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California Legislators Push Bill to Help Combat Veteran Suicide

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By Debbie Gregory.

A proposal for new state legislation in California that will help confront the issue of veteran suicides has been introduced by Assemblyman Dr. Joaquin Arambula and Assemblyman Jim Patterson.

AB 242 would require death certificates to reflect whether the deceased person was ever a member of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Currently, details such as marital status, birthplace and occupation are required on death certificates, but military service is not.

“Getting ahead of the suicide, getting help when it’s needed, not after it’s too late, and I think this is a good first step,” said Patterson.

The bill would also require the California Department of Health compile a report on veteran suicides, beginning in 2019.

“As a physician, I know accurate data will help us better understand the full scope of the problem of veteran suicides in California,” Arambula said. “Tracking this information will help determine whether or not existing suicide prevention efforts are having a positive effect, if more attention to this matter is needed in the future and where to allocate existing resources for mental health funding.”

“I have no question this information will be very helpful,” said Sen. Jim Nielsen, who voted for the bill in the Senate Veteran’s Affair Committee. “To our various veteran operations in the area, we can identify and allot them resources they desperately need.”

If passed into law, Arambula, an emergency room doctor, said California will join 21 other states in implementing such an effort to better calculate veteran suicide deaths.

The legislation is to be heard before the Senate Appropriations Committee at the end of this month after the legislators return from recess.

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.

Marine Corps Looking to Turn Officers into PhDs

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By Debbie Gregory.

Two pilot programs are being offered by the U.S. Marine Corps that would allow qualified majors through lieutenant colonels to receive their PhDs with the Corps picking up the tab, as long as they agree to stay in the service for an additional six years.

Interested applicants should get moving: with only four officers being picked, it will be competitive. And applications are only being accepted through the end of this month.

Two of the recipients will be required to pursue a doctorate in strategic affairs, geared toward  national security, military history, public policy, political science, government, or some other related field.

The other two will be required to attend a doctoral program with a technical focus in operations research, modeling virtual environments and simulation (MOVES), information sciences, or computer science.

The MOVES program focuses on the principles of applied visual simulation technology and the application of quantitative analyses to human-computer interaction. The coursework may include instruction in object-oriented programming, artificial intelligence, computer communications and networks, computer graphics, virtual worlds and simulation systems, probability, statistics, stochastic modeling, data analysis, human-performance evaluation, and human-behavior modeling.

Interested candidates must already have a masters degree, or currently be pursuing one if they are applying for the technical doctorate.

By developing a cohort of strategic thinkers and technical leaders, the Marine Corps has a goal of achieving innovative thinking. This will be the result of applying substantive knowledge, directing original research, and leveraging relationships with industry and elements of national security.

“Uniformed doctorates provide the Marine Corps deployable, highly-skilled manpower in support of senior leader decision-making as well as helping generate national, defense, and service strategies in an increasingly complex world.”

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.

California Woman Named as Disabled American Veterans Commander

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By Debbie Gregory.

Congratulations to Delphine Metcalf-Foster, who has been elected National Commander of the Disabled American Veterans.

Metcalf-Foster was chosen over roughly 10 other candidates at the organization’s 96th National Convention in New Orleans.

Metcalf-Foster is the first woman candidate, as well as the first African-American female, to head up the DAV’s most important position.

“I was really overwhelmed and in shock and so humbled” she said upon the announcement.

Metcalf-Foster followed in the footsteps of her father, a Buffalo soldier, by pursuing a career in the U.S. Army. Her military career included service with the U.S. Army Reserve, 689th Quartermaster Unit, 6253rd Hospital Unit and 6211th Transportation Unit, Letterman Army Medical Center. She retired after 21 years of service with the rank of first sergeant in 1996.

During her military service, she received the following honors: Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Army Component Achievement Medal and the Southwest Asia Service Medal. She also worked for the Department of the Navy at the Alameda Naval Air Station as a Quality Assurance Specialist

A Vallejo, CA  native, Metcalf-Foster has been active within the DAV Department of California, becoming the first woman commander in the state. She also completed a four-year appointment as a member of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Advisory Committee on Women Veterans in November 2015.

Metcalf-Foster hopes to continue her advocacy for veterans rights that include healthcare, care-givers, employment, volunteerism, mental health, PTSD and suicide prevention.

