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Deaths in Iraq May Have Links to Ft. Lauderdale Airport Shootings

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By Debbie Gregory.

Could a sense of loss and grief have been at the root of the recent airport shooting in Ft. Lauderdale?

On Jan. 2, 2011, Jose Cintron Rosado and Jose Delgado Arroyo,  members of the Puerto Rican Army National Guard, were in a lead vehicle near Taji, Iraq, that was locating and disarming roadside bombs.

The two were best friends, as well as father figures to the younger soldiers who were members of the 1013th Engineering Company, 103rd Battalion, out of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.

When Rosado and Arroyo were killed in a roadside blast, their deaths hit the tight-knit unit hard.

Among those in the unit was Esteban Santiago, who has been charged with killing five people during the shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

The shooting came almost six years to the day after their deaths.

Santiago, who was born in New Jersey but raised in Peñuelas, Puerto Rico, flew to South Florida on a one-way ticket from Alaska.

Investigators have been trying to piece together the path that led the 26-year-old former National Guardsman to Fort Lauderdale.

For Bryan Santiago, his brother’s military service led to serious mental-health problems that coincided with his return from the war.

“You could just sense that he’d changed,” said Santiago, who still lives in Peñuelas.

He added that he didn’t know whether his brother knew Rosado or Arroyo, but he said his sibling, who was once “calm and humorous” suddenly becoming bitter and withdrawn.

Esteban Santiago’s tour ended in April 2011, and he remained in the National Guard Reserves until February 2014.

Santiago then moved to Alaska and joined the Alaskan National Guard.

Bryan Santiago said the last time he talked to his brother was on Christmas Day. He gave no indication he would snap 12 days later.

“We were just wishing each other Merry Christmas,” his brother said. “He was completely normal, but people with mental problems can seem completely normal, too.”

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Bill Allowing Mattis to Become Defense Secretary Approved by Congress

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By Debbie Gregory.

Sometimes it takes an act of Congress. And that is exactly how the House and Senate paved the wave to permit retired Marine Gen. James Mattis to head the Pentagon for Donald Trump.

The measure overrides a prohibition against former U.S. service members who have been out of uniform for less than seven years from holding the top job at the Defense Department. Mattis retired from military service in 2013.

The vote was 268-151. Only 36 Democrats supported the bill after Trump’s transition team blocked Mattis from testifying before the House Armed Services Committee Thursday, despite the retired four-star general sailing through his Senate confirmation hearing earlier in the day.

The House vote came one day after the Senate easily passed the waiver, 81-17.

Mattis in line to be part of the first batch of President-elect Donald Trump’s picks to be confirmed by the Senate as early as Inauguration Day.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Friday that Obama would sign the bill, if it’s sent to him before he leaves office next Friday.

Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) acknowledged “legitimate complaints” with the process and wording of the waiver, including the omission of Mattis by name.  But Thornberry argued lawmakers should push ahead with the waiver to ensure there’s no gap in Pentagon leadership when Trump takes office.

Mattis is a graduate of the U.S. Marine Corps Amphibious Warfare School, U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College, and the National War College. His awards include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star (with Valor) and the Meritorious Service Medal.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Trump Taps Shulkin for VA Secretary

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By Debbie Gregory.

President-elect Donald Trump has announced his intention to nominate David Shulkin as his secretary of veterans affairs.

Shulkin currently serves as the undersecretary for health at the VA. The new position requires Senate confirmation.

Shulkin is a board-certified internist. He served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. He also served as President of Morristown Medical Center and the Atlantic Accountable Care Organization.

He has been Chief Medical Officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University Hospital, and the Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital.

His other academic positions have included Chairman of Medicine and Vice Dean at Drexel University College of Medicine, and Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein School of Medicine. Shulkin has been the editor of Journal of Clinical Outcomes Management and Hospital Physician, and has been on the editorial boards of several journals, including Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Shulkin founded and served as the Chairman and CEO of DoctorQuality, Inc a consumer-oriented information service.

