those responsible for getting that "generosity" by using veterans. Statement of Senator Jim Webb on the White House's Embrace of his 21st Century GI Bill

This bipartisan coalition consistently rejected the allegations of this Administration, and of Senators McCain, Burr and Graham, among others, who claimed that the bill was too generous to our veterans, too difficult to administer and would hurt retention.

You can read the rest of this on The Huffington Post McCain Lashes Out At Durbin, Defends Veteran-Abusing For-Profit Colleges

Here are a few more of what McCain got wrong. John McCain needs to remember he's a veteran

George Williams College Disciplines Real Marine For Calling Out Fake?

UPDATE
Iraq War vet faces hearing after stolen valor argument

Veteran at George Williams College disciplined for calling out stolen valor
The College Fix
DAVE HUBER
ASSISTANT EDITOR
OCTOBER 14, 2015

Ryan Lonergan is an Iraq War veteran who had served in the Wisconsin National Guard from 2006 through 2014.

Now a student at George Williams College in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, Lonergan was approached last Tuesday in a campus dining hall by a gent “who saw his tattoos and asked [him] if he had served.”

After Lonergan affirmed his service, the man then informed him that he, too, had served — that he was a Marine Infantry Officer who had “attended Spartan Academy in Arizona.”

While Lonergan initially was a bit surprised that the guy approached him and offered up various personal information, what really made him suspicious were the man’s “insane stories and the fact that he would so freely share them with a stranger …”

The next day, Lonergan found out that the college had begun discipline proceedings … against him.

As for the student who approached Lonergan and filed the complaint, the veteran says he heard from other students that “[he] apparently ‘packed up his car, and he skipped town’ …”
read more here

Army Veteran Says For Profit Colleges "They were exploiting my brothers."

For-profit colleges are using the GI Bill to make money off veterans
Los Angeles Times
Chris Kirkham and Alan Zarembo
August 18, 2015

(Morgan Noelle Smith / Los Angeles Times)

Paul Fajardo, a Marine Corps veteran who is completing a degree in medical assisting, prepares a needle to practice giving an injection at National Polytechnic College in the City of Commerce. Fajardo had attended Corinthian's WyoTech campus in Long Beach until California suspended GI Bill benefits for the company's schools.

Many of the nation's largest for-profit college chains have seen enrollments plummet amid investigations into questionable job placement rates and deceptive marketing practices.

One crucial source of revenue, however, has remained a constant: military veterans.

For-profit colleges have collected $8.2 billion from the latest GI Bill since it went into effect in 2009, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of government data. Those colleges enroll only 8% of all U.S. students but 30% of the 1.4 million veterans who have used the most recent version of the GI Bill.

That money for years helped prop up some of the industry's most distressed institutions — including ITT Educational Services Inc. and bankrupt Corinthian Colleges Inc. — which needed the funding to meet tough regulatory requirements.

U.S. Army veteran Don're Walker took one of those recruiting jobs at an ITT campus in Orange County in 2012. He quit less than a year later.

His department faced intense pressure to enroll GI Bill beneficiaries, Walker said. Once he understood the school's high tuition costs — and students' low probability of transferring credits to traditional colleges — he regularly advised veterans against attending.

"It was basically 'Get people in any way possible,'" he said. "They were exploiting my brothers."
read more here

Filmmakers Convicted of Fraud Took Advantage of Wounded Marines

Filmmakers convicted of defrauding government with school to teach wounded Marines
LA Times
By TONY PERRY
July 10, 2015

Court documents put the alleged
fraud from the VA at up to $1.2 million.

A longtime filmmaker-cinematographer and his wife were convicted Friday of defrauding the federal government of several hundred thousand dollars while running a program billed as preparing wounded Marines for jobs in the film industry.

A federal court jury in San Diego convicted Kevin Lombard and Judith Paixao, both 61, of conspiracy to commit fraud, theft from an organization receiving federal funds, and filing false claims. Paixao was also convicted of mail fraud involving the Bob Woodruff Foundation.

