Justin Brown
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Posts by Justin Brown
18 veterans commit suicide each day
April 23, 2010 - 9:50 am
Posted in Mental health, News, Veterans Affairs | No comments
By Rick Maze–Military Times
Troubling new data show there are an average of 950 suicide attempts each month by veterans who are receiving some type of treatment from the Veterans Affairs Department.
Seven percent of the attempts are successful, and 11 percent of those who don’t succeed on the first attempt try again within nine months.
The [...]
Panel urges VA to plan now for vets care
April 1, 2010 - 9:02 am
Posted in Healthcare, Mental health, News, Veterans Affairs | No comments
Excerpt: Based on a review of disability claims from past wars, the report says the number of disability claims from recent veterans should peak around 2040.
By Kimberly Hefling – The Associated Press–
WASHINGTON — Looking decades ahead, the Institute of Medicine is urging the Veterans Affairs Department to begin planning now for the long-term health care [...]
VA doctors prohibited from prescribing medical pot
March 31, 2010 - 8:58 am
Posted in News, Veterans Affairs | No comments
By SUE MAJOR HOLMES–The Associated Press–
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When Paul Culkin came home to New Mexico after serving with an Army bomb squad in Iraq, he tried counseling and medications offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs to cope with his post traumatic stress disorder.
Nothing worked very well. Then he found a new alternative: marijuana.
New [...]
A GI-Bill reminder from VA
March 25, 2010 - 2:55 pm
Posted in GI-Bill, Veterans Affairs | No comments
Hello,
Hope you’re having a great afternoon. I wanted to get in touch today to remind you of the benefits of The Post-9/11 GI Bill, and invite you to help spread the word to your readers.
As a military veteran, it’s imperative that you play a proactive role to ensure the educational benefits you, your friends [...]
Looking for Virginia Vets who might share their story
March 3, 2010 - 12:57 pm
Posted in Just Awesome | No comments
I recieved this message from a reader, if you are in the Charlottesville area and want to participate please contact Ms. Russo. -Justin
Dear Mr. Brown,
My name is Lauren Russo and I live in Charlottesville, Virginia. I am part of a three-woman organization, called Secretly Y’all, that puts on a monthly story-telling show here in Charlottesville. [...]
For soldiers, single motherhood becomes another battlefield
February 26, 2010 - 10:33 pm
Tags: Mary Eberstadt
Posted in Women's Issues | No comments
The latest flurry of attention toward gays in the military shows that the question of who gets to be a soldier, and why, is sometimes unavoidably moral. So let’s ask that question about another group of soldiers who haven’t attracted as much talk but should: mothers, many of them single, in combat boots — and [...]
Vets deserve a piece of jobs bill, VFW says
February 26, 2010 - 9:34 am
Posted in Employment, News | No comments
By Rick Maze –Military Times–
The nation’s largest organization of combat veterans is demanding changes in the $15 billion jobs bill that passed the Senate on Wednesday because veterans were left out of a package of tax credits and highway projects aimed at increasing employment.
“Despite having more than 1.1 million unemployed veterans, the 60-page package failed [...]
Nye: $750 a Month is Too Much, Too Fast
February 22, 2010 - 5:13 pm
Tags: Representative Glenn Nye
Posted in GI-Bill, News, Politics | No comments
Washington, DC – Congressman Glenn Nye (VA-02) is asking the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to ease the burden on local veterans.
Last week, the VA announced that it will ask veterans who received $3,000 emergency payments under the Post 9/11 GI Bill to begin repaying the money – at a rate of up to $750 [...]
Shinseki: US will fix broken VA disability system
February 22, 2010 - 10:42 am
Posted in Benefits and Claims, News, Veterans Affairs | 1 comment
By KIMBERLY HEFLING
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (AP) – Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said he’s making it a top priority this year to tackle the backlog of disability claims that has veterans waiting months — even years — to get financial compensation for their injuries.
Among those waiting for relief are sick Vietnam and Gulf War veterans to [...]
In Marja, it’s war the old-fashioned way
February 20, 2010 - 10:42 am
Posted in Afghanistan, News, OEF | No comments
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran–Washington Post Foreign Service–
MARJA, AFGHANISTAN — They had slogged through knee-deep mud carrying 100 pounds of gear, fingers glued to the triggers of their M-4 carbines, all the while on the lookout for insurgents. Now, after five near-sleepless nights, trying to avoid hypothermia in freezing temperatures, the grunts of the 1st Battalion of [...]
