Life for the men and women serving the United States has its challenges, but it’s also full of achievement and pride for a job many people would not even attempt. However, life after the military can bring a lot of uncertainty. Fortunately, many people, organizations and businesses want to let veterans know they are not forgotten.
Joining Forces
Joining Forces is a White House initiative that connects current soldiers, veterans and military spouses with resources to find jobs when they return home. Joining Forces supports employers that create workplaces that are military family-friendly and schools that are responsive to the unique needs of the military children. It maintains a list of resources for vets, including My Next Move for Veterans, an online tool that allows them to enter information about their skills and experience in the field and match it with civilian careers.
In support of our veterans, President Barack Obama created new tax credits to urge employers to hire veterans. He also expanded the Veterans Job Bank, which connects vets with employers looking to hire. First Lady Michelle Obama recently announced the IT Training and Certification Partnership, which helps military members earn information technology certifications in their transition to civilian life.
VFW
Many resources are available to servicemen and women after they retire from active service through Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), an organization that brings veterans together and advocates on their behalf. Membership includes several everyday discounts and benefits for members, as well as the big-picture political and memorial work. Members can get up to a 75 percent discount on prescriptions, help with real estate purchases and mortgages, and discounts on college test prep materials. There are also VFW savings on LifeLock identity theft protection services, USAA auto insurance and Dell computers.
Wounded Warrior Project
Re-entering civilian life can be especially challenging for injured vets. The purpose of the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) is to help them re-adjust. Since each veteran’s recovery process is unique, the project promotes a variety of programs to help military personnel and their families. One is Restore Warriors, an online tool that includes videos of soldiers sharing their strategies. Project Odyssey is an outdoor retreat that focuses on peer connection, challenging outdoors experiences and healing with other combat vets.
WWP’s Our Benefits Service team makes sure soldiers and their families can access government benefits and needed community services. Families also can sign up for the Family Support Program, which means they are eligible to attend all-expenses-paid weekend retreats to connect with other injured vets and families going through similar circumstances.
The WWP also gives career guidance and support services to help vets get and stay employed. Specialists help registered family members and caregivers set goals, network with local employers, create an effective resume and prepare for an interview.
Solders returning home don’t have to feel abandoned. Tap into these resources to help make the transition easier on our soldiers and the families they care so much about.
In the wake of the Boston Marathon terrorist attack – yes a terror attack – I think it is long past time that the American people put the PC nonsense behind and quit making excuses for young men in our society that apparently have declared open season on their fellow Americans. From Columbine to the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre to the Boston Marathon, to the killings yesterday in Federal Way near Seattle which claimed five lives including a disabled military veteran, these atrocities have all been committed by young men in their late teens or 20′s. Clearly there is a major problem which the mainstream media, lawmakers, our liberal school systems and coddling parents will not address for the sake of not wishing to offend one group or another or in fear of injuring little Johnny’s self esteem. Frankly I’m offended by what has nearly become a daily assault on the American people across the country and the excuses made. Like the bombings in Saigon that took many innocent lives during the Vietnam war, people that carry out these acts are an enemy of all free citizens. They are acts of Evil, pure and simple.
I offer the following opinion piece by Jay Sekulow as a place to start. In my opinion, it is long past time that our so-called leadership start addressing acts of terrorism as just that. Not classifying the Ft. Hood massacre as “workplace violence” or blaming the Benghazi attack on some obscure YouTube video when it in fact was an attack on the U.S. in Libya. The attempts to understand extremists and their “religion of peace” in hopes they will like us more has been an utter failure and endangers our very freedoms.
Newsletter comment: There is also other breaking news being reported that the Justice Dept against the wishes of the FBI, shutdown the interrogation of the younger brother and issued him his Miranda rights prematurely.
As with Fast & Furious, Benghazi & now the interrogation of the younger brother, very high level officials within our own government – in my personal opinion – are once again obstructing justice. I await the day when some official or Congress starts legal proceedings against our President, AJ Eric Holder and former Secretary of State Clinton and other administration officials for such obvious obstruction. – Roger, co-editor.
Opinion:Aftermath by Oliver North – April 26, 2013
Forty years ago today, the last U.S. combat troops departed Vietnam.
