Some of the 'Services' and 'Programs we have available
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180 W. Idaho Ave, Ontario, Oregon 97914
541-889-1978
The Chairman of Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida, Ronald Verini, writes two articles every month for publication in a Regional Newspaper, this article "RESPECT, DENTAL CARE AND THE PARK SERVICE" will be published SEPTEMBER 25, 2022. Here is a part of Mr. Verinis' article, and you can read the full article by clicking the red bar below.
"RESPECT, DENTAL CARE AND THE PARK SERVICE"
September 25, 2022, Veterans Column by Ronald Verini
TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE PLEASE CLICK THE RED BAR BELOW
HOW TO CONNECT WITH A RESPONDER
1-800-273-8255
and Press 1
TEXT - 838255
This free support is
And serves
Connect with the Veterans Crisis Line to reach caring, qualified responderswith the Department of Veterans Affairs. Many of them are Veterans themselves.
August 2022 by Bill Lohmann, Richmond Times Dispatch
RICHMOND, Va. — World War II veteran Russell L. Scott, comic book hero.
Well, sure, why not?
The late Scott, a B-25 tail gunner in the U.S. Army Air Corps who was held as a prisoner of war, certainly had a story to tell. To sum up, as he told me in 2014, seven decades after it all happened in 1944, “I got to Corsica on the 18th of May. On the 23rd of May, I went on my first mission. And on the 25th of May, I went on my last mission.”
The mission on May 25 was his last because enemy fire hit his B-25 over Italy. Scott attempted to bail out, but the escape hatch wouldn’t open, so he had to head-butt the canopy over the tail gunner’s position to get out, said Ralph Fields, who volunteered with Scott at the Virginia War Memorial and became a close friend.
Scott slid onto the plane’s tail assembly as the plane was going down, sitting there momentarily with his feet dangling. The reason for his hesitation? He had a parachute, but he had never used it.
“He said the ground kept getting closer and closer and that helped him make up his mind,” Fields recalled. “He just had a way of telling his story that fascinated everybody.”
Scott hit the ground awkwardly, suffering a broken back, and was immediately captured by Germans, leading to a long journey of being moved as a prisoner of war from Italy to Germany to Poland and back to Germany.
At one prison camp, he transformed powdered milk cans into stovepipes — he’d done body-and-fender work back home so he was familiar with working with metal — so the coal stoves in each crowded room wouldn’t asphyxiate the inhabitants. He surely saved lives.
He survived the war, returned to his native Richmond and became a longtime volunteer at the local veterans hospital as well as at the Virginia War Memorial. He died in 2019 at age 99.
May 2022
The Food Pantry at Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida has really expanded and grown over the last few years. There has been such an increase of our Veteran and Military Families needing help to handle the increasing problems of 'food insecurity'. We do have a 'modest' pantry open every Monday and Thursday from 9:00am to 4:00pm. Give a call to 541-889-1978 to let us know you are coming to pick up Food Box. Please let us know how many in your family and about when your coming.
Also, if you are interested in volunteering to help our veterans and the Food Pantry please give us a call or come on in and see what we are doing...
What is the White House VA Hotline?
The hotline’s pilot began under direction of the Veterans Experience Office on June 1, 2017, and entered phase two on October 15, 2017.
White House VA Hotline: 1-855-948-2311.
Calls are answered by a live agent 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The hotline is staffed by more than 60 agents who have had extensive training on VA programs and services. Most of these agents are a Veteran, military family member, caregiver or a survivor.
The White House VA Hotline conducts immediate warm hand offs for at-crisis risk Veterans needing the services of the Veterans Crisis Line.
Trends identified by the hotline will be used to rapidly respond to systemic inefficiencies and empower VA employees to resolve Veteran concerns quickly.
AUGUST 2022, By Jim Absher, Military.com
There are potentially hundreds of VA benefits and military benefits available to active duty members, veterans, and their dependents. We know it can be confusing to know exactly what you may be eligible for.
You may have heard from a friend of a friend that her cousin got a free car from the VA, or you may be fed up with trying to navigate all the confusing websites trying to figure out what is real, or you may just be looking for information to help out a family member.
