Posts Tagged ‘veterans’

On March 24, 2010, ArmedForcesEyewear.com, the military division of FramesDirect.com (the World’s Largest Online Optical Store), will unveil the first Virtual Eyewear Store at Goodfellow Air Force Base!

ArmedForcesEyewear.com is an online optical retailer for active duty and retired military personnel, as well as dependents. The site offers thousands of name brand eyeglasses, sunglasses, prescription sunglasses, and contact lenses at special military discount prices. They also offer a streamlined ordering process, a prescription lens guarantee and dependable customer service.

Goodfellow AFB serves as the pilot site for this project, and success in this location could lead to the implementation of additional kiosks in military installations worldwide.

For more information visit http://www.framesdirectblog.com/first-virtual-optical-store-serves-military-personnel/

Attention Veterans and Employers! The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, enacted in February of 2009, offers $4,800 to an employer for hiring a qualified veteran.  This legislation includes other key provisions – including giving businesses tax credits for hiring unemployed veterans and providing disabled veterans a payment of $250.  In addition, it includes other provisions to improve the lives of our troops and veterans, such as funding additional child care centers and warrior transition centers for wounded warriors returning from combat.

Improving the Quality of Life for Our Troops

• Renovating and Making More Energy-Efficient DOD Facilities:  Provides $4.2 billion to invest in energy efficient projects and to repair and modernize a variety of Department of Defense facilities.
• Improving the Hospitals for Our Troops: Provides $1.3 billion for rebuild and renovate our aging military hospitals and ambulatory care centers.  Many of these facilities are 40 or even 50 years old, and are not suited to current medical standards and practices.
• Providing Assistance to Military Homeowners: Provides $555 million for assistance to military homeowners, including wounded warriors and surviving spouses, who have been impacted by the housing crisis.
• Improving Troop and Family Housing:  Provides $335 million to build new barracks and dormitories for our soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen as well as to make further investments in quality family housing for military families.
• Expanding Child Care for Military Families:  Provides $240 million for new child development centers on military bases across the country.  These facilities will help military spouses hold down jobs and will provide employment opportunities for caregivers.
• Establishing Warrior Transition Complexes: Provides $100 million for warrior transition complexes to provide services to wounded warriors returning from combat and their families.
• Constructing Needed Facilities for the National Guard: Provides $100 million for new construction of operations and training facilities to support National Guard units across the country.

Improving the Quality of Life for Our Veterans

• Providing Businesses A Tax Credit for Hiring Unemployed Veterans: Provides a tax credit to businesses for hiring unemployed veterans.  Specifically, veterans would qualify if they were discharged or released from active duty from the Armed Forces during the previous five years and received unemployment benefits for more than 4 weeks before being hired.
• Providing Disabled Veterans A Payment of $250:  Provides a payment of $250 to all disabled veterans receiving benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.  (This $250 payment, which also goes to retirees, SSI beneficiaries and Railroad Retirement beneficiaries, is targeted to those who are likely not to benefit from the Making Work Pay tax credit.)
• Improving the Hospitals for Our Veterans:  Provides $1 billion for non-recurring maintenance, including energy efficiency projects, to address deficiencies and avoid serious maintenance problems at the 153 VA hospitals across the country.
• Increasing the Number of VA Claims Processors:  Provides $150 million for an increase in VA claims processing staff, in order to address the large backlog in processing veterans’ claims.  This backlog has been a key complaint of veterans across the country.
• Improving Automation of VA Benefit Processing:  Provides $50 million to improve the automation of the processing of veterans’ benefits, to get benefits out sooner and more accurately.
• Constructing Extended Care Facilities for Veterans: Provides $150 million for state grants for the construction of additional extended care facilities for veterans.

Article source: http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/legislation?id=0273#troopsandvets

As the Infantry Headquarters Company Commander of during a 2005 to 2006 deployment to Iraq, U.S. Army Major David Bursac spent much of his time in the field working with the Iraqi Police in the town of Hawijah, located near Kirkuk in Northern Iraq.

We were primarily responsible for being out there, providing security for the locals in the area, training up the Iraqi Security Forces, as well as conducting Counter Insurgency operations, Bursac said, taking a positive spin on a challenging job.

The battalion’s mission, said Bursac, “was to provide a secure environment within the Hawijah area, while simultaneously developing the capabilities of the local Iraqi Security Forces [Army and Police] so that the ISF could assume full responsibility for the securing their own area of operations.”

Daily operations, said Bursac, included dealing with IEDs, daily enemy contact, securing check points, helping the Iraqi Security Forces, and targeting insurgent forces in the area.

When he wasn’t supervising Iraqi police on patrol in the field, Bursac focused on headquarters activities, such as training Iraqi Army Soldiers, and Iraqi Army Police on the forward operating base (FOB).