The following article is from Vietnam Veterans of America March-April 2013 edition. A Troop 3/17th Air Cav lost 56 brave Troopers serving our country from 1967-1971. Five during my tour with the Silver Spurs. These fallen heroes are not forgotten by their families or the Troopers that served with them when our country called.
“VFW Commander-in-Chief John Hamilton testified before a joint session of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees on March 5, 2013. His testimony covers the impact of sequestration, female veterans issues, military suicides and mental health issues, the Distinguished Warfare Medal and more.”
In our last post, Supporting our “transformed” Military, we addressed the issue that our military Chaplains are now being told to get with the gay marriage program or get out. Their first amendment rights are apparently meaningless and to my knowledge they have no support from the SECDEF, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Joint Chiefs themselves or any member of Congress.
There is a very disturbing trend here. All of us that served in the military took an oath “to support and defend our Constitution.” The same is true with our elected officials. Yet under this current administration our Constitution appears to be a meaningless document that they abhore and refuse to abide by.
The tragic event at Sandy Hook elementary certainly mandates a serious and rational discussion on how we can better protect our children and grandchildren as a society. But we can not ignore the Constitutional rights of the American people or mandate the repeal of the 2nd amendment without the approval of Congress and the majority of the states as thoughtfully outlined in our founding document:
Article V:
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.
After surviving John Hinckley’s assassination attempt in 1981, Ronald Reagan said:
“You won’t get gun control by disarming law-abiding citizens. There’s only one way to get real gun control: Disarm the thugs and the criminals, lock them up and if you don’t actually throw away the key, at least lose it for a long time … It’s a nasty truth, but those who seek to inflict harm are not fazed by gun controllers. I happen to know this from personal experience.”
Newsletter comment: Where are our Generals and Admirals on these important matters? Have they lost their voice along with other body parts? Do they care about their soldiers, Marines and sailors? Or have they all become nothing more then politicians in uniform?
It is becoming increasingly difficult to support our modern military as it is being “transformed” throwing core traditions and values in the trash like yesterday’s newspaper while the brass sit there in silence. – Roger Young, co-editor
“…John Hamilton, the VFW’s commander-in-chief, said in a statement that his organization ‘fully concurs that those far from the fight are having an immediate impact on the battlefield in real-time,’ but added that ‘medals that can only be earned in direct combat must mean more than medals awarded in the rear’…”
Newsletter comment: And people wonder why I’m backing away my support of this modern PC military? How can any war veteran who has served in our military support this PC transformation we are witnessing almost weekly! This is outrageous and makes a mockery of all past military awards in a combat zone! – Roger Young, co-editor
On February 2, 2011, I fell off a ladder landing on a steel fence in below-zero weather, fracturing my back, a rib, and got a minor concussion as well as a subdural hematoma, a brain bleed. Then, last fall I fell off the top of another ladder in my barn and severely bruised my hip, thigh, and a rib. Eight years ago, I wrote about my wife having rotator cuff surgery, getting an infection, and having to be cut in the same scar and operated on again. Just thinking about such pain and facing traumatic memories like those, makes me cringe.
Such memories, however pales in comparison to what I am going through right now, in my heart. The old hurts are re-surfacing, the pain, and the feelings of betrayal are returning. I am being cut in the same scar, facing a new fracture in the broken places.
How did we who served in Boy Scouts, our churches, or Student Councils suddenly get brain-washed overnight by the military and turned into cold-blooded killers, torturers, and rapists, of the ilk of the Nazi SS, the Taliban, or al-Qaida? That does not make sense, does it? Most American soldiers, like me, grew up idolizing John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and all the other heroes of my youth. That was why I volunteered to join the army, go to OCS, earn Jump Wings, a Green Beret, and go to South Vietnam to fight.
President Barack Obama is considering making John Kerry, of all people, our new Secretary of Defense. After spending only four months in the country of Vietnam, John Kerry testified before Congress in 1971 with these exact words about incidents he supposedly witnessed or heard about from other vets: “They personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam.”