Prosecutors said the pair fraudulently billed the Department of Veterans Affairs for personal expenses, including cellphone bills for relatives, a Caribbean vacation, meals in fancy restaurants, and a New Year's Day sailing outing around San Diego Bay.

The VA was charged up to $88,000 per veteran for the 10-week course, according to evidence presented at trial.

The pair "capitalized on the misfortune of wounded Marines in their time of vulnerability and took advantage of the VA's commitment to serving wounded veterans," said U.S. Atty. Laura Duffy.
read more here

Tulsa Veteran Gets Help Going From Combat to College

Out of Tulsa there is a great report on veterans going from combat to college.

Upon returning from duty in Iraq, Travis Bramblett needed to change directions.

He enrolled in courses at Tulsa Community College, but post traumatic stress disorder from his time in a war zone caused such anxiety that he came close to giving up.

“It caused a big struggle to return not just to civilian life, but to school,” he said. “School was a daily struggle.”

The center was established in 1976, where it served five students at TCC’s downtown campus.

Another way the program provides Bramblett with peace of mind is by giving him the opportunity for designated seating in classrooms so he doesn’t have anyone sitting behind him, a symptom of his PTSD. “It’s a reassurance knowing it’s there,” Bramblett said of the center. “It’s like a safety net. Otherwise, I’m going to bat by myself. Here, I have someone who’s going to stand up for me.”

Veteran Education Benefits Cut Then VA Sends List of Homeless Shelters?

Disabled vet says VA cancelled vocational education rehab plan, sent him list of homeless shelters
ABC 7 Denver
Lance Hernandez
Feb 16, 2015

BROOMFIELD, Colo. - Jeremy McVay says he couldn't believe it when the VA in Montgomery Alabama sent him an email suggesting he reach out to homeless shelters in Colorado.

The disabled veteran, who was stationed at Langley Air Force Base during 9/11 as a ground equipment technician, moved to Broomfield in late January after his case worker signed off on a vocational education rehabilitation plan.

He started a gunsmith class last Monday at the Colorado School of Trades in Lakewood.

Shortly afterwards, the VA notified him that his plan had been cancelled.

He said they told him that because his educational plan involved guns, the caseworker’s supervisor needed to sign off on it, but no one told him that before he moved to Colorado and started taking his class.
read more here

Free College Education Left Arizona Veterans With Bill?

Veterans billed for VA aid fault Pima College 
Arizona Daily Star
By Carol Ann Alaimo
February 6, 2015

Spencer and Kinsey are among 400 or so veterans whose records were adjusted by PCC last year after the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs found record-keeping errors dating to 2010.

Iraq war veteran Mikel Spencer has a Bronze Star, a bachelor’s degree and a $5,000 tab for an education that was supposed to be free.

James Kinsey, who also served in Iraq, said he recently faced a $19,000 bill after Pima Community College wrongly labeled him a dropout.

The former soldiers have been mired in red tape and red ink over PCC’s past failures to keep proper records for students who received veterans’ education benefits. As a result, some veterans were told they owe the federal government thousands of dollars.

Months after the school pledged to make things right for those affected, the veterans say PCC provided little help and left them on their own to fight off federal debt collection.

“I felt like a dog chasing its tail,” said Kinsey, 27, now a graduate student in international security with a 4.0 grade-point average at the University of Arizona. He attended PCC from 2010 to 2012.

So did Spencer, 47, who works at Tucson’s veterans hospital and graduated last year from Northern Arizona University with a 3.8 grade-point average.

The two don’t know each other and separately contacted the Arizona Daily Star about their cases.

Both say the college treated them poorly and gave questionable advice when they sought help.
read more here

Denver Soldier Finds Home Best Medicine After Afghanistan

Home is the best medicine: Greeley soldier hurt in August home for Christmas 
Greeley Tribune
Dan England
December 29, 2014

For The Tribune/Tara Moriarty |

Carey Duvall lifts weights with his right prosthesis. 

Duvall was hurt in an attack in August during a mission 

in Afghanistan and spent the Christmas holiday with 

his parents in Greeley.

