The mental health of soldiers is one of the biggest issues facing the military, and at the heart of the matter is suicide, which has historically been a problem in the Armed Forces. In an effort to better understand the issue, the University of Kentucky is launching a large study investigating the impact military suicides have on friends and family members, The Associated Press reports.

The research comes at a time when suicide among servicemembers is increasing. The Department of Defense says 154 active duty members committed suicide in the first half of 2012, an 18 percent increase compared to 2011. Doctors and families alike hope the results will not only shed light on the causes of suicide, but also spur further conversation on the topic.

"We talk about eliminating the stigma in the military and also in civilian communities," Mark Graham, whose son Kevin committed suicide in 2003, told the AP. "It's got to be treated just like any physical illness or wound. People should be helped and not judged."

The research project comes amid other efforts to bring focus to the mental health of soldiers. Most recently, the charity Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund has pledged to funnel around $100 million to building clinics aimed at treating traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder, reports The Washington Post.

With Labor Day weekend approaching,  many Americans are planning to hit the links, and depending where they tee it up they can support the troops at the same time. Thousands of courses across the country are participating in Patriot Golf Day, which donates the proceeds of Labor Day rounds to the Folds of Honor Foundation.

Patriot Golf Day, which is supported by both the PGA of America and the United States Golf Association, has been a substantial success over the last five years. Since 2007, the program has raised in excess of $12.8 million, which has allowed the Folds of Honor Foundation to provide 3,500 scholarships to military families. Former President George W. Bush, an avid golfer, is the honorary chair of the event and encourages his fellow golf enthusiasts to support the cause.

"Our military families make great sacrifices for our nation, and their children's dreams of an education should not go unrealized," he said. "This Labor Day weekend, I ask you to join thousands of golfers across the country in supporting Patriot Golf Day."

The event addresses one of the most important causes in the military community. About 87 percent of children of fallen soldiers do not qualify for federal assistance when they head to college, so organizations such as Folds of Honor fill a significant void.

Communication between first responders is vital in an emergency, but sometimes there can be gaps in the network. However, a new mobile app developed by Raytheon may allow responders to avoid any delays and help save lives.

The program, part of Raytheon's Interoperability Communications Suite, allows first responders to use their smartphones to talk to each other rather than using mobile radios, which can sometimes be unreliable. The app can come in handy in a number of situations, such as letting firefighters talk to building engineers who can give them a layout of a burning structure.

"These devices essentially become 'virtual radios' with the new application and greatly reduce communications gaps for first responders," said TJ Kennedy, director of Public Safety and Security for Raytheon’s Network Centric Systems. "It also allows personnel to reach back to their home network from anywhere in the world that they have PC, tablet or smartphone access."

The development of this app underscores the growing importance of communication among emergency personnel. Most recently, Congress authorized the allocation of $7 billion for the creation of a nationwide network.

Young military families often face significant challenges, and few are more common than financial struggles. Navigating the ins and outs of finance can be hard for any family, but coupled with the stress of military life, it can be significantly more difficult. In an effort to help, Holly Petraeus, wife of CIA director David Petraeus, has been traveling to military installations across the country offering financial advice, The Associated Press reports.

Petraeus is well-equipped to offer tips on avoiding financial pitfalls, given her experience being one-half of a young military family with David Petraeus, who served in the Armed Forces for 37 years before taking his post at the CIA. She also directs the Office of Service Member Affairs at the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Her most recent trip brought her to Anchorage, Alaska, where she visited Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. She went over the importance of financial education and also discussed being wary of predatory lenders that may take advantage of young families.

"It's about knowing everybody is not out to get you, but you need to know who is," Pfc. George Roberts, a 23-year-old soldier, told the AP.

Petraeus' speeches underscore a larger effort on the part of the Department of Defense to hunt down predatory lenders. Specifically, the DoD called on Congress to work on lessening the amount of payday lenders charging high interest rates. A study from the department found they should be charging no higher than 36 percent.

"Predatory lending undermines military readiness, harms the morale of troops and their families, and adds to the cost of fielding an all-volunteer fighting force," the report states.

The effects of unscrupulous practices have been substantial. According to the DoD, some lenders have raised interest rates as high as 400 percent, and the average payday borrower pays back more than twice the original loan.

Congress has already set the wheels in motion to try to end the practice. Senators Jim Talent and Bill Nelson introduced language into a defense budget bill that would set a ceiling at 36 percent. So far, it has passed the Senate but still needs to clear several hurdles to become law.

The looming threat of sequestration, the $500 billion across-the-board cuts enacted if Congress can't reach a budget deal by the end of November, has led to rampant speculation about what impact the slashes could have. Despite concerns about layoffs, fewer aircrafts and cuts to benefits, experts doubt that the training of troops will suffer, Stars and Stripes reports.

The issue was raised several weeks ago when Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter mentioned that some troops may be deployed without sufficient training if there are substantial cuts. Others are not quite as sure. Even if the cuts are allowed to happen, Congress will likely find ways to reallocate funds to ensure deploying soldiers are adequately trained.

"What the Defense Department can do is ask Congress to move money around to cover that," Todd Harrison, a fellow for defense budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, told the publication. "They couldn't just reassign the money, they'd need permission to move those funds. But I can't see any way Congress would refuse that."

Concerns about training are just one of many worries in the military community about sequestration, but President Barack Obama is confident the cuts can be avoided. He recently told The Virginian-Pilot there's no reason Congress cannot reach a compromise on the issue.

Any reductions to the military budget do not change the fact that there are still many physically and mentally wounded soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In an effort to ensure the Pentagon provides troops with the treatment they need, a private fund is contributing millions to build clinics on military bases, according to The Associated Press.