In a departure from the norm, Dr. Shulkin is not a veteran, breaking the pattern that the VA has previously established, having a veteran at the helm.

“I have no doubt Dr. Shulkin will be able to lead the turnaround our Department of Veterans Affairs needs,” Trump said in a statement following the announcement. “Dr. Shulkin has the experience and the vision to ensure we will meet the healthcare needs of every veteran.”

Trump considered a series of possible VA secretaries before deciding on Shulkin

“The first responsibility that we have to our veterans is to make sure those that need urgent care are getting care on time,” Shulkin said.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Smart Homes Improve the Quality of Life for Severely Injured Veterans

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By Debbie Gregory.

At MilitaryConnection.com, we have been supporters of the Gary Sinise Foundation for many years. Since its inception in 2011, the Gary Sinise Foundation has helped close the gaps in support our defenders sometimes face, including building specially adapted smart homes for severely wounded veterans.

The foundation’s RISE program (Restoring Independence Supporting Empowerment) provides specially adapted smart homes, home modifications, mobility devices, and adapted vehicles to America’s most severely injured veterans and heroes.

For many Veterans transitioning from active duty, there is a certain level of adjustment that needs to be made to return to civilian life. Bur for those who have been severely wounded, their injuries can be a roadblock. Activities that most of take for granted can be huge stumbling blocks: accessing the bathroom, answering the door, changing a light bulb.

With the rapid growth of smart home technology, many improvements can be made, improving the quality of life and assisting in recovering independence.

Some of the key smart devices that have gone in to homes for veterans that have been found to be essential for severely injured Veterans include: smart thermostats, that not only allow users to change settings via their smartphones, but also control which room’s temperature needs to be adjusted so that other family members’ comfort isn’t impacted; smart home security, including smart door locks, doorbell cameras, security cameras, alarms, and sensors that can assist in the relief of some of the symptoms of PTSD; lighting and appliance control, again using a smart phone to control these functions; motorized furniture and appliances, including doors, stoves, cupboards and counters to provide easier access to veterans confined to wheelchairs or with restricted mobility.

RISE will complete 51 homes this year, with the goal of producing another 10-to-12 smart homes each year.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Veteran Employment Stats Reveal Jobless Rate for Post 9/11 Veterans on the Rise

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By Debbie Gregory.

While the average 2016 unemployment rate for the latest generation of veterans is on schedule to be approximately 5 per cent, November’s rate jumped to 6.5 percent. This increase brought the veteran employment rate to its lowest level of 2016.

While the November unemployment statistic for post-9/11 veterans might not look good, there is still plenty of reason for optimism.

The unemployment rate spike from October, when the rate charted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics was 4.7 percent for post-9/11 veterans, is large. But such spikes are far from rare and are often followed by similarly large drops. For example, the rate jumped from 4.7 percent this February to 6.3 percent in March and then tumbled to 4.1 percent in April.

Jackie Maffucci, research director for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, has said that because the post-9/11 unemployment data is based on a very small sample size, such volatility is common.

Economists advise not to pay too much attention to any one month’s results but rather to look at multi-month trends.

Those trends have been toward lower post-9/11 veteran unemployment for years, with unemployment dropping lower in 2016 than it has ever been before. A single month’s rate spike cannot change that.

To view the Bureau of Labor Statistics full report regarding the unemployment status of all veterans, which was updated on December 2, 2016, go to https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t05.htm.

NOTE: Veterans who served in more than one wartime period are classified only in the most recent one. Veterans who served during one of the selected wartime periods and another period are classified only in the wartime period.

If you are job hunting, make sure to check out the MilitaryConnection.com Job Board, as well as the Virtual Job Fair, where you’ll find jobs for military veterans as well as employers who are hiring military veterans.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Number of Veterans Studying Overseas on GI Bill is Rising

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By Debbie Gregory.

Thanks to the Post-9/11 GI Bill, an increasing number of U.S. military veterans are completing degrees overseas at global universities.

