Confirmed: CBS News "60 Minutes" will broadcast the first-ever investigation into the endless delays and red tape veterans face obtaining disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In 2002, before former President George W. Bush started his ill-fated Iraq War, Veterans for Common Sense warned that VA was unprepared to meet the needs of additional veterans when VA was already overloaded with patients and claims.
What happened at the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) - the VA agency that processes disability claims - was beyond our worst nightmare. And "60 Minutes" has the story.
VBA Forces Veterans to Wait . . . and . . . Wait
Now, more than one million veterans are now waiting . . . forced to wait an average of six months for a disability claim decision from VBA.
Please visit our web site to see the preview of the "60 Minutes" segment.
Please share this e-mail with everyone you know - veterans, family, and friends - so they can watch this important "60 Minutes" news broadcast on Sunday, January 3, on CBS.
Please visit our web site with facts about our landmark lawsuit against VA, including VBA's long-term, systemic problems.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
CBS News "60 Minutes" will broadcast what veterans face and you never see
When you hear some talk about the problems veterans face when they come home from where we sent them, Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense should be at the top of the list of people they interview because he has been behind most of the changes the VA has made over the last few years and it took him a lot longer to get them to change.
Stolen valor:Marine ‘general’ now faces charge
Marine ‘general’ now faces charge
Officials: He passed himself off as officer
By Jeanette Steele, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 12:01 a.m.
FEDERAL COURT— David Vincent Weber arrived last month at a Ramona Veterans of Foreign Wars event in style: two stars on his shoulder and two Purple Heart medals pinned on the front of a Marine Corps uniform.
Weber, 69, appeared in a federal courtroom in downtown San Diego yesterday with considerably less pomp. He faces a charge under the 2005 Stolen Valor Act of wearing military medals he didn’t earn while passing himself off as a Marine major general at VFW Post 3783’s birthday celebration for the Corps.
Weber didn’t enter a plea, was allowed to post bail and was appointed an attorney at federal government expense during a hearing in U.S. District Court.
read more here
Marine general now faces charge
Officials: He passed himself off as officer
By Jeanette Steele, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 12:01 a.m.
FEDERAL COURT— David Vincent Weber arrived last month at a Ramona Veterans of Foreign Wars event in style: two stars on his shoulder and two Purple Heart medals pinned on the front of a Marine Corps uniform.
Weber, 69, appeared in a federal courtroom in downtown San Diego yesterday with considerably less pomp. He faces a charge under the 2005 Stolen Valor Act of wearing military medals he didn’t earn while passing himself off as a Marine major general at VFW Post 3783’s birthday celebration for the Corps.
Weber didn’t enter a plea, was allowed to post bail and was appointed an attorney at federal government expense during a hearing in U.S. District Court.
read more here
Marine general now faces charge
Cold-Case: Trial looms for ex-wife of slain marine during Vietnam War
Cold-Case Trial Looms for Ex-Wife of Slain Marine
37 years later, NC trial looms for ex-wife in cold-case slaying of Marine over love triangle
By KEVIN MAURER Associated Press Writer
JACKSONVILLE, N.C. December 30, 2009 (AP)
William Miller's final errand was supposed to be a good deed, helping his estranged wife with car trouble. The Marine sergeant left home one night in 1972 and within the hour was found dead on a rural road.
Thirty-seven years later, three people face trial on murder charges for what prosecutors say was an ambush triggered by a love triangle around Miller's wife and violence between Marine pals.
The case remained unsolved until Miller's sister contacted a newspaper reporter looking into cold cases and the resulting investigation elicited new information from a 1970s baby sitter.
Miller's ex-wife Vickie Babbitt, 58, is scheduled to go to trial in March on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Also charged with murder and conspiracy are George Hayden, 57, who married Babbitt after Miller's death and later became a small-town police chief, and Rodger Gill, 56, an ex-Marine who was friends with the others.
read more here
Cold-Case Trial Looms for Ex-Wife of Slain Marine
37 years later, NC trial looms for ex-wife in cold-case slaying of Marine over love triangle
By KEVIN MAURER Associated Press Writer
JACKSONVILLE, N.C. December 30, 2009 (AP)
William Miller's final errand was supposed to be a good deed, helping his estranged wife with car trouble. The Marine sergeant left home one night in 1972 and within the hour was found dead on a rural road.
