Welcome to Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida 'a Source for Veteran Resources'

 The Chairman of Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida, Ronald Verini, writes two articles every month for publication in a Regional Newspaper, this article ."DERELICTION OF DUTY? CONGRESS RECESSES WHILE VETERANS PAY THE PRICE FOR UNCHECKED FRAUD..."

 will be published SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 Here is a part of Mr. Verini's article, and you can read the full article by clicking the red bar below.

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This article was sparked by an encounter at Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida when a veteran mentioned paying $50 for his DD-214. Learning someone charged money for a record available for free was alarming, highlighting the endless array of predatory schemes exploiting our military community.

America is powered by extraordinary belief, where optimism fuels economic progress while leaving us uniquely vulnerable to bad scams. As an Associated Press retrospective noted, our conviction that anything is possible built the world’s largest economy, yet it lures us toward charlatans. As satirist H.L. Mencken wrote, “There is always a well-known solution to every human problem, neat, plausible, and wrong.” From 19th-century fraudsters selling fake gold extracted from Maine seawater to 1920s peddlers offering lethal radioactive tonics like Radithor, Americans repeatedly embrace grand illusions. Yet the most shameful deceptions target military personnel and veterans, exploited by private predators or misled under official authority.

Data from the Federal Trade Commission reveals that military service members, veterans, and their families are targeted by financial fraud at disproportionately high rates. Because service members receive guaranteed government paychecks and frequently relocate, predatory operators view them as ideal targets. One widespread scheme involves pension poaching, where unethical financial advisors target elderly veterans under the guise of helping them qualify for Veterans Affairs Aid and Attendance benefits. In exchange, these advisors charge steep upfront fees or manipulate the veteran's assets into complex annuities, locking up their life savings.

Predatory lending practices also thrive near military bases, where high-interest personal lenders, questionable auto financing firms, and fraudulent veterans’ charities exploit young recruits and military families. More recently, aggressive marketing firms flooded national media airwaves following federal legislation enabling military personnel exposed to toxic water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune to seek compensation. Federal regulators issued consumer warnings after unvetted legal networks began charging excessive contingency fees, taking up to half of the compensation intended for sick veterans.

Beyond private-sector fraudsters, the historical record contains fully documented instances where official institutions misled the public or military personnel. During the height of the Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency initiated Project MKUltra, a clandestine human experimentation program active from 1953 to 1973 involving LSD and sensory deprivation administered to unconsenting military personnel and civilians. The program's full scope was officially exposed in 1975 by the Church Committee, leading to strict public reforms regarding informed consent.

Another documented tragedy was the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, conducted by the United States Public Health Service between 1932 and 1972. The study monitored six hundred Black men, including military veterans, to observe untreated syphilis. Participants were falsely told they were receiving free medical care, and even after penicillin became the standard cure in the 1940s, researchers intentionally withheld treatment for decades until investigative journalists exposed the study in 1972.

In institutional military history, the aftermath of the 1990 to 1991 Gulf War presents another case where initial official accounts contradicted the physical reality experienced by service members. Tens of thousands of returning veterans reported chronic, debilitating symptoms including memory loss, joint pain, and neurological issues. Official reports initially dismissed these claims as stress, until government-commissioned investigations confirmed that exposure to toxic chemical combinations caused genuine neurological damage.

Similar harms unfolded during the Vietnam War, where millions of gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed over tactical regions. For decades, veterans returning home with severe aggressive cancers were repeatedly denied benefits and told the dioxin-laden herbicide posed no health hazard, until scientific evidence forced federal recognition.

Even when lawmakers recognize these predatory traps, legislative fixes move painfully slow. Bipartisan efforts like the Veterans Protection from Fraud Act, introduced by Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), alongside Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), aim to impose stricter criminal penalties on bad actors targeting veterans. Rep. Burchett summarized the stakes clearly: “Veterans put their lives on the line for us at home and abroad. Our duty is to protect them when they return.” Yet, instead of passing crucial protections for veterans and addressing pressing national needs, Congress frequently adjourns for extended recesses to campaign before midterm elections, leaving these vital bills stalled in committee while veterans wait unprotected for legislative action.