“My focus will be continuing a lifetime of support for veterans and their families,” Metcalf-Foster said, adding that she’s “prepared to take on the challenges for one year.”

Metcalf-Foster is also a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She is proud of her granddaughter, U.S. Army SSG Jacare Hogan, who served three tours in Afghanistan.

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.

Army Opens Collaborative CyberSecurity Center

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By Debbie Gregory.

The Army Cyber-research Analytics Laboratory (ACAL) is unlike any other lab, providing access to highly-sensitive live cyber-security data to government, industry, and academic partners.

The vision of ACAL is to lead the Army’s future cyber capabilities by discovering new knowledge, providing a world-class laboratory and promoting global partnerships.

Its mission is to enhance the quality of research within the Department of Defense by providing superior capabilities, cyber training and data access to the scientific community to ensure their research initiatives are operationally grounded and relevant to cyber operations of today, tomorrow and beyond.

Army senior officials rely on the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) to provide them with the knowledge and understanding needed to make informed decisions on options for disruptive warfighting capabilities with reduced uncertainty and calculated risk.

Soldiers operate in complex terrain wrought with rapidly changing connectivity that’s restricted by spectrum and players — allies and adversaries — on the networks.

With war continuing to shift further in the cyber domain, the ACAL is a necessary ARL resource. ARL planners expect that as the ACAL matures, the laboratory will support rapid development and deployment requirements for the Army’s Computer Network Defense.

ARL’s cyber security research is largely focused on challenges unique to Army ground operations.

As the ACAL matures, the intent is to support rapid development and deployment requirements for the Army’s Computer Network Defense (CND) analytic capabilities across ARL, Army Cyber Command, Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM), and their partners.

The ACAL will also be used for personnel training, product integration, systems engineering, and integrated testing using real-world data.

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.

Texas VA Office Denies Most of its Gulf War Claims

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By Debbie Gregory.

A federal report shows that a Veterans Affairs office in Texas has denied more than 90 percent of benefit claims related to Gulf War illnesses.

The data from the U.S. Government Accountability Office shows that Waco’s Department of Veterans Affairs denied almost 1,100 claims in 2015. This gives Central Texas veterans one of the highest denial rates in the nation.

Part of the issue could be poorly trained examiners, as well as inconsistent methods of handling claims.

According to the report, VA staff members noted the complexity of Gulf War illness claims, with medical examiners stating that they would benefit from additional training on Gulf War illness and how to conduct these exams. The VA has made the training course mandatory. A VA spokeswoman said Waco medical examiners are anticipated to complete the training by November.

Gulf War illness has two main clinical categories: medically unexplained chronic multisymptom illness and undiagnosed illness. Symptoms include joint pain, chronic fatigue syndrome and neurological problems. Exposure to toxic elements, such as smoke from burning oil wells, depleted uranium and chemical warfare agents are believed to have caused Gulf War illnesses.

The VA estimates that 44 percent of the 700,000 service members who served in the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War have developed illnesses.

The VA claims that when making decisions on claims, VA staff members carefully and compassionately consider all available supporting evidence for each claim.

“(Gulf War illness) disability compensation claim laws and regulations need urgent overhaul,” said Paul Sullivan, director of veteran outreach for the Bergmann and Moore law firm, and a Gulf War veteran whose own claim remains in limbo after 25 years.

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.

Court Deals Major Blow to Burn Pit Veterans

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By Debbie Gregory.

U.S. District Court Judge Roger W. Titus has dismissed a major lawsuit against defense contractor KBR, filed by veterans and their family members over burn pit operations in Iraq and Afghanistan that plaintiffs allege caused chronic and sometimes deadly respiratory diseases and cancer.

The judge ruled that KBR could not be held liable for a military decision to use burn pits for waste disposal. Burn pits produced billowing toxic smoke night and day.

The plaintiffs charged that KBR, a government contractor and former Halliburton subsidiary, operated the burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan irresponsibly, running them in locations near U.S. troops’ living quarters and work spaces, and burning items that were not intended for the pits, including paint, batteries, computers, fuel, plastic water bottles and human medical waste.

National Guard veteran Amie Muller succumbed to pancreatic cancer earlier this year. She believed it was a result of deployments to Iraq and exposure to burn pits.

Burn pits produced billowing toxic smoke night and day at an air base in northern Iraq. After returning to Minnesota, she began experiencing health problems usually not seen in a woman of age.  Muller was thirty-six and died nine months after being diagnosed with Stage III pancreatic cancer.

