Some of the 'Services' and 'Programs we have available
Sept.20 National POW/MIA recognition Day
Welcome to Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida 'a Source for Veteran Resources'
180 W. Idaho Ave, Ontario, Oregon 97914
541-889-1978
BI-MONTHLY ARTICLES AND A FEW STORIES OF INTEREST
Veteran Articles published Bi-monthly
Food Boxed at Veteran Advocates Food Pantry to hand out to Veterans/Military and their Families
Food Boxed at Veteran Advocates Food Pantry to hand out to Veterans/Military and their Families
The Chairman of Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida, Ronald Verini, writes two articles every month for publication in a Regional Newspaper, this article.."ARE WE GETTING THE BEST CARE?" will be published September 21, 2024. Here is a part of Mr. Verini's article, and you can read the full article by clicking the red bar below.
Are We Getting the Best Care?
Sept. 21st, 2024 Veterans Column by Ronald Verini
The other day I was reading the Journal of the Medical Association and noticed an article about veterans having a higher probability of dying if they choose care in the civilian community instead of receiving care at the Department of Veteran Affairs hospitals.
Has Congress and the VA refused to impose quality standards for community care? I don’t know the full picture but thought that this might be something that needs to be addressed.
This report was published on Dec 7th, 2023 so it is right up to date. ‘Task and Purpose” also did an article relating to this same issue and the numbers in the reports and articles are staggering. As an example: the report states that veterans who had an ambulance take them to a non-VA emergency department were 46% more likely to die in the following month than if they were taken to a VA hospital. This report was similar for every one of the 140 communities that were studied. I would think that with reports like this that surface from reputable reports like this should be alarming to us. Even if the facts are a little off, I would think that the reports have some serious questions that the VA and Congress should address. I would think that Veterans that receive care would be concerned. I have reported on care at the VA and now after reading this report understand that care needs a revisit and a possible major over-hall.
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is considered one of the premier medical publications. It has been around since 1883 and is a consortium of peer-reviewed, general medical and specialty publications. So, I would think that we should, at least, consider their findings and have Congress or the VA look into the issues and take measures that would make sure community care meets the standards of the care given in the VA system.
The report from JAMA goes on scrutinizing the death rate comparing Veterans Community Care Programs to the VA health care in stroke, heart failure, chronic dialysis and even suicide rates are higher who receive care exclusively in the community programs than those that seek help exclusively from the VA.
The issue is quality standards that should be there whether or not where the care is given.
This article that I am writing today is addressing issues that we would not normally be exposed to living here in the Western Treasure Valley. I also think that as veterans we should be better informed so we might be able to make decisions regarding our health care with as much information at our fingertips as we can get that may help determine our own fate
Food Boxed at Veteran Advocates Food Pantry to hand out to Veterans/Military and their Families
Food Boxed at Veteran Advocates Food Pantry to hand out to Veterans/Military and their Families
Food Boxed at Veteran Advocates Food Pantry to hand out to Veterans/Military and their Families
MARCH 2024
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 Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30am to 3:30pm. 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...
Sometimes the food donations we receive are unable to meet the demands, but we still hand out the product we receive. So if you need a little something to help you get from one paycheck to the other come on down. Each Family can get a Box twice a month.
SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS - THE PENTAGON BOMBING
Food Boxed at Veteran Advocates Food Pantry to hand out to Veterans/Military and their Families
VSAFE is a new VA Fraud Assistance Protection for vets
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11,[f] were four coordinated Islamist terroristsuicide attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. On that morning, 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners scheduled to travel from the East Coast to California. The hijackers crashed the first two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and aimed the next two flights toward targets in or near Washington, D.C., in an attack on the nation's capital. The third team succeeded in striking the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense in Arlington County, Virginia, while the fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania during a passenger revolt. The September 11 attacks killed 2,977 people, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in history. In response to the attacks, the United States waged the multi-decade global war on terror to eliminate hostile groups deemed terrorist organizations, as well as the foreign governments purported to support them, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and several other countries.
Ringleader Mohamed Atta flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan at 8:46 a.m.[g] Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03,[h] the World Trade Center's South Tower was hit by United Airlines Flight 175. Both 110-story skyscrapers collapsed within an hour and forty-one minutes,[i] bringing about the destruction of the remaining five structures in the WTC complex and damaging or destroying nearby buildings. American Airlines Flight 77 flew towards Washington, D.C. and crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., causing a partial collapse. The fourth and final flight, United Airlines Flight 93, also changed course towards Washington, believed by investigators to target either the United States Capitol or the White House. Alerted to the previous attacks, the passengers revolted against the hijackers; the hijackers crashed the aircraft into a Stonycreek Township field, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m.. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered an indefinite ground stop for all air traffic in U.S. airspace at 9:45 a.m. (59 minutes following the first impact), preventing any further aircraft departures until September 13 and requiring all airborne aircraft to return to their point of origin or divert to Canada. The actions undertaken in Canada to support incoming aircraft and their occupants were collectively titled Operation Yellow Ribbon.
VSAFE is a new VA Fraud Assistance Protection for vets
Meal, Ready-to-Bulk? Pentagon urged to add creatine to MREs
VSAFE is a new VA Fraud Assistance Protection for vets
Learn. Detect. Protect.