Did you know that Day of the Deployed was founded by Soldiers’ Angels? Each year on October 26th, we honor the brave men and women who are deployed through this National holiday. Day of the Deployed was started by Soldiers’ Angel volunteer Shelle Michaels Aberle. In 2006, Shelle approached the governor in her home state of North Dakota (Governor John Hoeven) with a request for a proclamation and special day to honor Active Duty men and women serving outside the U.S. October 26 was chosen because it was the birthday of her cousin, U.S. Army Lt. Col. David Hosna, who was actively serving in Iraq. Governor Hoeven was the first to recognize the Day of the Deployed, and the first units honored by this proclamation were NDARNG 1-188th ADA SECFOR and JLENS deployed to Afghanistan.

The effort spread, and by 2010, 40 states had proclaimed a Day of the Deployed. In 2011, when Hoeven became a State Senator, he proposed a bill to make the day a National Day of Honor. It passed with 100% yes votes!

Here’s a look at the proclamation in Texas and from the Senate.

On the Day of the Deployed (October 26), we honor the brave men and women who have been deployed and are sacrificing or have sacrificed their lives to fight for our country. It’s also a day that acknowledges the families they are separated from. While there may be a celebration or initiative in your city or town, we invite anyone interested in honoring and supporting Deployed Service Members and their families to become an Angel volunteer.

Our very first initiative as a Military organization was to support Deployed Service Members by sending care packages. We have since grown that effort to support Deployed Service Members in a number of ways and have also expanded our support to Active Duty Service Members, Military families, and Veterans of all eras. If you’re interested in supporting Deployed Service Members, we have a number of virtual volunteer opportunities to choose from!

Once you’ve signed up as an Angel volunteer and gone through our verification, you can support these heroes in the following ways. 

Do you love to bake? Our Service Members love to receive baked items! Support Service Members with one-time care packages of baked goods. Our Angels love to bake and create all sorts of delicious treats for the troops. They send everything from brownies to lemon bars to specially decorated cookies for the holidays. They also love to share recipes and photos in our forum.  

Sometimes Service Members (and also Veterans) need a little encouragement or are celebrating something special like a birthday. One way we show our support is by sending cards to them. Whether they’re homemade or store-bought, it’s really the thought that counts. Our Angel volunteers come together to flood that Service Member with cards from all over!

Our founder, Patti Patton-Bader realized that Chaplains were an excellent way to provide support to units. Our team works with Chaplains overseas to send support when needed. Chaplains who are registered through Soldiers’ Angels can request items related to their mission, like letters, gifts, recreational activities, baked goods, and supplies. These things go a long way towards boosting morale for Service Members who need extra support in war zones. Many times, Chaplains ask for supplies to throw special events for units who could use a lift in spirits. Halloween parties, ugly sweater parties, you name it!

If you’re interested in supporting a Service Member throughout the duration of their deployment, you can do that by adopting one! As Angels get to know the Service Members they support, they’ll send care packages of supplies unique to that Service Member. They often send themed care packages based on the season, holiday, or Service Member’s favorite sports team. It’s not all about what goes in the box either. Our Angels take great care to decorate the inside of the box so that there’s a fun surprise when they open it. 

Mail call is something every Service Member looks forward to. Receiving a letter – from anyone – can lift spirits. Unfortunately, many of our Service Members don’t get any mail from home. That’s where our Angels come in. Our Letter Writing opportunities support Service Members with a one-time letter to ensure that “no soldier goes unloved” (our motto here at Soldiers’ Angels). Angels can write as little as one letter per month, but some write as many as 50 per month! It’s a small and easy way to show your support.

These are just a few of the many volunteer opportunities we offer to show your support to Deployed heroes through Soldiers’ Angels! Celebrate the Day of the Deployed by getting started today.

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FI provides structured, future-focused intelligence that helps aerospace and defense professionals:

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Our solutions combine long-range forecasts, detailed program profiles, independent analysis, and curated datasets to give your organization the clarity it needs to act confidently.