In addition to cancer, plaintiffs say they suffer from a range of diseases resulting from exposure: respiratory illnesses such as life-threatening constrictive bronchiolitis, gastrointestinal disorders, and neurological problems

Susan Burke, a Baltimore-based attorney who represents the plaintiffs, will file an appeal to the 4th Circuit.

The litigation, which consolidates cases across the country, contains 63 complaints, including 44 national class action suits.

Titus said in his decision that he had no doubt that “many of (plaintiffs) have been harmed, at least, by some extent by the use of open burn pits or by the water they drank in Iraq or Afghanistan.”

But, he wrote, “The decision to use the burn pits was not made by the contractors but rather than by the military.”

A spokeswoman for KBR released a statement saying, “KBR believes the court made the correct decision, and we are pleased that this legacy case is one step closer to final resolution.”

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.

Air Force Reviewing Petition to Restore Rank of Vietnam-Era General

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A controversial Air Force case dating back to 1972 is stirring up  debate over whether to posthumously restore the honor and ranks to Maj. Gen John D. Lavelle, who was demoted and fired over alleged unauthorized airstrikes over North Vietnam.

In 2010, Pentagon officials petitioned members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to restore Lavelle’s rank. The panel — mainly Senators John McCain and Carl Levin — rejected it due to “inconsistencies” in information provided at the time.

Former Air Force officer Dr. Mark Clodfelter has spearheaded bringing Lavelle’s case back before the Air Force.

“There’s no doubt in my mind he was thrown under the bus,” said Clodfelter.

The case centers on then-Air Force Chief of Staff Gen John D. Ryan firing the four-star Lavelle for “allegedly conducting unauthorized airstrikes against North Vietnam and ordering the falsification of mission reports,” according to Clodfelter’s research.

When officials agreed to halt Operation Rolling Thunder in 1968, the agreement stipulated that in exchange for stopping the bombing, the North Vietnamese would not attempt to shoot down American reconnaissance aircraft surveilling the area.

But when tensions flared up again, armed U.S. Air Force and Navy fighters began escorting the recon aircraft in the surface-to-air missile laden area for safe measure.

Between 1971 and 1972, firings on U.S. aircraft increased tenfold, and Lavelle grew increasingly concerned how best to proceed.

In February 1972, Lavelle took pre-planned actions — which investigators say violated any interpretation of the rules of engagement.

It was found that Lavelle had conducted “28 unauthorized missions, consisting of 147 sorties, during a four-month span in which Seventh Air Force flew between 25,000 and 40,000 total sorties,” Clodfelter wrote.

Lavelle chose an “early retirement” and settled for the Senate’s decision to demote him two ranks.

Lavelle died in July 10, 1979.

Clodfelter added the effort is about “righting a wrong, an injustice that’s now existed for almost 45 years.”

Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson has agreed to review the case before an official recommendation is made. If approved, the petition would head to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis before potential White House approval and a future Senate committee vote.

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.

Report Finds Young Veterans More Successful Than Their Civilian Peers

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By Debbie Gregory.

There has been a lot of discussion about why veterans are great employees, why the companies who hire veterans are more successful, and why they also make great entrepreneurs. Now a new study released by The Graduate Center at the City University of New York Young has found the young veterans are faring better in life than their civilian counterparts.

The study found that post-Sept. 11 era veterans are better educated, better paid and better off than many of their civilian peers.

“The data indicate that between 2005 and 2015 employment, income, and educational attainment rates were consistently higher, and poverty rates consistently lower, than general nationwide rates” for these veterans.

Despite a national recession during that period, Iraq and Afghanistan war-era veterans showed a near-constant employment rate of about 78 percent, significantly above the 70 percent of the total civilian population.

The median household income for post-Sept. 11 veterans was nearly $74,000 a year in 2005, and the non-veteran average was approximately $67,000. In 2015 the difference was even more pronounced, with the veteran average reaching $80,000, while the non-veterans rate only rose to $68,000.

Some 12 percent of young adults in the U.S. failed to graduate from high school, but only 3 percent of veterans failed to graduate. And when it comes to earning a college degree, 47 percent of young veterans earned a college degree compared to 37 percent of their civilian peers.