Whatever your situation is, we have compiled an extensive list of all the real and true benefits available for veterans and their families. These benefits can include free medical care, discounted hotel rooms, free hunting and fishing licenses, medical care, job training and more. Check our list of benefits available to you below:
Benefits for the spouse of a veteran
Benefits for the spouse of a disabled veteran
Benefits for the spouse of a retiree
Medically retired veteran benefits
Military benefits are always changing. Keep up with everything from pay to health care by subscribing to Military.com, and get access to up-to-date pay charts and more with all latest benefits delivered straight to your inbox.
Related Topics: Veteran Benefits Family and Spouse Military Retirement
Beginning Saturday, veterans and military personnel facing a mental health crisis can call 988 and press 1, after years of being told to dial an unmemorable 10-digit number.
The Veterans Crisis Line will join the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline through the new 988 suicide and crisis hotline, linking veterans and service members who need help with the same Department of Veterans Affairs support system as before.
The goal of the new number, VA officials said Friday, is to make it easier for veterans, service members and their families to access mental health support. The VA anticipates that the new three-digit format will lead to increased calls and has hired additional personnel to meet demand, said Dr. Matthew Miller, executive director for suicide prevention at the VA.
Read Next: How 2 American Veterans Ended Up in Ukraine, Prisoners of Russian-Armed Militants
"Now that 988 implementation is upon us, we are excited and we are ready," Miller said during a media roundtable.
Mental health advocates hope 988 will replace emergency calls to 911 for mental health crises.
While 911 dispatchers are prepared to send first responders and support callers during an emergency, Veterans Crisis Line staffers are trained counselors who can handle distraught callers, access records and send help in emergencies, according to the VA.
"It's one thing to answer the call quickly ... and to provide quality services within the call, both of which are absolutely essential and, by the way, legally mandated. But what happens after the call is something that uniquely distinguishes us. ... If a veteran is willing, we will put in a referral to [a] local suicide prevention coordinator at the local facility, offer direct contact and outreach with a veteran, and then connect them to the right care at the right time and the right place," Miller said.
The 988 initiative was signed into law in 2020 and developed by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the VA.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has established a website explaining the details of the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics, or PACT, Act, and encourages veterans to file claims and apply for health care coverage.
The bill, expected to be signed into law Monday by President Joe Biden in a Rose Garden ceremony at the White House, provides health care and disability benefits for certain deployment-related diseases and conditions.
On Tuesday, VA Secretary Denis McDonough encouraged affected veterans, their family members or survivors to apply for benefits by filing a claim.
"Once the President signs this bill into law, we at VA will implement it quickly and effectively, delivering the care these veterans need and the benefits they deserve," McDonough said in a statement to the press.
The PACT Act was approved by the Senate late Tuesday in an 86-11 vote, the culmination of a monthslong congressional effort to bring the legislation across the proverbial finish line. In his State of the Union Address in January, Biden vowed to help veterans with exposure-related illnesses, calling it a "sacred obligation."
Following Senate approval of the bill, Biden released a statement saying passage was a "decisive and bipartisan win for America's veterans."
"For the millions of veterans who may have been exposed to harmful toxins, this bill means quicker access to health care services and other benefits," Biden said. "This could be the difference between life and death for many suffering from toxic-related illnesses."
Terri Tanielian, special assistant to the president for veterans affairs, said Wednesday that the bill includes provisions and resources for the VA to process claims more quickly, including an automated system that will expedite claims filed for certain conditions.
Currently, the VA has 595,862 claims filed by veterans that are pending; that includes 164,743 considered backlogged, or pending for more than 125 days.
The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force will host a traveling tribute to Vietnam War veterans in coming days -- and a B-52 flyover is also on its slate of events.
The museum will host the American Veterans Traveling Tribute Vietnam Memorial -- an 80%-sized replica of the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C., bearing the names of more than 58,000 service members killed in Southeast Asia. -- Aug. 18 to 21.
August 2022 by FELICIA FONSECA, Associated Press
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Samuel Sandoval, one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers who transmitted messages in World War II using a code based on their native language, has died.
Sandoval died late Friday at a hospital in Shiprock, New Mexico, his wife, Malula told The Associated Press on Saturday. He was 98.
