Some of the 'Services' and 'Programs we have available
JAN.18 HONORS FORMING OF PVA
Welcome to Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida 'a Source for Veteran Resources'
180 W. Idaho Ave, Ontario, Oregon 97914
541-889-1978
VETERAN ADVOCATES THRIFT EMPORIUM
Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida has a rathar very nice Thrift Emporium with an excellent selection of donated items !! The prices range from 50 cents up - depending on the kind of items you are shopping for - We have an absolutely WONDERFUL staff of Volunteers eager to help you find items... it is open from 9am to 4pm Monday thru Friday - and you can bring donations Monday thru Friday from 9:30 am to 3:30pm.
Any Questions call 541-889-1978
Veterans: Join MVP’s military experiences exposures survey
Join the Million Veteran Program to take the survey today
VA’s Million Veteran Program (MVP) recently launched the Military Experiences and Toxic Exposures Survey to learn more about the ways military experiences and toxic exposures affect health. MVP, VA’s largest research effort, is studying health conditions that matter to Veterans, including mental health, heart health, cancer, tinnitus and more. All Veterans are invited to join MVP and complete the survey.
What does the Military Experiences and Toxic Exposures Survey ask about?
The survey asks questions about:
- Your military service and deployment history.
- Occupation(s) in and out of the military.
- Military job tasks and deployment activities.
- Exposure to toxic or hazardous substances while deployed.
- Exposure to loud sounds.
- Combat experiences.
- Lifestyle and home exposures.
By completing this survey, you can help researchers better understand how to screen for, detect, prevent and treat health conditions associated with military experiences and exposures. This survey is for health research purposes and will not impact your disability benefits or your access to VA health care.
How do I take the Military Experiences and Toxic Exposures Survey?
All Veterans are invited to join the Million Veteran Program and take the survey.
To join MVP today, visit www.mvp.va.gov, click “Sign in” and then “Get started.”
Veterans who are already part of MVP can take the survey using the following steps:
- Visit www.mvp.va.gov and click “Sign in.”
- Choose a secure VA partner to sign in.
- Once you are signed in, select “Surveys” and then “Continue.”
- Click “Toxic Exposures Survey” icon.
- Click “Start the survey.”
Topics in this story
BI-MONTHLY ARTICLES AND A FEW STORIES OF INTEREST
Veteran Articles published Bi-monthly
NATIONAL PARALYZED VETERANS OF AMERICA BIRTHDAY 1/18/2026
JANUARY EVENTS THAT ACTUALLY CHANGED THE WORLD !!!!
The Chairman of Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida, Ronald Verini, writes two articles every month for publication in a Regional Newspaper, this article ."A NEW YEARS COUNTDOWN TO WHAT?"
will be published January 7, 2026 Here is a part of Mr. Verini's article, and you can read the full article by clicking the red bar below.
A New Year’s Countdown to What?
January 7th, 2025 Veterans Column by Ronald Verini
The call I got after my last article (The Ghosts That Sit at My Christmas Table) about suicide didn’t surprise me; it confirmed what I already knew. These words matter because lives are still bleeding quietly. That’s why I leave pieces of my soul on the page. Silence is safer for some people. Truth isn’t. I choose truth.
The room we sat in was crowded with war paraphernalia, but his heart was calm while the torment inside him was anything but. We talked, and more importantly, we listened, really listened. Listening is the core of healing, the difference between being heard and being lost. We walked out of that room better than we entered it. Moments like that remind me that even when I feel worn thin, there is still purpose in this work. Connection, even fragile connection, can steer a life back from the edge.
Every time I see a Quonset hut in our community, I get pulled back in time. Most folks don’t know where the name comes from, or even care. It comes from a town in Rhode Island where they were first built. If you ever end up there, try the clam cakes and johnny-cakes. Veterans know the feeling, how a simple shape, smell, or sound can light up an entire chapter of memory. There are “Boo Coo” triggers that take me right back to my days and nights in ’Nam. Even the phrase “Boo-Coo Dinky Dau” flips a switch, bringing back the chaos, absurdity, and wild corners of that world.
Good moments exist everywhere, even in places soaked in danger. One of mine was befriending a spider in ’Nam. Sounds ridiculous, but it was a companion in a place that offered darn few. Another was a French farming family I knew there. I ate at their table, sardines, fresh vegetables, pickled anything they had, and long loaves of bread. I watched their kids play in the dust and felt, briefly, that the world was bigger than war. I still wonder if they survived or if war swallowed them like so many others.
Flashbacks still hit when I sit down to eat, the colors, the layers of sweet, sour, bitter, salty. Food brought people together even when fire and fear tried to tear us apart. Those memories keep me balanced. They give me something human to cling to in a life shaped by the inhuman. Sometimes a simple smell or taste can soften a day that feels impossibly heavy.
