Virginia veterans
McDonnell meets with veterans
Jan 29th
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – In his only scheduled meeting on his first business day in office, Gov. Bob
McDonnell took a few minutes to salute veterans visiting the state Capitol.
McDonnell told a couple dozen veterans Monday he would use incentives to get veterans and retired military members to stay in Virginia, like waiving administrative and licensing fees for those who want to start small businesses.
He said he would continue funding the Wounded Warrior program, which helps veterans with mental and behavioral-health problems like depression, brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder.
McDonnell also pledged to streamline veterans services operations.
More than 813,000 veterans live in Virginia, including more than 38,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Medal of Honor recipient draws support in fight for flagpole
Dec 4th
By Bill McKelway, Richmond Times-Dispatch–A Medal of Honor recipient’s date with destiny is on hold.
The board of a Henrico County homeowners association agreed yesterday to extend for a week the deadline for its ultimatum that Col. Van T. Barfoot remove a flagpole from his yard by today at 5 p.m.
“This will give everyone some breathing room,” said John K. Honey, a lawyer whose firm is representing the Army veteran of three wars.
Barfoot, 90, was ordered Wednesday by Sussex Square Services Inc. to remove the pole or become subject to unspecified legal action. Barfoot erected the pole after he moved into the community of 87 residences this year knowing he needed approval of the association to do so, according to the board.
Barfoot’s dilemma is attracting national attention from news outlets, veterans groups, thousands of residents posting comments on Web sites, and Virginia’s two U.S. senators.
At least three Facebook fan pages have been set up in honor of Barfoot, including a fast-growing one with about 5,000 members as of late last night. Barfoot also has been added to the user-generated Wikipedia Web site.
Popularity: 35% [?]
Henrico Medal of Honor winner, 90, ordered to remove flagpole
Dec 3rd
Richmond Times-Dispatch–Col. Van T. Barfoot, a local Medal of Honor winner, is under the gun
from his Henrico County community’s homeowner association.
In a five-paragraph letter to Barfoot that he received yesterday, Barfoot is being ordered to remove a flagpole from his yard. The decorated veteran of three wars, now 90 years old, raises the American flag every morning on the pole, then lowers and folds the flag at dusk each day in a three-corner military fashion.
In a priority mail letter, the Coates & Davenport law firm in Richmond is ordering Barfoot to remove the pole by 5 p.m. Friday or face “legal action being brought to enforce the Covenants and Restrictions against you.” The letter states that Barfoot will be subject to paying all legal fees and costs in any successful legal proceeding pursued by the homeowner association’s board.
Barfoot’s daughter said this evening that news reports about the association order have prompted an outpouring of sympathy and offers of help from people following her father’s ordeal.
Tonight, the Sussex Square Homeowners Association issued a statement reiterating its position that Barfoot directly violated the association board’s denial of his request to erect a flagpole.
“This is not about the American flag. This about a flagpole,” the statement reads.
Barfoot lives in the Sussex Square community in far western Henrico; its board of directors rejected a plea from Barfoot in July to approve the pole, disallowing the fixture on aesthetic grounds.
Popularity: 89% [?]
Veterans Treats and Discounts During Veterans’ Day
Nov 10th
Applebee’s is offering a free meal for Veterans on Wednesday, November 11th, Veterans’ Day.
Valid Veteran and Active Duty Identification to Obtain Free Entree:
- U.S. Uniform Services Identification Card
- U.S. Uniform Services Retired Identification Card
- Current Leave and Earnings Statement (LES)
- Veterans Organization Card (i.e., American Legion and VFW)
- Photograph in uniform
- Wearing uniform
- DD214
- Citation or Commendation
More Veteran’s Day Treats:
McCormick and Schmick’s – Free Meal on Sunday, Nov. 8th for Veterans please see participant restaurants.
Golden Corral – Free meal on Monday, Nov 16th 5-9pm for Veterans click here for more information.
UNO Chicago Grill, Nov. 11th – free Entree with purchase of any entree – more info
Other Discounts:
10% off at Lowes - Nov. 6-11, Valid ID or proof of service required
Home Depot doing the same discount but I can’t find anything with this years date on it.
Free Folding Cane, Nov. 11th at all Sams Club Locations – for Veterans needing mobility assistance.
Also check out this link for additional discounts and state specific specials!
Popularity: 22% [?]