Thirty-seven years later, three people face trial on murder charges for what prosecutors say was an ambush triggered by a love triangle around Miller's wife and violence between Marine pals.
The case remained unsolved until Miller's sister contacted a newspaper reporter looking into cold cases and the resulting investigation elicited new information from a 1970s baby sitter.
Miller's ex-wife Vickie Babbitt, 58, is scheduled to go to trial in March on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Also charged with murder and conspiracy are George Hayden, 57, who married Babbitt after Miller's death and later became a small-town police chief, and Rodger Gill, 56, an ex-Marine who was friends with the others.
read more here
Cold-Case Trial Looms for Ex-Wife of Slain Marine
What Color Star Should a Military Spouse Get
The following was written by a woman of great courage and compassion. Her courage is evident in this heartbreaking article. Her compassion is known to me because she is a good friend. Carissa founded Military Spouses for Change and then later, renamed it to Military Spouses of America. I was on the board of directors and very proud of all the work Carissa did, and still does for military families.
Most of the time when a spouse talks, it is long after the service member has left the military. It is when they feel free to open up. In this case, Carissa is still living on Fort Hood with her children, opening herself up to more judgments and attacks because she lifts the curtain, letting the rest of us know how hard it is on military families. Too often forgotten when we report on the rates of PTSD, suicides and attempted suicides, we forget about the families they leave behind, just as we forget about the fact half of civilian marriages end in divorce without half the problems the military families have. I am also sure many military spouses will feel grateful she did this, said what they would not dare talk about.
The next time you read a story about how grateful Americans should be for those willing to serve this country, maybe, just maybe, you can also offer a prayer of thanks for the families standing where few will ever see.
Most of the time when a spouse talks, it is long after the service member has left the military. It is when they feel free to open up. In this case, Carissa is still living on Fort Hood with her children, opening herself up to more judgments and attacks because she lifts the curtain, letting the rest of us know how hard it is on military families. Too often forgotten when we report on the rates of PTSD, suicides and attempted suicides, we forget about the families they leave behind, just as we forget about the fact half of civilian marriages end in divorce without half the problems the military families have. I am also sure many military spouses will feel grateful she did this, said what they would not dare talk about.
The next time you read a story about how grateful Americans should be for those willing to serve this country, maybe, just maybe, you can also offer a prayer of thanks for the families standing where few will ever see.
What Color Star Should a Military Spouse Get?....
by Carissa S. Picard
"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" Robert Francis Kennedy
The U.S. Army, Fort Hood, and War in Iraq from the perspective of an activist Army Spouse
"The blood and tears shed in houses back home aren't tallied by the Department of Defense even though these losses are casualties of the same wars that were being ‘fought over there' so they wouldn't ‘be fought over here.' I think the...reasoning was fundamentally flawed. Both wars are being fought on two fronts, but America only recognizes one." Carissa S. Picard, Esq.
Ironically, it would be at the largest military installation in the United States that I would come to know loneliness and isolation better than the man who brought me there. This stranger who was rarely home was the very person who "defined" me as well as justified my presence at Fort Hood. Once I married Caynan, I was no longer Carissa, I was Caynan's wife.
My tasks, outside of raising our children, generally revolved around the navigation of the unspoken interstitial space of the Army wife-being neither here nor there, neither this nor that. Or, put more plainly, learning how to live your life when you are no longer a civilian, but you are not a soldier either.
I wasn't a photograph, I was its negative. I wasn't sure what I was anymore, but I always knew what I wasn't. I wasn't a practicing attorney. My license was in Maryland. I wasn't a voice for myself, my family, or other military families. Soldiers speak for their families. I wrote the occasional blog or op-ed, until my husband threatened to divorce me if the writing didn't stop. Advocacy from within was a career killer. Apparently, it was a marriage killer as well.
Every species has to adapt or die. In my muddled attempts to survive the last eight years, I learned to engage in covert warfare, practice collateral damage control, manipulate pain management, and master the rules of dis-engagement. Landmines abound and I am not without battle scars.
The blood and tears shed in houses back home aren't tallied by the Department of Defense even though these losses are casualties of the same wars that were being "fought over there" so they wouldn't "be fought over here." I think the Administration's reasoning was fundamentally flawed. Both wars are being fought on two fronts, but America only recognizes one.
read more here
http://www.veteranstoday.com/article9953.html
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
VA Selects Permanent Location for Historic Civil War Monument
VA Selects Permanent Location for Historic Civil War Monument
WASHINGTON (Dec. 30, 2009) - Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced today the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has selected the Frazier International History Museum in Louisville, Ky., as the new home of the Bloedner Monument, the nation's oldest Civil War memorial.