You might ask why I don’t let the bad stuff go, why I won’t just remember the good times or “get over it.” I’ll tell you why: because the world keeps proving every day that it has learned nothing, absolutely nothing. Our nation, and practically every nation, continues marching into wars fueled by lies, propaganda, political ego, and very few righteous reasons, and this is NOT limited to one party. You don’t get over what the world keeps repeating. The dead on all those battlefields cannot cry out for sensibleness, we the living are the ones that have to stand up for them.
“It” doesn’t leave me, because the world won’t leave it alone. Almost every paper, every social feed, and the violent game kids play, are a constant reminder that killing is still entertainment, still policy, still business. Please think about what I just said, killing is entertainment. We talk peace and practice war. Maybe my stories reach one or two people. Maybe one decides not to pick up a weapon. Unrealistic? Maybe. But I’m not quitting. Change doesn’t always roar; sometimes it whispers, and sometimes that whisper is enough.
I started this article talking about listening. So, I’ll ask again: do our leaders listen, really listen? They talk endlessly. They argue endlessly. Their viewpoint is the only one that seems to matter. My hope has been battered, but it isn't dead.
JANUARY EVENTS THAT ACTUALLY CHANGED THE WORLD !!!!
NATIONAL PARALYZED VETERANS OF AMERICA BIRTHDAY 1/18/2026
JANUARY EVENTS THAT ACTUALLY CHANGED THE WORLD !!!!
Major Historical JANUARY Events
New Year's Day - The most celebrated holiday around the world.
January 1, 1502 - Portuguese explorers landed at Guanabara Bay on the coast of South America and named it Rio de Janeiro (River of January). Rio de Janeiro is currently Brazil's second largest city.
January 1, 1892 - Ellis Island in New York Harbor opened. Over 20 million new arrivals to America were processed until its closing in 1954.
January 1, 1999 - Eleven European nations began using a new single European currency, the Euro, for electronic financial and business transactions. Participating countries included; Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
Birthday - Betsy Ross (1752-1836) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was a seamstress credited with helping to originate and sew the Stars and Stripes flag of America in 1776.
January 2, 1905 - The Russians surrendered to the Japanese after the Battle of Port Arthur during the Russian-Japanese War. A peace conference was later held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with President Theodore Roosevelt serving as a mediator. In September of 1905, the Russians agreed to the Treaty of Portsmouth yielding Port Arthur and the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan. Russia also agreed to evacuate Manchuria and recognize Japan's interests in Korea.
January 3, 1924 - British Egyptologist Howard Carter found the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor after several years of searching.
January 3, 1959 - Alaska was admitted as the 49th U.S. state with a land mass almost one-fifth the size of the lower 48 states together.
January 3, 1993 - President George Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the Start-II (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks) Treaty, eliminating about two-thirds of each country's long range nuclear weapons.
January 4, 1790 - President George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address.
January 5, 1972 - President Richard Nixon signed a bill approving $5.5 billion over six years to build and test the NASA space shuttle
January 6, 1941 - President Franklin Roosevelt delivered his State of the Union address to Congress asking for support for the lend-lease program aiding Allies fighting the Axis powers. Roosevelt also defined four essential freedoms worth defending; freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.
January 7, 1782 - The first U.S. commercial bank opened as the Bank of North America in Philadelphia.
January 8, 1798 - The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, preventing lawsuits against a state by anyone from another state or foreign nation
January 8, 1982 - The American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) Company was broken up as a result of an antitrust suit. AT&T gave up 22 local Bell system companies, opening the U.S. telephone system to competition.
January 10, 1776 - Common Sense, a fifty page pamphlet by Thomas Paine, was published. It sold over 500,000 copies in America and Europe, influencing, among others, the authors of the Declaration of Independence.
anuary 10, 1878 - An Amendment granting women the right to vote was introduced in Congress by Senator A.A. Sargent of California. The amendment didn't pass until 1920, forty-two years later.
January 10, 1946 - The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly took place in London with delegates from 51 countries. The U.N. superseded its predecessor, the League of Nations.
NATIONAL PARALYZED VETERANS OF AMERICA BIRTHDAY 1/18/2026
NATIONAL PARALYZED VETERANS OF AMERICA BIRTHDAY 1/18/2026
Paralyzed Veterans of America was founded by a group of service members who returned home from World War II in 1946 with spinal cord injuries and few to no solutions to the major challenges they faced.
Unable to comfortably live in their homes or get around by public transportation, they found barriers to independence everywhere. On a mission to improve accessibility for themselves, their fellow paralyzed Veterans, and all people with disabilities, these Veterans joined together to form PVA. Today, more than 75 years later, PVA remains a major support system for our nation’s paralyzed and disabled heroes. Join us in celebrating our history, and the accomplishments to come!