Find resources about fraud targeting you. Know the signs of a scam, get advice about what to do, and learn how to report scams and identity theft.
Report suspected fraud!
Protect yourself and others; call the VSAFE Fraud Hotline at 833-38V-SAFE (8-7233).
833-388-7233
TO REPORT SUSPECTED FRAUD
Your 2024 State Veteran Benefits
Meal, Ready-to-Bulk? Pentagon urged to add creatine to MREs
Meal, Ready-to-Bulk? Pentagon urged to add creatine to MREs
January 2024 by Jim Absher Military.com
Everyone knows about the federal benefits available to veterans, but did you know many states also offer great benefits to their veterans? State benefits range from free college and employment resources to free hunting and fishing licenses. Most states also offer tax breaks for their veterans and specialized license plates, and some states even provide their veterans with cash bonuses just for serving in the military.
We have compiled a handy summary of the benefits each state and territory offers. Each summary page also has a link directly to the specific State Department of Veterans Affairs, so be sure to check it out. There may be a benefit available to you or your family that you didn't know about!. To choose your State click on the Red Bar below
Meal, Ready-to-Bulk? Pentagon urged to add creatine to MREs
Meal, Ready-to-Bulk? Pentagon urged to add creatine to MREs
Meal, Ready-to-Bulk? Pentagon urged to add creatine to MREs
By Riley Ceder & Jon Simkins - Observation Post
A provision included in the House version of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act is calling for the addition of a popular muscle-building supplement to the military’s traditional Meal, Ready-to-Eat rations.
The House Armed Services Committee called for the Pentagon to add creatine to MREs in a committee report accompanying the NDAA, sweeping legislation that Congress must pass annually to determine defense spending.
The gains-based recommendation will now await a Senate decision in order to become law.
“A broad body of clinical research has shown that creatine can enhance muscle growth, physical performance, strength training, post-exercise recovery, and injury prevention,” the body-broadening recommendation states.
Kyle Turk, director of government affairs for the Natural Products Association, called the supplement’s potential inclusion in MREs “tremendous for American service members.”
“Creatine is one of the most extensively studied ingredients for safely increasing strength and recovery time,” he told Military Times in an email. Turk consulted with the Armed Services Committee to help craft the language for the provision, he said.
Creatine is a naturally occurring compound that can be found in human muscles, as well as the brain, which the body uses for energy, according to The Mayo Clinic. Recent medical science also suggests the supplement allows at least 227 Instagram users per year to modify their handles to respective iterations of “firstname_fit.”
87,000 Vietnam Vets May Qualify for $844 Million in Benefits
How Come Nobody Told Them?
September 2024
The War Horse | By Leah Rosenbaum
In the span of just a few weeks, Marc McCabe traveled this summer to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, California, and Texas. But the 74-year-old wasn’t on an epic retirement trip.
As a pro bono veterans advocate, he was searching for Vietnam veterans and surviving family members who may be eligible for disability compensation.
McCabe, a former combat corpsman attached to Marine Corps units during the Vietnam War, has survived two bouts of cancer himself. He has been a veteran’s advocate for two decades, but his job has gotten a lot busier thanks to a spate of new legislation that has expanded benefits for millions of veterans exposed to toxic chemicals in war.
Technically, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs should be the ones notifying veterans when they may be eligible for new benefits—but McCabe says they often don’t.
“They’re leaving them behind,” he says.
And the Department of Veterans Affairs’ very own Office of Inspector General agrees. In an unsparing report this summer, the watchdog estimated that VA has failed to inform up to 87,000 Vietnam war veterans and their survivors that they may now qualify for retroactive compensation benefits because of exposure to toxic herbicides such as Agent Orange.
If that sounds like a startling number, consider this: Those overlooked veterans and their families could be entitled to more than $844 million, the report said.
“There are millions of dollars at stake that Vietnam veterans and their survivors should be receiving,” says Bart Stichman, co-founder of the National Veterans Legal Services Program, which represents veterans in benefits appeals.
And while there is widespread agreement that America should compensate its veterans for their sacrifice and service, there’s a growing concern about where all this money will come from—especially as the cost continues to balloon thanks to the recently passed PACT Act, which added coverage for potentially six million more veterans exposed to toxins from burn pits and other sources during the Vietnam, Persian Gulf and post-9/11 wars.
America will soon owe veterans trillions of dollars in medical and disability compensation, said Linda Bilmes, a professor in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Despite the pledge, she said, “we don’t really understand the cost. … We don’t have a function that is keeping track of all of the accrued promised benefits the way we should.”
Facing a record budget shortfall, VA may be unable to pay benefits to millions of veterans as soon as October.
Promises Broken
In 1986, Stichman and other lawyers brought a class action lawsuit against VA on behalf of Vietnam veterans and survivors. The resulting consent decree required the department to recognize “presumptive conditions” for Vietnam veterans—illnesses that VA assumes are caused by exposure to Agent Orange during military service—and pay disability and death payments to those who suffered from these ailments.
VA “hate the fact they ever agreed to it. So they try to think of every possible reason they don’t have to do what they should do.”