Hundreds of Navajos were recruited from the vast Navajo Nation to serve as Code Talkers with the U.S. Marine Corps. Only three are still alive today: Peter MacDonald, John Kinsel Sr. and Thomas H. Begay.
The code, based on the then-unwritten Navajo language, confounded Japanese military cryptologists. The Code Talkers are celebrated annually on Aug. 14, the day the Japanese surrendered.
Malula Sandoval said her husband had been looking forward to participating in the celebration this year and seeing a museum built in honor of the Code Talkers.
“Sam always said, ‘I wanted my Navajo youngsters to learn, they need to know what we did and how this code was used and how it contributed to the world,’" she said Saturday. “That the Navajo language was powerful and always to continue carrying our legacy.”
FREDERICK, Md. — Joe Nieves, 40, sank into the couch of his living room. His service dog, Jem, a 3-year-old Labrador-golden retriever mix, hopped up next to him and rested her head on his thigh. He started petting her, running his hands over her ears.
“I mean, look at her. She doesn’t have to be here right now,” he said. “She could be, like, in the bedroom, but she wants to be here and that means a lot to me.”
Jem is a service dog specially trained to help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, like Nieves. Jem is a buffer for Nieves when he feels overwhelmed or disconnected from the world, he said.
The two were paired in March. She has helped him more than he could have imagined, he said.
Nieves, an Army veteran, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD in 2006.
He also has anxiety stemming from his deployments to Iraq in 2004 and 2005, he said. Like many veterans, he carries invisible scars of what he witnessed overseas.
“It’s funny, because a lot of the things that haunt people are the things that happened to them,” he said. “And things did happen to me, but the things that haunt me the most are the things I saw happen to those around me.”
Because of Jem, Nieves went to his first event in about five years — Awesome Con, Washington D.C.’s Comic Con convention, in June, which attracts tens of thousands of “geek culture” fans.
Jem is trained to perform many tasks to assist Nieves. Most helpful, Nieves said, is how she helps him with anxiety in public. For example, she can be a barrier, standing either in front of or behind him to prevent people from getting too close.
When Jorel "Joe" Wester walked into a Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Firehouse Subs after work one day in 2017, he was going through a really hard time. He was struggling with mental health issues. He wasn't able to hold down a job for very long. Even going to school seemed impossible.
Life had changed entirely after he was medically discharged from the Coast Guard. At best, no one seemed to understand. At worst, they told him to just get over it. There seemed to be no way out.
He decided that unless the universe gave him some kind of sign, this sub was going to be his last meal.
"When you're in that mental state, the hole is dark and deep," Wester tells Military.com. "No matter where you stand, it's very difficult to see the light. No matter how much counseling and how much I talked about it, it never seemed to get better for me."
As he ate, he looked at the paper cup that held his beverage. Printed on the side was an ad for K9s For Warriors, a nonprofit organization that rescues dogs from shelters and trains them to become service animals for veterans suffering from PTSD, traumatic brain injury and/or military sexual assault trauma.
Wester decided that might be the sign he asked for. He finished his sub, but it wouldn't be his last.
Wester joined the Coast Guard in 2001, before the Sept. 11 attacks. The Coast Guard was almost a family tradition. His father served in the Coast Guard, just as his grandfather had. Wester loved it, especially the rough weather. He wanted to be in for 20 years.
"It was my first real experience with being in the ocean, and I kind of loved it," Wester says. "Even in some of the worst weather you can drive a boat in, I couldn't get enough of it."
He began his career in Ketchikan, Alaska, enforcing fisheries law. After a stint in Daytona Beach, Florida, doing counternarcotics work, he returned to the heavy weather, this time in Washington state. He was in a small accident during his time in Washington and was transferred to Rhode Island. It was there the Coast Guard sent him home with a medical discharge.
"People who are food insecure are making choices on how to spend their last $20 or $50. Usually food is the flexible component, so they apply it to rent."
Photo-elicitation is a research method that combines detailed interviews with photographs taken by study participants. Researchers use it to gain a better understanding of complex topics. Often, the act of taking photographs—in response to questions from the researcher—can summon emotional responses in study participants. It can also help both participants and researchers gain insight into participants’ behaviors.
