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

November 10, 2019, By Christina Zdanowicz, CNN

(CNN) — Davidson is only 9 years old, yet he's been the man of the house eight times while his dad serves his country.

His father, Dave, is a Green Beret on his 10th deployment. The family lives in northern Virginia while Dave is stationed somewhere overseas. Davidson is used to not having his dad around, but he never forgets him.

"Sometimes it's fine because we actually do a lot of fun things while he's away, but it's also sad because he's just not here," Davidson told CNN. "My mom sometimes breaks down and cries a lot because she misses him. And it's not really hard for her because I help her, but it's just she misses him."

From 2001 to 2015, 2.77 million service members have been deployed overseas, many of them mothers and fathers leaving families behind.

Davidson sees the world matter-of-factly, approaching his dad's deployments with the strength that many military families display.

"I don't even know where he is, but I think he's fine because he's a good, strong guy," he said.

Each family deals with the hardship in their own way. This is how Davidson's family does it. They asked that CNN not use their last name for security reasons.

Oct. 31, 2019 By Robert Wilkie, Military.com

Robert Wilkie (@SecWilkie) is the 10th U.S. secretary of Veterans Affairs.

When American men and women put on our nation's uniform, they don't fight for one political party or just some of the states.

They fight for all of America. And that's why it's important for us to work together and find solutions to the most daunting challenge of our time: preventing veteran suicide.

Thankfully, Republicans and Democrats in Congress are trying to pass the Improve Well-Being for Veterans Act, legislation that we at the Department of Veterans Affairs believe will provide a lifeline to veterans everywhere. It's a plan that has the potential to finally help us reach the roughly 60 percent of veterans who die by suicide each day without any recent connection to VA care.

November 4, 2019 by Lisa Guiterrez, The Kansas City Star

Lloyd Blair joined the Marine Corps as an 18-year-old itching for a fight after hijacked planes rocketed into the World Trade Center towers and set the world on fire. He pulled two tours in Iraq. The first landed him in the hell of Fallujah where some of the bloodiest fighting took place.

There he was, not long out of high school, fighting in the desert, ducking bullets while carrying 40, 50 pounds of full battle rattle on his back.

The stench of human feces flowing out of Fallujah in shallow creeks suffocated the air. There was smoke everywhere. "I mean, there was stuff burning all the time in Fallujah," says Blair, who is 35.

He didn't give a second thought to the smoke billowing from the burn pits where the military torched its own trash, not until he was diagnosed with testicular cancer after he came home.

November 8, 2019 by Gina Harkins, Military.com

A retired Army officer in the Senate introduced a bill this week that would protect a policy allowing family members of service members and veterans to remain in the U.S. temporarily without threat of deportation.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, wants to safeguard these family members with the Military Family Parole in Place Act. The program allows some parents, children and spouses of active-duty troops, reservists and veterans to temporarily remain in the U.S., but Trump administration officials are considering scaling it back.

The program gives troops' and veterans' family members who came to the U.S. illegally the chance to adjust their immigration status without leaving the country. Officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services began reviewing the program this summer, when some family members began hearing the program was being terminated.

Duckworth called the possibility of ending the deportation protections "cruel and inhumane."

Related: ICE Is Deporting Veterans Without Checking Their Service Status, Watchdog Says

November 4, 2019 By Richard Sisk, Military.com

Jobs in health care topped the list of the 10 best career employment opportunities for the estimated 250,000 service members who transition out of the military each year, according to a survey released Monday by Navy Federal Credit Union, in partnership with the nonprofit Hire Heroes USA.

In line with numerous studies by the government and other organizations, the Best Careers After Service survey of veterans who were already employed found that many transitioning service members leave their first job within a year. It added that its top 10 list of jobs offered the chance for lasting employment.

The top 10 career paths identified by the survey include:

1. Health care
2. Government/Public Administration
3. Defense Contracting
4. Information Technology
5. Financial Services
6. Education
7. Law Enforcement
8. Retail
9. Manufacturing
10. Transportation/Warehousing

October 26, 2019 By: Dorthy Mills-Greg, Military.com

The results are in: The Board of Veterans' Appeals processed 11% more decisions and held 38% more hearings in fiscal 2019 than 2018 thanks, in part, to a new congressionally-mandated appeals structure, officials reported this month.

That new process, combined with hiring more staff, helped the board process 96,000 rating appeals, of which 35% were granted and 30% denied, BVA Chairman Cheryl Mason said.

Two years ago, Congress passed a modernization act to have the board develop three options for reviewing decisions, better notifying veterans about outcomes, and improving claim resolution time.

VBA is tasked with reviewing veterans' appeals for the three administrations under the Department of Veterans Affairs: Veterans Benefits Administration, Veterans Health Administration and National Cemetery Administration.