The problem
Thousands of service members and Veterans sustain spinal cord injuries every year, resulting in a loss of motor skills and/or sensory function. Countless more are currently living with paralysis – more than five million according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center. These disabled Veterans face many challenges in life, whether in accessing public places or securing the benefits they earned from their service. For Veterans with spinal cord injuries, the challenges run even deeper. Many spinal cord injuries and diseases are not well understood and prevent paralyzed Veterans from participating in many aspects of American life.
Our solution
We offer a unique support system for our nation’s disabled Veterans:
- We are loyal to our Veterans. PVA meets Veterans at their hospital bedside at the moment of their injury or diagnosis and sticks by their side throughout their entire life.
- We bring special expertise to the table. Since PVA is run by paralyzed Veterans, we have a deep understanding of the issues our members face. We know how to work with Veterans who face debilitating diseases, such as MS and ALS. We also have a team of highly trained legislative advocates, architects, medical professionals, lawyers, and other professionals that work hard to ensure every Veteran regains the quality of life they fought for.
- We push for meaningful reform. PVA goes beyond helping individual Veterans and works to change the sociopolitical system through lawmaking. Since our founding in 1946, we have helped pass some of the nation’s greatest legislation, including the ADA.
- We lead the nation in a search for a cure. Through PVA’s Research and Education Foundations, PVA focuses on exploring treatments and finding a cure for SCI/D. We have supported valuable research that’s made a tremendous impact on Veterans’ care, including new approaches to the treatment of chronic pain.
How we work
We help paralyzed and disabled Veterans live their life to the fullest through a variety of programs.
Veterans can access these programs at the national level and through one of 33 PVA Chapter offices across the country. See all of our locations here.
Want to learn more about our programs and how we fund them? Check our annual report.
The Next 75
So much has changed since our founding in 1946. Today, paralyzed Veterans have civil rights that permit them access to public spaces, adaptive sports, and career opportunities. But there is still much more work to be done. Among some of our big initiatives in the coming years, will be:
THE TOILET PAPER WAR...... A submariner’s battle against bureaucracy
By Claire Barrett - MilitaryTimes
For most of recorded history, more men have died from disease in some faraway field than from an enemy bullet.
“Diseases,” writes historian John A. Haymond, “particularly those of the insect-borne or water-specific types, have been responsible for untold millions of deaths in militaries across the millennia. Ironically, armies ravaged by disease have usually carried the seeds of their destruction with them in the form of poor field sanitation habits. After all, a sufficiently provisioned army of 10,000 men could produce about four tons of fecal waste every day.”
On June 11, 1942, disease, and perhaps an increasing desire not to use one’s own hand to wipe one’s nether regions, drove Lt. Cmdr. James Coe of the submarine Skipjack to send an “urgent” message to the powers that be.
Since July 1, 1941, a requisition had been submitted for 150 rolls of toilet paper to replenish the dwindling supply aboard the Skipjack. However, as the boat patrolled the Pacific, no sign of the all-important bathroom item appeared — even as other war materiel came in.
In March 1942, according to the National WWII Museum, Coe took command of the Skipjack and learned of the dire, and no doubt malodorous, situation. To make matters worse, Coe received a canceled invoice for the TP alongside a stamped July 1941 message stating “cancelled-cannot identify.”
In response to this bureaucratic fumble, Coe issued a letter to the supply officer in Mare Island, California. His tongue-in-cheek rejoinder would become the stuff of legends within the Navy.
USS SKIPJACK
June 11, 1942
From: Commanding Officer To: Supply Officer, Navy Yard, Mare Island, California Via: Commander Submarines, Southwest Pacific
Subject: Toilet Paper
Reference: (a) USS HOLLAND (5148) USS Skipjack req. 70-42 of 30 July 1941. (b) SO NYMI Canceled invoice No. 272836
Enclosure: (1) Copy of cancelled Invoice (2) Sample of material requested.
1. This vessel submitted a requisition for 150 rolls of toilet paper on July 30, 1941, to USS HOLLAND. The material was ordered by HOLLAND from the Supply Officer, Navy Yard, Mare Island, for delivery to USS Skipjack.
This sailor requested leave to get his wife pregnant. It was approved.
Observation Post by Claire Barrett
Like a lion stalking its prey across the Serengeti, so too does a Jody hunt — lurking in the night, ever vigilant in hopes of hearing that one magic word: “Deployment.”
So, how does one stop an insatiable Jody in his tracks? For one seaman, the solution was simple: Beat out the competition by simply being there.
On July 20, 1967, Petty Officer 1st Class David Jarvis Anderson submitted an unusual special leave request. His plea was simple.
“My wife is planning on getting pregnant this weekend,” he wrote, “and I would sure like to be there when it happens.”
Anderson’s tongue-in-cheek entreaty seemed to have worked. It was, after all, the Summer of Love.