Part of the draw is the cheaper tuition, thanks in part to the favorable exchange rate.

The VA’s list of approved international colleges now includes around 1,800 universities or training schools in more than 100 countries.

According to VA statistics, more than 2000 Post-9/11 GI Bill students pursued degrees overseas in fiscal year 2015.

U.S. veterans interested in pursuing an international education can either use the GI Bill Comparison Tool to review the VA’s approved list of universities. The tool can also show veterans which benefits package is their best option.

If a veteran’s preferred college is not on the approved list, he or she can apply to have the school added, provided it meets the VA’s eligibility requirements.

According to the VA website, one of the main requirements for attending a foreign school under the GI Bill is that the institution of higher learning will result in a college degree or equivalent. If eligible, the VA will issue the veteran a Certificate of Eligibility, which shows the quantity and duration of benefits. Veterans should secure this certificate before enrolling at a foreign university.

The VA says the Post-9/11 GI Bill pays up to $21,000 in tuition per year at approved foreign colleges, about $1,500 per month for housing and $1,000 annually for books.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill has also opened up global education opportunities to eligible veterans’ family members. Active-duty service members must plan to complete 10 years of service to be eligible to transfer some or all of the Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to a spouse or children.

If you decide to stay in the U.S. for your education, or you prefer to pursue an online degree, be sure to check out the MilitaryConnection.com directory of universities and colleges here.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

DOD Ends Battlefield Blast Gauge Program

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By Debbie Gregory.

The Pentagon’s blast gauge program has been put on hold.

Thousands of combat troops in Afghanistan were outfitted with monitoring gauges that were meant to show whether service members had been close enough to an explosion to have sustained a concussion, or mild traumatic brain injury. One of the major problems was that the gauges failed to show how much blast exposure is too much

The small wearable devices did produce evidence that many service members had been exposed to worrisome levels of blast pressure simply by being near a heavy weapon when it’s fired.

“The majority of exposures were not from improvised explosive devices, as you might expect,” says David Borkholder, an engineering professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the founder of BlackBox Biometrics, which makes the blast gauges. Instead, the culprit was usually “blast-intensive weapons systems” like recoilless rifles, shoulder-fired rockets, artillery and mortars, according to Borkholder.

Firing something like a recoilless rifle generates a powerful pressure wave both in front of and behind the weapon. Those pressure waves are usually less intense than those from a bomb. But exposures are far more common, and not limited to the battlefield.

The decision to warehouse the blast gauges is “a huge mistake,” says retired Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who was the Army’s vice chief of staff before retiring in 2012 and is now the chief executive officer of One Mind, a nonprofit focused on brain illness and injury.

The blast gauges are about the size of a quarter, and troops wear three of them on their helmets and upper bodies. The gauges contain sensors that measure overpressure, the sudden increase in air pressure caused by an explosion.

An overpressure of just 5 pounds per square inch can burst an eardrum. One-hundred PSI can be fatal. And somewhere in between is probably where most concussions occur.

The Department of Defense says it’s committed to determining the risks from overpressure exposure, both in combat and in training. It’s also testing a new generation of blast gauges that are more sensitive and easier to maintain.

But the military has made no commitment to deploying those gauges.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

One of Nation’s First African American Marines Dies

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By Debbie Gregory.

One the first African American U.S. Marines who served during World War II has died.

Angus Hardie “Jay” Jamerson’s daughter, Wendy Jamerson confirmed that her father died in his sleep at the age of 89. The Georgia resident would have celebrated his 90th birthday later this month.

A student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Jamerson was drafted in 1945 and sent to Camp Lejeune, N.C. That’s where Montford Point, a segregated training facility, had been established.

Railroad tracks divided white residents from the camp for African American troops, and the black recruits were not allowed to enter the main base of nearby Camp Lejeune unless accompanied by a white Marine. By 1945, all drill instructors and many NCOs at Montford Point were African Americans.