It was a job which was a “combination of frustrating at times, and rewarding at times,” he said.

“It was certainly a challenging task,” he said, but it was ultimately satisfying “to see the progress we made in building up the Iraqi Security forces, and knowing we helped the Iraqis.”

Another one of the smaller challenges of the position, Bursac said, came from the language barrier between the American and Iraqi Soldiers, he said. While there were many interpreters on hand to translate and communicate, it got complicated when a third language was introduced: military terminology.

Working with and getting to know the Iraqi Army Soldiers and Police was interesting, said Bursac, who was commissioned in 1999.

“It was interesting considering that it was a diverse cross section of Iraq,” he said. “Some of them had been enlisted in the former army in the former regime. Some were the same forces that we were fighting 2003. But some were just regular guys looking to feed their families and make their country better.”

At the end of the day, Bursac said, he found they were alike in many more ways than he had thought.

“Once we were able to put the Iraqi Soldiers and Police in the lead and empower them with more responsibility, they were able to take that and go from there. That was the key overall. “Holding them accountable for securing their own country gave them a sense of ownership in the job they were doing,” he said.

“Being away from home,” said Bursac, was the biggest challenge of the deployment.

“The hardest thing about any deployment is the separation from family and friends,” he said, but cited how improved internet access, telephones and other Army support systems helped to mitigate that hardship.

“Overall, keeping everyone focused on the mission and not letting feelings of being separated get in the way of staying focused, is what’s important,” he said.

“The most important thing,” he said, “is to get the job done.”

Bursac earned a Bronze Star for his service during the deployment.

Article Source:  http://ourmilitaryheroes.defense.gov/profiles/bursacD.html

By Robert L. Hanafin

There has been an increase of media coverage dealing with the growing number of non-profit organizations providing much needed companion pets for our returning troops requiring such companionship, and Pets for Vets is one of these great ideas.

This story is in two parts. The first part will cover what groups like Pets for Vets have to offer. The second part will cover the reasons why Veterans need to be screened and prepared to accept such animals just as much as the dog needs to be appropriate for the Veteran.

For example, Veterans coping with PTSD or exhibiting signs of domestic abuse must have our own demons under control before even thinking about such companionship. In most cases non-profit groups like Pets for Vets screen potential Veteran applicants to ensure a stable environment for the Pet and Vet.

I know from personal experience that most shelter pets sent out for adoption have been rescued from an abusive situation as puppies, so potential owners are screened within reason to prevent further abuse.

Simply put we do not take a dog that has had a traumatic experience of their own (PTSD if I may) and place them with someone with PTSD unless that person is undergoing treatment and has the condition pretty much under control that is the Veteran is stabilized. The addition of such a companion may serve as a compliment to any other therapy the Veteran receives.

I have ’stabilized’ type 2 bipolar meaning not only is it under control enough for me to live a normal [for me] life, but I never have required hospitalization for Mental Illness (MI). Shiba pictured here is my companion dog that I trained myself and love very much. She had been abused and battered before I got her to include having her tail cut off by the previous owner and tied to a tree with no shelter year round in Ohio including the dead of winter. It was a miracle Shiba survived; when decent neighbors reported the abuse. She looked nothing like this photo and was near starvation, fearing human contact. I intend ensuring all those demons in her experience go away, and she never suffers again for the rest of her days.

Lastly, it must be noted and clear that there is a vast difference between companion dogs like mine for people with MI and Service Dogs for people with physical combined with MI or Cognitive Impairment Disorders.

Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, Veterans Today News

By Griselda Nevarez, Cronkite News Service
Published at AZ Capital Times, February 16, 2010

Posted by Bacon on February 4th, 2010 filed in Hero of the week

Where were you in 1970? I was in junior high school.

Sergeant Major Caffie was in Vietnam. When he first flew in, “It was 10 p.m. at night. You would see the tracers coming in, you could see the tracers going out. It makes you think ‘this is the real deal.” (From DefenseLink)

He survived Vietnam. eventually left active duty and went to school on the G.I. Bill while staying on the rolls in the inactive reserves. But he soon discovered that he missed the camaraderie of military service and joined the active reserves – officially the U.S. Army Reserves – in 1974.

Thus continued a career that spanned four decades of service, including a recent deployment to Iraq where, as Command Sergeant Major for the 377th Theater Support Command, he was responsible for 43,500 Soldiers.

He retired last month, bringing a long and distinguished Army career to an end.

Thank you, Sergeant Major, for your service. Others have the watch now, many of whom were touched by your inspirational leadership. Sergeant Major Caffie is our hero of the week.

(There is a great interview on the DefenseLink website, during which he describes his affection for the Soldiers he served with, as well as the respect he has for the U.S. military.)