Dr. Nipa Kamdar is a researcher at the VA Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety (iQUeSt) in Houston. Her focus is food insecurity in Veterans. In October 2021, Kamdar published a commentary, in Public Health Nursing, on her use of photo-elicitation to study food insecurity in low-income, post 9/11 Veterans.
![[This is a picture of what was] in my fridge when I first started the project. You see [there's] hardly anything in there? And see how small the fridge is?](https://www.research.va.gov/images/research-currents/feb22/mini-fridge-sm.jpg)
"[This is a picture of what was] in my fridge when I first started the project. You see [there's] hardly anything in there? And see how small the fridge is?" (Photo taken by Veteran study participant.)
The article discussed the results of an earlier study by Kamdar and colleagues that used photo-elicitation to better understand food insecurity in a group of post 9/11 Veterans with children. The researchers found that food insecurity in Veterans is highly intertwined with physical and mental health, military culture, and lack of basic resources like housing or transportation.
![We have the G.I. Bill, the Hazelwood Act, and the 'Voca Rehab' [Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment], but right now, I'm just using the G.I. Bill. It's the money from the G.I. Bill that helps us pay bills and stuff.](https://www.research.va.gov/images/research-currents/feb22/GI-bill-sm.jpg)
"We have the G.I. Bill, the Hazelwood Act, and the 'Voca Rehab' [Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment], but right now, I'm just using the G.I. Bill. It's the money from the G.I. Bill that helps us pay bills and stuff." (Photo taken by Veteran study participant.)
Food insecurity is defined as a limited ability to access food, largely due to financial considerations. In the U.S. population, about 10% of adults experience food insecurity, according to a 2020 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Veterans have about the same rate of food insecurity as the general population, but differ in their level of food insecurity, according to a 2021 study that looked at working-age Veterans with children. Veterans often experience a greater severity of food insecurity, Kamdar notes. "That severe level means they are cutting down on what they eat, or they are skipping meals."
Those Veterans and Families in the Ontario, Oregon area can reach out to our Food Pantry every Monday & Thursday from 9:00am to 4:00pm.
call 541-889-1978 to come pick up a FOOD BOX
May 2022 by Peter Molin, Task & Purpose
From public affairs staff officer in Iraq to author of the National Book Award-winning collection of short stories Redeployment, and the acclaimed novel Missionaries, to frequent contributor to the pages of New York Times, the New Yorker and other prestige media outlets, former Marine Phil Klay’s ascent to the top of the contemporary veterans-writing mountain has been remarkable.
Now, from Klay arrives Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War, a collection of articles and editorials published between 2010 and 2021. The only new writing included is an interesting but short introduction, and the scholarly title heralds a more cohesive argument about citizenship than a random collection of pieces published over the breadth of a decade seemingly can deliver. And yet the title is not a false promise, for Uncertain Ground’s achievement lies in how the collected articles illuminate the complex relationship between the individual and the state, particularly in matters concerning military and war.
“And so,” Klay tells us in the Introduction, “as I started writing about the war and the people who fight it, I envisioned my task primarily as making sense of the past.” Past, in this case, means the previous few years of war in Iraq, but as Klay reports, this past has never really passed. Iraq, relatively subdued when Klay left in 2008, burned hot again for several more years and things got even hotter in Afghanistan while fighting spread to Syria, Somalia, Pakistan, and the Philippines.
“…my war just kept going,” Klay writes, and expanded not just to other overseas locations but to the domestic cultural and political fronts. “The essays in this book represent my attempts over the course of the Obama and Trump administrations to grapple with how we got here,” with “here” being an America oblivious to continuous “invisible” wars waged overseas, but increasingly accustomed to politicized violence, hate-crimes, and mass murder at home. Contemplation of what Klay calls “a bizarre circumstance” — forgotten wars overseas, increasing strife at home in the United States — clarifies for Klay that citizenship is the crux of the issue. ...
Here are some Pics from All Branches of the Military Service from the DoD
April 2022
For all too many veterans, returning from military service means coping with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. But there are things you can do to start feeling better today.
