Many experts say that it's important for disabled veterans to get out of the house every once in a while, and organizations exist specifically to help them with that goal. One such program allows veterans to hit the ski slopes in Pennsylvania for a big annual event.

For the last five years, the Wounded Warrior Project has brought a large number of disabled veterans and their families to Seven Springs ski resort as part of an effort to get them active once again, according to a report from Johnstown television station WJAC. Those with physical limitations even received specialized equipment from a nearby organization called Three Rivers Adaptive Sports.

"The mountain is there for them to play with," said Christopher Raup, CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project. "It's really amazing bringing the whole family in and having their children see them shooting down the slope for the first time and with a big smile on their face."

These types of programs often go a long way toward helping veterans feel engaged and active again, especially after they've suffered serious physical injuries that can otherwise feel like a massive and almost unbearable burden.

One of the big focuses in veteran services over the last several years has been on helping those who come home with more than just physical scars. Post-traumatic stress disorder impacts a large number of veterans, and many groups are focused on helping to tackle that problem in a number of ways. That includes an organization in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, focused on therapy.

The Healing Warrior Hearts program asks veterans to draw pictures of their hearts and discuss their problems in an open and accepting setting with other former servicemembers, according to a report from Milwaukee television station TMJ 4. Participants say the sessions, which include role playing, can go a long way toward helping them see a path to getting better once again.

"[PTSD] changes a person," Patricia Clason, who founded Healing Warrior Hearts, told the station. "It changes them deep inside. In order to find a sense of safety again, and open their hearts again, and not be in fear every day, requires the love of a lot of people to make that happen."

This kind of support exists for veterans in almost every part of the country, and often all they have to do to tap it is do a bit of research, and then reach out.

Therapists are using virtual reality technology to treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, reported Tech Insider. In this jarring form of therapy, former servicemembers suffering from the condition immerse themselves in familiar battlefield scenes via videogame-like virtual reality simulators. According to the National Center for PTSD, this technique is quickly taking hold within the psychological community. At least two Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers currently use virtual reality simulators to treat patients.

Confronting the past
According to The Wall Street Journal, veterans who regularly undergo this unique treatment regimen see tangible results. Marine Chris Merkle, a veteran of the Iraq War, began virtual reality therapy in the summer of 2013. Merkle had tried normal talk therapy and it didn't work – he couldn't unpack those memories in a silent, sterile office. So, he visited the VA Long Beach Healthcare System and enrolled in its fledgling virtual reality program.

During Merkle's first session, a therapist asked him to describe his hardest day in Iraq, reported Wired. Within minutes, the former platoon sergeant, wearing a virtual reality headset and clutching a plastic M-16, was once again experiencing war. He was with his men in the back of a truck in Nasiriyah, Iraq. Bullets hit Merkle's open-air transport. Buildings in the distance burned. It all seemed so real.

"As you walk through, you talk it through," Merkle told the magazine. "It's almost like opening a filing cabinet. Suddenly I'd be able to remember names. I'd remember details of what people looked like; what insurgents looked like."

These realistic simulations allowed Merkle to encounter the darkness head-on and sort through the situations that filled him with anxiety and rage.

"I tried a lot of things, but when I tried virtual reality it was like a toxic release," Merkle said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "You're not just talking to a therapist on a couch. You're in that event, you're reliving those moments."

Working off established techniques
PTSD sufferers often feel they are frozen in time, reported Al Jazeera America. They recall traumatic situations in violent, hazy spurts that leave them grasping for details and meaning. Most PTSD treatments center on strategies that enable patients to fully relive disturbing memories and evaluate the emotions that accompany those recollections. Virtual reality technology is particularly useful in these situations, as it can render personalized reconstructions.

"We teach them how to control breathing, heart rate, respiration, sweat gland response, and teach them some processes to control automatic thoughts," Dr. Brenda Wiederhold, president of the Virtual Reality Medical Institute in Belgium, told the news agency. "It keeps them from becoming overwhelmed by the emotion."