—Bart Stichman, special counsel at the National Veterans Legal Services Program who sued VA on behalf of veterans in a landmark case known as Nehmer vs. The Department of Veterans Affairs
The decision was contentious. In 1989, Sen. Alan Simpson, a Wyoming Republican, questioned the science connecting Agent Orange exposure to veterans’ health problems and told Sen. Ted Kennedy on a radio program that providing coverage for presumptive conditionswas “political pandering to powerful special interest groups.” Kennedy called Simpson “Agent Orange Al.”
By 2021, the scientific evidence was clear, linking Agent Orange to even more illnesses. The National Defense Authorization Act that year expanded the list of presumptive conditions for Vietnam veterans. There are now more than 20 of these conditions, including bladder cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, and more. But critics say VA has always been resistant.
“They hate the fact they ever agreed to it,” says Stichman. “So they try to think of every possible reason they don’t have to do what they should do.”
Veterans Not Covered by Toxic Hazards
Wait Decades for VA Recognition, Report Finds
Sept. 2024, by Patricia Kime, Military.com
The passage of the PACT Act gave millions of veterans the chance at expedited disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs, but thousands of others exposed to environmental hazards in military service wait roughly 31 years to receive similar recognition from the VA, a new report has found.
In a report released Wednesday by Disabled American Veterans and the Military Officers Association of America, the groups said the VA's disability claims filing process -- in which veterans must prove that their health conditions are directly related to military service -- is cumbersome for those who are unaware that they were exposed to toxic substances or those who don't connect a latent illness with their military service.
In "Ending the Wait for Toxic-Exposed Veterans," retired Army Lt. Col. Gary Sauer said he knew he had musculoskeletal injuries from jumping out of military aircraft but initially did not connect two illnesses -- non-Hodgkin lymphoma and a rare kidney disease -- with military service.
He now believes they were caused by exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, at Ford Ord, California, where he served early in his career. In 2017, Fort Ord was found to have more than 80 times the maximum amount of several PFAS chemicals set for drinking water by the Environmental Protection Agency this year.
"We're using that [water] to prepare food. We were drinking it straight from the water fountains. ... We were showering in it, brushing our teeth," Sauer said in the report. "So, the exposure of that was pretty significant."
Sauer is waiting on a claims decision, having filed tests that show he has PFAS chemicals in his blood decades after exposure.
The report found that the VA takes an average of 31 years to recognize an exposure for an individual veteran after it first occurs, and establishes a presumptive service connection -- a designation by the federal government that eliminates the requirement to prove a military tie -- for exposure-related conditions after about 34 years.
This is too long to help many veterans, the report authors noted.
"Despite major toxic-exposure laws enacted every decade or two over the past century, the
time veterans have to wait from the moment of exposure to meaningful VA compensation and medical support remains shamefully long -- more than three decades on average, according to our research," the report stated.
In response, VA officials acknowledged that veterans have waited "far too long" to receive benefits, but the PACT Act, which extended benefits to several populations of ill veterans, including those exposed to burn pits and other airborne hazards during the Global War on Terrorism, has allowed the VA to expedite claims for millions of veterans and their survivors.
"We're currently delivering more care and more benefits to more veterans than ever before, but make no mistake -- we will not rest until every veteran gets the care and benefits they deserve. We are grateful for the feedback from our partners, and we will continue to work with them to fulfill our shared mission," VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes said in a statement Thursday.
What Happens if the President
Issues a Potentially Illegal Order to the Military?
July 2024 by Konstantin Toropin Military.com
It's late on a weekday afternoon and a group of military officers -- the most senior leaders of every branch of the armed forces -- are sitting around a wide wood table under frosty overhead lights in a windowless conference room at the Pentagon.
After days of intense protests in several cities across the country, the defense secretary says the president is getting ready to order a massive deployment of armed troops to replace local police and bring a stop to political opposition. As the group slowly begins to discuss the details of sending active-duty troops to quash protests on American soil, one of the officers stops the group with a question.
"Is any of what we're discussing here even legal?"
The entire scenario is a work of fiction, but given presidential campaign rhetoric as Americans head to the polls in November, Military.com spent several months trying to unearth what existing safeguards and policies are in place to protect what has long been considered a hallmark of the U.S. -- an apolitical military that uses its power to fight the country's enemies, not its own citizens.
In speaking with more than a dozen Pentagon officials as well as outside experts, what emerged was a landscape where few concrete legal protections exist to prevent an abuse of power by a president, especially if that president chooses to lean on the Insurrection Act, a vaguely worded law originally passed in 1792.
Military.com reached out to the civilian and military leaders of every uniformed branch of service with a trio of direct questions: If a potentially unlawful order is received from the White House or issued by a defense secretary, what is the review process to determine whether the order is legal, who triggers the review, and who conducts the review?
The requests made no mention of a specific president or the specifics of potential orders, but rather asked about existing policies.
None of the services offered any comment on the record, and some didn't even reply to the inquiries.
Military.com reached out to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who also declined to comment.
Finally, the office of the defense secretary, after several weeks of queries, provided a response.
Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in an emailed statement that "lawyers are available to advise military leaders -- including the secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and combatant commanders -- regarding the legal and prudential impacts of orders, as well as the legal effects and consequences such orders may have."