Are you having a hard time readjusting to life out of the military? Are you always on edge, always on the verge of panicking or exploding, or, on the flip side, do you feel emotionally numb and disconnected from your loved ones? Do you believe that you’ll never feel normal again?
For all too many veterans, these are common experiences—lingering symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It’s hard living with untreated PTSD and, with long V.A. wait times, it’s easy to get discouraged. But you can feel better, and you can start today, even while you’re waiting for professional treatment. There are many things you can do to help yourself overcome PTSD and come out the other side even stronger than before.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sometimes known as shell shock or combat stress, occurs after you experience severe trauma or a life-threatening event. It’s normal for your mind and body to be in shock after such an event, but this normal response becomes PTSD when your nervous system gets “stuck.”
Your nervous system has two automatic or reflexive ways of responding to stressful events:
Mobilization, or fight-or-flight, occurs when you need to defend yourself or survive the danger of a combat situation. Your heart pounds faster, your blood pressure rises, and your muscles tighten, increasing your strength and reaction speed. Once the danger has passed, your nervous system calms your body, lowering your heart rate and blood pressure, and winding back down to its normal balance.
Immobilization occurs when you’ve experienced too much stress in a situation and even though the danger has passed, you find yourself “stuck.” Your nervous system is unable to return to its normal state of balance and you’re unable to move on from the event. This is PTSD.
Recovering from PTSD involves transitioning out of the mental and emotional war zone you’re still living in and helping your nervous system become “unstuck.”
April 2022
This is a National Directory for resources that you as a Veteran, Military, Family member, Caregiver might need to assist you and help you with your needs.
https://nrd.gov/Homeless-Assistance
https://nrd.gov/Education-Training
https://nrd.gov/Family-Caregiver-Support
August 2022, by Sarah Sicard, Observation Post
One of the best pieces of advice, for people in careers both in and out of service, is to learn to deal with things or take the bad in stride.
But the military, famed for its ability to turn a phrase or ruin anything with an absurd acronym, came up with its own colloquialism for making the best of any situation: “Embrace the suck.”
Though it’s impossible to trace back the phrase definitively to its first user, it became popularized in 2003 by Marines in Iraq.
Retired U.S. Army Reserve Col. Austin Bay authored a book in the mid-2000s called “Embrace the Suck,” in which he explains the meaning of the phrase.
“The Operation Iraqi Freedom phrase ‘embrace the suck’ is both an implied order and wise advice couched as a vulgar quip,” Bay wrote.
He likens the slang phrase back to legendary military strategist Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz and his views on “friction.”
“Clausewitz went to war when he was 12 years old,” Bay wrote. “Over the last few decades, critics have argued that his treatise ‘On War’ is a bit dated in terms of theory. However, everyone with military experience agrees that Clausewitz understood ‘the suck.’ He called it ‘friction.’”
For Clausewitz, it’s this “friction, or what is so termed here, which makes that which appears easy in war difficult in reality.”
Troops, in their resilience, in effect, mitigate the chasm of difference between training or planning and the often harsh realities they face on the ground. And they do it with aplomb, because they must.
February 2022 by Sarah Sicard, Observation Post
One of my most unpopular opinions is that IPA beers taste a whole lot like pine needles. But when troops fought in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, a piney beer was the only thing standing between the Army and a slow painful death by scurvy.
Spruce Beer, made from plentiful spruce trees found in North America, was the only solution to solving soldiers’ scurvy woes.
The disease, most commonly associated with rum-soaked pirates who don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, is caused by vitamin C deficiency and can lead to anemia, oozing sores, tooth loss, and delayed healing processes for injuries — which, if you were a soldier during America’s early conflicts, could most certainly kill you.
An early version of the ale, which doesn’t contain alcohol, was drunk by Vikings, who brewed their beer from Norway spruce shoots, according to the second edition of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America.
Later versions can be traced to New France, now Canada, in the 1700s. Explorer Jacques Cartier and his men reportedly fell victim to scurvy until the Huron taught them to use tree bark to brew teas and concoctions that would keep them healthy. In that same century, Swedish-Finnish botanist Pehr Kalm observed how locals there avoided the scurvy that so affected early settlers, and found that they had employed a beer brewed from spruce branches, a military heritage research site found.