While requests for special liberty can often reduce a poor service member to a desperate husk of a man, in 1967, it appears that the powers that be were a little more forgiving — allowing for Anderson to enjoy shore leave in the right port during a particularly crucial tide.
In traveling the seven-plus hours from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the coal mining town of Layland, West Virginia, the sailor thwarted all would-be Jody’s in the area upon his arrival home.
No word was readily available, however, on whether the pair’s weekend’s festivities produced the desired result.
Food Boxed at Veteran Advocates Food Pantry to hand out to Veterans/Military and their Families
JANUARY 2026
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.
The Vietnam Veterans Who Fought for Modern PTSD Treatments
by Brandon Wile, Military.com - 01/01/2026
When the last American combat troops left Vietnam in January 1973, over 700,000 veterans needed psychological treatment for what no one knew how to diagnose. The VA couldn't help them because officially, their condition didn't exist.
Nightmares, flashbacks, rage, emotional numbness. Veterans knew something was wrong. VA psychiatrists called it depression or schizophrenia. Treatment rarely worked because doctors were treating the wrong things.
The psychiatric establishment had a term for combat trauma as early as 1952, when "gross stress reaction" appeared in the first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. By 1968, when the DSM was revised during peak Vietnam combat operations, that diagnosis vanished without explanation. Veterans coming home had nowhere to turn.
Veterans Built Their Own System
Without official recognition or treatment, Vietnam veterans created their own support networks. Groups such as Twice-Born Men formed for veterans leaving prison. Others met informally, what psychiatrist Robert Lifton called "street corner psychiatry." Veterans helped veterans because no one else would.
They demanded answers. Why were so many veterans homeless, unemployed or addicted? Why did symptoms that started in Vietnam follow them for years? The VA denied disability claims for psychological conditions because no combat-related diagnosis existed in the manual.
Advocates pushed back. Veterans testified before Congress. Researchers studied returning soldiers. Psychiatrists who worked with survivors of the Holocaust, rape victims and combat veterans saw the same patterns. Trauma didn't discriminate by source
The pressure mounted through the 1970s. Veterans organizations lobbied the American Psychiatric Association. Clinicians like Chaim Shatan wrote about "post-Vietnam syndrome" in The New York Times. The psychiatric community couldn't ignore 2.7 million veterans anymore
In 1980, Changed Everything
Five years after the war ended, the American Psychiatric Association added post-traumatic stress disorder to DSM-III. The diagnosis finally gave veterans' suffering a name and treatment pathway. More importantly, it shifted blame from individual weakness to external trauma.
PTSD was the first psychiatric diagnosis to identify the cause as outside the person rather than an inherent flaw. That distinction mattered. Veterans weren't broken. They'd experienced events outside normal human experience and reacted normally to abnormal circumstances.
Congress ordered the VA to study PTSD prevalence in 1983. The National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study found that 15% of Vietnam veterans had PTSD. A follow-up study decades later showed 11% of male theater veterans and 7% of female theater veterans still struggled with PTSD 40 years after the war.
The PTSD diagnosis opened doors. The VA developed specialized treatment programs. Research into trauma-focused therapies began. Veterans could file disability claims for a condition the VA finally recognized. But recognition came too late for thousands who'd suffered without help for years
Congress Redrew Military, VA Benefits in 2025.
The Changes Are Massive.
Military.com | By Darius RadziusPublished December 29, 2025 at 6:30am EDT
U.S. Congress quietly rewrote the rules for military service, veterans’ benefits and troop transitions in 2025, forcing legislative changes on everything from tuition bills, foreclosure protections and toxic exposure records.
Between January and late December, Congress passed 14 laws reshaping military and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits in accordance to rising costs, ongoing deployments, and pressure from veterans’ groups. The laws take effect on staggered timelines into the new years, occurring with less fanfare and without the political theater that derailed previous bigger congressional battles over issues like immigration.
The lawful measures range from automatic increases for disability and survivor benefits; in-state tuition for Selected Reserve students to new foreclosure protections; repayment guarantees for stolen benefits; and required separation counseling for troops leaving the force. Several also fold in wildfire aircraft transfers, clinic construction, and major changes to tax and border spending.
Paychecks, Pensions and Tuition Shifts in 2026
Many of the changes are economically related and will impact the following:
- Under legislation known as the Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2025, cost-of-living increases for disability and survivor benefits will now automatically match Social Security every year without separate votes. That change began Dec. 1 and stops benefits from lagging behind inflation.
- Beginning Aug. 1, 2026, under the MGIB-SR Tuition Fairness Act, Reservists using the Montgomery GI Bill Selected Reserve will qualify for in-state tuition at public colleges Schools that refuse will be at risk of losing VA approval to accept military education benefits.
- Life insurance coverage under Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance and Veterans’ Group Life Insurance must now be reviewed every five years and adjusted based on consumer price index data. That review cycle prevents coverage from lagging behind real-world housing and medical costs.