The Bloedner Monument was removed from Cave Hill National Cemetery in Louisville in December 2008 and taken to a temporary facility where it was professionally conserved by Conservation Solutions Inc. to arrest further damage.
"The removal of an important monument from a national cemetery is rare and was not undertaken without great deliberation," said Secretary Shinseki. "However, the overwhelming significance of the Bloedner Monument and its failing condition warranted this unusual step."
The monument was carved in January 1862 by Pvt. August Bloedner to commemorate his fellow soldiers of the 32nd Indiana Infantry, all of them German immigrants who fell in the Battle of Rowlett's Station near Munfordville, Ky. The monument's original location was on the battlefield, marking the graves of 13 soldiers who perished there. When most of these remains were removed to Cave Hill National Cemetery in 1867, the Bloedner Monument was moved there as well.
VA historians, in collaboration with the Kentucky Heritage Council and Heritage Preservation Inc., selected the Frazier International Museum as the new home from three interested facilities based on Civil War exhibit plans, controlled environment and security, financial stability, annual visitation and proximity to Cave Hill National Cemetery.
The monument was fabricated from St. Genevieve limestone, with a base of Bedford limestone added in 1867. It measures approximately 5 feet long, 1 foot deep and 3 ½ feet high. The monument is carved on one side with a relief of an eagle and an inscription in German in a rustic script. The text was approximately 300 words and 2,500 characters long at the time it was carved. Because of the poor quality of the limestone and effects of the environment, the monument has lost a significant amount of material. Only about 50 percent of the original carving and inscription remains.
The monument was temporarily relocated to a University of Louisville facility for treatment while VA conducted a thorough evaluation of potential sites. The evaluation process included written proposals and site visits. VA posted information on the Internet, mailed information to Veterans and Civil War heritage groups and held a public information meeting to solicit suggestions.
A new monument, with an interpretive sign explaining the significance of the original Bloedner Monument and indicating its location, will be placed at Cave Hill National Cemetery in 2010.
WASHINGTON (Dec. 30, 2009) - Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced today the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has selected the Frazier International History Museum in Louisville, Ky., as the new home of the Bloedner Monument, the nation's oldest Civil War memorial.
The Bloedner Monument was removed from Cave Hill National Cemetery in Louisville in December 2008 and taken to a temporary facility where it was professionally conserved by Conservation Solutions Inc. to arrest further damage.
"The removal of an important monument from a national cemetery is rare and was not undertaken without great deliberation," said Secretary Shinseki. "However, the overwhelming significance of the Bloedner Monument and its failing condition warranted this unusual step."
The monument was carved in January 1862 by Pvt. August Bloedner to commemorate his fellow soldiers of the 32nd Indiana Infantry, all of them German immigrants who fell in the Battle of Rowlett's Station near Munfordville, Ky. The monument's original location was on the battlefield, marking the graves of 13 soldiers who perished there. When most of these remains were removed to Cave Hill National Cemetery in 1867, the Bloedner Monument was moved there as well.
VA historians, in collaboration with the Kentucky Heritage Council and Heritage Preservation Inc., selected the Frazier International Museum as the new home from three interested facilities based on Civil War exhibit plans, controlled environment and security, financial stability, annual visitation and proximity to Cave Hill National Cemetery.
The monument was fabricated from St. Genevieve limestone, with a base of Bedford limestone added in 1867. It measures approximately 5 feet long, 1 foot deep and 3 ½ feet high. The monument is carved on one side with a relief of an eagle and an inscription in German in a rustic script. The text was approximately 300 words and 2,500 characters long at the time it was carved. Because of the poor quality of the limestone and effects of the environment, the monument has lost a significant amount of material. Only about 50 percent of the original carving and inscription remains.
The monument was temporarily relocated to a University of Louisville facility for treatment while VA conducted a thorough evaluation of potential sites. The evaluation process included written proposals and site visits. VA posted information on the Internet, mailed information to Veterans and Civil War heritage groups and held a public information meeting to solicit suggestions.