I was a Green Beret officer in 1968 and 1969 on a Special Forces A-team 4 miles from the border of Laos and a District Coordinator of the Top Secret Phoenix Program. We were the most-highly trained of all soldiers and saw the most action of anybody in that war. Everybody in the world knows that, but what the news does not report was that we also built churches, schools, treated illnesses, passed out food, clothing, medicine, and good will. We had fun and loved interacting with the indigenous people of Vietnam, just like our boys did in Normandy, Baghdad, Saigon, and everywhere American soldiers ever served. We are the ones who gave away and still do give away our candy bars and rations to kids, our friendship to primitive fellow warriors in far-off lands, and our hearts to oppressed people all over the globe, but you John Kerry labeled us as mindless robotic killers and rapists just so you could launch your intended political career. You also with your outrageous lies furthered the anti-war movement sending honorable, noble Vietnam veterans into a nationally-imposed closet of shame and disgrace not to be brought out into the light until just recently. Now that we are “in vogue,” posers everywhere now claim to be Vietnam veterans.
John Kerry, you betrayed all of us contributing to the myths and fallacies of the Vietnam anti-war movement when you tossed all your dubious medals over the fence of the US capitol so you could send your new political career into orbit as the star of the anti-war movement. And where has it gotten you, Senator? You ran for President and are being considered for a Cabinet position, but you are reviled and despised by millions of your fellow veterans. I always smile and do not ever hide my face when I look in the mirror to shave in the morning. I wonder what you do?
Senator John Kerry, you and I were military officers in Vietnam. If you personally saw all these atrocities occur in Vietnam, as an officer why didn’t you stop them or at the very least report them? Why is there not one record anywhere of you ever reporting a single atrocity to higher headquarters of any command at any time? As officers, it was our duty to report and stop such things from happening. As an officer of the US military, by not reporting them when they occurred, you are an accomplice to numerous crimes and should have been court-martialed. Then, after Vietnam, while still a Reserve officer in the US Navy you went to Paris, met and negotiated with the North Vietnamese delegation, and have admitted same publicly. You were not a government official at that time, and that clearly was consorting with the enemy and totally illegal under the tenets of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That is in fact considered treasonous, and you should have also been court-martialed for that. Now, you want to be the Secretary of Defense? You want to make decisions that will affect the lives of my sons who serve in the US Army Special Forces now? You slandered US Marines proudly serving in the Global War on Terrorism and now want to command them? I don’t think so, Senator.
You are a bold-faced, unprincipled liar, and a disgrace, and you have dishonored me and all my fellow combat veterans. People forget that it was honorable, normal soldiers who reported and stopped the My Lai Massacre, and other atrocities since then. Hollywood and the news media would have us think every Vietnam veteran is a tortured soul destined to become a serial killer thanks to self-serving scoundrels like you. Over 58,000 men and a few women died in South Vietnam and you have disgraced them all with your political posturing, and they cannot defend their legacy of honor or speak for themselves. However, I can and will, and so will many of my fellow veterans, very many.
Mr. President Barack Obama, we are not on the same page at all on most issues, but you are my President and will have my loyalty as long as you are. I implore you, do not open old wounds, Sir? We Vietnam veterans have been through way too much for more scarring. Do not even consider Senator John Kerry as our next Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, or any other Cabinet position. That would be akin to appointing Louis Farrakhan the Ambassador to Israel.
Senator Kerry, I will put my record as a warrior up against yours any day. Besides, I wrote you when you ran for President back in 2004, “Medals do not make a man; Morals do.”
Don Bendell
Don Bendell is a best-selling author, a disabled Green Beret Vietnam veteran, and a 1995 inductee into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame.
Permission is hereby granted to reprint, copy, or pass this on wherever and to whomever you choose. This is posted on Don’s blog, Shooting from the Hip, accessed at his website www.donbendell.com
Newsletter comment: I’ve never seen such cowards in the White House & State Department. They want to shift the blame on the intelligence community when Mr. Hicks in Tripoli was reporting from the start of the attack in Benghazi that it was a terrorist attack on that facility as reported to him by Ambassador Stevens.