Some critics say this brand of treatment is too intense for many patients. Others believe it's a gimmick that repackages gaming as therapy.

Proponents point to several studies that have assessed the efficacy of virtual reality therapy and found it to be a viable methodology. Therapists who work with the technology see results daily.

Dr. JoAnn Difede, a PTSD researcher at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, used virtual reality therapy to treat survivors of Sept. 11 and told The Wall Street Journal about a particularly obstinate patient who had deep reservations about the technique.

"She looked at me and said, 'This looks like a cartoon,'" Difede said in an interview with the newspaper. "But when she put the headset on, she started to cry, and she started to tell me her story with a degree of emotion that I had not seen in eight weeks of treatment with her."

Veterans employed at the University of California, Los Angeles can now receive free walk-in care at the UCLA Staff and Faculty Counseling Center, reported The Daily Bruin. The program launched earlier this month and appears to be another in a lengthening line of institutional actions aimed at improving the school's relationship with local veterans.

The Department of Veterans Affairs in 2005 invited a variety of Los Angeles-based organizations to set up shop on a dilapidated VA property on the western side of the city, reported the Los Angeles Times. A number of local entities, including UCLA and the Brentwood School, developed property on the site. However, a federal judge in 2013 ruled that the VA had abused its power by leasing land for purposes unrelated to its mission. Investigators from the Government Accountability Office soon discovered that the VA and its lessees had completely mismanaged the property. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki called for a federal investigation.

President Barack Obama in May 2014 forced Shinseki to resign and replaced him with Bob McDonald. The new secretary promptly ended the investigation and re-purposed the land for an expansive community for homeless veterans. The VA released the final plans for this project in January and vowed to remove tenants who didn't intend to serve former military personnel.

"Those who have not become veteran-centric as we hope UCLA and the Brentwood School will be will have to leave," Vince Kane, one of Secretary McDonald's senior advisors, told the Times.

Local veterans reacted harshly to UCLA's role in this controversy and were doubly disappointed to learn that the school planned to hold on to Jackie Robinson Stadium, the large NCAA Division-I baseball complex that occupies its portion of the misused VA land. Ultimately, the school cut a deal with the agency and signed a new lease on the property in January, reported The Daily Bruin.

The school has begun to address the concerns leveled by local veterans. It actively collaborated with the VA on the proposed West Los Angeles community and pledged $3 million for a variety of veterans service centers that will dot the property when it's completed, reported the Los Angeles Times. The university also promised to develop specialized sports programs for local military personnel and their families.

"Beyond research and teaching, UCLA's other core mission is service, and I can think of no better way to serve our community than through an even stronger partnership with the VA," UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said in a news release.

The school's walk-in therapy program adds to its growing portfolio of veterans services.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Feb. 18 announced the deployment of a free mobile app that enables veterans to access state and federal services via smartphones and tablets, reported The Associate Press. The New York State Division of Veterans' Affairs developed the app, which is available to iOS and Android users.

"The brave men and women of the Armed Forces have dedicated their lives to defending our nation and this new app helps ensure these heroes and their families have access to the resources and services they need after returning home," Gov. Cuomo said in a press release. "This is one more way we are using technology to make a smarter and stronger New York."

The app not only gives veterans easy access to education, employment, health care and housing resources, but also includes a location feature that shows nearby veterans' affairs field offices and medical facilities. Users will also receive updates on federal and state assistance programs.

This app is the latest in a series of mobile information portals developed by New York. Over the past few years the state has released apps that provide information on parks programs and display up-to-date train timings.

Many efforts across the country are now under way from both governmental and private institutions to improve the quality of health care that veterans receive, and the timeliness with which they receive it. These initiatives are often varied, but one that seems poised for significant success is set in New Jersey and run by Rutgers University.

The school's Veterans Total Care Initiative is a pilot program supported by a $5 million grant from the New Jersey Department of Health, according to a report from Trenton radio station New Jersey 101.5.  As part of a state-wide effort, the program's goal is to provide more and improve the quality of care for over 400,000 veterans living in New Jersey. Many of those veterans have encountered difficulties in promptly receiving traditional and mental health services.

