Listen up ‘cause I’m only gonna’ say this once. I’m gonna’ give you the straight skinny and latest real deal on getting paid by the Veterans Administration for getting hurt when you were on active duty.

When I arrived in Vietnam in 1967, I was attached to a psych unit named by a couple of Latin scholars Pax Mentis: Peace of Mind. I’ve kept that as my sign-off, motto and mission all these years. Recently I’ve been thinking about the vets that manage to achieve this, and wondering just what allows that to happen. more

Last week, I gave a keynote address at a veteran career fair here in Los Angeles. The goal of the event, hosted by the Farmer-Veteran Coalition, was to bring together Veterans looking for work with businesses and schools involved in bringing food from farm and field to table. more

We celebrate America’s independence on the Fourth of July, but what is America doing to protect the personal independence of the veterans who fought to keep our people safe and free? more

We received a recent distress call from the East Coast from the family of a former member of an elite special operations force who recently separated from the military. He served three tours of duty in Afghanistan. His wife and mother called the National Veterans Foundation Lifeline for Vets™. They heard about our work helping Veterans in crisis and were very concerned about his mental state. I met with him fresh out of his separation from the military. You could almost smell the sand and desert on him. His wife described him as acting like a deer in the headlights since coming home. He separated from the military because he had done his service and felt like returning to his family was the right thing to do after years of being away. But he found himself resenting the decision. more

I will be flying to D.C. this week to take part in a meeting called by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs to talk about Veteran employment problems and some possible solutions. This is an issue that is near to my heart and one that lies at the core of our work, helping Veterans transition back to civilian life. more

An article in the Great Falls Tribune this week caught my attention. By Tom Spoth of the Air Force Times, the piece reported that the suicide rate among Air Force personnel had risen 37% since 2007. The Air Force has had 11 suicides so far this year, just through the middle of March. more