“Often, service in the armed forces can be viewed as a ‘dead end’ path reserved for those with fewer options,” the report stated. “But as this report suggests, it can also be packaged as a statistically proven path to higher income, educational attainment, and quality of life.”

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.

Broadway Musical “Bandstand” About Real Struggles of War

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By Debbie Gregory.

For more than three months, Broadway’s  Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre has been home to Bandstand the story of what happened to some of the Greatest Generation after they came home from war.

In Cleveland, Ohio, Private First Class and singer/songwriter Donny Novitski tries to rebuild his life with only the shirt on his back and a dream in his heart.

When NBC announces a national competition to find the nation’s next great musical superstars, Donny enlists four fellow veterans, each an astonishing musician, to start a band and enter the competition. Together, they discover the power of music to face the impossible, find their voice and finally feel like they have a place to call home.

Donnie also meets Julia Trojan, the widow of his best friend who died in the war in a friendly-fire incident. The emotions of the show’s characters run from grief over the loss of fellow soldiers to survivor’s guilt for being able to come home while others didn’t; and nostalgia for their pre-war lives and dreams.

Showrunners Richard Oberacker and Robert Taylor, along with choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler, used song and dance to portray the real struggles that soldiers face when they leave the battlefield.

To make sure they were being authentic, Oberacker and Taylor reached out to Got Your 6, which unites nonprofit, Hollywood, and government partners to empower veterans and certifies that portrayals of veterans in pop culture are accurate.

Through their association with Got Your 6, Oberacker and Taylor were able to introduce the entire cast to veterans whose stories helped inform the actors on how best to portray a former service member or a Gold Star wife.

“At the end of the day, our show is about taking an adversity, whether it’s having been in a war, or getting cancer, or losing a loved one, or whatever it may be …. and turning it into the very thing that gives your life a purpose,” Oberacker said. “The way they learn how to take this adversity and give their life purpose is by telling the truth.”

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.

Here’s What You Need to Know About the Forever GI Bill

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By Debbie Gregory.

The “Forever GI Bill,” a sweeping expansion of GI Bill education benefits, is on its way to the Oval Office.

Passed by both houses of Congress, the bill will increase veteran’s benefits by more than $3 billion over the next decade.

One important change, reserved for those who become eligible after January 1, 2018, is the removal of the 15-year limit on using their GI Bill benefits, which offers them more flexibility.

Additionally, the Forever GI Bill boosts education assistance for National Guard and Reserve troops, Purple Heart recipients and for the dependents of fallen troops.

Reservists called to active duty under sections 12304(a) and 12304(b) are now eligible. Previously, only reservists called to active duty by presidential order as a result of a national emergency were eligible. This applies to all reservists mobilized after Aug. 1, 2009, but reservists can receive payment only for classes that start after Aug. 1, 2018.

Reservists who were receiving REAP payments may now be eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Currently, there are less than 4,000 people eligible for this benefit.

Purple Heart recipients will get the full GI Bill amount, regardless of how long they served on active duty.

For veterans who were caught up in the collapse of for-profit schools Corinthian Colleges and ITT Tech, the legislation would fully restore their GI Bill education benefits.

Of course, all of this comes with a price tag, and the expansion will be paid for by reducing the increases in housing allowances paid under the GI Bill to new beneficiaries. As of January 1, 2018, the GI Bill housing allowance will decrease an average of $100 a month. Active-duty BAH is also affected, decreasing each year by 1 percent every year from 2015 to 2019,  so that by 2020, BAH will only cover 95 percent of a military member’s housing cost.

The housing allowance for GI Bill students will now be based on the campus location where classes are attended, not necessarily the main campus.

Effective August 1, 2018, Dependent’s Education Assistance (DEA) monthly payments will increase by about 50 percent, but the maximum number of months that a dependent can get DEA decreases from 45 to 36.

Also effective August 1, 2018, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) programs are eligible for the “Edith Nourse Rogers Scholarship” which will pay veterans up to $30,000 if they have used up all their GI Bill benefits and have at least 60 semester/90 quarter hours credit toward a STEM degree. It also will pay those who already have a STEM degree and are working on a teaching certification.

The High Technology Pilot Program, scheduled to start in the spring of 2019, covers the full cost of high technology training offered by a company versus a school.

MilitaryConnection.com has a comprehensive education area, and we invite you to check out the numerous education resources at https://militaryconnection.com/education.

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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