"You have some individuals who have been waiting for appointments for quite some time with the VA," Terrell McCain, a program manager at the program's call center and an Iraq veteran who had to wait years to be treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, told the station. "The hope is that individuals who have served in the military and have done a service for their country, realize that there are resources out in the community available to them."

In addition, veterans will also be able to use the program to talk to people like peer counselors about what they're going through, and to help set up and expedite appointments, the report said. That could help veterans have more agency in the healing process.

Programs similar to Rutgers' initiative often help veterans in a wide variety of ways, not the least of which is that they simply get more care and attention when they need it than they otherwise might have.

While a number of states operate homes to help care for veterans in need, some experts have recently grown concerned about the quality of care those facilities actually provide. This issue recently came to a head in Michigan, where one such home is in bad shape that state lawmakers are calling for more help to deal with the problems.

Last week, the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans was the subject of an auditor's report that found that it has a spate of new and old problems. The matters have not been addressed by the facility's administration in any serious way, according to a letter from Michigan State Sens. Margaret O'Brien and Peter MacGregor published in the Grand Rapids Press. This is the second such review conducted on the home since 2013, when other issues – some of which have been dealt with – were also uncovered. It's a problem the lawmakers aim to handle as much as possible going forward, with hearings scheduled for later in the month, and the introduction of Senate Bill 809 to create an ombudsman position to oversee all such facilities.

The biggest of these problems is that when veterans occasionally accuse staff of abuse or neglect, there isn't much of a safety net, the report said. Indeed, about 90 percent of all those allegations end up going uninvestigated. Further, the home is rarely as staffed as it should be, with as many as 22 fewer people than necessary working there on any given day. And symptomatic of those issues overall is the fact that nearly 2 in 5 prescriptions there being re-filled at the wrong time.

Many lawmakers nationwide are trying to do more to improve veterans' lives, and giving veterans an active voice in those efforts will go a long way toward providing the help they need.

The Department of Defense wants to reform its recently amended retirement plan, reported the Military Times. The agency on Feb. 9 set out its intentions in its 2017 budget request.

Changing military benefits
President Barack Obama in November signed into law legislation that fundamentally altered the military's retirement plan, reported The Associated Press. The $607 billion bill replaced the DOD's inflexible 20-year plan with a blended retirement system that includes pension and investment schemes, reported the Military Times. It also expanded specialized programs for personnel making the transition into life after service. Under this new system, which is set to start in 2018, four of every five servicemembers will leave the military with some sort of retirement plan.

According to The Washington Post, the DOD surveyed over 150,000 servicemembers and veterans before compiling the new plan. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel thanked the nine-member panel for developing a modern retirement system that offers coverage to all military personnel.

"[The commissioners] have developed a wide-ranging set of recommendations on reforming and modernizing the package of benefits we provide to America's men and women in uniform and their families," the secretary said in a statement.

Changes coming
In its 2017 budget request, the DOD proposed a handful of changes to its blended retirement system. The agency plans to roll back its investment match policy and only offer full payment matches to personnel who have reached a five-year service threshold. Conversely, it will expand the match program for senior leadership. Currently, the DOD stops match payments for senior servicemembers who stay in 26 years or longer. The change will allow long-time officers to participate in the match program until they retire. The agency intends to up the federal cap on match contributions from 5 to 6 percent, as well.

The DOD's new retirement plan enacted in November included a mandatory minimum for continuation pay that applied to troops who stayed in for at least 12 years. It now plans to discard this system and institute a more personalized solution that resembles its traditional retention bonus system.

Adjustments drawing criticism
Some say the changes disproportionately favor older servicemembers intending to climb the ranks Others believe the DOD is degrading its new retirement system by putting budgetary concerns over personnel issues.

"Money is driving the attitude at the Department of Defense," Michael Higgins, a retired Air Force veteran and one of the nine committee members who developed the retirement plan passed in November, told the Military Times. "If you tinker with it, you are really going to change servicemembers perspective on this system. And if you do that, you put the system at risk."