Carey Duvall had a good time back home. He got to stay at his parents’ place in Greeley, go see family in Denver and spent some time with friends, including a buddy who wanted him to be in a short movie.

The buddy told him he wouldn’t trust anyone else with the lines, but Duvall, 25, knew better. “He just wants me to play the one-armed apocalyptic survivor,” Duvall said.

Indeed, Duvall did play that part in the movie. As it turns out, Duvall said with a laugh, he was perfect for it. In late August, Duvall was leading his U.S. Army convoy on a routine mission in Afghanistan, on a deployment that seemed so benign he never discussed the possibility of getting hurt with his fiancée.

There was an explosion. The blast was powerful enough to toss his vehicle, basically a heavily armored semi-tractor, 25 feet off the road.

His platoon acted quickly enough to save most of his arm, but the attack broke several bones in his right leg, wrist and pelvis. The worst came to his right hand: He lost four fingers and about half of the rest. He was, of course, right-handed.

Duvall doesn’t mind talking about it. He read an article in “Time” magazine that stated telling the story helps ease the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, one of the most common aliments of a solider.

It helps his brain, he said, to relive it. This is exactly the kind of way Duvall, who got a degree in history from the University of Colorado, approaches life: He researches it. “He’s basically a nerd,” said his fiancée, Tara Moriarty.
read more here

Kansas Iraq Veteran Personal Battle with PTSD Becomes Cause for Others

Kan. vet’s struggle with PTSD motivates desire to help others 
KHI News Service
By Andy Marso
December 28, 2014

After his Army service, Will Stucker earned a bachelor’s degree in family studies at Manhattan Christian College and is now working on a master’s degree in clinical psychology at Emporia State University. He plans to work with other veterans and help them overcome post-traumatic stress syndrome.- photo by Andy Marso

Need is great About one-third of the 2.6 million veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with mental illnesses like PTSD, anxiety and depression. The VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System, which includes the Topeka hospital where Stucker was treated, is seeing more patients for PTSD every year: up from 1,297 in 2011 to 2,216 in 2014. The costs of PTSD treatment there this year exceeded $28 million

TOPEKA — Sitting in a Junction City coffee shop with his laptop and a pile of textbooks splayed on a table, Will Stucker looks like any other college student, if a bit older than average. But Stucker, 38, has taken a different path to college than most of his classmates at Emporia State University.

His path took him to South Korea and Kuwait, then to a tank rolling toward Baghdad, then to an armored Humvee on the streets of a small town in Iraq where insurgents repeatedly tried to kill him — and two of them almost succeeded.

Then, finally, to a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Topeka, where counselors helped him work through the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) he came home with. Stucker is working toward a master’s degree in clinical psychology so that he can help other veterans overcome PTSD. read more here

WWII Veteran Gets Honorary Degree From Regis University

WWII Veteran, 93, earns honorary degree
9NEWS
KUSA
Janet Oravetz
December 21, 2014

93-year-old World War II vet received honorary degree from Regis University

(Photo: KUSA)

KUSA - Sidney Shafner, 93, began attending Regis University in 1943 as part of an elite group of American men selected for the Army Specialized Training Corps.

"It was right after Pearl Harbor and, I knew sooner or later I'd get an invitation from Uncle Sam," Shafner said. "My brother, my younger brother, and I both enlisted."

In the meantime, he worked hard at Regis toward an engineering degree.

"I didn't sneak out at night to go to Lakeside or Elitchs. Some of the guys did. I studied. I wasn't great, just studied," Shafner said. "In Physics we had to take a chapter a day. That's no joke."

His education was cut short in March of 1944 when he and the other men in the program were sent to training camp in Oklahoma and eventually deployed to Europe. He recalls the time he spent on the Northwest Denver Campus as a highlight of his life. It was here the Philadelphia native saw the Rocky Mountains for the first time and met his wife of 68 years, Esther.