More misplaced remains at Arlington National Cemetery
Nov 2nd
What happened to Master Sgt. Marion Grabe, says a source, is a clue “that there
may be thousands of these problems”
By Mark Benjamin–Salon.com–
Editor’s note: This story is part of a special Salon investigation of problems at Arlington National Cemetery.
Air Force Master Sgt. Marion Grabe passed away on Christmas day in 2007. She had served 26 years as an operating room nurse in the Air Force she loved, including 17 months in a Manila hospital treating wounded soldiers during the Vietnam War.
In death, Grabe wanted to mark her service to her country with a suitably honorable burial at Arlington National Cemetery. “She wanted to be buried there so bad,” recalled Grabe’s sister, Dorothy Nolte. Thinking of the fiasco that ensued with Grabe’s burial at Arlington, Nolte added sadly, “She deserved better.”
On Jan. 28, 2008, the cemetery interred Grabe’s cremated remains in the wrong plot, on top of the casket of another deceased service member. The Army then moved Grabe’s remains without requesting permission from Nolte, her next of kin — despite cemetery regulations urging efforts to obtain permission from family — but later claimed to Salon that it had notified the next of kin. The official who moved Grabe without family approval is the same official who may bear primary responsibility for the poor record keeping at the cemetery, which has already resulted in at least one “unknown” grave, as previously documented by Salon, in a cemetery that is supposed to have no new “unknowns.” And the mistake is part of a pattern of errors at the cemetery, where several current and former cemetery employees tell Salon there may be a large number of similarly misplaced remains.
Popularity: 16% [?]
NRA To Honor Veterans at NRA Range with Free Shoot
Oct 27th
FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA --(AmmoLand.com)- The National Rifle Association is sponsoring a
free shoot for interested U.S. military veterans at its headquarters range in Fairfax, Virginia, on Tuesday, November 10. Space is limited. In order to attend, please e-mail Sylvia Schneider at nrarangeadmin@nrahq.org.
The event is scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. and includes a casual dinner. Firearms and ammo will be provided. Military personnel and veterans will be asked to take a short range test if they have not shot at the NRA’s range prior to the event.
The program features an exclusive display from the NRA National Firearms Museum. Senior curators Phil Schreier and Doug Wicklund will be available to answer questions.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Webb Tapped to Chair Personnel Subcommittee of Senate Committee on Armed Services
Oct 23rd
From the Office of Sen. Webb–
Senator Has Life-long Experience Addressing Needs of Military Servicemembers and their Families
Washington, DC – Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) was selected this week to chair the powerful Personnel Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Armed Services for the 111th Congress. As chairman, Webb will draw on his extensive experience and expertise in military and defense matters to strengthen congressional oversight over a wide range of issues relating to the welfare, professional development, and quality of life of servicemembers and their families.
As a member of both the Senate Committee on Armed Services and the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs for nearly three years, Senator Webb drafted and introduced legislation that led to a modern, comprehensive post-9/11 GI Bill; spearheaded the effort to increase “dwell time” between combat deployments for active duty and reserve servicemembers; obtained an independent investigation to examine the effectiveness and reliability of body armor; and authored legislation that led to the establishment of the Commission on Wartime Contracting to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan wartime-support contracts.
“As the son of an Air Force officer, the father of a Marine, and a Marine combat veteran myself, I understand the sacrifices that our servicemembers and their families make every day. I have worked on the issues championed by this Subcommittee throughout my life, and it is an honor to be named chairman,” said Webb.
“The Commonwealth of Virginia is home to hundreds of thousands of active-duty and retired military families,” continued Webb. “Whether these families serve at the Pentagon in Northern Virginia, Ft. Lee outside Richmond, or the Norfolk Naval base and its associated commands, these families share a common set of concerns ranging from health care to basic pay and benefits. Working with Senator Graham, the subcommittee’s ranking member, I look forward to this new position as an opportunity to explore the ever-changing needs of our armed services and identify policies that ensure the well-being of our servicemembers and their families.”
Senator Webb served with the Fifth Marine Regiment in Vietnam, where as a rifle platoon and company commander in the infamous An Hoa Basin west of Danang, he was awarded the Navy Cross, the Silver Star Medal, two Bronze Star Medals, and two Purple Hearts. He later served as a platoon commander and as an instructor in tactics and weapons at Marine Corps Officer Candidates School, and then as a member of the Secretary of the Navy’s immediate staff, before leaving the Marine Corps in 1972. Following law school, Webb served in the U.S. Congress as counsel to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs from 1977 to 1981. In 1984, he was appointed the inaugural Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. In 1987, he became the first graduate in the Naval Academy’s history to serve in the military and then become Secretary of the Navy.