A new monument, with an interpretive sign explaining the significance of the original Bloedner Monument and indicating its location, will be placed at Cave Hill National Cemetery in 2010.
Soldier accused of shooting apartment wall
Soldier accused of shooting apartment wall
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Dec 30, 2009 13:10:45 EST
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — A Fort Wainwright soldier faces a felony weapons misconduct charge because police say he fired several shots through an apartment wall after a dispute with his wife.
read more here
Soldier accused of shooting apartment wall
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Dec 30, 2009 13:10:45 EST
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — A Fort Wainwright soldier faces a felony weapons misconduct charge because police say he fired several shots through an apartment wall after a dispute with his wife.
read more here
Soldier accused of shooting apartment wall
Forward Operating Base Chapman hit by suicide bomber, 8 killed
UPDATE
Suicide bomber attacks CIA base in Afghanistan, killing at least 8 Americans
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 31, 2009; 8:34 AM
A suicide bomber infiltrated a CIA base in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least eight Americans in what is believed to be the deadliest single attack on U.S. intelligence personnel in the eight-year-long war and one of the deadliest in the agency's history, U.S. officials said.
The attack represented an audacious blow to intelligence operatives at the vanguard of U.S. counterterrorism operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing officials whose job involves plotting strikes against the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other extremist groups that are active on the frontier between the two nations. The facility that was targeted -- Forward Operating Base Chapman -- is in the eastern Afghan province of Khost, which borders North Waziristan, the Pakistani tribal area that is believed to be al-Qaeda's home base.
U.S. sources confirmed that all the dead and injured were civilians and said they believed that most, if not all, were CIA employees or contractors. At least one Afghan civilian also was killed, the sources said.
read more here
Suicide bomber attacks CIA base in Afghanistan
Suicide bomber attacks CIA base in Afghanistan, killing at least 8 Americans
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 31, 2009; 8:34 AM
A suicide bomber infiltrated a CIA base in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least eight Americans in what is believed to be the deadliest single attack on U.S. intelligence personnel in the eight-year-long war and one of the deadliest in the agency's history, U.S. officials said.
The attack represented an audacious blow to intelligence operatives at the vanguard of U.S. counterterrorism operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing officials whose job involves plotting strikes against the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other extremist groups that are active on the frontier between the two nations. The facility that was targeted -- Forward Operating Base Chapman -- is in the eastern Afghan province of Khost, which borders North Waziristan, the Pakistani tribal area that is believed to be al-Qaeda's home base.
U.S. sources confirmed that all the dead and injured were civilians and said they believed that most, if not all, were CIA employees or contractors. At least one Afghan civilian also was killed, the sources said.
read more here
Suicide bomber attacks CIA base in Afghanistan
8 U.S. deaths at military base in Afghanistan
From Atia Abawi, CNN
December 30, 2009 2:18 p.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The victims not from the military, official says
Suicide bomber strikes forward operating base in eastern Afghanistan, military says
Attack at Forward Operating Base Chapman near the district of Khost in Khost province
Kabul, Afghanistan
(CNN) -- Eight Americans were killed in a suicide bombing Wednesday at a military base in eastern Afghanistan, according to a U.S. military official and a U.S. Embassy official.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/30/afghanistan.us.casualties/
Dad headed to Iraq delivers baby girl
Dad headed to Iraq delivers baby girl
Associated Press
Dec. 30, 2009, 1:16PM
PADUCAH, Ky. — Spc. Mark May sat on the Motel 6 bathroom floor, crying and kissing his newborn daughter as he rubbed her frantically with a towel.
"Breathe, baby, breathe!" he told her.
When Amby Lynn May cried Tuesday morning, it was one of the most beautiful sounds he ever heard, he said.
Ambys mother, Amber May, 22, of Morehead, wasn't due to have Amby until Jan. 18. She'd even taken precautions to make sure an early arrival wasn't imminent. Before agreeing to drive her husband to Paducah to leave with the Kentucky Army National Guard's 2113th Transportation Company, Amber visited her doctor Monday.
"Everything is fine," he told her.
The Mays decided to drive to Paducah on Monday because Mark May, a construction and combat engineer, was supposed to be at the Paducah armory at 9 a.m. The unit was home on Christmas leave, but left Tuesday morning for training at Camp Shelby, Miss., in preparation for deploying to Iraq later this year.
read more here
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6792264.html
Associated Press
Dec. 30, 2009, 1:16PM
PADUCAH, Ky. — Spc. Mark May sat on the Motel 6 bathroom floor, crying and kissing his newborn daughter as he rubbed her frantically with a towel.