"We were disappointed and surprised," Shafner said. "We had a good deal while we were at Regis. We were surprised but we knew the reason. They explained the reason for us, we were getting ready for intervention in Europe and they needed as many [young men] as they could get to muster and get together."
read more here

Afghanistan Veteran From Florida Died at UC Berkley

UC Berkeley senior Paul Hanson dies at age 26
Daily Californian
BY SUHAUNA HUSSAIN
STAFF
December 2, 2014

His brother said Hanson’s death came as a shock to friends and family, because he was physically and academically successful. Still, he acknowledged that his service in the Marine Corps may have impacted Hanson mentally. He noted that his brother struggled with insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Paul Hanson, a UC Berkeley senior and student-veteran, died last week at the age of 26.

Friends and family remember Hanson for his strong work ethic and unwavering kindness. He served in the Marine Corps for almost five years before transferring to UC Berkeley from community college in 2013.

“I was just proud to have him be my brother and my friend,” said his brother James Hanson. “Me and my brother — we look up to Paul even though he’s the younger brother, because he’s so gifted.”

Hanson majored in political economy on campus after transferring from De Anza College. He had his sights set on obtaining a law degree — earlier this year, he was accepted to the UC Berkeley School of Law and University of Virginia’s law school. Prior to his death, he was in the midst of completing interviews for a number of other prestigious institutions. He eventually hoped to work for the U.S. Department of State.

Joseph Bohling, a Portland State University assistant professor who wrote recommendations for Hanson’s law school applications, said Hanson was the type of student every instructor hoped to have in their classes, remarking that he was constantly curious and went far beyond the course material.

“He pursued his studies with an endless enthusiasm, optimism, and generosity,” Bohling wrote in an email. “Paul dreamed big.”

UC Berkeley sophomore Michelaina Johnson, a friend of Hanson’s and former Daily Californian staff writer, remembered how dedicated he was to his passions, manifested in the long hours he devoted to studying and working for the American Red Cross, JusticeCorps and an international studies honor society.

Originally from Florida, Hanson joined the Marine Corps for four and half years shortly after he turned 18. He served in Afghanistan for a nine-month tour of duty before he was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps, winning the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for his service.

“Underneath all that muscle and all those protein shakes, he was really sweet,” said UC Berkeley senior Stacie Vu, who laughingly recalled he was still a “sucker for anything Nutella-related.”
read more here

Veterans shafted by "substandard" colleges in California

GI Bill funds failing for-profit California colleges
Center for Investigative Reporting
Aaron Glantz
June 30, 2014

Over the last five years, more than $600 million in college assistance for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans has been spent on California schools so substandard that they have failed to qualify for state financial aid.

As a result, the GI Bill — designed to help veterans live the American dream — is supporting for-profit companies that spend lavishly on marketing but can leave veterans with worthless degrees and few job prospects, The Center for Investigative Reporting found.

"It's not education; I think it's just greed," said David Pace, a 20-year Navy veteran who used the GI Bill to obtain a business degree from the University of Phoenix's San Diego campus.

Although taxpayers spent an estimated $50,000 on Pace's education, he has the same blue-collar job he landed right after he left the service: running electrical cable for a defense contractor.

Financial records analyzed by CIR show that California is the national epicenter of this problem, with nearly 2 out of every 3 GI Bill dollars going to for-profit colleges.

The University of Phoenix in San Diego outdistances its peers. Since 2009, the campus has received $95 million in GI Bill funds. That's more than any brick-and-mortar campus in America, more than the entire 10-campus University of California system and all UC extension programs combined.
read more here

Iraq Veteran Gets Special Graduation Ceremony

Army vet, after missing graduation because of mysterious illness, gets special ceremony Friday
Sedeño completed his master's degree in secondary education
Lubbock Avalanche Journal
By Karen Michael
A-J MEDIA
Posted: June 13, 2014

With Texas Tech President Duane Nellis, Jeremy Sedeño and Tech Regent John D. Steinmetz beaming for cameras, the degree transfer was quickly completed.

An Army veteran who earned two Bronze Stars while serving two tours of duty in Iraq was honored in a small graduation ceremony at Texas Tech on Friday afternoon after being too sick to attend graduation in May.