The initiative is led by the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which owes its creation to the late Zachary Fisher, and is aiming to raise $100 million dedicated to the construction of clinics primarily for traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Aside from being a significant contribution, the money is especially helpful because it avoids a lot of government-related delays.

Once the organization builds the clinics, it hands the operation over the the Armed Forces. So far, the fund has been responsible for the construction of a brain injury center and an amputee and burn rehabilitation clinic.

"We don't pretend to be doctors," trustee Marty Edelman told the AP. "So we build the best facilities that money can buy and we engage the entire American community to support us."

Clinics that address TBI and PTSD are especially in demand as troops come back from Afghanistan. Some experts estimate that between 13 and 20 percent of recent vets have PTSD, according to the AP.

When it was launched by first lady Michelle Obama, the Joining Forces initiative set a lofty goal of hiring 100,000 veterans and military spouses by the end of 2013. The organization has already met its target figure – and then some. More than 2,000 companies have hired 125,000 vets or spouses, achieving the goal more than a year earlier than expected, Military Times reports.

Perhaps most encouraging, the participating companies came from a wide variety of industries ranging from healthcare to insurance to entertainment. Even more good news? The businesses said they expect to hire 250,000 more veterans or military spouses by the end of 2014.

To mark the occasion, Obama visited Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida. Brad Cooper, the executive director of Joining Forces, says the numbers are indicative of companies recognizing how valuable servicemembers are as employees.

"More and more businesses are recognizing that hiring veterans is good for their bottom line, and they are making bold commitments to bring veterans into their ranks," he told The Associated Press.

The Joining Forces initiative is partly to thank for the falling unemployment rate among veterans. According to the AP, the figures fell to 6.9 percent last month from 8.6 percent in July of last year.

With Congress at an impasse on budget cuts, it seems likely that a military budget won't be formed by November. Still, despite the threat of drastic slashes, President Barack Obama spoke to reporters recently to assure servicemembers and their families they will not lose pay or benefits, The Associated Press reports.

Obama made his remarks speaking to news outlets from areas of the country that have a strong military family presence including San Diego and Virginia. If lawmakers are unable to broker a deal, the Armed Forces would face $500 billion in cuts over the next decade, something which could have a significant impact.

"It could affect how many ships we can build, it could affect our force structure in fairly significant ways, it can have an impact in terms of our ability to respond to a wide range of challenges that could happen simultaneously in some instances," Obama told San Diego's KNSD.

While recognizing that Congress does not always act in a timely matter, Obama said he maintains hope legislators will be able to reach a compromise in the next three months. Still, although the deadline is months off, there are some members of the military community who have already felt the ramifications.

The children of servicemembers are feeling the sting because of how the U.S. Department of Education allocates funds to schools that have large military populations. Specifically, because the schools aren't built on private land and instead reside on military bases, they can't help finance the school's budget through property taxes. As a result, there are fewer textbooks, supplies and teachers, among other necessities.

"Parents are worried about losing transportation for their child. They're concerned about the [teacher-student] ratio in classrooms," Carl James, chief operations officer of the York County School Division in eastern Virginia, told Reuters.

Given the toll it's already taken on military children, it's not hard to imagine that the across-the-board cuts, known as sequestration, could hurt military families as well, according to Senator Tom Harkin. He singled out reductions in Impact Aid, which provides grants to 1,000 school districts that need assistance.

So how can legislators avoid catastrophe? According to Obama, both sides need to make concessions. Democrats will have to accept greater spending cuts while Republicans will have to concede revenue increases, the President told The Virginian-Pilot.

Having served more than 20 years in the Air Force and surviving a battle with cancer, Mike Sanders is no stranger to overcoming challenges. So it should come as no surprise that he, along with 13 other wounded veterans, recently finished a 3,700 mile bike ride across the United States, the Alaska Star reports.

The cross-country journey, part of the World T.E.A.M. Sports’ 2012 Sea to Shining Sea ride, brought together veterans from all walks of life, including soldiers who were blind or had lost a limb from combat. Despite the challenges, they made the arduous journey from California to Virginia, where they crossed the finish line on July 28.

For Sanders, the ride had a bit more meaning. He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2007 and visited the hospital where he received treatment. The trip also opened his eyes to how much civilians appreciate his service.

"It was those people I wanted to go out and meet," he told the newspaper. "As I went across the country, I saw so much appreciation."

The ride, which kicked off on May 28, covered 14 states and took the cyclists through some rough terrain including Sierra Nevada Mountains and deserts in Utah.

A bit of military history made its way through Boston Harbor over the weekend when the USS Constitution, more commonly known as Old Ironsides, sailed under its own power for only the second time in 131 years. The legendary warship, the oldest commissioned naval vessel in the world that's afloat, was in town to mark the 200th anniversary of one of its most famous battles, The Boston Globe reports.

The event, which saw the ship sail for about 17 minutes, was meant to recognize Old Ironsides' victory over the HMS Guerriere in the War of 1812, the battle which earned the ship its famous nickname. The vessel also sailed under its own power in 1997 to mark its 200th anniversary.

Old Ironsides was sailed by Aircrew Survival Equipmentman 1st Class Jason Keith, who has been serving on board the ship since 2009. In all his time with the Constitution, the most recent trip was one of the most rewarding experiences.

"I've given tours to thousands of people, shined brass for hundreds of hours, and I've climbed the rigging to set and furl these sails over and over again," he said in a statement. "But sailing USS Constitution on Aug. 19, 2012 is one of the greatest honors I've had in my naval career, and I'm truly proud to be a part of this history."

Though it rarely takes the the seas anymore, Old Ironsides welcomes about 500,000 visitors every year who learn about the ship's impressive history.