In my opinion, the talking points were changed to give Sec. Clinton and the White House cover for their actions of cutting security at the facility, period. And they both went out before the television cameras when the bodies of our brave Americans were returned to U.S. soil and in front of the families with the caskets in the background, continued to lie to the families, the American people, and the entire world. And they continue those same lies today. This is an absolute disgrace! – Roger
Newsletter comment: From Vietnam until the present the State Dept. has not cooperated well with our military. The fall of Lima Site 85 in Laos, SOG missions compromised in Laos & Cambodia – a case can certainly be made that our inept State Dept. played a hand in those failures and lives were lost. Lessons are never learned when denial is the norm – Roger Young, co-editor
It is clear after listening to SECDEF Panetta and Gen. Dempsey today at hearings, and listening to some of the questioning of CIA candidate Brennan today before the Senate, there is NOT going to be any accountability regarding the tragedy in Benghazi. And it is equally clear that this President is incapable of leading during a crisis. – Roger Young
Newsletter closing comment: I believe it is clear that just like Fast & Furious we are never going to get the truth, nor will anyone ever be held accountable for what happened in Benghazi. And the GOP doesn’t have the stomach to ask the tough questions to uncover the truth. It was just another dog & pony show to appease the American people. – Roger Young
Newsletter comment: Is this all the good General could offer? I don’t care who changed his memo! I don’t care about what Susan Rice said on network TV. These are the questions I want answers for:
1) Who repeatedly denied requests for increased security and why?
2) Who told the SEALS to “stand down” and not go to the aid of the Consulate under attack and why?
3) Who denied them help when they were fighting for their lives at the annex and why?
This is the usual Potomac two-step, just pointing fingers at various agencies without ever getting to the truth. We are being led down rabbit trails in my opinion. – Roger Young, editor
Newsletter comment: Perhaps if the President would answer any direct questions concerning Benghazi, except “it’s under investigation,” we could get some real answers to why four Americans died and their repeated requests for increased security before the attack were denied, and why their requests for help during the attack went unanswered.
It is clear to me that this President does not feel he is obligated to answer any questions to the American people. – Roger
Newsletter comment: Excellent questions, but the focus has/will turn to the Petraeus scandal. How convenient. Nothing like a good sex scandal to divert the mainstream press and congress from a national security fiasco in Benghazi. – Roger
Newsletter observation: We now know since this deadly attack the following:
1) Leading up to the attack, the State Department repeatedly denied official requests to increase security as recommended by the Ambassador and his security team on the ground in Libya. In fact, the State Department reduced the security prior to the attack according to earlier hearings in the House that took place following this tragedy.
2) As the attack was underway, Jennifer Griffin reported above that the CIA reportedly refused multiple requests for help by its operatives under attack at the annex. The CIA denies those reports – Roger Young
Newsletter comment: It is long past time that our President addressed the American people on this issue which claimed the lives of four American patriots. You decide if this adminstration has been playing it straight with us. – Roger Young
I’m not big on Super Pac ads, but this video from a GOP Super Pac raises very valid questions that deserve to be answered to the American people from the White House. This President has the time to go on comedy shows to talk about Libya, but somehow cannot address the American people thus far?:
Newsletter comment: The debacle in Benghazi which cost the lives of four American patriots, reminds me of a similar debacle during the Vietnam war which led to the fall of Lima Site 85 in Laos. In Benghazi there were repeated requests to the State Department by their U.S. security teams on the ground for additional personnel to guard the vulnerable Consulate at Benghazi. Those requests were denied according to recent House testimony.
At Lima Site 85, a top-secret radar installation manned by U.S. Air Force personnel disguised as civilian contractors, in early March 1968 MACV in Saigon knew the installation was in imminent danger of attack by the NVA and the U.S. Ambassador in Laos rejected MACV’s evacuation request and the site was overrun on 11 March 1968 and 11 Americans were killed.
