February 25, 2015
Patricia Kime | Military Times
Service families are well cared for in today's military but face increasing stress amid discussions on altering benefits like health care and family programs, the services' top enlisted members told Congress on Wednesday.
With the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission proposing sweeping reforms to military pay and benefits packages and the White House's proposed 2016 budget pitching cost-savings measures like health care fee hikes and commissary cutbacks, the men implored Congress to protect family benefits.
February 25, 2015
Jeremy Quach | The Stanford Daily
Service to School, a nonprofit organization made up of veterans — some of them current Stanford students — has released a free guidebook to help undergraduate veterans find the right college.
February 23, 2015
Leo Shane III | Military Times
Donna Barton doesn't know exactly how much money she has saved the Department of Veterans Affairs, but it's in the tens of millions of dollars.
"It could be in the billions by now," the 65-year-old registered nurse said, laughing. "When you take in all the services I've provided for free for decades … there's just so much involved."
February 22, 2015
Brian Bowling | Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
While the new Department of Veterans Affairs claims process uses forms that are simpler than income tax return forms, they have similar names and designs.
More importantly, they represent a shift that puts more of the burden on veterans for starting a claim and will end up hurting older veterans and those with traumatic brain injuries, spokesmen for the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans said.
February 21, 2015
Far fewer veterans than expected are taking advantage of a new law aimed at making it easier for them to get private health care and avoid the long waits that have plagued Department of Veterans Affairs facilities nationwide.
February 20, 2015
George Altman | Military Times
A decade ago, Doug Cox and his wife, Tina, moved to Virginia with three children under 10. Very soon after, the Navy ordered Tina to deploy to Kuwait.
Doug described it like this: "Welcome to Virginia. Your wife's deploying now. You're going to be a single parent, three small kids."
February 19, 2015
Ben Klasky and Martin LeBlanc | The Huffington Post
Joshua Brandon was searching for peace. In 2009, after three combat tours in Iraq, Brandon had earned a Silver Star and two Bronze Stars with Valor Device, and was finally returning home. He was decorated and distinguished, but in his own words "washed up" as he was learning to survive with PTSD and the after-effects of war. He was not alone. Since 2001, more than two million troops have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Over half are married and 40% have at least two children.
February 19, 2015
Amber Philpott | WKYT.com
Lexington, Ky. (WKYT)-In Kentucky there are 33,000 female veterans, but many of them are missing out on benefits they earned after their service. In 2015 the new Commissioner of Kentucky's Department of Veterans Affairs wants to change that and she is reaching out through some creative measures.
February 19, 2015
Leo Shane III | Military Times
Veterans groups say the Post-9/11 GI Bill has given hundreds of thousands of veterans a chance to go to college. Now, they want to make sure those students are also getting the resources they need to succeed.
Advocates lobbied congressional staffers Thursday for federal grants to build college campus veterans centers, ensuring an extra level of scholastic and emotional support for transitioning service members.
February 19, 2015
Jessica Parks | Philly.com
NORRISTOWN The Montgomery County Recorder of Deeds Office's veterans ID program has been deemed a 2015 "Bright Idea in Government" by scholars at Harvard University.
The program offers veterans a free photo ID that carries discounts at more than 400 local businesses. For the county, it's a way to get veterans in the door and record their military-discharge paperwork.