Jeremy Sedeño returned to Lubbock after serving in the U.S. Army as a medic to finish his education at Texas Tech.

He worked to complete his master’s degree in secondary education after obtaining a bachelor’s degree in history.

About a week and a half before his graduation, he became ill with flu and was admitted to the hospital, where doctors found nodules on both sides of his lungs. Four days before graduation, he had a lung biopsy, with doctors going into his body through his back and ribs to take a piece of his infected lung.

In the time since graduation, Sedeño has traveled to the Mayo Clinic to find out what is wrong with him, but he still has no conclusive answers. Some doctors have speculated he could have come into contact with something toxic during his service in Iraq.
read more here

Iraq Veteran Killed in Motorcycle Accident

East TX man killed in motorcycle crash was an Iraq war veteran
KLTV News
By Bob Hallmark
Posted: Jun 09, 2014
LONGVIEW, TX

An East Texas college student, who was killed in a motorcycle accident on Friday, was also an Iraq war veteran and had just graduated college. 26-year-old Logan Houshmand, a LeTourneau University student, died from his injuries from Friday's wreck on Delwood Street in Longview.

The news of Houshmand's death hit those who knew him hard. "We were shocked when we got that phone call. He had integrity. He wanted things to be real, what it is to think about eternal life," says LeTourneau University associate professor of aviation technology Matt Poelman.

He was a marine who served a tour in Iraq and those who knew him saw he was a young man with a lot of character. "He lost some good friends in that environment and was always sensitive to that. We lost our son in Iraq in 2005. It just speaks to the character of this young man and I appreciate him. We're going to miss him," Poelman says.
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New Veterans Bill in Florida May Put Us At Number Two

About the Orlando VA Medical Center

The Orlando VA Medical Center, serving an area of more than 90,000 veteran patients in East Central Florida, is one of seven members of the VISN 8 Healthcare System. The Orlando VA Medical Center includes the Orlando VA Medical Center, the Community Living Center, the Residential Rehabilitation Program, the Viera Outpatient Clinic, the Daytona Outpatient Clinic, and four Community Based Outpatient Clinics located in Clermont, Kissimmee, Leesburg, and Orange City.

The East Central Florida veteran population is slated for a new hospital in 2014. This much needed facility will make it easier for east central Florida veterans to access VA’s world-class medical center and relieve the burden of traveling long distances for their inpatient care.

As for right here in Central Florida

Central Florida is home to nearly 400,000 veterans, 90,000 of whom are seen at the current Orlando VA Medical Center every year. Comprised of a Nursing Home Care Unit, the Domiciliary and Rehabilitation Program, the Viera and Daytona outpatient clinics, and three Community Based Outpatient Clinics in Leesburg, Kissimmee, and Sanford, the VA Center provides a wide range of services to veterans throughout the region.

With new veterans bill, Florida aims to be 'most military-friendly state'
By Scott Travis
(Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) Sun Sentinel
Published: May 10, 2014

Florida is determined to be on the front lines when it comes to recruiting more veterans to the state.

This year, the state legislature passed the "Florida G.I. Bill," which "makes Florida the most military-friendly state in the nation and supports the brave men and women who protect us at home and abroad," Senate President Don Gaetz said.

Among its provisions, the bill:

Guarantees honorably discharged veterans in-state college tuition, even if they have lived here less than a year.

Pumps about $22 million into initiatives that benefit the military and veterans, including funding to buy land near military installations to give them buffer zones and money to renovate Florida National Guard armories.

Provides funding for deployed National Guard members to receive a four-year bachelor's degree through online courses.

Expands which veterans get preference in public employment to include members of the U.S. Armed Forces Reserves and the Florida National Guard.

Waives fees for professional licenses for 60 months after honorable discharge, up from the current 24 months.

Creates "Florida Is for Veterans, Inc.," a nonprofit to promote Florida as the place for veterans to live.

Authorizes the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs to sell memorial bricks that will be used for a Florida Veterans' Walk of Honor and Memorial Garden in Tallahassee.
read more here

Florida has the third largest veterans population in the country. There is always something for veterans to do here and that is a wonderful thing considering only 7% of the general population belong to the military family.