Spruce beer was used during the French and Indian War to give the British an edge. During the war, British Gen. James Murray wrote in a general order that spruce beer be made a ration requirement.
This practice continued into the American Revolution, where the Continental Army was ordered to drink up to a quart of its own funky spruce beer each day.
Ah, super glue — the greatest-of-all-time fast-acting adhesive for all of your stuck-together needs.
Chances are, you have a tube of this in that kitchen drawer, you know, the one with all the takeout menus, rubber bands and random keys to who knows what doors (you should probably clean that out by the way), because it’s an undeniable necessity.
But before it occupied space in our junk drawers, and our hearts, it was accidentally developed for the U.S. military.
Too sticky for Army weapons
In 1942, companies across the country were looking to support the war effort, including the Eastman Kodak Company. One if its inventors, Dr. Harry Wesley Coover, accidentally created a new compound while attempting to make clear plastic gun sights for Allied soldiers.
The compound, cyanoacrylate, was incredibly durable but way too sticky to use. (Imagine getting Krazy Glue anywhere near your eye. No thanks!) So Coover and his team abandoned the substance, not wanting to get stuck, literally or figuratively, on it.
Over a decade later, Coover, who would become known as “Mr. Super Glue,” rediscovered the adhesive compound while researching heat-resistant polymers for jet canopies. Cyanoacrylate adhesives required no heat or pressure to stick items together and hold them permanently. Thus, in 1956, the patent for “Alcohol-Catalyzed Cyanoacrylate Adhesive Compositions/Superglue” was born. How’s that for a name?
June 6: D-Day For more on D-Day and other articles on World War II, visit the Military.com D-Day overview.
June 14: Flag Day A day to commemorate the adoption of the United States flag. For more details, visit the Military.com Flag Day page.
June 14: Army Birthday Since its formation during the Revolutionary War, the U.S. Army has defended our nation for over 200 years. For features and historical articles on the Army's birthday, visit Military.com's Army Birthday page.
June 23: Coast Guard Auxiliary Birthday
June 27: National PTSD Awareness Day day set aside to raise public awareness about issues related to PTSD. For more resources on PTSD and mental health, visit the Mental
April 2021 by Blake Stilwell, Military.com
These days, service members need to be wary of the multitude of online for-profit schools out to get a piece of their coveted Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. Depending on which “academic institution” is looking to sign them up, the term “Results May Vary” doesn’t come close to describing some of the “schools” out there.
But there are better choices for service members with non-traditional schedules who are looking for a good distance education to prepare them for life after the military. National University was founded by a veteran with similar issues and is today the second-largest nonprofit online school in America.
David Chigos’ transition to civilian life had been rough. As a retiring naval officer in 1967, he tried to enroll in night classes at San Diego State University. The only problem, he said, was that San Diego State didn’t offer night classes, so he was faced with the choice of going to school or working during the day. He knew there were veterans and civilians like him trying to balance both tasks.
In 1971, Chigos was working as a management development specialist for the General Dynamics corporation. The academic system in the U.S. kept many executives from pursuing higher education. So he did what any veteran might consider doing: fixing the problem by creating a college for the “real world” at a fraction of the cost.
“From the trunk of my car,” he founded National University, completely upending the idea of how academic programs were formed, he said. Chigos created academic programs with a no-frills look at the world. National University would offer classes that would lead to education and employment. His first class numbered 27 students....
January 2021 By Harm Venhuizen. MilitaryTimes
When separating from the military, it’s not uncommon for servicemembers to discover gaps between their resume and the civilian job they want.
Worries about putting food on the table can make going back to school, getting on-the-job training, or taking an internship seem like costly ways of filling that gap. Luckily, there’s a way servicemembers can gain the experience required by civilian jobs while still on the military’s payroll.
The DoD SkillBridge Program lets active-duty personnel from all four branches spend the last 180 days of their military service interning at a civilian job with one of more than 500 industry partners.
Participants continue to receive military pay and benefits, whether they’re getting certified by Microsoft in cloud development, learning to weld, or taking advantage of any one of the hundreds of other opportunities available.