- Medal of Honor pensions will now track VA disability tables instead of a flat rate that trailed inflation.
- Payment tiers for Selected Reserve education benefits vary by enrollment status and training load, with monthly stipends adjusted annually to reflect housing and tuition shifts.
VA Can Step in Before Foreclosure
The VA now has the authority to buy a percentage of a delinquent mortgage and transfer that debt into a VA-managed loan, according to the Veterans Housing Protection Act.
The “partial claim” can cover up to 30% of unpaid principal for veterans who fell behind on payments between March 1, 2020, and May 1, 2025.
The law requires oversight audits to track how many veterans use partial claims, how many re-default, and what the cost is to taxpayers. Lenders cannot use the authority to inflate VA liability or accelerate foreclosure timelines. Lawmakers said the program acts as a post-pandemic bridge after temporary mortgage relief programs expired and filings increased.
Accessible housing grants, veteran transportation for medical appointments, and assistive technology programs were extended through Fiscal Year 2026 to prevent benefit gaps as the policy rolls out.
Less Room to Fail
Quarterly budget briefings to Congress are now mandatory under the PRO Vets Act—a law that demands disclosures before hiring freezes or appointment delays hit veterans. It also restricts executive bonuses until performance benchmarks improve.
Under the Veterans’ Fiduciary Fraud Reimbursement Act, victims of fiduciaries who steal benefits will now see VA repay stolen money in full. Repayment applies even if the veteran dies before the theft is discovered. VA must pursue the perpetrator, not surviving families
More than 3,100 fiduciary fraud complaints sat unresolved last year, according to House Veterans Affairs Committee staff estimates.
Disability pay and cost-of-living adjustments follow tiered rating levels, medical evidence standards, and annual indexing that determines monthly compensation amounts.
No Walking Off Base Anymore
New separation rules in the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act require in-person counseling when possible, including financial planning instruction, debt management resources, medical record transfers and VA claims basics. Commands must prove compliance rather than treat transition counseling as optional.
About 200,000 service members separate each year, according to Department of Defense transition data. Missed paperwork deadlines, missing service treatment records and lost toxic exposure documentation routinely delay disability claims or wipe out GI Bill eligibility.
The law also orders DOD and VA to integrate toxic exposure records and service treatment files into a joint framework to stop evidence from disappearing in disconnected systems.
Another provision allows the transfer of surplus military aircraft to state wildfire fleets, linking aging platforms to climate-driven emergencies without new procurement.
The Legislation Behind the Changes
- H.R. 1 — 2025 Consolidated Budget and Policy Reconciliation Act: Tax, border and defense spending package; Indo-Pacific posture; CBP workforce; shipbuilding funds; debt limit.
- S. 160 — Aerial Firefighting Enhancement Act: Allows DoD aircraft transfers to states for wildfire missions.
- S. 2392 — Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act: Ties VA benefits to Social Security COLA.
- H.R. 2170 — VA Health Infrastructure Modernization Act: Repairs and expands VA clinics; electronic record modernization.
- H.R. 1968 — Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act: Funds government at FY24 levels through Sept. 30; sustains VA and DoD operations.
- S. 5 — Military Unit Heritage Protection Act: Protects lineage and heraldry of historic U.S. military units.
- H.R. 695 — Medal of Honor Pension Adjustment: Aligns pensions to VA disability tables.
- H.R. 983 — MGIB-SR Tuition Fairness Act: In-state tuition for reservists.
- H.R. 970 — SGLI/VGLI Inflation Guard: CPI-based coverage reviews.
- H.R. 1815 — Veterans Housing Protection Act: VA partial mortgage claims.
- H.R. 1912 — Veterans’ Fiduciary Fraud Reimbursement Act: VA must repay stolen benefits.
- H.R. 5371 — FY25 Defense and VA Appropriations Act: Funds benefits, readiness, housing and shipbuilding.
- S. 423 — PRO Vets Act: Quarterly budget reporting; bonus limits.
- S. 1071 — NDAA FY26: Transition overhaul; records integration; wildfire aircraft rules
CURRENT IDEAS ABOUT THE USE OF KETAMINE ON PTSD FLASHBACKS
Search Assist
Recent studies suggest that ketamine may be effective in treating PTSD, particularly when combined with psychotherapy. Research indicates that ketamine can enhance the extinction of traumatic memories and improve symptoms more rapidly than traditional therapies.
bbrfoundation.org
Yale Medicine
Overview of Ketamine in PTSD Treatment
Ketamine is being explored as a treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) due to its rapid effects on mood and anxiety. It is an NMDA receptor antagonist that can induce changes in brain connectivity, potentially enhancing therapeutic outcomes when combined with psychotherapy.
Mechanism of Action
How Ketamine Works
- Memory Reconsolidation: Ketamine may help modify traumatic memories during their recall, making them less distressing.