"Breathe, baby, breathe!" he told her.
When Amby Lynn May cried Tuesday morning, it was one of the most beautiful sounds he ever heard, he said.
Ambys mother, Amber May, 22, of Morehead, wasn't due to have Amby until Jan. 18. She'd even taken precautions to make sure an early arrival wasn't imminent. Before agreeing to drive her husband to Paducah to leave with the Kentucky Army National Guard's 2113th Transportation Company, Amber visited her doctor Monday.
"Everything is fine," he told her.
The Mays decided to drive to Paducah on Monday because Mark May, a construction and combat engineer, was supposed to be at the Paducah armory at 9 a.m. The unit was home on Christmas leave, but left Tuesday morning for training at Camp Shelby, Miss., in preparation for deploying to Iraq later this year.
read more here
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6792264.html
I'm only doing my job
I get asked a lot of times why I do what I do. This time, I turned the question around and asked a National Guardsman why he does what he does.
"I do it to help."
"Why?"
"Because I can, to give back." and then the real answer came out. He was compelled to do it. It came from inside of him, a tug he felt for a long time before he joined the National Guards. It's what is behind the decision to do anything for other people no matter what place we take doing what is needed.
From the people going to work for charities, determined to make the lives of strangers better at the same time they end up making less money because it's a charity.
The emergency responder willing to face any kind of weather condition, rush into where everyone else is running away from, just to be able to make a difference in someone else's life and maybe save a life.
The firefighter, the police officer, the men and women in our military, all the way down to the next door neighbor always ready to show up when you need some help with something. All of them want to make a difference in this world. Each one called to their own path of getting to their own place in this country. Everyday people willing to risk it all and when the job is done, they end up having to still take out the trash, clean their bathrooms and figure out what to have for dinner. You can just imagine them standing in their kitchen with the usual family talk. "What did you do today?" "I got a cup of coffee, saved a life and then picked up pizza." We forget they have the same kind of routines the rest of us do, the same kind of chores to do and problems to face, but they are playing real life heroes everyday as well.
I do what I do because I can but above that, because I know what a real hero looks like, sounds like and have heard more than a thousand times to not address any of them as a hero because they turn it around and say "I'm only doing my job" and they want it to be seen only that way. They don't want us to treat them any differently but what they don't see is that they are so different from the rest of us. We pretty much take care of our own problems, in our own lives but they do all that and usually after they've taken care of the rest of us.
God compelled me to do this but I have not risked my life to do it and that is the biggest difference of all. They risk their lives everyday so the least we can do is to help them recover from what they have to go thru in order to do it. I'm only doing a small part. When I look on the net about what others are doing across the country, I am amazed and humbled by it.
The motorcycle clubs showing up to honor the return of soldiers or for a funeral of a fallen soldier.
The elderly groups showing up at airports to send off more being deployed as well as welcome others back home.
The veterans taking charge of service groups to help other veterans.
The people working in shelters so that one less veteran will sleep out in the cold another night.
The people volunteering to give out hot meals, not just during Thanksgiving or Christmas, but everyday of the year when no one else is looking, no media showing up to take pictures.
Moms and Dads of fallen soldiers showing up in Washington to testify constantly amaze me because while they could just focus on their own loss, they think of others and try to make a difference to strangers' children.
This nation is filled with quiet heroes but you don't read about them all the time or see a local news report about what they are doing enough. The terrible things people do get a lot more attention. The truth is, there are so many more doing good things for others than there are trying to hurt, take away from or take advantage of, that there would just not be enough hours in the day to report about all that is being done for the greater good than the acts committed by the selfish. Take heart that all is still well in this country, even with the problems all of us have, because even with those problems all of us have, there are real heroes taking on our burdens on top of their own. That's what's great about this country and for this we are all truly blessed.
"I do it to help."
"Why?"
"Because I can, to give back." and then the real answer came out. He was compelled to do it. It came from inside of him, a tug he felt for a long time before he joined the National Guards. It's what is behind the decision to do anything for other people no matter what place we take doing what is needed.
From the people going to work for charities, determined to make the lives of strangers better at the same time they end up making less money because it's a charity.
