VoteVets Runnin Ad Campaign

VoteVets sent out an E with three new ads they've started running and over at their Vet Voice site have a couple of posts up with explanations of.

View the ads and then give them a hand getting them out or passing them on especially to residents of the states representatives targeted.

Jon Soltz put the first post up with one ad You Wanted It. You Got it.

A couple of weeks ago, my colleague Richard Allen Smith posted comments he discovered, made by Senate candidate Pat Toomey, about why the former Congressman voted against a $1500 combat bonus for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yep, Toomey voted no on a very simple amendment in 2003, that would have given our men and women fighting overseas a little bit more change in their pockets.

To remind you, Toomey called that bonus, "Wasteful spending." Yes, that from the same guy who stood against taxing any of the bonuses that Wall Street execs gave themselves after ripping off America.

The reaction from commenters on here and on the companion piece at Huffington Post was somewhere between shocked and disgusted. One of the most frequent types of comments I read were ones that said, "Why isn't this an ad?"

Well, we thought about it, and you were right. Why wasn't this in an ad? Now, because of you, it is. {read rest}

And here's that ad:



That was followed up by a post from Richard Allen Smith, Closing Ads with the other two.

I wanted to follow up on Jon's post by showing you the two other ads we are releasing today.

First, we have an ad targeted at PA-08 and challenger to Rep. Patrick Murphy, former Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick. Rep. Murphy, a former Paratrooper and OIF Vet, beat Fitzpatrick for this seat back in 2006 by using Fitzpatrick's own words and deeds against him. This year will be no different. The ad on Fitzpatrick is critical of his vote to allow families of the fallen to claim their rightful survivor benefits from the government. The ad features Jared Baker, an Army Iraq veteran from Doylestown.

This first ad:



Followed with this one:

Additionally, we're releasing an ad supporting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada. Titled "Highway," the ad shows a young man hiking along the road, just as Harry Reid did once a week as he went back and forth to school. Narrated by Anthony Funches an Air Force veteran from Las Vegas, the ad chronicles how Harry Reid has always beat the odds, including his leadership to provide care and benefits to our nation's veterans.

For Reid:



With this teaser:

Stay tuned tomorrow. We've got one final ad for the cycle coming out, and you're going to want to see it! {read rest}

At the end

Tricare dependents up to age 26

The obstruction trail of the republicans, always has been as related to Veterans issues, and the ones that were really an (R) and us Veterans could work with are all gone, long gone, and so is that political party and ideology!!!

Effort stalls to cover Tricare dependents up to age 26

The military insurance got caught up in "don't ask, don't tell" standoff.

October 12, 2010 - Hours after Congress passed the Affordable Care Act last March, Defense Secretary Robert Gates promised service members and their families that the landmark law wouldn't "negatively impact" their health plan.

Turns out, though, they were excluded from a provision viewed even by many Republicans, who have fought the act at every turn, as a positive impact.

Among the law's consumer-friendly provisions that took effect Sept. 23 is a requirement that insurance companies allow parents to keep their young adults on family policies up to age 26. But Tricare, which covers about 10 million active and retired military personnel and their families, only covers children up to 21 - or 23 if they're in college.

Language was inserted into the defense authorization bill to raise the age of eligible Tricare dependents to match the new health care law. The House passed the bill, but it got blocked in the Senate by Republicans opposed to a separate measure repealing the military's "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays serving openly.

So the matter remains unresolved until Congress returns to Washington after the November elections. {read rest}

Phase Two of Five-Year Study

Simple: End these Wars of Choice, Bring Them Home, and The Country Finally Ponies Up And Sacrifices to take care of those they've sent over and over into that which the greater majority would never enter, especially the hawkish wanna-be rambo's!!!

Army begins phase two of five-year study on suicide, prevention

Oct 7, 2010 - One of the most important steps in preventing suicide is educating servicemembers in the field, according to Dr. Mark Fisher, chief of Psychological Services in the Behavioral Health Department at Kimbrough Ambulatory Care Center.

Fisher said he hopes more outreach will be done to active-duty Soldiers as the results of phase two of a five-year Army study on suicide and prevention are revealed.

"We need to be on the ground," Fisher said regarding the study, noting that behavioral health professionals need to be in direct contact with Soldiers "in regard to risk and how to be resilient."

This fall the Army, in collaboration with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), will begin surveying about 90,000 active-duty Soldiers to collect data for the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers. {read rest}

Despite Army Efforts, Soldier Suicides Continue

10 October 2010 - At 3:30 a.m. on a Saturday in August, Specialist Armando G. Aguilar Jr. found himself at the end of his short life. He was standing, drunk and weepy, in the parking lot of a Valero station outside Waco, Tex. He had jumped out of his moving pickup. There was a police officer talking to him in frantic tones. Specialist Aguilar held a pistol pointed at his head. {read rest}

Corpsman Memorial

Corpsman Memorial to be built in Lejeune Memorial Gardens

13 OCT 2010 - Wherever there is a Marine engaged in combat, a Navy corpsman is not far behind. Since the American flag was raised on Mount Surbachi, Iwo Jima by five Marines and one corpsman, the threads of the United States Navy hospital corpsman have been sewn into the battle flag of the United States Marine Corps.

It is this group of gallant warriors that are being recognized as plans for the construction and placement of the Corpsman Memorial in the Lejeune Memorial Gardens are underway.