- Neuroplasticity: It is believed to temporarily increase the brain's ability to rewire itself, which can aid in the therapeutic process.
Treatment Approaches
Combined Therapies
- Ketamine Infusions: Administered in low doses, ketamine can be combined with exposure therapy to enhance treatment effectiveness.
- Intensive Therapy Programs: Some studies involve a 7-day treatment combining ketamine infusions with trauma-focused psychotherapy, aiming for significant symptom relief.
Study Findings
- Pilot Studies: Research indicates that a single ketamine infusion may enhance the extinction of traumatic memories, improving outcomes for PTSD patients.
- Long-term Effects: While initial results are promising, further studies are needed to understand the long-term benefits and safety of ketamine in PTSD treatment.
Eligibility and Considerations
Who Can Participate
- Age Range: Typically, participants are between 21 and 70 years old.
- Exclusion Criteria: Individuals with certain psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia or severe personality disorders, are generally excluded from studies.
Ketamine represents a novel approach to treating PTSD, with ongoing research aimed at confirming its efficacy and safety in clinical settings.
THERE ARE MANY ARTICLES ABOUT THIS TYPE OF TREATMENT FOR PTSD. SUGGEST YOU GOOGLE "KETAMINE THERAPY FOR PTSD" TO READ ALL THE RESEARCH AND TESTING NOW HAPPENING.
US Air Force Veteran & 1st to be deemed "Red Tag Bastards"
Robert “Bob” Felts was born in Montgomery, Alabama, in August 1939. After school, he attended the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he boxed, played rugby, and held positions as an honor representative and squadron commander. He graduated in 1962—the fourth graduating class at the Academy and the first to be deemed the “Red Tag Bastards.”
Felts attended pilot training at Craig Air Force Base, Alabama, followed by KC-135A training. His first base was Bergstrom Air Force Base, Texas, in 1964, followed by a move to Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire, in 1966, where he served four years as copilot and aircraft commander, logging over 800 combat hours during various TDYs in Vietnam.
In 1970, Felts became one of the first tanker pilots to fly the FB-111A. In 1975, he received an Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) assignment to Louisiana Tech University for an MBA in Computer Applications.
After graduating, Felts served as chief, Computer Weapons Systems Division at HQ Tactical Air Command, at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. He later supervised the F-15 Air Combat Maneuver Instrumentation (ACMI) combat simulator and was chief, Ops Plans Division for the 1st Fighter Wing, also at Langley.
In 1980, Felts completed air refueling training and served in air mobility at Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma, as chief, Aircrew Scheduling Division. There, he flew more than 3,200 hours and on over 250 alert tours.
Felts retired in 1982, relocating with his family to Sacramento, California. Post-retirement, he worked at McClellan AFB, in Sacramento, on the FB-111A Avionics Modernization Program. He also worked with computers at Sacramento’s American River College, and spent several years as business manager for his wife Margaret’s environmental company.
He hung up his “work hat” in 1998, spending his time jogging, riding his bicycle, driving fast, and sailing his boat, Misty, in the San Francisco Bay.
Bob Felts died peacefully at his home in Colorado on July 31, 2025, just hours before his 86th birthday. He will be interred at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
We honor his service.
The Navy’s railgun may be back from the dead — for now
JEFF SCHOGOL Task & Purpose
PUBLISHED DEC 23, 2025
President Donald Trump’s recent announcement that the Navy will build “battleships” again was not the only blast from the past. If they are ever built, the ships would each feature an electromagnetic railgun, even though the Navy paused the program four years ago.
Railguns use electricity to create a magnetic field to launch a projectile at up to 5,600 miles per hour, or more than seven times the speed of sound. Unlike traditional artillery, they do not require chemical propellants such as gunpowder to fire rounds.
On Monday, Trump announced that the Navy would build between 20 and 25 of a new class of ships as part of his “Golden Fleet” shipbuilding effort, and that each vessel would bristle with a variety of armaments including “state-of-the-art electric railguns.”
The Navy also released a mock-up of the first vessel in the new battleship class, which shows the surface combatant is expected to have a 32 megajoule railgun on the bow of the ship. A railgun with that much power could fire a projectile more than 100 nautical miles, according to the Office of Naval Research.
However miraculous the railgun’s capabilities might sound, the Navy has never been able to integrate railguns into the fleet and in July 2021, the service announced it was hitting the pause button on the program to make funding available for other weapons systems, such as hypersonic missiles and directed energy weapons.
One can be forgiven for thinking that was the end of the railgun altogether, but reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated
Although the Navy pushed pause on its efforts to put railguns on ships back in 2021, it has continued research into the weapon system itself, including its projectile, said Michael Fabey, a naval analyst with Janes, an open-source defense intelligence provider.
The Navy did not provide a comment for this story.