The emergency responder willing to face any kind of weather condition, rush into where everyone else is running away from, just to be able to make a difference in someone else's life and maybe save a life.
The firefighter, the police officer, the men and women in our military, all the way down to the next door neighbor always ready to show up when you need some help with something. All of them want to make a difference in this world. Each one called to their own path of getting to their own place in this country. Everyday people willing to risk it all and when the job is done, they end up having to still take out the trash, clean their bathrooms and figure out what to have for dinner. You can just imagine them standing in their kitchen with the usual family talk. "What did you do today?" "I got a cup of coffee, saved a life and then picked up pizza." We forget they have the same kind of routines the rest of us do, the same kind of chores to do and problems to face, but they are playing real life heroes everyday as well.
I do what I do because I can but above that, because I know what a real hero looks like, sounds like and have heard more than a thousand times to not address any of them as a hero because they turn it around and say "I'm only doing my job" and they want it to be seen only that way. They don't want us to treat them any differently but what they don't see is that they are so different from the rest of us. We pretty much take care of our own problems, in our own lives but they do all that and usually after they've taken care of the rest of us.
God compelled me to do this but I have not risked my life to do it and that is the biggest difference of all. They risk their lives everyday so the least we can do is to help them recover from what they have to go thru in order to do it. I'm only doing a small part. When I look on the net about what others are doing across the country, I am amazed and humbled by it.
The motorcycle clubs showing up to honor the return of soldiers or for a funeral of a fallen soldier.
The elderly groups showing up at airports to send off more being deployed as well as welcome others back home.
The veterans taking charge of service groups to help other veterans.
The people working in shelters so that one less veteran will sleep out in the cold another night.
The people volunteering to give out hot meals, not just during Thanksgiving or Christmas, but everyday of the year when no one else is looking, no media showing up to take pictures.
Moms and Dads of fallen soldiers showing up in Washington to testify constantly amaze me because while they could just focus on their own loss, they think of others and try to make a difference to strangers' children.
This nation is filled with quiet heroes but you don't read about them all the time or see a local news report about what they are doing enough. The terrible things people do get a lot more attention. The truth is, there are so many more doing good things for others than there are trying to hurt, take away from or take advantage of, that there would just not be enough hours in the day to report about all that is being done for the greater good than the acts committed by the selfish. Take heart that all is still well in this country, even with the problems all of us have, because even with those problems all of us have, there are real heroes taking on our burdens on top of their own. That's what's great about this country and for this we are all truly blessed.
Florida National Guard Send off
One of Florida's leaders in helping our troops and veterans sent me this alert on a send off for Florida's National Guardsmen. If you can attend it, it would be a wonderful thing to do.
South Florida Veterans Multi-Purpose Center
A full service Veteran Service Center and Traveling Mobile Veterans Center.
Welcome and Thank you for Visiting SouthFloridaVets.org
The South Florida Veterans Multi-Purpose Center (VMPC), is unique. It was started by Veterans in 1989 out of a single desire to help and benefit all Veterans and their families in South Florida.
Since the granting of its IRS 501(c)(3) Tax Exempt status in 1991, the Center has been involved in a broad base of Veteran services. The Center works closely with the VA and other government agencies as well as the public and private sectors to provide quality services and benefits to Veterans throughout Florida.
We are proud that we are the only Veterans organization in South Florida with an IRS 501(c)(3) status that:
Provides professional referral and outreach services to Veterans utilizing public, private, and government organizations.
Owns and operates a Mobile Veterans Center that travels throughout the state and participates in community based Veterans' events.
Funds food programs for Indigent Veterans and their families.
Partnerships with other non-profits for the sole purpose of providing transitional housing for homeless veterans.
Provides a substance abuse and recovery program for Veterans.
Doesn't have special eligibility requirements for veterans to receive services.
click link for more on South Florida VeteransI am including the information on the departure of our National Guard unit. I'm sure some of you already have this information. We want a good turn out to send off these men and women and to let them know we care and are proud of them.
Bob Bambury
Executive Director
South Florida Veterans
Multi-Purpose Center
Florida National Guard Send off
Event Date: 1/5/10
Event Time: 9am
Event Location: Sheltair Aviation, 1100 Lee Wagener Blvd., Fort Lauderdale 33135 (at Fort Lauderdale Int’l)
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