“The concept behind this whole drive is the Marines’ tribute to Navy corpsmen,” said Senior Chief Petty Officer Matthew DesChamps, command senior chief of 2nd Dental Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group.

In February 2008, the Corpsmen Memorial Foundation was established with the goal of creating a monument in honor of Navy corpsmen who fought alongside their Marine brethren. Funds have been accumulated over the past two and a half years, totaling nearly $30,000.

The Corpsmen Memorial will be a life-sized replica of the clay sculpture currently housed in Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune, which portrays a Vietnam-era corpsman lying on top of a wounded Marine, whose right leg is in a makeshift splint, shielding him from impending danger. {read rest}

Moving On at 'The Wall'

Facing Bad Memories at 'The Wall'...and Moving On

Navy Veteran Paul Middleton, on a special journey looking for healing of his PTSD, encountered former VA Administrator and Senator Max Cleland at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.

12.10.2009 - It was a day that started with tears and ended with hugs and smiles.

Paul Middleton arrived at The Wall on a rainy day in November. Officially, it is The Vietnam Veterans Memorial...but everybody calls it The Wall. He and his wife Annette had driven up from Charleston, South Carolina, specifically to experience The Wall.

It's part of his treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD. His doctor had encouraged Paul to go to Washington, DC and look at the names of his four buddies on The Wall.

Face it. Deal with it.

It's part of the relatively new VA treatment known as in-context exposure therapy. As his doctor puts it, "The only way to get past the anxiety is through it, not to avoid it."

Paul quietly told his family, "I need to do this by myself."

Walking The Wall was not easy for Paul. There were tears. {read rest}

Health Care for Female Service Members

Improving Health Care for Female Service Members Worldwide

13 October 2010 - As the role of women in the Armed Forces has evolved over the last 15 years, the Military Health System’s offerings in the combat Theater have as well. This is due in part to the growth of the female force increasing from nearly 66,000 to more than 203,000.



Today, women serve as pilots, military police, medics and combat engineers and practically every other occupation the military has to offer, deploying into combat zones where the front lines are no longer clearly defined. {read rest}

Linking veterans with health care

Linking veterans with health care will be focus of ad campaign

12 October, 2010 - Almost two thirds of America’s military veterans use the health care services to which they are entitled, and Department of Veterans Affairs is prepared to spend $5M to do something about it.

According to the Washington Post, DVA is launching a multiyear campaign that will have television and internet elements. The initial foray onto the airwaves will be in six DMAs that are major return portals for military personnel returning from service overseas.

The initial television buys will be concentrated in Seattle WA, Norfolk VA, Raleigh NC, El Paso TX, Savannah GA, and Watertown NY. {read rest}

Health Care Innovation Day

Brings Together Veterans Affairs, Industry and Gov't

12 October 2010 - Innovations in wireless technology can make it easier – and more cost-effective – to bring health care to American veterans, particularly those living in remote or rural areas of the country. That was the conclusion of health care industry leaders, Capitol Hill decision makers and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officials today at a major conference to discuss the future of wireless health care.

Health Care Innovation Day (HCI-DC), hosted by the San Diego based West Wireless Health Institute (WWHI), focused on accelerating low cost health care solutions by encouraging innovations in wireless medical technology. Attendees had access to and interaction with wireless health industry leaders, government stakeholders, and public and private funders.

To highlight and promote participation in the Veterans Affairs Innovation Initiative (VAi2), WWHI also issued a $10,000 challenge to innovators to create an original wireless sensor or application that connects patients with their Veterans Health Care provider and targets one or more identified health conditions affecting veterans, such as polytrauma. Submission themes must be in keeping with WWHI's mission of decreasing health care costs through the application of wireless health technology.

"HCI-DC attracted nearly 300 business leaders and policymakers today, to learn firsthand about innovations that will significantly lower health care costs," said Don Casey, WWHI's CEO. "The event was an exciting step forward as policymakers and entrepreneurs, start-ups and established companies all had the chance to interact and engage in the wireless health discussion, receiving expert insight on how to successfully take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead." {read rest}

Caring For Our Veterans

Oct 12, 2010 - Many servicemen and women have a difficult time readjusting to civilian life...some become homeless and destitute. A project near the Veterans Hospital in South Central Omaha is aimed at changing that. {WOWT Site Link}

Many Vets to be Helped, Much More Needed and Owed

The Country had better not be patting themselves on the back, they've ignored and obstructed, through their representatives, way too much over these past decades then brought on two more wars of choice, Not Need!

Military Update: Many vets to be helped by 2010 Veterans Benefits Act

08 October 2010 - It’s unusual for Congress to pass a comprehensive bill to help thousands of veterans with a final legislative sprint that leaves veterans’ service organizations wondering what just happened.

But that’s what the Senate and House did last week. After a burst of closed-door compromises, they agreed to and separately passed the Veterans’ Benefits Act of 2010 (HR 3219), sent it on to the president.

The package has no clear blockbuster initiative. But it improves many veterans’ benefits including some allowances for disabled veterans and various veterans’ insurance options. Employment protections are toughened for those returning to civilian jobs.

Service members moving out of phone service areas will be able to sever cell phone contracts without penalty. And new federal grants will be authorized for job training and counseling, childcare services to homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children.

“I think it’s fantastic and I’m truly incredulous that it went through as fast at it did,” said Tim Tetz, the American Legion’s legislative director. {read rest}