The railgun may have been resurrected, but some significant technical issues would need to be worked out before it can become a viable weapon for Navy ships.
One such issue is how to generate enough power for railguns, said retired Navy Capt. Bradley Martin, a senior policy researcher with the RAND Corporation.
“What might make the railgun feasible for the battleship as conceived is that the ship is large and is expected to have the electrical power generation capacity to meet railgun demands,” Martin told Task & Purpose.
Another challenge would be finding a way to build a launching system that can withstand the heat and recoil of firing a projectile, he said. Solving that problem would likely require technological advances that would have to be made as part of the new battleship’s design and construction.
But President Trump said on Monday that he expects the Navy to produce the first two ships in about two-and-a-half years, and that’s not a lot of time to overcome any of the inherent challenges of building a new ship design. The USS Gerald R. Ford, America’s newest aircraft carrier, took eight years to build and then faced several technical challenges afterwards, and the ship didn’t make its first deployment in 2022 — more than five years after it was commissioned.
Evolution of military tattoos, Sailor Jerry to skull logos
The Global War on Terror and the age of the Punisher skull
After 9/11, the military saw a dramatic spike in tattoo culture. For many post-9/11 veterans, ink became both a cathartic outlet and a way to memorialize fallen comrades. Dog tags, battlefield crosses, KIA dates and American flags — often inked across the chest, ribs, or forearms — became some of the most common images.
One symbol rose to near mythic prominence during this period: the Punisher skull.
Originally a comic book antihero created by Marvel in 1974, the Punisher’s white skull logo was adopted by many military units during deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Special operations units were particularly fond of it, using it as a symbol of aggression and dominance.
The skull’s popularity eventually spread to conventional forces and law enforcement — and not without controversy. Even the character’s co-creator, Gerry Conway, has criticized its use. In a 2019 interview with SYFY Wire, Conway said: “The Punisher is a vigilante who shouldn’t be held up as a role model. Using his symbol as a military emblem or a police symbol is completely antithetical to the character’s purpose.”
Ritch Green, one of five tattoo artists brought to U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay
From taboo to tradition
It wasn’t long ago that tattoos could disqualify someone from joining the military. But now, they’re so ubiquitous that even generals sport them, albeit carefully hidden. The Navy, which once banned visible tattoos above the collar, now permits neck tattoos and full sleeves, as long as they don’t contain offensive content.
Tattoo parlors have popped up near every major base, and entire deployments have been marked with group tattoos — a modern-day version of a class ring or a battle streamer.
While tastes have evolved (we’ve moved past barbed wire and tribal suns, mostly), the desire remains the same: to mark a moment, remember a comrade or show the world you were there.
Because in the military, you earn your scars. Sometimes on the battlefield. Sometimes in the tattoo chair.
COPING WITH PTSD: THREE STORIES OF TRIUMPH
Andy Reynolds is an Army Veteran who found himself struggling with anger and other PTSD side effects as a civilian. In the Army, he worked as a Buffalo Commander whose mission was to find IEDs.
“We were fortunate enough as a battalion that everybody made it home, but nobody was the same after that deployment. I mean we got our butts kicked. I was hit by an IED while I was over there, and I had a concussion from it.”
Migraines, anger fits, and gastrointestinal issues were just some of the symptoms he faced after returning from his second Deployment.
“Every time we’d go out and it was crowded, I’d wind up trying to fight somebody. It wasn’t good.”
Andy’s wife got him help at the VA, he found a therapist, and he got involved with Project Odyssey, a retreat offered by the Wounded Warrior Project where Andy took home valuable lessons on how to deal with PTSD. During a goal-setting session, he decided he would rewrite his business plan to start a brewery – a passion he found while Deployed.
“I kind of started home brewing in Iraq as bad as that sounds. It was just making hard cider, my buddy’s wife sent us some cider yeast and we started fermenting apple juice, and that turned into a love of brewing for me. I got home, became a homebrewer, and really got into it. It was one of the few things that I found that distracted me from my demons, but it was something I couldn’t do all the time because I had a regular job at that point. My goal was to start a brewery, but the money we had set aside for it, unfortunately, all went to healthcare bills because I wasn’t service-connected. I didn’t know anything about how to work with the VA at that point because it was never properly explained to me. So I lost a lot of my money. But, through the Wounded Warrior Project, I learned about the VOC Rehab program, it’s a chapter of the GI Bill now. Basically, if you’re service-connected disabled over 20% they pay for any kind of school you want to go to. There is some counseling that goes along with it prior to you leaving things you kind of have to do to try to figure out where you should really be going to school. So I connected there and I went to Siebel Institute of Technology, which is the oldest and probably the most renowned brewing school in the United States. It’s in Chicago. And you know, I learned how to become a professional brewer because of the VA.”