Today I am heading out to the Orlando Nam Knights Clubhouse for a huge fundraiser.

Nam Knights of America and Semper Fidelis of America 3rd Annual Fund Raising Dinner – Sat May 10 – A 3 course dinner professionally catered by Le Cordon Bleu with live music. $100 per couple. 1451 N. County Rd 13, Orlando/Bithlo, 32820. (East side) Proceeds go to Homes For Our Troops – this year for USMC Sgt Anthony McDaniel www.nkorlando.org and www.semperfidelisamerica.org

Here is just a sample of what else is going on right here in Central Florida for veterans this month.

Florida also has one of the largest veterans reunions in Melbourne. This is the Vietnam Memorial Wall Escort.
It looks like if this bill does what lawmakers think it will, Florida should take the number two spot for veterans in the nation!

'We need to do more' for veterans, college's president says

Eastern Florida State College opens center for vets
'We need to do more' for veterans, college's president says
Florida Today
R. Norman Moody
Jan. 29, 2014

COCOA — Gulf War veteran Roger Estep found that he needed help when he arrived at Eastern Florida State College two semesters ago.

“They guided me to classes,” said Estep, who is living in a transitional apartment for homeless veterans in Cocoa. “I have some disabilities and they guided me to some people that can help.”

Now, Estep and other student military veterans needing assistance with benefits, mentoring, tutoring, counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues can find it at the college’s new Veterans Resource Center.

The center officially opened its doors Wednesday afternoon in the student center.

Eastern Florida State College President James Richey said the college has a history of embracing veterans and veterans’ issues and will continue to do so.

“It’s a great opportunity to do what we can to help our veterans the best we can,” he said before speaking to the audience at the open house.
read more here

No one knows how to pay for new VA bill?

No one knows how to pay for new VA bill?

VETERANS ALREADY PAID FOR IT WHEN THEY SERVED AND PUT THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE!

43 minutes ago
Sanders: Veterans bill will get bipartisan support, despite few details on how to pay for it
Stars and Stripes
By Leo Shane III
Published: January 22, 2014

WASHINGTON -- Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is confident that lawmakers from both parties will support the initiatives in his wide-ranging legislative package for veterans if it comes up for a chamber vote next week.

But Senate leaders still haven’t settled on how they’ll pay for its $30 billion price tag, and that decision will likely determine its future in the House.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has promised the bill -- which covers dozens of changes to Department of Veterans Affairs appropriations, veterans education benefits and post-military health care -- will be brought up for a vote “as quickly as possible.”

But how to pay for the legislation hasn’t been worked out yet. Sanders said his staff is looking at tapping into overseas contingency funding as the most likely option, saying he sees plenty of waste and excess in that account that could be redirected for the post-war needs of veterans.

That’s unlikely to gather Republican support in the House, since leadership there has resisted tapping into overseas resources to pay for new programs.

Republicans have blasted Democratic efforts to use annual reductions in contingency spending to offset new spending, arguing that the approach is nothing more than a budgeting gimmick.
read more here

Marine Helicopter helps Santa with toy lift

Marine helicopter picks up toys collected by students for children in need
William and Mary
by Erin Zagursky
December 6, 2013

Who needs Santa and his reindeer when you have a Marine helicopter and the Griffin?

A Marine CH-46E touched down at the Williamsburg Jamestown Airport on Thursday afternoon to pick up Toys-for-Tots donations collected by students in William and Mary’s Part-Time Flex MBA program. The Griffin, wearing a floppy Santa hat on one of its ears, joined the students as they loaded dozens of toys onto the aircraft to be delivered to Naval Station Norfolk, where Marines will sort and distribute them next week.

“It feels really good to provide a smile to children who maybe wouldn’t get one over Christmas,” said Erin Miller, a student in the program. “It’s nice to give back and do something for them.”