FI Global Intelligence is Forecast International’s flagship platform—your secure, all-in-one gateway to the most comprehensive aerospace, defense, and power systems intelligence available.

Built for strategic planners and decision-makers, it delivers continuously updated data, forecasts, and analysis across every major global market.

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By Sarah McFarlane and Gram Slattery, Reuters

LONDON/WASHINGTON — Deep in Arctic waters near the remote Svalbard archipelago this spring, NATO allies caught Russian subs training to unleash a secret weapon designed to disable critical undersea cables without leaving any fingerprints.

The clandestine Russian operation, described to Reuters by two Western officials, was carried out by Moscow’s GUGI undersea warfare directorate, which used deep-sea submersibles to simulate the deployment of the sophisticated and destructive technology.

A joint operation involving Britain, Norway and the United States tracked and confronted the Russian vessels at sea, said the two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. The vessels were prevented from completing their exercise and eventually left the area.

Britain and Norway disclosed in April that they had uncovered a covert Russian operation in Arctic waters. But the discovery of the new weapon, the location of the operation and the U.S. involvement have not been reported.

The deep-sea face-off comes at a time when some Western intelligence officials fear the Kremlin is ramping up sabotage operations in Europe and preparing for a conflict with NATO.

Some U.S. intelligence analysts are increasingly concerned Russia may test NATO’s mutual defense pact, known as Article 5, three U.S. officials said. If it does, destroying subsea cables could be a critical part of that effort, the Western officials said.

Cables no thicker than a garden hose, lying on the seabed or buried just below, are critical to global internet connectivity and financial transactions. Their economic and strategic importance has made them targets in past conflicts, including in the First and Second World Wars, when they were critical to delivering orders by telegraph or telephone.

Two 1,400 km subsea fiber-optic cables linking Svalbard to mainland Norway lie as deep as 2,700 meters below the sea’s surface. They carry vast amounts of satellite data downloaded at the SvalSat satellite ground station, the world’s largest and part of NASA’s Near Space Network.

Russia’s Defense Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment on the incident. The Kremlin consistently denies conducting sabotage operations in NATO countries or plotting any confrontation.

• By Brett Harrison Shaun Moore

Americans serving abroad often carry devices that can share precise location data across .multiple commercial apps, services and data-broker systems, frequently in ways users do not fully understand. They may not know it. Our adversaries do.

This is not hypothetical.

In 2018, Strava, a popular GPS-based fitness app, drew a map of one of America’s most sensitive military installations. Soldiers had simply gone for a run. When the app published an aggregated “heat map” of user activity, the GPS trails of service members illuminated base layouts and operational routines for anyone with an internet connection, not through espionage, but through data.

That vulnerability has multiplied since then. In March 2026, reporting indicated that a French naval officer’s public fitness-tracking activity exposed the location of the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.

During recent tensions involving Iran, viral warnings circulated online claiming that location-enabled mobile applications could expose U.S. personnel movements, underscoring how credible and persistent this concern has become, even though military officials later said that specific message was false.

U.S. policymakers increasingly recognize that foreign adversaries, including China, can exploit commercially available sensitive data about Americans, including military personnel. These incidents reflect a simple but consequential truth: location data, when aggregated, leaked, or otherwise compromised, can reveal patterns of life, operational routines and sensitive infrastructure

Observation Post by Clay Beyersdorfer

It happens about 80 minutes into “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.” SpongeBob, denied a promotion and humiliated in front of his co-workers, wanders into the Goofy Goober Ice Cream Party Boat. He proceeds to spiral.After a binge of sundaes and shame, he stumbles on stage, belting out a shredded guitar solo rendition of “I’m a Goofy Goober (Rock!)” in front of a confused crowd. There’s glitter. There’s foam. There’s full-throttle emotional release.

And if you’ve spent any amount of time in uniform, you’ve likely seen that clip — or at least a meme of it — shared with eerie sincerity. Maybe you laughed. Perhaps you rolled your eyes. But maybe, just maybe, it hit a little too close to home.