Defense officials also said that, especially at those senior levels, legal reviews of most orders are part of the process, are conducted by lawyers assigned to the office of the commander or secretary, and do not need to be specifically requested.
The Insurrection Act
Both Trump and a number of groups aligned with the former president have said that Trump, if elected, would invoke the Insurrection Act to allow him to use troops for his domestic agenda.
The law was first passed in 1792 and largely cemented in 1871. It offers broad, sweeping and, critics say, ill-defined powers to the president.
The law says that "whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws ... he may call into federal service such of the militia of any state, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary."
An 1827 Supreme Court ruling found that the president alone can decide to invoke the law and courts may not review or second-guess that determination.
The Brennan Center for Justice, a law and public policy research organization at the New York University School of Law, noted in a 2022 paper that "the Insurrection Act fails to adequately define or limit when it may be used and instead gives the president significant power to decide when and where to deploy U.S. military forces domestically."
The lawyer who previously served as a judge advocate agreed with that assessment.
"All of us as American citizens should have an uneasy feeling about any service members policing our country," the lawyer said.
One scenario the lawyer laid out was an attorney general approaching the president with a concern that he or she doesn't have a sufficient number of federal law enforcement officers to deal with violence or unrest and making a request to bring in military forces.
HOW A 0% DISABILITY RATING UNLOCKS ADDITIONAL VA BENEFITS
Sept. 2024 By Jim Marszalek, DAV
As DAV benefits advocates, we occasionally hear from veterans who are disappointed after receiving a 0% disability rating from the Department of Veterans Affairs. While this means you don’t get monetary benefits or an increase in your overall compensation, that zero still has value.
It’s important to remember that even with a 0% disability rating, which the VA calls a non-compensable disability, veterans may be eligible for benefits that include VA health care, prescriptions, co-payment waivers and federal hiring preferences.
As with all disability ratings, veterans can file for an increase if they think that their disability is more severe than the current rating indicates. If you or any veteran feels like this might be the case, reach out to DAV by visiting benefitsquestions.org so we can assist in a review of symptoms and rating criteria.
Under the PACT Act, hypertension became a new presumptive condition. According to the VA, over 82% of PACT Act-related claims for hypertension have received a 0% disability rating.
A 10% disability rating for hypertension is only assigned if continuous medication is required for blood pressure control and their past diastolic pressure before taking medication was predominately 100 or greater.
Hypertension can lead to serious health conditions over time and can be fatal, especially if left untreated.
We remind all veterans that they should never stop taking prescribed medications prior to any disability evaluations to try and obtain a higher rating.
You can file a claim for a new disability as a secondary claim. This means if a new disability arises that is caused by or linked to a service-connected disability, then service connection and compensation can be awarded even if the original condition is rated as 0% disabling.
Here’s an example of when a veteran might file a secondary claim:
A veteran develops heart disease caused by high blood pressure that the VA already concluded was connected to their service. The veteran would get service connection for that heart disease, which could have a higher rating than hypertension.
We know that receiving a 0% disability rating might be confusing or even frustrating, but it’s important to know that it still does come with various VA benefits and could be reevaluated for a higher rating in the future.
Again, if you have questions about or need assistance with filing for VA disability compensation, please contact your nearest DAV service office by visiting benefitsquestions.org.
Homeless vets sued the VA and won.
Now the government has to build thousands of homes.
September 2024 By Nicholas Slayton, Task & Purpose
A federal judge ruled that current leases for oil drilling and schools on the nearly 400-acre site are illegal and must end.
A federal judge ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to immediately develop a plan to build nearly 2,000 new supportive housing units for veterans on its 388-acre campus in West Los Angeles.
Judge David O. Carter’s ruling on Friday, Sept. 6, was a major victory for a group of veterans who sued the VA over the use, or lack thereof, of the massive campus. They sued over a number of different aspects of how the VA utilizes the space, which was gifted to it in 1888. The plaintiffs, many of whom are experiencing homelessness themselves, argued that the VA was not building enough housing on the available space, while the VA fought back, saying it was building enough under a previous agreement and leasing out other parcels on the campus was providing revenue for services.
Judge Carter disagreed with the VA. He ordered the VA to build 750 temporary housing units in the next 12-18 months to provide immediate shelter. Additionally, Carter requires that the department construct 1,800 more permanent housing units on the VA campus. The decision came after a three-week non jury trial.
“Each administration since 2011 has been warned — by the VA’s own Office of the Inspector General, federal courts, and veterans — that they were not doing enough to house veterans in Los Angeles,” Carter wrote in his decision. “Despite these warnings, the VA has not made good on its promise to build housing for veterans.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs previously agreed to a master plan to build 1,200 new housing units, the result of a previous lawsuit, but only 233 are open now. The decision in this new suit gives the VA six months to develop a new plan for the additional 1,800 units and a town center for veterans living on the campus. The VA’s plan must have all of the new housing and supportive facilities finished and open within six years.
Anglers, Squids, POGs and ‘AAA-0’
Military nicknames we love
By Joshua Skovlund, Task & Purpose
From the Doughboys of World War I to enlisted-turned-officer Mustangs, nicknames have a way of rallying the troops and raising morale — sometimes at the expense of others.