The helicopter pickup was the brainchild of Maj. Paul Minihan, a Marine reservist who is also the president of the MBA Flex Program’s student association. He and Miller, who is vice president of the association, collected the toys at William and Mary’s Peninsula Center, which is located in the Oyster Point section of Newport News. The two were looking for outreach activities to do in the fall and spring and decided on Toys for Tots because of Paul’s connection to the Marines. Miller’s husband is also a retired military member.
read more here

Dec 6, 2013
A Marine CH-46E touched down at the Williamsburg Airport to pick up Toys-for-Tots donations collected by students in William and Mary's Flex MBA program.

A Pacifist's Take on Veterans' Rights

Have you ever been involved in a really important conversation on your cell phone and suddenly realize you are just talking to the phone? When the call dropped the only one listening to what you said was you. There is a huge disconnect in this country going on everyday but it can't be blamed on cell phones. It happens because when veterans finally talk, few are listening, even less want to do something about it and even less try to.

This is a great article from a student at Princeton talking about what is happening when veterans are just not part of the conversation.

A Pacifist's Take on Veterans' Rights
Huffington Post
Nick Sexton Student, Princeton University
Posted: 11/24/2013

I spent my fall break in our nation's capital, sponsored by Princeton's Pace Center for Civic Engagement, visiting congressional lobbies, vocational employment centers, and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where I saw, firsthand, those who had experienced the casualties of war. Eating in the hospital cafeteria, I sat among masses of amputees, the people who actually comprise the looming, abstract statistics we hear always on the news.

These are the people we half-acknowledge. We hear about soldiers who get maimed, who are sidelined by our legal system, who fall through the cracks and end up living on the street. But we sigh, mutter "what a shame," and then generally move on with our lives. This is largely due to the manner in which the wars of the 21st century have been waged. The Iraq and Afghanistan Wars are extremely different from the Vietnam War and World War II, in the crucial fact that they have not depended on a draft to fill the ranks; as such, they have directly engaged a much smaller percentage of the population. Throughout the week in Washington D.C., the thing that we heard over and over is that the American public does not pay attention to veterans, that there is a dearth of dialogue, because the issues that plague veterans are often deemed irrelevant by the average American.

I believe that this stance is wholly inconsistent with a humanitarian mindset. The moral principle that should compel us to care about veterans, even if no one in our families has ever been affiliated with the military, is the same one that underscores how white people need to care about racism, men need to care about sexism, and straight people need to care about LGBT rights.

I am writing this on November 12, the day after Veterans Day. Yesterday, Princeton's campus was quiet. A small slam poetry gathering and a service in the university chapel -- attended almost exclusively by ROTC members -- were all that set it apart from any other day. I heard no conversations about veterans. I asked a good deal of friends and acquaintances if they knew what holiday it was, and a considerable portion of them had no clue. This lack of on-campus attention to veterans reflects our nation's greater apathy about the rights of members of our armed forces.
read more here

A Veterans’ Day Perspective From a First-Year Student Veteran

A Veterans’ Day Perspective From a First-Year Student Veteran
UCSF Synapse
By Sam Lee
Staff Writer
November 20, 2013

Three years ago I was experiencing almost daily rocket attacks on our compound in Baghdad, Iraq. This Veterans’ Day, I found myself barricaded behind a mountain of books and notes studying for my nursing med-surg exam.

I’ll admit, I’d much rather be stressing out about studying for a test than to be experiencing death, destruction and 130-degree temperatures. I’m eternally grateful that I was able to make it back home from my one-year tour in the Middle East. Over 6,500 troops cannot say the same and have paid the greatest sacrifice fighting the United States’ War on Terror.

With more than a million service members expected to return to civilian life over the next few years and an unemployment rate for Post 9/11 veterans currently at 10 percent (2.7 percent higher than the national average), it’s going to be a challenge to find a place in the civilian workforce while earning a decent salary.

Thanks to the generous benefits of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, I’m fortunate enough to transition from active duty service and gain an education as a family nurse practitioner. This will help me be more marketable than if I just jumped straight back into the civilian workforce. I’m also able to actually afford to live in this expensive city we call San Francisco.
read more here