NY Marine Colonel to Attend White House Dinner Honoring Iraq War Vets
A Marine colonel from New York will be representing the state during a dinner at the White House Wednesday night to mark the end of the war in Iraq by recognizing the men and women in uniform who...
View ArticleWatch | President Obama Honors Iraq War Veterans
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama paid tribute to U.S. military members who served in Iraq by hosting a dinner Wednesday night. As the president explained, it was an opportunity “to...
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Troops' Mental Health: How Much Is Unknown?
The killing of 16 Afghan civilians last Sunday is now one of the greatest points of tension between the United States and Afghanistan. U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales allegedly killed the civilians...
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Staff Sgt. Bales Case Shows Stigma, Paradox Of PTSD
The case of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the U.S. soldier charged with killing 17 Afghan villagers, has led the Army to review how troops are screened for post-traumatic stress disorder. The Pentagon and...
View ArticleScores of Vets Attend USS Intrepid Job Fair
More than 1,300 veterans attended a special hiring fair on the USS Intrepid Wednesday as part of a weeklong nationwide effort to get veterans back into the workforce.The unemployment rate reached 12.1...
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College-Bound Vets Face Challenges Beyond Tuition
Schools are enrolling hundreds of thousands of recent veterans and service members due to the drawdown in Iraq and Post 9/11 GI Bill. But the education benefit is not helping all of them make the...
View Article4 New York Counties Set to Receive Funding for Vets Peer Pilot Program
Under the state’s new budget plan, four New York counties — Suffolk, Saratoga, Jefferson, and Rensselaer — are set to receive $200,000 each, to launch a pilot peer support program to help veterans...
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For-Profit Schools Under Fire For Targeting Veterans
Hundreds of thousands of veterans have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years, eager to get an education under the new post-Sept. 11 GI Bill.Many vets looking for a school find they are...
View ArticleQuinn Backs Property Tax Reform for Vets
Council Speaker Christine Quinn and other elected officials announced forthcoming legislation to reform the Veterans Property Tax Exemption on Wednesday.The reformed exemption would be tied to the...
View ArticleFirst Lady Seeks More Help for Military Families
Michelle Obama has been everywhere from a West Point mess hall to a NASCAR speedway in the past year to drum up support for military families through her "joining forces" campaign. On Wednesday, she...
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For One Soldier, Rap Is A Powerful Postwar Weapon
When Jeff Barillaro came home from fighting the war in Iraq, he felt lost, like thousands of veterans do. He didn't have a mission anymore.But now, through music, he's found one: Under the stage name...
View ArticleLet There Be Light
As World War Two was ending in the mid 1940s, John Huston began to make a film for the US Army on veterans who’d been psychologically damaged in battle. As WNYC’s Sara Fishko tells us, the film “Let...
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'A Chance To Start Over': Wounded Vets Ride Again
A group of military veterans has been riding bikes this week in and around Washington, D.C. Many of the bikes have been reconfigured so that soldiers who lost limbs and suffered wounds in war could...
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Vets Helping Vets, and Healing in the Process
Recent vets are confronting life back home, as combat missions in Iraq have wrapped up. Some of them are choosing to use their war-time experiences to help other vets who're having a harder time making...
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VA Struggles To Provide Vets With Mental Health Care
Over the past five years, the Department of Veterans Affairs says, the number of former service members seeking mental health services has climbed by a third. In response, the agency has boosted...
View ArticleFor Some Vets, Military Skills are Translating to Civilian Jobs
Karen Perez is an army reservist who deployed to Iraq for 13 months between 2010 and 2011 with the Army Corps of Engineers. She trained to use heavy equipment of all kinds.“Trucks…We did dozers,...
View ArticleMayor Looks to Put Returning Vets to Work
Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined a panel of leaders from the military, government, media and the nonprofit sector Monday attempting to address the challenges of helping veterans returning home from Iraq...
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Military Looks To Redefine PTSD, Without Stigma
The military and the Department of Veterans Affairs say they want more veterans and service members to get appropriate treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.That's why they're tweaking...
View ArticleVeterans Learn Different Kind of Warrior Pose
For many New Yorkers, yoga is more than exercise — it's a tool to relieve stress. That's what one yoga instructor had in mind when she started a class for military veterans.Former Marine and instructor...
View ArticleMuseums Free to Military Personnel and Their Families
The Metropolitan Museum, the Guggenheim and the New Museum are among the roughly 40 museums in New York City that will offer free admission to active-duty military service members and their families —...
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Beyond Memorial Day, Support for Survivors
Memorial Day may be the symbolic start of summer, but for the families of men and women who died serving in the Armed Forces, it’s a day for reflection and remembrance.Ami Neiberger-Miller lost her...
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On Path to Healing, Military Sexual Assault Victims Meet, Advocate for Change
Nichole Bowen was a junior studying sociology at Arizona State when she enlisted in the Army, right before September 11, 2001. She was soon deployed to Iraq as a Private first class."For me Iraq was,...
View ArticleSuicides Surging Among US Troops
Suicides are surging among America's troops, averaging nearly one a day this year - the fastest pace in the nation's decade of war.The 154 suicides for active-duty troops in the first 155 days of the...
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Help And Hope, From Soldiers, For Soldiers
The 182nd Infantry Regiment of the Army National Guard landed back in the U.S. last March after a yearlong deployment to Afghanistan.After two months of leave, however, their official transition time...
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To Rehabilitate Young Vets, Go Hunting
Recreational rehabilitation programs have long been a favorite for helping disabled veterans acclimate after war, and the number of young and disabled vets returning who need those services is on the...