As part of the DoD’s requirements, all training programs offer a “high probability of post-service employment with the provider or other employers in a field related to the opportunity,” according to the SkillBridge website.
In his internship with the Global SOF Foundation, retired Navy commander Chuck Neu says he not only tripled the size of his professional network, but also discovered a talent for sales.
“Without that exposure to cold-call sales from doing SkillBridge with the Global SOF Foundation, I likely would have ended up on-base as a contractor or a government civilian, which is really not what I wanted to do,” Neu told Military Times....
For more on this story click the 'Red Bar' below.
August 2021 by Blake Stilwell, Military.com
SkillBridge is one of the most groundbreaking programs the U.S. military ever introduced to help transition service members into civilian life. It allows veterans looking to separate from the military to work in training opportunities, internships and apprenticeships during the last 180 days of their enlistment while still receiving full pay and benefits.
The only problem is that navigating SkillBridge to browse those opportunities is a notoriously difficult task. 50Strong was founded to help bridge the gap between the way the military works and the way the civilian world works, and it starts with an internship tool. Simply click here and scroll down to the middle of the page to start browsing.
0Strong was founded by Kandi Tillman, a former corporate executive whose resume boasts some pretty impressive names, like Oracle, Proctor & Gamble and Standard & Poor. It’s safe to say she knows something about getting a job in the civilian world. When she met her now-husband, Kevin Tillman, he was a veteran struggling to get what he calls "a regular job."
Kandi helped her husband with every aspect of his job search, from resume writing to employer referrals. Eventually, he landed a job at Lockheed Martin. The pair eventually founded 50Strong with the mission of smoothing out the process for any and all veterans.
Their idea is that military norms to which veterans are accustomed often do not make the jump into the ways civilian companies look for and hire talent. 50Strong has developed a twofold approach to facilitating the process of helping veterans understand the way their new world works.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) released in January an updated Department of Defense (DOD) list of locations outside of Vietnam where tactical herbicides were used, tested or stored by the United States military.
“This update was necessary to improve accuracy and communication of information,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. “VA depends on DOD to provide information regarding in-service environmental exposure for disability claims based on exposure to herbicides outside of Vietnam."
DOD conducted a thorough review of research, reports and government publications in response to a November 2018 Government Accountability Office report.
“DOD will continue to be responsive to the needs of our interagency partners in all matters related to taking care of both current and former service members,” said Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper. “The updated list includes Agents Orange, Pink, Green, Purple, Blue and White and other chemicals and will be updated as verifiable information becomes available.”
Veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange or other herbicides during service may be eligible for a variety of VA benefits, including an Agent Orange Registry health exam, health care and disability compensation for diseases associated with exposure. Their dependents and survivors also may be eligible for benefits.
June 2022 by Sarah Sicard, Observation Post
Is there anything sweeter — literally or figuratively — than biting into the plastic-wrapped chemical compound of luxuriously spongey cake with vanilla cream that is a Twinkie?
Perhaps not. But the original Hostess delicacy was once something else entirely. The preservative-filled dessert that many once believed could withstand nuclear war got its start as a banana cream shortcake, until World War II changed everything.
In 1930, a baker named James Dewar began experimenting while serving as manager of Continental Baking Company’s Chicago area plant in River Forest, according to the Chicago Tribune. He wanted to prove that shortbread could serve a purpose outside strawberry shortcake.
“The economy was getting tight, and the company needed to come out with another low-priced item,” he told the paper. “We were already selling these little finger cakes during the strawberry season for shortcake, but the pans we baked them in sat idle except for that six-week season.”
While in St. Louis on a work trip, Dewar saw a billboard for “Twinkle Toe Shoes,” and thus found the name for his compact confections.
January 2021 By Leslie Thompson, Argus Observer
ONTARIO
In the absence of the Ontario Area Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Citizens of the Year awards, which have been celebrated annually since 1972, the Argus Observer aimed to help fill the gap created by the pandemic and offer the community the chance to nominate a citizen of the year.
Nominations for the Argus Observer Citizen of the Year for 2020 were open Jan. 1-8, and the community’s responses came pouring in for people throughout the Western Treasure Valley.
