Despite being prevalent in many veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, traumatic brain injuries (TBI) can often go unnoticed. The symptoms are sometimes hard to notice and the condition may not get enough attention, but there is a growing push to construct nine medical centers across the country dedicated to treating TBI, according to Military.com.
The effort is part of the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which hopes to raise enough money to bring the planned centers to fruition. They will be modeled after Walter Reed's National Intrepid Center of Excellence, which is designed to rehabilitate soldiers with brain injuries. According to the website, the fund's manager, David Winters, says the goal is to bring in about $100 million. In fact, there have already been groundbreaking ceremonies for centers at Virginia's Camp Lejeune and Fort Belvoir.
"Building the center here will enable us to provide localized advanced research and care for our Marines and sailors suffering from post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury and other related afflictions," Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford said at Camp Lejeune recently.
Though there are no concrete figures, most experts estimate that as many as 20 percent of the most recent veterans have some form of TBI, according to the Brain Trauma Foundation.
Military families face a number of challenges, but those obstacles can be especially difficult during the holiday season. It's certainly tough spending the season worrying about financial obligations and other concerns common to troops, but Operation Homefront is once again aiming to make things a little easier.
The organization, which provides emergency financial assistance to military families, recently announced that it will be launching its Holiday Meals for Military Program for the fourth time. The initiative aimed to provide military families with all the supplies necessary to celebrate the holiday season without having to worry about costs.
"Military families are not only dealing with the effects of war, but also the current economic difficulties," said Jim Knotts, president and CEO of Operation Homefront. "So often these families are split up during the holiday season from deployments. This year, let's help them bring the celebration home, and show that we are thankful for the sacrifices that they have made for our country."
Organization officials hope to provide families with 5,200 meal kits, which include all the necessary grocery items for a holiday feast. The groceries will be distributed to 17 bases across the country during December.
A day after Hurricane Sandy thrashed New York City and the New Jersey coastline, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo praised local first responders for their work in helping save lives. With a record storm surge and significant flooding throughout parts of the city, Cuomo says the loss of life could have been significantly greater, according to The Associated Press.
Hurricane Sandy, a so-called "superstorm," created sights that haven't been seen in New York City in decades, if ever. Battery Park in lower Manhattan was almost completely inundated with water, while the hurricane flooded much of the city's subway system. Additionally, a raging fire in Queens destroyed at least 80 houses while millions were left without power.
Despite the challenging conditions, New York's firefighters, police officers and emergency personnel were quick to respond. By the middle of Monday, officials said at least 10 people in the city had been killed but it could have been much worse.
"That number would be much, much larger if it were not for the truly historic and courageous activities of our first responders all across the state," Cuomo told reporters, according to the AP.
While it is still early to tell, the financial toll of Hurricane Sandy could top out at approximately $20 billion, some experts estimate, according to Bloomberg.
Safely training soldiers to handle real-world combat scenarios can be difficult. However, troops at Kansas' Fort Leavenworth recently began using an innovative training method that can safely provide them with the skills necessary to be successful in the battlefield, The Associated Press reports.
The troops recently began using the Dismounted Soldier Training System, which provides them with a virtual reality in a helmet-mounted screen. The technology puts soldiers face-to-face with a variety of situations and allows trainees to communicate with each other on the battlefield. The training is unique in that it is one of the first that allows soldiers to use virtual reality training while on foot. The more realistic program can help troops in the long run, experts say.
"You don't want to fly on a commercial airliner where your pilot hasn't logged thousands of hours on a flight simulator," Dan Miller, a virtual training expert and military analyst, told the AP.
The new training system underscores the evolving role that technology is playing for both active duty troops and veterans. For instance, a 2011 study found that one video game in particular – Snow World – helped ease the pain in wounded troops, according to NBC News.
A number of programs have helped veterans land jobs after separating from service, but for injured soldiers who cannot leave their home, such advancements were of little assistance. However, thanks to new technology and an initiative championed by Pearl Interactive Network (PIN), wounded warriors are able to head back to the workforce, Stars and Stripes reports.
The growing trend has seen companies employing veterans as administrative assistants, which allows them to handle duties such as scheduling, managing paperwork and other human resources tasks, even if they live hundreds of miles away from the company. Merry Korn, who was behind one such project, says the hired veterans have been well-received by companies thus far.
"They expect to get people who will excel, people who are highly motivated and can deal with complicated interactions," she told the publication. "But companies want to hire these veterans. They know there are skilled and talented disabled veterans out there."
Allowing wounded soldiers to telecommute could prove to be another step in helping lower the rate of unemployment among post-9/11 veterans. Though the rate has been on the way down, the 9.7 percent figure is still higher than the general population.