Our State Department has many dedicated and brave Americans serving our country around the world. Unfortunately, far too often, the bureaucrats in D.C. who are career driven guided by politics call the shots from the safety of their desks which can have disastrous outcomes for those in harms way. Without personal accountability, we are likely doomed to see more such bad calls around this increasingly turbulent world. - Roger Young
“…’Based on information provided to the committee by individuals with direct knowledge of events in Libya, the attack that claimed the ambassador’s life was the latest in a long line of attacks on Western diplomats and officials in Libya in the months leading up to September 11, 2012,’ they wrote. ‘In addition, multiple U.S. federal government officials have confirmed to the committee that, prior to the September 11 attack, the U.S. mission in Libya made repeated requests for increased security in Benghazi. The mission in Libya, however, was denied these resources by officials in Washington’…”
Comment: As the author pointed out, it is unlikely that the Obama administration will take any blame for the deadly attack in Benghazi or the way this tragic event was initially “spun” by the administration and mainstream media. During Vietnam we had a media that was critical of the strategy unlike today a media that avoids asking the tough questions or holding this administration accountable for any of their decisions.
Our individual freedoms have always hinged on a free and independent press that would question power and seek the truth. Unfortunately those days appear to be behind us. Sometimes like the ’68 Tet the press got it wrong – Tet was a major defeat for the Viet Cong, not a military victory – but at least they were asking the tough questions and had every right to question the Johnson/McNamara strategy of ‘escalated response’ that would not take the war to the North or their sanctuaries in Cambodia & Laos
“Intelligence and Special Operations forces are furious and frustrated at how President Obama and those in positions of authority have exploited their service for political advantage. Countless leaks, interviews and decisions by the Obama Administration and other government officials have undermined the success of our Intelligence and Special Operations forces and put future missions and personnel at risk.
“The unwarranted and dangerous public disclosure of Special Forces Operations is so serious — that for the first time ever — former operators have agreed to risk their reputations and go ‘on the record’ in a special documentary titled “Dishonorable Disclosures.” Its goal is to educate America about serious breaches of security and prevent them from ever happening again.
“Use of military ranks, titles & photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement of the Dept of the Army or the Department of Defense. All individuals are no longer in active service with any federal agency or military service.”
Just a short personal observation that I’ve never seen our country in such a sad state of affairs. We have a Congress that only adds to the uncertainty and anxiety that is paralyzing our economy. They can’t even agree to extend or amend the Bush tax cuts before the November elections! We just move from one election cycle to the next with little getting done in D.C. to help move our country forward.
“Leadership” appears to be a lost commodity from either party. In my opinion, our politicians are THE major problem preventing any real economic recovery. And it is the American citizen that is being shortchanged by the political games in play.
This video was created to commemorate the 67FS winning the 2011 Raytheon Trophy for outstanding aerial achievement, given to the top air-to-air squadron in the USAF.
The footage was shot over 1 year of flying with a Sony HD Handycam and GOPRO Hero. The footage was shot entirely by pilots, no combat camera personnel were used. The video was edited with Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD over 2 weeks by Jersey. Footage includes flying and aircraft from both the 67FS “Fighting Cocks” and the 44FS “Vampire Bats”, entirely on location at Kadena AB, Japan. Most of the over water footage was filmed while we were raging like demons from hell in the skies over the pacific ocean like our brothers did 70 years before us.
This video was created to commemorate the 67FS winning the 2011 Raytheon Trophy for outstanding aerial achievement, given to the top air-to-air squadron in the USAF.
The footage was shot over 1 year of flying with a Sony HD Handycam and GOPRO Hero. The footage was shot entirely by pilots, no combat camera personnel were used. The video was edited with Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD over 2 weeks by Jersey. Footage includes flying and aircraft from both the 67FS “Fighting Cocks” and the 44FS “Vampire Bats”, entirely on location at Kadena AB, Japan. Most of the over water footage was filmed while we were raging like demons from hell in the skies over the pacific ocean like our brothers did 70 years before us.
On November 5th, 2009, Maj. Nidal Hasan killed 13 of his fellow soldiers at Ft. Hood in what appears to be cold-blooded premeditation. He is still awaiting trial and even today we know very little about his background. His actions are officially called, “workplace violence” by our President and our PC military leadership.
But SSG Bales? Read all about him on the Army Times:
I certainly don’t condone Bales’ reported despicable actions in Afghanistan, but why the double-standard by both our civilian and military leadership? They downplay the actions by Maj. Hasan while almost daily, report more information on the background of SSG Bales and his family. This old soldier would like to know why Maj. Hasan still awaits trial while SSG Bales is facing a daily trial in the court of public opinion. – Roger Young