Many Americans may be worried about whether their Social Security benefits will end up being enough to help reasonably fund their retirements, even as those payouts are tied to the cost of living. However, veterans shockingly have no such assurances in most benefits-related situations, and as such, lawmakers are now trying to permanently correct that problem.

The American Heroes COLA Act – referring to the "cost of living adjustment" to Social Security – was recently approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, and would extend those adjustments to other types of veterans benefits, including those for disability, dependents, and more, according to a report from the Military Times. This would bring to those benefits annual recalculations like those seen with Social Security.

"The current process leaves veterans and their families, who depend on these benefits to make ends meet, in limbo until Washington actually passes legislation," the bill's sponsor, Rep. Ralph Abraham, a Louisiana Republican, told the newspaper.

Federal and state lawmakers are now finally doing more to ensure veterans enjoy the same benefits as everyone else, and that help will go a long way toward improving the lives of former servicemembers.

Cultural researchers have united the families of two U.S. soldiers who served in World War II with the dog tags of their lost loved ones, reported The Associated Press and The Buffalo News. Researchers found the tags in Saipan, Japan and Nettuno, Italy, respectively.

Memories on the Japanese coast
Historian Genevieve Cabrera in 2014 found dog tags bearing the name Thomas E. Davis protruding from a field in Saipan, the site of a fierce 1944 battle between American and Japanese forces. Cabrera gave the tags to the nonprofit organization Kuentai-USA which searches for the remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the Pacific Ocean theater in World War II. With the help of the AP, Kuentai-USA found Davis' sister, 82-year-old Dorothy Hollingsworth in Dayton, Ohio.

Hollingsworth and her brother grew up on a farm in Roachdale, Indiana with five other siblings. Davis in September 1941 joined the 165th Infantry Regiment of the 27th Infantry Division of the New York Army National Guard and earned a Silver Star in June 1944 for pulling a wounded soldier to safety amid heavy Japanese artillery fire. He died April 30, 1945 during the invasion of Okinawa. Davis was 27.

"He was a great guy," Hollingsworth, who was only seven years old when her brother left home, told the AP. "He was always laughing and singing and whistling."

Kuentai-USA will soon meet with the Davis family to hand over the tags. Hollingsworth told the wire service she planned give the tag to her 57-year-old nephew.  

Laid to rest in the homeland
Pasquale Gentile of Buffalo, New York enlisted in the Army at the start of World War II and served in war zones in Africa and Italy. Over a year after landing in Nettuno on Italy's western coast, Gentile died April 24, 1945 in Parma, almost 400 miles inland. He was 30.

It was near Nettuno that hiker Andrea Tamburrini discovered one of Gentile's dog tags.

"When I realized it was an American dog tag, I thought it was a sign. I found it five days before the 72nd anniversary of the landings in that area, which occurred Jan. 22, 1944," Tamburrini said in an interview with The Buffalo News. "It was almost as if destiny had determined that this soldier's story would continue during this specific time frame to mark the significance of the events."

The hiker handed off the tag to the American Battle Monuments Commission in Nettuno which, with the help of The News, contacted Gentile's niece Patricia Blatner, 58.

"I feel it has been destined by fate that uncle Pasquale's story be told, and I am proud to take part in telling it," Blatner said in an interview with The News.

Gentile, the son of Italian immigrants, grew up in Buffalo with two brother and two sisters. Gentile's father laid tracks for the Steam Rail Road while his mother Mary raised him and his siblings. Mary died in the 1930s, leaving Gentile's father to work and raise the children alone. Unfortunately, his father was unable to adequately care for the children and they were placed in an orphanage and moved into separate foster homes. As a result, Gentile and his siblings lived separate lives and rarely met up.

Blatner said she was proud to receive her uncle's lost tag but was saddened by the memories of his life.

"I have a sad heart for my uncle. My dad was able to come back from the war and make a life for himself. But Pasquale was never able to do that. My dad named me Patricia in honor of his older brother," she told the newspaper.