As Hurricane Sandy bears down on the Northeast, the National Guard of states up and down the coast began to leap into action. Guardsmen from Virginia all the way up through New York were activated as they brace for the high winds and expected flooding, reports The Associated Press.
In Pennsylvania, where the storm is expected to hit especially hard, 750 Guardsmen have been activated, and government officials expect to have a total of 1,600 troops placed on active duty in an effort to assist with the expected cleanup and recovery. Forecasters have predicted that some parts of the state could see up to 10 inches of rain accompanied by wind gusts up to 75 miles per hour.
The situation was even more serious in New York, where Governor Andrew Cuomo activated 1,000 National Guardsmen to help respond to the storm surge that is expected to be at near-historic levels. However, Cuomo is confident that the Empire State can respond effectively thanks to the fact that last year's Hurricane Irene prepared them, according to the AP.
While the situation in the Northeast isn't supposed to be at its worst until Monday night into Tuesday morning, the Armed Forces have already played a big role. On Monday, the Coast Guard came to the rescue of the crew of the tall ship the HMS Bounty when the hurricane forced them to abandon ship off the coast of North Carolina, according to The Associated Press.
In a recent briefing at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta revealed his top four priorities for Congress in the coming months. He wants legislators to focus on passing Pentagon policy and appropriations bills, cybersecurity laws and confirming generals. However, above all else he called on Congress to avoid the deep spending cuts slated to take place on January 2, reports Army Times.
Averting the cuts, known as sequestration, has been a priority for Panetta all year, and in his remarks he highlighted the closing window Congress has to reach a budget deal. Lawmakers are currently on recess until the November 6 elections, and then they only have until the end of the year.
"There are only 70 days until that happens and Congress is certainly on the clock when it comes to that potential sequestration occurring," Panetta told reporters.
While sequestration gets a great deal of the attention, Panetta has also raised concerns when it comes the cybersecurity capabilities of the United States. Earlier in October, he stressed the importance of new, aggressive policy toward cyber attacks, reports Army Times.
The fiscal cliff, the name assigned to a number of potentially damaging financial ramifications should Congress not reach a budget deal, has many members of the military concerned. However, it is not just soldiers and top officials who are worried. Defense contractors are worried as well, according to The Washington Post.
Three of the nation's largest contractors say that, while they have had relatively successful years so far, the threat of sequestration – across the board budget cuts to the military – has raised some issues over the stability of their programs. Wes Bush, chairman and chief executive of Northrop Grumman, said sequestration could mean fewer, and shorter, contracts. It could also take time for the government to figure out the impact of the cuts.
"Just the pure mechanics of that process would be daunting," Bush told the newspaper.
Despite the threat of the fiscal cliff, lawmakers, along with President Barack Obama, are confident that the drastic spending cuts can be avoided. However, if they can't, the military could see about $500 billion in additional slashes over the next 10 years.
Some soldiers who head to college after leaving the Armed Forces help defray the costs by working part-time at the Veterans Administration (VA). However, a growing number of them are becoming frustrated due to late payments that can make it difficult for them to manage their expenses, The Associated Press reports.
The paychecks, which usually are for about $360, are part of the VA's work study program, which lets veterans work for about 25 hours a week if they're going to school full-time or three-quarters time. Though a helpful program, a pair of vets found that nearly half of VA work-study students said it takes between two-to-four weeks for them to get their check, while 13 percent said it takes more than a month. Advocates say the VA needs to a better job of getting vets their payment.
"It shouldn't fall on the backs of the student veterans," Cheyne Worley, who works at a Kansas VA office. "They've done their duty."
The need for timely pay may become especially great in the coming months and years, as many of the 1.4 million veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan separate from service and head back to school using the post-9/11 GI Bill.
Separating from military services is not always easy, but it is especially difficult when troops have to worry about finding a job upon entering civilian life. The process may become a bit smoother in the coming months, as the transition assistance program becomes mandatory starting in late November, according to Stars and Stripes reports.
The changes to the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) are the first such revisions in nearly two decades. In fact, the Air Force has already begun offering the revised program, which places a greater emphasis on things like career building and budget planning.
"The goal is to bring unemployment rates down and to ensure servicemembers are better prepared to find employment when they leave the services," Peggy Rayfield, Air Force Personnel Center chief of transition assistance operations, told the publication.
The new TAP programs came out of a panel mandated by President Barack Obama in the summer of 2011, with the goal of finding ways to better help soldiers transition to civilian life. The need is especially great now, as more than 300,000 troops are expected to separate from service annually over the next four years.