Please pass on to other vets.

The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) has provided the following web site for veterans to gain access to their DD-214′s on-line:

http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/

This may be particularly helpful when a veteran needs a copy of his DD-214 for employment purposes. NPRC is working to make it easier for veterans with computers and Internet access to obtain copies of documents from their military files.

Military veterans and the next of kin of deceased former military members may now use a new online military personnel records system to request documents.

Other individuals with a need for documents must still complete the Standard Form 180, which can be downloaded from the on-line web site. Because the requester will be asked to supply all information essential for NPRC to process the request, delays that normally occur when NPRC has to ask veterans for additional information will be minimized. The new web-based application was designed to provide better service on these requests by eliminating the records center mail room and processing time.

Please pass this information on to former military personnel you may know and their dependents.

Director of Nassau County Veterans Service Agency, Patrick Yngstrom will be on our Veterans Day Telethon November 6th, to talk about services available to veterans on Long Island.  Mr. Yngstrom, a Vietnam veteran himself, is a past president of the United Veteran’s Organization which fights to ensure that every veteran is treated with dignity and respect.

There are many federal, state and local agencies as well as non-government organizations that offer benefits to our veterans.  Often service members returning to civilian life don’t know about the programs set up to help them.  Or, if they do know, the paperwork to access these benefits is too daunting for them to tackle alone.

The Nassau County Veterans Service Agency, which was created with that need in mind, performs two important functions.  First, they help veterans pick their way through the tangle of agencies to find the services they need.  In addition they run an active volunteer program.

There are an incredible number of benefits and services available to veterans in Nassau County. The federal services, of course, are available nationwide.  They include access to a large network veteran’s hospitals.  Locally that is the Northport VA Hospital and the Plainview Clinic.  Veterans who need transportation to either of these facilities are encouraged to call the agency which will, in turn, contact volunteers willing to provide rides.  They have a wheelchair accessible van for the convenience of disabled vets.

The agency isn’t just a place to call for a ride.  They offer many other services including help for veterans who want to file claims benefits, from federal and state agencies.  They can also help file discharge or separation papers (DD-214), and file for veteran’s state tax exemption status.

Returning service members can find help in obtaining medals, and medical and personnel records.  The agency assists with appeals and offers employment counseling.  They can also help a veteran who is trying to get his discharge upgraded. And finally, as stated earlier, they will refer the ex-serviceman to other county, state and federal agencies which offer benefits.

In addition to all of this, the agency coordinates an annual “Stand-Down”.  Stand-Downs are a nationwide effort by the Department of Veterans Affairs to address the needs of America’s homeless veterans.  Since the first Stand-Down was organized in 1988, these events have helped hundreds of thousands of people.

This past summer, Agency Director Patrick Yngstrom and his staff and volunteers hosted their “Stand-Down” for the area’s needy and homeless vets at the Hempstead American Legion Post. Inside the post, veterans were assisted through various aid stations where they received information about benefits to which they were entitled as well as employment counseling.  They were also directed to civilian social service agencies which could help them with housing or substance abuse problems.

Other aid stations were set up to offer veterans basic medical evaluations.  One table was devoted to blood pressure checks, while at another, the men got eye exams and glasses.  Another station offered free haircuts.  The men didn’t leave empty-handed.  They were also given clothes, and toiletries.

Jack Hipp is a Vietnam era veteran and 6th consecutive year commander of the largest American Legion Post (1066) in Nassau County.  Jack served his country as a Navy Cryptologist only to then continue serving his community and country as a NYC Detective.  Jack is also an active member of the VFW and AMVets.  In September 2010, Jack was awarded the National County Distinguished Service to Veterans Award.

With that said, it is no surprise that Jack and Post 1066 raised their hands to host the 2010 Veterans Day Telethon on November 6th.  They will kick off the telethon with ceremonies honoring POW/MIA, Memorial Dedications and the proper disposal of damaged flags.  We are honored and grateful to be working with them!

American Legion Post 1066 sets the example for other posts to follow with their active outreach program to newly discharged veterans in and around Massapequa, NY.  They actively encourage both the newly discharged and those preparing to discharge to reach out to their local American Legion and other veteran organizations immediately so that Service Officers like Jack Ryan can “point you in the right direction” and save you the runaround often encountered at the VA.

Jack Hipp and American Legion Post 1066 exemplify the 4 pillars by which the American Legion stands:

• Strong National Security
• Taking Care of Veterans
• Mentoring Youth
• Patriotism and Honor (Americanism)

Each of these pillars encompasses a variety of programs that benefit our nation’s veterans,its servicemembers, their families, the youth in America and ordinary citizens.These programs make a difference in hundreds of thousands of lives each year.

Contact American Legion Post 1066 at 516.795.1504 or by email at jhipp@MassapequaPost1066.com.

Brian Clubb,  the Veterans Treatment Court Project Director for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP).  Brian is also a retired Marine Corps Veteran having served as an intelligence officer, a scout-sniper platoon commander, counter-narcotics analyst, and substance abuse control officer.  Mr. Clubb is a former deputy public defender and civilian defense attorney from San Jose, California where he represented hundreds of clients in his county’s drug and mental health treatment courts.   He received his Juris Doctorate from the University of San Diego and his Bachelors of Arts in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

This year marks the ninth straight year of America at war. There are now more than 23 million U.S. veterans including 2 million and counting from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The men and women of our military shoulder the burden of protecting our freedom. Over 5,000 have paid the ultimate price and another 37,000 will forever bear the physical wounds of war.