For all its absurdity, SpongeBob’s “Goofy Goober” breakdown has become an unlikely touchstone in military circles, particularly among those who know what it feels like to carry more than they’re allowed to say.

It’s the screaming catharsis that never happens in a formation. The ridiculous meltdown captures the quiet, internal ones that don’t make it into war movies. Every service member who’s ever needed to cry and didn’t, who’s ever felt out of place in their own civilian life and who’s ever tried to joke their way through pain that had no good language. SpongeBob just says it louder.

Military culture breeds stoicism. You learn quickly not to complain, hesitate or show weakness. And when the mission ends and the uniform comes off, all that armor doesn’t just evaporate. It calcifies. You carry it home, to your relationships, jobs and silence.

SpongeBob, in contrast, is absurdly open. He is the emotional inverse of everything military training drills into you. He’s hopeful. He’s naive. He wears his feelings on his sleeves — and when those sleeves get dirty, he cries about it in a room full of strangers.

And that’s the point. Strangely, that scene feels honest. Honest about what it feels like when you’ve been holding it together for too long. Honest about what happens when the ridiculousness finally outweighs the rules. SpongeBob’s meltdown is a stand-in for the veteran who doesn’t drink to party, but to forget. It’s the laugh-before-you-snap moment familiar to anyone who’s ever been “fine” until they weren’t.

The song “I’m a Goofy Goober” isn’t just silly. It’s defiant. When SpongeBob shouts, “I’m a kid, you say? When you say I’m a kid, I say: Say it again!” he’s rejecting the labels people assign to him. He’s rejecting the structure. He’s saying, “I’m still me, even if I don’t fit what you think I should be.”

That hits hard when you’ve gone from commanding missions to being told to use the kiosk at the DMV. When you’ve gone from decision-making in high-pressure scenarios to being passed over for jobs because “you don’t have corporate experience.” When you’ve buried friends, you get asked to “tone it down” in staff meetings.

It’s easy to laugh at SpongeBob’s dramatics. But a lot of veterans would tell you it’s the closest thing to what their emotional breakdown might look like — if they ever let themselves have one.

NICHOLAS SLAYTON Task & Purpose

UPDATED JAN 1, 2026 12:53 PM ESTIn the 1950s the Navy and Army worked on small VTOL machines to make troops go airborne. They worked, just not well enough.

For decades the United States military has dreamed of developing jetpacks to ferry troops around. Personalized flying machines could turn an infantryman into an airborne fighter. But alongside rocket-propelled soldiers, the U.S. military also once gave personal vertical take-off and landing machines a shot.

They are better described, and are classified as flying platforms. Soldiers would stand on a small platform, which itself was over a large fan that would generate lift and get troops airborne. Steering itself would actually be simple: soldiers would lean, tilting the platform and directing it where they wanted to go, almost like a surfboard. 

In the mid-1950s the Office of Naval Research, in a joint project with the Army, began to see if flying platforms would be both feasible and practical. And it turns out, the personal VTOL machines worked. Troops did fly on them

According to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, the idea for flying platforms started in earnest in the late 1940s. In 1953 the Army began its flying platform projects, contracting with Hiller Aircraft and de Lackner Helicopters. The Office of Naval Research was already working with Hiller, so a joint-service venture started. De Lackner created its DH-4 Aerocycle (designated the HZ-1), which had a smaller platform right above spinning rotors. It worked but was shelved due to the risk. 

More success came with the Hiller projects. The Office of Naval Research got Hiller’s first design, the 1031-A-1 flying platform. It stood 7-feet tall, with an 8-foot-in-diameter platform, with the fan almost as wide. With two engines, it could hit a top speed of 16 miles per hour. The flying platforms were meant to be stable enough and easy enough to control that soldiers on them could still aim and fire small arms while airborne. Photos from some of the tests of the 1031-A-1 show service members aiming and firing rifles while in the sky

The Army, after giving up on the Aerocycle, turned to Hiller, getting a larger version of the 1031-A-1 with more thrust. The Hiller VZ-1 Pawnee began testing in 1957, with three engines. However the increased size made the idea of kinesthetic control impractical. Soldiers could not easily steer or maneuver on the Pawnee. Attempts to adjust the power and size didn’t resolve the issue.