Kevin Corrinet served in the 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, affectionately nicknamed the Patriots. There, he served under a senior officer who they nicknamed Lord Farquaad—the short, conniving villain of the Shreck movies.
“I don’t know what his height is, and like how a fish gets bigger every time the story is told, his height gets smaller every time it’s told – but he was about 5’2” or 5’3,”” Corrinet said. “The first time I met him, I reported to his office. He did the tab check. I remember how far he had to pull me down to look at my shoulder.”
According to the International Journal of Social Science And Human Research, nicknames carry beneficial and adverse socio-cultural impacts.
“The main reason for nicknames’ formation in the English language is the perception of the environment by a person both positively and negatively – socially evaluated,” the research states. “Reflecting the general culture of English society and culture within the individual, in particular, nicknames create socio-cultural symbols and cultural universals, indicating the traditions of people, habits, lifestyles, tastes, and ideas.”
As long as militaries have given ‘real’ names to units, commanders, ranks, jobs, and weapons, troops have given them all nicknames.
Unit nicknames - & -Rank and jobs
Many nicknames held by major units in the Army are well-known. The Devil Brigade was given to the Army’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, while the 3rd Infantry Regiment has a widely recognized special designator of The Old Guard. The 82nd Airborne Division is the All-Americans, while the air assaulters of the 101st Airborne Division are known as the Screaming Eagles orScreaming Es. In the special operations world, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, often called the Nighstalkers.
A junior enlisted troops — besides being an FNG — is probably a cherry or a boot, being straight from boot camp. One place no boot is allowed to go on a ship is the galley reserved for Chiefs — ie, the Goat Locker. On the officer side, Army and Air Force 2nd Lieutenants can be butter bars, while in the Navy, a commander — particularly a ship’s captain — is the skipper.
Regardless of rank, many jobs have unofficial names. The Army and Marine infantry are often called ‘grunts’ or ‘knuckle draggers.’ Those who aren’t grunts are Persons Other Than Grunts – or POGs.
What does Project 2025 mean for military veterans?
Project 2025's proposals for the VA calls for changes to vets healthcare eligibility and disability
Aug. 2024 by Jeff Schogol, Task & Purpose
For Task & Purpose coverage of Project 2025’s proposals for the U.S. military and Department of Defense, click here.
Project 2025, a policy guide that could be the blueprint for a second Donald Trump term, would revamp the Department of Veterans of Affairs with proposals to increase privatization, narrow the eligibility criteria for health benefits and replace civil service-style employees with political appointees in its ranks.
The document begins with an historical summary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, VA, and its current challenges meeting an aging, migrating population of veterans while modernizing and keeping costs within its budget. Chapter 20, which is dedicated to VA reforms, was written by Brooks D. Tucker, former VA Chief of Staff during the Trump Administration.
“Our goal is to assemble an army of aligned, vetted, trained, and prepared conservatives to go to work on Day One to deconstruct the Administrative State,” the manual states. “The VA must continually strive to be recognized as a ‘best in class,’ ‘Veteran-centric’ system with an organizational ethos inspired by and accountable to the needs and problems of veterans, not subservient to the parochial preferences of a bureaucracy.”
Task & Purpose reached out to six national veterans advocacy organizations for comment for this story. Three said they had no comment on Project 2025’s policy recommendations, the others did not respond, nor did two experts on veteran affairs at a major defense policy research organization.
Some veterans argue that Project 2025’s goals would impact veterans directly before any changes to the VA. In a July 9 op-ed, Michael Embrich, a veteran and former member of the secretary of Veterans Affairs’ Advisory Committee on the Readjustment of Veterans, wrote that the proposed cuts to federal agencies like the FBI and Justice Department could “disproportionately affect” the 300,000 veterans who make up roughly 30% of the federal workforce.
But the project devotes an entire section to overhauling major pieces of the VA.
In a similar fashion with its goals for other federal agencies, Project 2025 envisions a VA that is run by more political appointees. The policy calls for rescinding all “delegations of authority” granted by the Biden Administration and transferring Senior Executive Service employees out of positions designated for presidential appointees to “ensure political control of the VA.”
Today's Veterans of the Day are the Buffalo Soldiers of WWI
Buffalo Soldiers Receive New VA Headstones Following Army Decision to Overturn Convictions
February 2024
Military.com | By Patricia KimePublished February 22, 2024 at 5:50pm ET
More than 100 years after they were convicted of mutiny and murder and hanged for the 1917 Houston Riot, 17 Black soldiers have finally received military burial honors along with new headstones reflecting the honorable discharges the Army awarded them last year.
In a solemn ceremony Thursday at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Department of Veterans Affairs and Army officials gathered with relatives of the soldiers, members of the 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, to honor their service and replace gravestones that had marked the men as unworthy of being in a veterans' cemetery.
YOU TOO CAN HELP SERVE AND THANK OUR COUNTRIES VETERANS
About Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida
Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida was founded by a group of veterans who saw a need for better support and resources for the veteran community. Our organization is committed to providing assistance to veterans in need, whether it's help finding a job, connecting with mental health resources, or accessing affordable housing. We believe that every veteran deserves access to the care and support they need to thrive after serving our country.