A unifying theme in all of these nominations was people who put their community’s needs before their own.
The person who garnered the most nominations for this inaugural award was Ron Verini, president and chairman of the board for Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida, a nonprofit dedicated to serving veterans. Trailing not far behind, but neck-in-neck, were Malheur County Health Department Director Sarah Poe, who is currently leading the local fight against COVID-19, and Jennifer Tolman, a pharmacist at Malheur Drug in Vale who, according to nominations is a vital part of groups that give back to the community.
Verini mentioned all the work these people do (and there isn’t room to list it all — it is extensive), which includes myriad services, such as running the nonprofit’s food bank, connecting vets with local services, finding housing, hosting a website and Facebook page, sitting and talking with local vets, building ramps, home renovations, setting up a station for the visually impaired to read books and putting together a military museum.
Along with others in the community who nominated Verini, many people from his core group of volunteers say they believe Verini deserves the award.
Haines said Verini is the initiator and motivator behind the nonprofit, which consists solely of volunteers.
“It takes a special gift and desire to motivate and inspire others to do the same,” said Haines. “This year has been unique. Ron has more than passed the test.”
When asked how he keeps inspiring volunteers, Verini had the following to say.
“I stay focused on the mission, and you treat people like you want to be treated,” he said. “I think it’s so important that folks understand that we are all in this together, truly. There is something about the human nature that comes to the surface on a positive level when people are treated with respect.”
Some of the volunteers have their own challenges, Verini said, including in some cases severe physical or mental challenges.
Upon finding out he won the Citizen of the Year award, Verini quickly went from disbelief to saying it was quite an honor “especially for Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida.” Then he quickly insisted (and still does) that the award really should go to the volunteers of the organization, without whom he says, “we don’t exist.”
“I am thrilled,” he said about the award. However, added, “It’s far from mine. VAOI would not exist if it wasn’t for the volunteers.”
He said that a core group of people helps get things done. That group includes Charlene Pelland, Doug Dean, Bob and Janet Metzger, Marilyn Justus, Vince and Claudia Schwartz, Billy Vance, Jan and Phil Jacques, David Looper, Margie Yasuda, Barbara Ogawa, Judy Snyder, Gerald Haines and John Breidenbach.
He furthermore said Veteran Advocates could not operate without community services, such as the Oregon Food Bank, Payette Senior Center and Community Action, nor without donations from businesses, such as the nonprofit’s number one contributor Grocery Outlet along with Albertsons, The Home Depot, Dr. Jeffrey Pitts, the Ontario Masonic Lodge and others.
“This is not my award,” Verini reiterated. “It’s an award that transcends anything I do.”
He said it belongs to the team of people who work together to provide services for vets and their family members.
“It’s unbelievable how many people are in that stream of support,” he said.
"If you give them responsibility and you let them take the lead, give a little bit of direction but respect what they have to say — I think that makes all the difference in the world, whether they are a volunteer, worker, political individual serving on the city council, whatever,” he said.
In turn, volunteers continue serving because they love what they are doing and are passionate about it.
“The volunteers take the lead, and I just give them direction
NEED HELP!!!! PLEASE!!! The Covid-19 pandemic has left many local Veterans and their families in need. If you are fortunate to not need your stimulus money or part of it, please think about donating it to Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida. As a non-profit your donation would be tax deductible. Please call me, Thank You.....
Ron Verini - Chairman 541-709-8373
We thank all the Supporters, Businesses and Friends for giving their time and resources in helping and caring for our Veterans, Military and First Responders and their Families.
We really appreciate your interest too, in 'Who we are and What we do'. If you have any questions or suggestions or would like to 'volunteer' or 'donate', well please contact us with an email, a phone call. Our hours are 9am to 4pm, and with the Covid rules we have, masks are required as are number of people in the Office, so please call.
We are a "No Dues' nonprofit organization with the coffee pot always on and lots of conversation always available. Bring your questions regarding any veteran services you are concerned about, and we will do our best to steer you in the right direction.
Our phone is 541-889-1978, and we are located in Ontario, Oregon at 180 W. Idaho Ave.
Your support and contributions will enable us to meet our goals and improve conditions. Your generous donation will fund our mission.