We must not forget that one in six veterans from Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom suffers from a substance abuse challenge. One in five has symptoms of a mental disorder or cognitive impairment. Research continues to draw a link between substance abuse and combat related mental illness and increasing numbers of veterans are appearing in our courts to face charges stemming directly from these issues. Where do many end up? Today, an estimated 60% of the 140,000 veterans in prison have a substance abuse problem. And tonight, roughly 130,000 veterans will be homeless, 70% of whom suffer from a substance abuse and/or mental illness condition.

Veterans Treatment Courts are hybrid Drug and Mental Health Courts that use the Drug Court model to serve veterans struggling with addiction, serious mental illness and/or co-occurring disorders. They promote sobriety, recovery and stability through a coordinated response that involves cooperation and collaboration with the traditional partners found in Drug and Mental Health Courts, with the addition of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care networks, the Veterans’ Benefits Administration, volunteer veteran mentors and veterans and veterans’ family support organizations.

Brian will be joining us LIVE on our Veterans Day Telethon on November 6th to discuss more about Veteran Treatment Courts.  Be sure to listen in and send us your questions and comments to laurakennedylive@gmail.com

Tom Cormier grew up on a New England farm with his 9 siblings. He was the first to leave home and served with the US Marines in the Vietnam War. Returning home he married his high school sweetheart, Christine, and has been married nearly 40 years with two grown sons, Justin and Tyler.

In 1990 Tom founded LTA Media, an international direct marketing firm specializing in life enhancement products. ‘LTA’ stands for ‘Let’s Talk America’, a radio talk show Tom created and hosted which aired on over 600 stations in the United States and Canada during the 1990’s.

In 2000, looking to make a bigger difference, he helped restore a vintage mountain town, Telliquah, in the Great Smoky Mountains. It was during this time that he began collecting and preserving stories of the Cherokee and Appalachian communities.

It quickly became apparent that this rich heritage was disappearing much faster than he could capture it. He began looking for ways to engage communities, groups, cultures and families to become more active in preserving their heritage.

Together, Tom and the Founder of Project StoryKeeper, Dennis Stack became a force on the national heritage scene. They created the “TreasuryOfHeritage.com“, an online archive and gathering place where stories can be stored and shared by families and communities in multi-media.

The Treasury is a no fancy frills website. It’s purpose is to provide a well organized and safe place on the web to back up memories that can never be replaced and to offer the social media technology to share them.

With the nation’s most efficient story-collection process and an online archive to preserve and share the rich content, it was time to launch, ‘The Great Heritage Campaign’, a worldwide movement to make story-preservation a priority.

The treasury has a place for Military Groups where they can use the treasury to preserve and share their service experiences. The Treasury provides a great place to form groups, forums, upload photos, videos and all that is needed to tell the stories of veterans their families want to know.We would love for you to become part of our community and movement.

Tom will be joining Dennis Stack and the Veterans Day Telethon team LIVE on November 6th to tell us more about “The Great Heritage Campaign”.

Give it a try

After 19 years starting as a financial consultant with EF Hutton and finishing as a Senior Vice President and Branch Manager for UBS/PaineWebber, he discovered that his clients did a great job with preserving their valuables but not so well at preserving their values. So, he created a ‘do-it-yourself’ Family StoryKeeper Kit as a 2001 Christmas gift for his clients. The response was overwhelming. In 2003 Dennis left his upper 6-figure career and made preserving family heritage his life passion.

Since then he has refined and improved his unique story-collection process by training thousands of volunteers in over 800 hospices, senior centers and VA hospitals. His ‘Family StoryKeeper Course’ is considered the industry gold standard for conducting intuitive interviews and is now being taught in 3 universities.

In early 2003 he founded Project StoryKeeper in an effort to work with cultural groups and communities to provide awareness, training and tools to record their stories.

Today, Dennis acts as an Ambassador to promote Project StoryKeeper’s mission of preserving the past, enriching the present and inspiring the future for all families and communities.  It is important to Project StoryKeeper that we make sure we can all learn, grow and experience the cherished stories of our families’, communities’ and nations’ heroes.

Project StoryKeeper is a founding partner of the Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center whose purpose is to collect and preserve at the Library of Congress the firsthand remembrances of U.S. wartime veterans.  The Veterans History Project Launches through a partnership between Project Storykeeper and The United States’ Library of Congress. No longer will our service men and women’s stories be lost. Now, not only will they be storied and archived, but they will be accessible to the world through the Veterans History Project web portal.

On November 6th, Dennis will be joining us LIVE on the Veterans Day Telethon to share more about this project.

Project StoryKeeper relies on well-trained people to collect stories and connect families.

BECOME A STORYKEEPER!

Charitable donations for Project StoryKeeper go directly towards the mission of training and supporting an army of certified StoryKeepers to collect stories and connect families.

The VA Improved Pension – The VA classifies any veteran at the age of 65 to be permanently and totally disabled regardless of your physical state. The classification of “Disabled” entitles the veteran or widow for a Basic Pension if he/she meets the net worth and income criteria. The same is true for the surviving spouse.  No Physician’s Statement is required for filing for Basic Pension.  To be eligible for Basic Pension:

• A veteran alone must have countable income LESS than $11,830 a year
• A veteran with a spouse must have countable income LESS than: $15,493 a year

For more information see Code of Federal Regulation Authority: 38 U.S.C. 1521(b) or (c)).  Also check this site for more information as it becomes available.  (Veteran Aid.org)

Many years ago my husband would set out for the open seas, which left my two sons and I alone to fend for ourselves. I understood of course that he was serving his country and this was his duty, but what an emotional predicament that decision would often leave our family in.

Allow me to help you understand how it can be a time of positive growth and change rather than emotional predicaments.

I experienced 16 years of military parenting, I coach parents for a living and am the Un