Join Our Team
Are you passionate about supporting veterans and giving back to your community? Join our team of dedicated volunteers and make a difference in the lives of those who have served. We offer a variety of volunteer opportunities, from helping with fundraising events to providing mentorship to veterans in need. Contact us today at 541-889-1978 to learn more about getting involved with Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida.
TIME TO HONOR THE VIETNAM WARS MOST SECRET WARRIORS
Top-secret group operated in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1964 to 1972.
September 2023
by Col. Paris Davis, MilitaryTimes.com
https://www.army.mil/vietnamwar/
The nation is commemorating the 50th anniversary of America’s withdrawal from Vietnam through Veterans Day 2025, per presidential decree. But we cannot allow any lingering ambivalence on the legacy of the war — or anything else — to further delay honoring the extraordinary contributions of our most covert warriors of that era.
When I recently received the Medal of Honor for the 19-hour battle my Army Special Forces unit fought in Bong Son, Vietnam in 1965, President Joe Biden said, “It’s never too late to do the right thing.”
Indeed, we are well past time to do what’s right, and finally honor the elite U.S Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, Studies and Observations Group, or MACV-SOG, with a Congressional Gold Medal.
This revolutionary, top-secret group operated in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1964 to 1972. Its members fought deep within enemy territory to gather invaluable intelligence for the highest levels of government, including the White House. Their tasks included strategic reconnaissance, sabotage, direct-action raids, psychological operations, deception operations, and rescue missions. The group targeted the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a crucial enemy supply line for the North Vietnamese enemy. Aerial reconnaissance was challenging, making the intelligence provided by SOG teams on the ground invaluable.
Casualty rates for SOG reconnaissance teams exceeded 100%, meaning every man was wounded at least once and approximately half were killed. Of the 1,579 Americans missing in action from the Vietnam War, 50 are from the group. At least 11 SOG teams, perhaps more, simply vanished.
The covert operations of SOG remained unacknowledged by military leadership until partial declassification began in the 1990s. Members of the unit had signed confidentiality agreements and their wartime activities remained mostly secret for decades. As SOG member John Stryker Meyer wrote in his book, Across the Fence: The Secret War in Vietnam, “If I died, no one would tell my mother the truth.”
The Congressional Gold Medal for MACV-SOG would help the American public better understand the members’ extraordinary service, sacrifices, and contributions to our nation. The men of this unit battled not only the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, but also the harsh terrain, debilitating climate, and the chaos and uncertainty of guerilla warfare. They served with valor, often in situations where survival was the only measure of success. Let’s face it: The nation can handle the truth of their service.
Some Stories that Inspire, and have 'Positive Energy'
The Army is standardizing how armor crews train and shoot
160th SOAR veteran to build memorial out of CH-47D fuselage
160th SOAR veteran to build memorial out of CH-47D fuselage
March 2024 by Patty Nieberg, Task & Purpose
The Army is standardizing the way crews of Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles keep up with their combat skills.
Brigades with the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia have taken the last month to train under a new set of qualification standards, or gunnery tables, against targets set at longer distances for their M1 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles.
“What we are trying to do is train our crews to be more adaptable and be more lethal as our adversaries change,” said 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team Command Sgt. Maj. Ryan Roush. “Everyone will go through the exact same validation process. Once these tables are implemented Army-wide, we could receive a new soldier from any unit in the Army and know that the training standard that the soldier has used, are the exact same across the entire Army that we have and then base our performance and expectations off of that.”
Tank crews have to validate their skills twice a year on a unit’s gunnery tables. Under the current integrated weapons strategy there are six gunnery tables that crews must be certified in: Table I gunnery skills test; Table II simulations; Table III proficiency to train with live rounds; Table IV basic skills of the platform; Table V practice and Table VI qualification for crew to participate in live-fire exercises.
Master gunners could previously use their own discretion to create tables with time and distance categories for targets. But with this initiative, there would be set standards that soldiers and crews have to complete, said Sgt. Daniel Blandon, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team Abrams Master Gunner.
Large scale combat operations
Over the last two decades, training for Iraq and Afghanistan was focused on counterinsurgency operations “for a whole career of a soldier,” said Steve Krivitsky, chief of the weapons and gunnery branch at the Directorate of Training, Tactics and Doctrine for the Maneuver Center of Excellence. “There was a series of soldiers that never experienced the long range and then the large-scale, combat-operations-type training.”
Tank crews often were tested only on skills and targets their commanders deemed essential for Iraq and Afghanistan deployments, or that could be shot within the confines of the ranges of their own base.
160th SOAR veteran to build memorial out of CH-47D fuselage
160th SOAR veteran to build memorial out of CH-47D fuselage
160th SOAR veteran to build memorial out of CH-47D fuselage
September 2023
BY JOSHUA SKOVLUND, TASK & PURPOSE
Thibodeaux plans to rebuild the fuselage to resemble an MH-47G Chinook, the same type of helicopter that Arcane 22 was.
Jeremy Thibodeaux was driving back to Hunter Army Airfield, where he was assigned to B Co., 3rd battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) — known as the “Nightstalkers” — when he heard that a special operations Chinook helicopter had crashed in Afghanistan over the radio. Thibodeaux immediately felt sick — he knew this meant some of his friends had probably died.