WILD BATS WITH NAPALM,

WHAT COULD GO WRONG????

 by Joshua Skovlund, Task & Purpose

Bats use echolocation to find food and places to rest. Add in an incendiary device glued to their chest, and you now have a firestorm that can wreak havoc on any enemy. Or so Pennsylvania dental surgeon Dr. Lytle S. Adams thought during World War II. 

The problem is that you don’t know where they will go once released. Add to it that it’s generally a bad idea to mix explosives, adhesives, and wildlife.

On Dec. 7, 1941, Adams made a fateful trip to the Carlsbad Caverns National Parkduring a vacation to New Mexico. He was awed by the hundreds of thousands of bats that nested in the caves.

The bats were still on his mind later in day as he drove away when news came across the car’s radio of the attack on Pearl Harbor. According to the National Institute of Health, he was “outraged over this travesty, [Adams] began to mentally construct a plan for U.S. retaliation.

The idea Adams came up with — a ‘bat bomb,’ with 1,000 bats carrying napalm into a city full of wooden buildings — led to one of the U.S.’s most bizarre weapons development programs of all time, one that Adams believed could bring about a quick end of the war but did little more than burn down a flight training base in the U.S.

Adams knew that buildings in Japanese cities were predominantly built of wood. His idea was to develop an empty bomb case that, rather than hold explosives, would hold 1,040 bats toting napalm-like incendiary gel with timed fuses. Dropped over Tokyo, the bats would create a hellish cyclone with incendiary devices throughout Tokyo, hopefully bringing about an end to World War II

Adams put his idea in a letter to the White House, where he had professional contacts who got the letter to President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was interested, if cautious, telling staffers, “This man is not a nut. It sounds like a perfectly wild idea but is worth looking into,” according to author Jack Couffer’s book, “Bat Bomb: World War II’s Other Secret Weapon.”

Couffer was a young filmmaker who had grown up studying bats and other birds as a teenager. He would go on to a career making dozens of nature documentaries, but he was drafted into the Army early in World War II and assigned to the bat bomb project and witnessed much of its three-year development.

The development and testing, dubbed Project X-Ray, was based in New Mexico. The program developed a metal bomb casing with three horizontal layers, similar to upside-down ice cube trays, where bats would nest. To keep them docile — or as docile as a bat strapped with a bomb can be — they would be placed in an artificial cold-induced hibernation. The “bat bomb” was designed to be released from high altitudes just before dawn, when bats naturally seek out a place to sleep during the daylight hours. 

Sarah Sicard MilitaryTimes

The Navy may have the most complicated rank structure when it comes to its ratings system, but there is another, much more uncouth method for establishing hierarchy among sailors: Filthy coffee mugs.

It is a commonly-held truth in the seafaring service that one can tell a higher-up from a newbie based on the amount of sludge that lives in the bottom of one’s coffee cup.

So, in the interest of salt, here are some professional tips, from Navy veterans, to get an optimally seasoned mug.

1. Always drink black coffee. Milk or creamer curdles and introduces bacteria into the mix. Sour lactose creates a hostile environment — not ideal for going years without washing your mug.

2. Drink the whole cup of coffee. Don’t leave even a drop behind. You want to season the mug with a faint film, not swigging day-old coffee every morning.

3. For extra flavoring, take the leftover coffee grounds from the filter and let them rest in the cup for a few days before dumping it out. Treat your mug like a cast iron skillet.

4. If you need to, rinse it lightly with just a little water. This is only to be done in cases where the buildup is starting to become untenable.

5. Don’t wash the mug with the soap. Ever. You might be tempted every now and again to give it a good soak. Don’t. You will lose all the flavoring, respect from your near-peers and any chance at an honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy.

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.

 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.