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Robert Serge
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From: gretchen@mail.iava.org
To: booperser@live.com
Subject: IAVA Daily News Brief- August 12, 2014
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 07:28:33 -0600
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IAVA Daily News Brief - Tuesday August 12, 2014
Robin Williams with American soldiers in Afghanistan during a U.S.O. tour there in December 2014. | New York Times >> |
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| TODAY'S TOP STORIES |
Program for homeless vets gets $300 million infusion
A popular VA homeless program that community groups say helps them keep tens of thousands of veterans off the street, including thousands who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has received a fresh infusion of $300 million. | USA Today >> Soledad O'Brien: For veterans, the war comes home
Delon Beckett is losing it. He's drunk, stumbling around his living room wrestling with his 3-year-old daughter, Jayla. She kicks him in the groin, and he mumbles "stop." He can barely stand up and walk but he drags himself to the stairs, pushing her away and faltering. His wife, Emme, is not far behind, putting herself between Delon and two kids, picking up the things he knocks over. Her husband survived the war in Iraq. Now, at home, he wants very much to die. | CNN >>
Vietnam Vets With PTSD Carry Double Risk of Younger Death: study
Vietnam veterans with PTSD carry nearly twice the risk of early death compared to troops from that era who don't have combat-related anxiety, new research shows. The findings - a follow-up to landmark, 1980s analysis of more than 2,300 Vietnam vets - "paint a disturbing portrait of the course of PTSD and its long-term medical consequences," said Dr. William Schlenger, a scientist with the research firm, Abt Associates. He offered preliminary findings to the American Psychological Association Convention in Washington, D.C. on Friday. | NBC News >>
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| AFGHANISTAN |
Afghans voted for a president on April 5. Then they cast ballots June 14 in a runoff between the top two candidates. Now all 8 million votes from that second round are being audited, a laborious process that includes daily arguments, occasional fistfights and yet another deadline that seems to be slipping away. | NPR >> The U.S. military has done a poor job investigating civilian casualties caused by its operations in Afghanistan, even when evidence suggests war crimes may have been committed, Amnesty International concluded in a report released Monday. | Stars and Stripes >>
Prince Harry saw "young lads . . . wrapped in plastic and missing limbs" as a helicopter pilot during his two tours in Afghanistan. The 29-year-old royal said the "horrendous" sights served as his motivation in helping to organize the Invictus Games, a new international sporting competition for injured soldiers. | NY Daily News >>
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| IRAQ |
Unlike Obama's earlier military orders, his Iraq plan lacks a deadline President Obama was eager to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq, is eager to pull them out of Afghanistan, and refused to put them into Libya and Syria. His reticence is justifiably rooted in opposition at home to any more ground combat following more than a decade of war after 9/11. | TIME >> U.S. forces carrying out airstrikes against Islamic militants in northern Iraq will remain focused on relieving the threat against refugees and the Kurdish city of Irbil instead of degrading the strength of the group known as the Islamic State, a Pentagon official said Monday. | USA Today >>
Iraq's embattled prime minister is on the ropes, as rival Baghdad leaders moved to replace him and the U.S. nudged him to step aside and let someone else deal with the Sunni insurgency engulfing the nation. | Fox News >> |
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| MILITARY AFFAIRS |
Following a directive by the secretary of defense, the Marine Corps is reconsidering its female hairstyle regulations and wants Marines to weigh in on the issue. The Marine Corps Uniform Board released a survey Monday to get feedback about whether two banned hairstyles for women - dreadlocks and twists - should be allowed. | Stars and Stripes >> For many airmen, basic training is the most grueling part of joining the Air Force. And some might consider it nuts for anyone to go through basic not just once, but three times. But that's exactly what 53 enlisted airmen enrolled in the Air Force Academy's preparatory school are in the process of doing. Those prior-enlisted "preppies" make up 22 percent of the academy's 243 cadet candidates who hope to join the class of 2019 next year. | Air Force Times >>
(Via Air Force Times)
At least five of the American service members who were wounded in last week's "insider attack" in Kabul have been brought back to the United States, including one who was shot six times shielding a British colonel who was not wearing body armor at the time. | Washington Post >>
The guided-missile destroyer Mahan (DDG 72) set sail Monday morning on a scheduled five-month deployment to the Arabian Gulf. The ship has had rough seas in the past year. The Mahan completed a nine-month deployment less than one year ago. Roughly 60 percent of the current crew were on that float, and will miss the holidays due to this quick turnaround. | Navy Times >>
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| NEW GREATEST GENERATION |
For all those in need of some inspiration, look no further than Christopher Melendez, a war vet amputee turned professional wrestler. Melendez, a native New Yorker, enlisted in the Army following the 9/11 attacks. "I felt like someone brought the fight to my front door, to my home, and I wanted to stand for my country- and my city," Melendez said of his decision to join the Army. | Washington Free Beacon >> The strangest day in Kurt Volker's adult life was his first 24 hours outside the military. For 7,300 days, the Air Force tech sergeant had been told what to do, where to go and how to think. Walking off his base, he no longer existed to the military and he felt he didn't exist to the civilian masses. From a highly focused, egoless team structure, Volker entered what he saw as a Twilight Zone of unorganized narcissists listlessly wandering through a world he hadn't seen since 1991. | Times-News >>
 (Via Times-News)
A soldier has wowed crowds and wooed judges in his first two performances on "America's Got Talent," but to reach the next level, he'll need help from viewers. Pfc. Paul Ieti, whose YouTube popularity - some of which came from clips recorded in Afghanistan - helped him land an audition with the NBC talent show, will sing Tuesday night at Radio City Music Hall during the two-hour live show that'll air at 9 p.m. Eastern. | Army Times >>
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| INSIDE WASHINGTON |
The rebranding of Veterans Affairs employees has begun. Department scandals in recent months have left the VA's workforce labeled as uncaring and incompetent bureaucrats. But in comments over the last few days, new VA Secretary Bob McDonald has worked to soften that image, refocusing attention on the successes of the system while fixes are put in place. | Army Times >>
Even though there are fewer veterans now than a decade ago, the government is paying nearly three times as much in disability payments as it did then, according to a budget analysis that says the war on terrorism has left troops more severely injured than previous conflicts did. | Washington Times >>
We all know how Washington crises usually unfold. A problem erupts. Politicians trample each other to express outrage and allocate blame. Scapegoats are sacrificed, legislation emerges and money gets appropriated. And then the issue fades from view.That's the course the scandal over veterans' health care has followed so far. A few weeks ago, everyone in the capital was high dudgeon over revelations that veterans were suffering and even dying while waiting weeks or months for appointments. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital administrators had falsified records to cover up long wait times. | Chicago Tribune >>
First lady Michelle Obama has an unexpected force backing her up in the simmering fight over school lunch standards: retired admirals and generals. Mission: Readiness, a group of nearly 500 former military leaders, is planning to "storm the Hill" when Congress comes back to town next month and urge lawmakers to keep new school nutrition standards intact. | Politico >> |
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A wide range of views, positions and publications are represented in these articles. These views, positions and publications are not endorsed by nor do they necessarily represent the views of IAVA.
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