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Vets Find Camaraderie in the Written Word
Iraq war veteran Paul Wasserman was the first of his fellow servicemen to step up to the podium, facing an intimate audience of friends, family and veterans. He began reading his short story,...
View ArticleMessage to Vets: Wall Street Wants You
Military men and women leaving service are working their military skills into resumes and cover letters as they search for work. Several dozen attended a job fair on Wall Street Thursday, sponsored by...
View ArticleRacing Brings Out Competiveness and Camaraderie in Vets
On a quiet tree lined street in Midtown Manhattan on Saturday, men were getting some help as they adjusted and tuned up their cycles — checking tires, gears, wheels and moving seats. They were...
View ArticleFirst Iraq Veteran Opera Puts Inner Turmoil on Stage
After returning from the battlefields of Iraq, Christian Ellis found the only way to soothe the war wounds in his soul was by losing himself singing opera's powerful, haunting songs.Now the 29-year-old...
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Home from War, Reservists Struggle to Find Support
Amid the spa, cocktail bar and other trappings of The Heldrich Hotel, a luxury hotel in New Brunswick, NJ, are eight couples who have signed up for a weekend retreat – who are trying to get quality...
View ArticleNYC Opens Employment Center for Veterans
New York City wants to move beyond bumper sticker slogans to help returning vets find employment.It plans to do just that by creating a new Workforce1 Veterans Career Center, located just north of...
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A New Generation Of Vets Faces Challenges At Home
Homeless veterans of the Vietnam War have been a face of American poverty for decades, and now some veterans of a younger generation are dealing with the same difficult issues."I had my apartment up...
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Vets' Job Hunt May Be Thwarted By Disability Bias
When Army veteran Justin Claus, 26, of Racine, Wis., goes to job interviews, he brings along his DD214, a document that serves as proof of military service. Claus is proud of his service and hopes...
View ArticleFor Disabled Veterans Awaiting Benefits Decisions, Location Matters
If you’re a New York veteran who has waited a year for a decision on a war-related disability claim, you might consider a move to South Dakota – where the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs typically...
View ArticleApps Contest Aims to Help Homeless Vets
Not many Department of Veterans Affairs projects can say they got their start from Bon Jovi. But that’s exactly how the program known as Project REACH (Real-Time Electronic Access for Caregivers and...
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A Year After War Wound, Vet Wins Paralympic Gold
The first thing you need to know about Navy Lt. Brad Snyder is that he's a bit intense.If you go to the U.S. Naval Academy, swim competitively, and make the cut for the Navy's elite bomb-disposal...
View ArticleJobs Bill for Vets Bogs Down in Senate
The Senate blocked legislation Wednesday that would have established a $1 billion jobs program putting veterans back to work tending to the country's federal lands and bolstering local police and fire...
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Man’s Best Friend Helps Soldiers in the Battlefield and at Home
When John Wallace, 43, of Babylon, N.Y., returned three years ago from his combat tour as an infantryman in Afghanistan, he felt content to be home.But soon the divorced father of three began having...
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Army Seeks To Curb Rising Tide Of Suicides
At Fort Myer, Va., a small Army base across the river from Washington, D.C., Chaplain Mark Worrell is talking to about 100 soldiers, reciting the grim numbers."This year, 2012, there have been more...
View ArticleVeterans Groups, Providers Weigh in on Presidential Order to Help Military...
Veterans groups and mental health care providers are watching closely, as a new presidential order designed to increase services for military men and women takes shape.The executive order, signed Aug....
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Vets Seek Specifics On How Candidates Would Help
Military veterans across the country have a whole range of concerns this election season, from the high rate of suicide to special challenges for female vets. But like everyone else, they're especially...
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Vet Walks On New Legs, With A Little Help From Mom
On furlough from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center this summer, 21-year-old Nick Staback lounges on his parents' back porch in Scranton, Pa., taking potshots at sparrows with a replica...
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Battered But Not Broken, Vets Seek 'High Ground'
Mountain climbing asks a lot of its devotees. One should ideally be in top physical condition, with all senses at peak performance, and possessed of a quality that, if it's not best described as...
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Opportunities Emerge For Vets In Tough Job Market
Many veterans aren't just looking for a job; they're looking for a career, a calling and, of course, financial stability. Those recently separated from the military have to confront what is still a...
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Through Meditation, Veterans Relearn Compassion
Marine Esteban Brojas is rocking back and forth in his chair in a rehabilitation center for veterans in Menlo Park, Calif. He rubs his hands together so quickly you can hear them."You know, you're...
View ArticleVets Group Receives $200,000 to Help 1,000 Vets
A local veterans organization has received a $200,000 grant from the anti-poverty group Robin Hood Foundation. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America is using the money to hire three case...
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For Veterans, The Wait For Disability Claims Grows Longer
Kevin English served three tours as a Marine in Iraq. When he came home to Arizona, he suffered from vicious headaches and neck pain that made it hard to keep a job. The worst day, he says, was when he...
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Suicide Hotline Fights To Keep Vets And Troops Alive
At a suicide prevention center in upstate New York, America's troops and veterans are calling in for help.And that help is needed more than ever. This past year witnessed a terrible death toll from...
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Veterans Take Stock of 2012, Look Forward to 2013
It’s been more than a year since U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq, and for many veterans the last twelve months have been spent readjusting to life on the homefront. As 2012 draws to a close, veterans...
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To Combat Suicides, Army Focuses On The Homefront
When Sgt. Brandon McCoy returned from Iraq, he showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. His wife, Alicia, remembers him being on edge in public."I'm watching him, and his trigger finger never...
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