Unlike the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II and the Army’s Buffalo Soldiers formed after the Civil War, blacks who served in the Montford Point Marines received scant recognition for decades. It’s estimated 20,000 of them trained from 1942 until 1949, when the Marine Corps was ordered to desegregate.

After 18 months of service, Jamerson left the Marines and returned to Morehouse College, where he graduated. He went on to earn a law degree in California

In 2011, U.S. lawmakers voted to award the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor given by Congress, to the surviving Montford Point Marines. Only about 300 of them were still alive, and their numbers have been rapidly declining.

Wendy Jamerson said her father didn’t know about the congressional award until he read about it in the newspaper. She said he appeared nonchalant, telling her: “Well, you know, they’re going to give me a medal.”

But Jamerson’s pride was unmistakable.

“He did sleep with it for a couple of nights,” his wife Doris said. “We couldn’t get it off him.”

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Lockheed Martin Exec a Possible VA Secretary Nominee

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By Debbie Gregory.

President-elect Trump may be considering Lockheed Martin Senior Vice President Leo Mackay, Jr. to fill one of the few remaining cabinet posts, the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Trump has publicly sparred with Lockheed Martin in the past few weeks, arguing that the defense contractor wastes billions in tax dollars building F-35 fighter jets that are behind schedule and over-budget.

Mackay, who served as deputy VA secretary under President George W. Bush, met with the president-elect, and said that he and Trump had a “good discussion.”

He added that “things are progressing; we’ll keep having a conversation.”

“The president-elect is up on the issues and very concerned about the department and veterans issues,” Mackay said. “He’s a first-class veterans advocate and we had a good conversation.”

Other rumored contenders have included former Sen. Scott Brown, former House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller and Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth, who helped grow Concerned Veterans for America into an influential veterans’ advocacy group.

A 1983 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Mackay was born into a military family in San Antonio, Texas and grew up on, and around, military installations. He lived in Japan as a child and spent two years of high school in Tehran, Iran. He served in the Navy as a naval aviator. He completed pilot training in 1985, graduating at the top of his class. He spent three years in Fighter Squadron Eleven flying the F-14, attended Fighter Weapons School (Topgun), and compiled 235 carrier landings and 1,000 hours in the F-14. He also served as an instructor at the Naval Academy

The VA secretary search carries unusual significance for the Trump team given how intensely the president-elect focused on veterans issues during his campaign.

Trump regularly blasted the VA as a prime example of the Obama administration’s failures, especially when whistleblowers exposed the agency’s nationwide use of fake patient waiting lists to conceal long delays in health care in 2014.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Should Congress Halt Concurrent Receipt to Veterans to Save Money?

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By Debbie Gregory.

The Congressional Budget Office has revealed that eliminating the collection of retirement pay and disability compensation simultaneously could save the government billions of dollars.

Changing the benefit, which is called “concurrent receipt” would affect some 600,000 military veterans who are able to collect both benefits.

Veterans who sustained career-ending combat injuries are eligible for combat-related special compensation, while those veterans who received a disability rating of 50 percent or more after at least 20 years of service are eligible for concurrent retirement and disability pay.

Congress authorized some veterans to take both as military personnel began to sustain grievous wounds in Afghanistan and Iraq. Since then the number of veterans receiving both retirement pay and disability compensation has risen drastically — from 33 percent in 2005 to more than 50 percent in 2015.

Up until 2003, disabled veterans had to select either their full retirement compensation from the Department of Defense or their disability benefit from Veterans Affairs with a reduced retirement annuity.

In 2015, Air Force Col. Mike Hayden, then-director of government relations for the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) said, “MOAA’s position is that career service members earn their retired pay by service alone and those unfortunate enough to suffer a service-caused disability in the process should have any VA disability compensation from the VA added to, not subtracted from, their service-earned military retired pay.”

Last year, about 55 percent of the 2 million or so military retirees were subject to the VA offset penalty. Of those, about half — 575,000 retirees — took both payments totaling $10 billion, according to CBO estimates.

Changing the benefit could potentially save the government $139 billion over the next eight years. But is it the right thing to do?

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.


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