The Subcommittee on Personnel’s responsibilities include: military and DOD civilian personnel policies; end strengths for military personnel; personnel compensation and benefits; military health care; and military nominations. Additional areas include: professional military education; DOD schools, DOD child care and family assistance; civil-military programs; POW/MIA issues; Armed Forces Retirement Home; morale, welfare and recreation; and military commissaries and exchanges.
The Subcommittee oversight responsibilities include the budget accounts for military personnel, military retirement, Defense Health Program, DOD Medicare-Eligible Retiree Health Care Fund, and operation and maintenance for certain education and civil military programs. Oversight of DOD offices and agencies include the positions of Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel & Readiness, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs; and the TRICARE Management Agency, Defense Commissary Agency, and Uniformed Services University of the Health Services.
To download a PDF of the Subcommittee structure for the Senate Armed Services Committee, please go to: http://armed-services.senate.gov/SASC%20SUB%20STRUCTURE%20111TH.pdf
Popularity: 9% [?]
McCain campaigns with McDonnell at Va. vets’ rally
Oct 17th
By BOB LEWIS –Associated Press–
John McCain, the GOP senator who was busy running for president a year ago, campaigned to rally Virginia’s veterans behind Republican Bob McDonnell’s bid for governor.
About 300 people jammed into a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Virginia Beach for McDonnell’s rally with McCain. Per capita, more veterans live in Virginia than any state.
It’s part of an escalation by both sides to bring big names into a governor’s race with big stakes nationally.
Former Vice President Al Gore held a fundraiser Friday for Democrat Creigh (CREE) Deeds. President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton also plan to campaign for Deeds later this month.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Arlington unveils a new unknown soldier
Oct 7th
The first headstone stamped “Unknown” since 1984 is the result not of war’s chaos, but of
human error
By Mark Benjamin–Salon.com–
For the first time in a generation, Arlington National Cemetery has marked the burial of an unknown on its storied grounds. Only this time, 25 years since the last interment at the Tomb of the Unknowns, the identity of the body remains a mystery not because the ravages of war made identification impossible, but because in a bureaucratic error the cemetery lost the paperwork showing the identity of the remains.
Arlington recently installed a headstone marked “Unknown” above grave 449 in section 68 of the cemetery. “A grave marker has been placed at grave 449 in section 68 noting the remains as Unknown,” Army spokesman Dave Foster confirmed to Salon in a statement.
This is the first time the cemetery has marked an unknown since 1984, when Arlington entombed the remains of a Vietnam veteran in the Tomb of the Unknowns in a ceremony rife with pomp and circumstance. Former President Reagan presided, posthumously awarding that service member the Medal of Honor. And that unknown soldier was supposed to be the last unknown interred in any U.S. military cemetery, given advances in DNA technology and a multimillion dollar effort to account for every soldier and identify all remains. A body that could not be identified was supposed to be a thing of the past.
Popularity: 29% [?]
Vets find barbecue franchises suit their tastes
Sep 28th
By Lee Graves—Virginia Business.com—
Mark Petersen grew up in eastern North Carolina, where the tangy vinegar sauce is legendary in barbecue lore.
Ed Totanes grew up in the Philippines eating barbecue as well, but although the dish had the same name, it was a world away from Petersen’s pulled-pork delicacy. “The first real vinegar-based barbecue I had was in Florida, and it tasted so different,” Totanes says.
Now both have turned their love for barbecue into business enterprises, thanks in large part to another common trait — military service.
Through a program called the Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative (VetFran), Petersen and Totanes each received a $5,000 discount on their fees to open Virginia Barbeque franchises. (The initial franchise fee is $25,000.) “You can really make a lot out of $5,000,” says Totanes, who has opened barbecue franchises in Blackstone and Farmville.
Totanes served as a hospital corpsman and submariner during 20 years in the U.S. Navy. He attained U.S. citizenship while in the service, and by the time he retired in 2007 he was president and CEO of General Aviation Flying Co., a Virginia-based firm that acquires and sells previously owned aircraft.
Popularity: 17% [?]