His worst fear was realized after arriving on base. Two of his friends, Josue “Sway” Hernandez and Nickolas Mueller, were aboard an MH-47G helicopter, “Arcane 22,” that had crashed during a counter-narcotics raid in Afghanistan on Oct. 26, 2009.
“Upon arriving, I found out exactly who was killed, and I just dropped to my knees, just screaming and crying — kind of pulling my hair out,” Thibodeaux said. “I didn’t really know what to do. You know, two of my best friends were on that aircraft. It was just a really — it was a horrible day.”
On Tuesday, Thibodeaux received approval from the Internal Revenue Service for his newly established non-profit, The Arcane Project.
The idea was born years ago when Thibodeaux was still serving. As older CH-47 models became outdated, he joked that he wanted to acquire one to convert into a private bar for guys from the unit. Years later, Thibodeaux brought up the idea with one of his best friends, Chip Davis, and the idea for a non-profit was born.
We found 4 bottles of whiskey made by airborne paratroopers
160th SOAR veteran to build memorial out of CH-47D fuselage
The origin of the military’s iconic mantra: ‘Embrace the suck’
October 2023
Whiskey has likely been around for some of your most memorable late-night shenanigans in the barracks or downtown. If there’s anything America’s airborne paratroopers know, it’s how to fight and how to drink good whiskey.
So we talked to four Airborne-qualified master distillers who took their well-researched opinions and made some of the best whiskeys out there. Although they make good whiskey, remember that you have gone too far if you find yourself in the brig. Drink responsibly.
First, a brief history of whiskey in America
In the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, America was struggling to pay off its war debt (ah, the good ol’ days when America cared about keeping the nation’s debt under control). Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton proposed a tax in the late 1700s on domestic liquor as a means of paying it off — which was met with opposition from whiskey makers in Pennsylvania.
The Whiskey Rebellion that resulted was short-lived, but it was not the last time whiskey would be involved in war. The brown elixir fueled soldiers throughout the Civil War, especially the North, who were paid better and could afford it.
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant slammed Old Crow whiskey, and President Abraham Lincoln allegedly likened the General’s success on the battlefield to his liquor consumption. The New York Herald reported in a Sept. 18, 1863 edition of the newspaper that Lincoln was approached by a group calling for Grant to be removed from his position, claiming he was a drunk.
The tall hat-wearing president allegedly responded with a quirky quip, asking the group if they knew what Grant was drinking.
“If I can only find out, I will send a barrel of this wonderful whiskey to every general in the army,” Lincoln allegedly said. Historians contest the legitimacy of the quote because of the anonymous sources, but the legend lives on to this day.
Whiskey’s relationship with soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen is not a coincidence, in Derek Sisson’s opinion.
The origin of the military’s iconic mantra: ‘Embrace the suck’
The origin of the military’s iconic mantra: ‘Embrace the suck’
The origin of the military’s iconic mantra: ‘Embrace the suck’
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.
Marines: 0, Samurai sword: 1
The origin of the military’s iconic mantra: ‘Embrace the suck’
Air Force Veteran Finally Graduates 50 Years Later
The U.S. military may be a professional war-fighting organization, but it is also filled with people, and people can be very stupid sometimes. That’s why last week, Task & Purpose put out a call for readers to share the dumbest moments they had in uniform. We were not disappointed.
From drunken samurai sword fights to bored forklift drivers, a clear theme emerged: boredom is one step away from a chewing-out by the nearest platoon sergeant.
The best example of this is a story that one Marine veteran named Mike Betts sent us about the time he and his buddies got drunk on salty dogs (a cocktail of gin or vodka and grapefruit juice) in Vietnam. One of the Marines pulled out “a cheap samurai sword he got in Japan,” Betts recalled. Our reader then took the sword and, as one does while inebriated, “commenced my best samurai impression, slashing at anything and everything in the hooch.”
You can see where this is going: at some point during the demonstration, our brave Samurai smacked something that loosened the blade and sent it flying from the handle, striking the sword owner in the chest “and inflicting a pretty nasty wound.”
Nobody wants to have to explain that kind of trouble to someone in charge, so our reader and his fellows snuck the wounded Marine past the officer and sergeant on duty that night and “hustled him off to the hospital” before anyone could notice. Luckily, he was “stitched up and pronounced fit for duty,” Betts said.
“Needless to say, I felt terrible about hurting him,” he added.
Air Force Veteran Finally Graduates 50 Years Later
The origin of the military’s iconic mantra: ‘Embrace the suck’
Air Force Veteran Finally Graduates 50 Years Later
Vietnam War kept Bob Kroener from walking across stage with USC classmates in 1971.
Having to wait an extra year to participate in his graduation ceremony due to the coronavirus pandemic paled in comparison to the 49 years that had already passed for Bob Kroener, 78, who finally attended his graduate-school commencement on May 17.
The now-retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and civil engineer missed his pomp and circumstance in 1971 due to his deployment during the Vietnam War. So, when he was thumbing through the University of Southern California's alumni magazine a few years ago and saw pictures of that year's graduation festivities he felt it was finally his time to walk across the stage.
"I was sitting there looking at it and I thought, You know, I never got to go through graduation,” he said. “So I picked up the phone, and I called over to the Marshall School of Business."