Alexandria Brewing Company is in Alexandria, Kentucky, and has won multiple awards for its beer. They are also a 2024 Hops for Heroes brewery! Here’s the Tribute to our Heroes interview we did with Andy if you want to hear his full story.
CLICK ON THE RED BAR TO READ THE OTHER PTSD RECOVERY STORIES.......
SOME OF THESE STORIES MIGHT CATCH YOUR ATTENTION...
Why troops secretly relate to SpongeBob’s ‘I’m a Goofy Goober’ spiral
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.
When the military tried to give soldiers personal flying platforms
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.
That time the US military burned down one of its own bases with a ‘bat bomb’
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.
Tips to achieve the ultimate dirty Navy-style coffee mug
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.
VA's updated list of Agent Orange sites outside of Vietnam
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
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.
Some Stories that Inspire, and have 'Positive Energy'
U.S. military’s longest-serving woman 4-star general retires from Air Force
U.S. military’s longest-serving woman 4-star general retires from Air Force
U.S. military’s longest-serving woman 4-star general retires from Air Force
by Patty Nieberg, Task & Purpose
The first woman to lead the U.S. military’s massive logistical enterprise and one of just a handful to ever reach the rank of four-star general in the U.S. military retired Friday. Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost passed command of U.S. Transportation Command to Gen. Randall Reed in a ceremony at Scott Air Force Base attended by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Promoted to General in August of 2020, Van Ovost was the senior officer in that rank among the four women four-star generals and admirals across the U.S. military.
As the head of TRANSCOM, Ovost was responsible for coordinating nearly all movement of U.S. troops, weapons and supplies around the globe. The logistics command dispatches hundreds of military and civilian-owned planes, ships, trains and trucks every day.
“Just a few days ago, we celebrated the 37th birthday of TRANSCOM — a command that was born out of necessity that was built to deploy U.S. forces. Over time, our mandate has expanded to project, maneuver and sustain the joint force at a time and place our nation’s choosing,” Van Ovost said at the change of command ceremony. “If we were a necessity, we are indispensable now.”
At the ceremony, Austin spoke of Van Ovost as a trailblazer for women in the service.
“You’ve always had a message for women in uniform. And that message is: ‘Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it,’” Austin said. ”Every time that you encountered an obstacle, you kept at it.“
CBS News reported in 2023 that only 10 women have ever reached the four-star rank across the military, including the Coast Guard. Of those, Van Ovost was the fifth woman in the Air Force to reach the rank. However, the military she retired from Friday holds far more opportunities for women than when she joined, an era when women not yet allowed to fly fighter jets, Van Ovost’s lifelong goal.
So she found a workaround.
“You wanted to fly Mach 2. But back then, women weren’t allowed to fly fighters. So once again, you made the path wider,” Austin said. “You became a test pilot. And you flew more than 30 aircraft, including F-15s and F-16s.”
Van Ovost retired with more than 4,200 flight hours in more than 30 aircraft.
100 Marines showed up for an Iwo Jima veteran’s 100th Birthday
U.S. military’s longest-serving woman 4-star general retires from Air Force
U.S. military’s longest-serving woman 4-star general retires from Air Force
by Matt White - Task & Purpose
Eddie Vincek landed on Iwo Jima about an hour after the first wave of Marines hit the beach. A member of 1st Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, it was his first taste of combat, he told an interviewer with his Veterans of Foreign Wars post.
“Working on a dairy farm,” he told the VFW, “I was used to seeing animal blood, but not human blood covering over the ground.”
On Sept. 29, Vincek celebrated his 100th birthday at a Ruritan Club in Chesapeake, Virginia, where he was a farmer for most of his life after leaving the Marine Corps in 1946.
For the party, 100 active-duty Marines showed up to help him celebrate. The Marines came from Training Company, Marine Corps Security Force Regiment, in Yorktown, Virginia, about an hour from Chesapeake.
The Marines stood in formation to sing Happy Birthday for “Corporal Vincek.”
On Feb. 19, 1945, Vincek was assigned to A Company, 1st Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division for the Iwo Jima landing. In fierce fighting, the 28th Regiment was the only Marine unit to reach its objective for the day at the base of Mount Suribachi.
It was also Marines from the 28th Regiment — though not Vincek’s battalion — who first planted a flag on top of the mountain (and a second one the next day), leading to the iconic photograph and design of the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial.
Two men from Vincek’s 1st Battalion were awarded the Medal of Honor at Iwo Jima. Of the battalion’s 22 officers, only two emerged from the battle uninjured.
“I was one of the few that walked off carrying my own gear,” Vincek told the VFW. “So many others had been killed or wounded and weren’t able to carry their own gear off the island.”
We found 4 bottles of whiskey made by airborne paratroopers
U.S. military’s longest-serving woman 4-star general retires from Air Force
The origin of the military’s iconic mantra: ‘Embrace the suck’
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.
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