During the call, USC officials inquired if he had received his diploma and whether he had other information that would help them locate his decades-old records. The school also asked for his student ID number, to which he replied, “I'm too old for that, we only had a Social Security number."
Back to school
The road to Southern California started north of the border. Then a captain in the Air Force after receiving an undergraduate degree from the University of Detroit, Kroener was stationed at a military base in Canada when he learned that he secured one of 26 government-funded spots offered to Air Force officers for graduate school. From a snow-covered mountaintop in Newfoundland he was informed of the schools he could apply to.
"I heard the University of Southern California and I said, ‘I'll take it. I'm going back to sit on the beach after being in 110 inches of snow for a year.’ It wasn't too hard of a decision to make,” said Kroener.
However, it wasn't just the weather that Kroener appreciated about going to school in Los Angeles. He was able to take advantage of the wide variety of corporations that would open doors to students like himself.
"I went to [oil company] Atlantic Richfield to do a paper, I went to Mattel toy company to do a paper, I went to Continental Airlines to basically write a master's thesis, myself and another captain,” he said. “All you had to do was say you're a student doing graduate work at USC. And I mean, they just opened the doors."
Kroener earned his MBA in 1971, but before the graduation ceremony took place he was deployed to Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. As part of his duties, he managed combat engineering teams by setting up their directives and getting them all the equipment needed to prepare for combat in Vietnam. He eventually retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1993.
Some Ongoing Stories of Interest For Our Veterans
Tips to achieve the ultimate dirty Navy-style coffee mug
DoD SkillBridge: The best military transition program you didn’t know existed
Tips to achieve the ultimate dirty Navy-style coffee mug
Feb. 2023 by 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.
The history of the HK416 in modern warfare
DoD SkillBridge: The best military transition program you didn’t know existed
Tips to achieve the ultimate dirty Navy-style coffee mug
march 2024 by Joshua Skovlund, Task & Purpose
When the HK416 started showing up on SOF compounds throughout Iraq, people noticed.
In the early 2000s, operators in the U.S. military’s special operations community started using the Heckler & Koch HK416 as one of their primary battle rifles. It was initially meant to replace the Colt M4A1 but never realized that potential.
Not just anyone in SOF had the opportunity to carry this German-made rifle into combat though. Rangers, SEALs, Green Berets, and others in SOF often work in the same areas as their higher echelon counterparts, but still carried the M4A1 or even FN SCAR during that timeframe.
When the HK416 started showing up on SOF compounds throughout Iraq, hanging off the shoulder of operators grabbing a quick bite to eat in the chow hall — people noticed. It was the next new thing, but most never got a chance to use it. Unlike the SR25 sniper rifle, MultiCam uniforms, EOTech holographic sights, and high-cut helmets, the HK416 was one bit of kit that never made it into the wider U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) inventory.
The HK 416 is a step away from the traditional operation of the Colt M4A1. Instead of a gas-operated, direct impingement system, it uses a gas-operated, short-stroke piston-driven operating rod. Ultimately, the piston setup was more reliable in testing, but compared to the M4A1, it’s more expensive and heavier.
The operation of the HK416 is relatively similar to what operators were used to with the M4: the safety selector switch, magazine release, charging handle, and Picatinny rails were all the same or very similar. The cleaning procedures are different though, with the M4’s bolt carrier group and chamber needing to be cleaned more often when compared to the HK416’s piston system, which blows gas forward and away from the bolt carrier group — but still results in a different, but regularly required maintenance.
DoD SkillBridge: The best military transition program you didn’t know existed
DoD SkillBridge: The best military transition program you didn’t know existed
DoD SkillBridge: The best military transition program you didn’t know existed
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.
"Deflection is a funny thing"
How a WW2 banana shortage changed the course of Twinkie history
DoD SkillBridge: The best military transition program you didn’t know existed
September 2023
Black Rifle Coffee Company
Barrett Carver (top row second from left) served in the US Army for almost seven years and deployed multiple times. He spent his time in 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, and was one of the Rangers involved in the assault on Haditha Dam, a critical structure to capture during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
During the assault, Carver and his fellow Rangers were holed up inside one of the buildings on “the military side of the dam,” and they were taking indirect fire from the Iraqis. Artillery rounds were impacting close to their building for several hours with barrages of small-arms fire. Carver thought to himself, Well, it’s been a good run.
Suddenly, they all heard a loud twang, and a thick cloud of dust erupted inside the building. Carver looked up to see a horseshoe-shaped indent in the corrugated tin roof over their heads. Everyone burst into uncontrollable laughter — one of the artillery rounds had been deflected by the thin tin roof.
“Deflection is a funny thing,” Carver said. “It could have just as easily been a dud round. Either way, I take a kick where I can get it. Amazing thing is that with the amount they dropped on us, we only had two casualties. Both made it.”
VA's updated list of Agent Orange sites outside of Vietnam
How a WW2 banana shortage changed the course of Twinkie history
How a WW2 banana shortage changed the course of Twinkie history
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.
How a WW2 banana shortage changed the course of Twinkie history
How a WW2 banana shortage changed the course of Twinkie history
How a WW2 banana shortage changed the course of Twinkie history
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.
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Our phone is 541-889-1978, and we are located in Ontario, Oregon at 180 W. Idaho Ave.