About 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to data compiled by the Department of Veterans Affairs. As PTSD becomes more common in veterans, many doctors have been looking for ways to improve life after service through various treatments and medications. A recent report from NPR found that medicinal marijuana might be one healing method for former servicemembers with PTSD symptoms.
According to the news source, veterans have been petitioning the federal government to grant them access to the drug. But while experiments done on animals have shown that tetrahydrocannabinol, a chemical found in marijuana, affects circuits in the brain associated with fear and anxiety, the medical link between marijuana and PTSD remains unfounded. Andrew Holmes, a researcher at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, told the news outlet that testing on humans is still in its beginning stages, and there are several factors doctors are uncertain about, such as the possible side effects of marijuana usage. Some of these side effects include short-term memory loss and hindered motor skills.
However, the news source reported that one study out of the University of Michigan found that long-term usage of marijuana was effective when paired with extinction therapy, which stops the brain from responding to triggers of fear or anxiety.
"I think if there are medications including drugs like marijuana that can be used in the right way, there's an opportunity there, potentially," Dr. Kerry Ressler of Emory University told the news source.
U.S. lawmakers passed a spending bill last week that included cuts to pensions for veterans under the age of 62 – but not without a fight. According to NPR, many of the Senate's ardent military supporters are speaking out against the budget legislation, which reduces annual cost-of-living adjustments for working-age military retirees – including those with disabilities – by 1 percent.
"A sergeant first class who retires at age 40 could stand to lose $72,000 by the time he turns or she turns age 62," Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., told the news source.
Ayotte added that the budget deal, which was a compromise between Congress and the Department of Defense, was unfair to younger veterans. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., agreed, stating to the news outlet that Congress is expressing love for the troops "in a very strange way."
However, many lawmakers and defense officials stated that cuts to military compensation can't be avoided. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told The Associated Press that the Pentagon had "tough decisions" to make. Reductions to military pensions for working-age veterans helped prevent cuts to other across-the-board military benefits, including health care and salaries for active-duty troops, according to the news source.
While the military retiree pensions will be reduced under this new bill, veterans will receive a "catch up" pension increase once they turn 62, the news outlet reported. However, that increase still won't amount to what the former servicemembers lost over time.
President Barack Obama issued a new directive last week that will look into the high rate of sexual assault among military members and continue to push for progress in sexual assault prevention and response.
In a statement released by the White House, Obama said he directed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey to create a "full-scale" progress report on the military's handling of sexual assault cases by Dec. 1, 2014.
"If I do not see the kind of progress I expect, then we will consider additional reforms that may be required to eliminate this crime from our military ranks and protect our brave service members who stand guard for us every day at home and around the world," Obama said.
Hagel added in a separate statement that eliminating sexual assault is one of the DOD's top priorities. The defense secretary has already begun working on several reforms to address this issue, calling on Congress in April 2013 to amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice, holding commanders accountable, strengthening oversight committees and providing more services for sexual assault victims.
According to PolicyMic, data compiled by the Pentagon released last November showed that sexual assaults in the military increased by 43 percent between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013.
A competition funded by the U.S. military showed off the newest robotic technology designed by the world's top engineers and researchers, CNN reported.
Held in Miami, competition featured 13 teams hailing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hong Kong University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and Colorado's Team Mojavaton, among others – competing for a $2 million prize from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Each team was given the chance to demonstrate its robotic creations on test tracks for the DARPA judges. Although a military competition, the robots were not only judged on how they perform in combat, but on simple day-to-day activities, such as opening doors, turning valves, climbing ladders and keeping balance on unsteady ground.
According to the news source, many of the robotics engineers believe that using robots will not only be the way of the future for the military, but also for other industries, such as health care and domestic services.
"This robotics challenge will change the way people perceive humanoid robots," Dennis Hong, a mechanical engineering professor at Virginia Tech, told the news outlet. "I envision them doing dishes, talking out the trash, doing the laundry. The future is quite near, but we've got a long way to go."
The winner for the annual DARPA competition was a two-legged, 209-pound robot built by the Japanese company SCHAFT Inc., Discovery.com reported.
Three years ago, Arizona state officials formed a coalition to end chronic veterans homelessness in Phoenix. Now, the city's mayor claims that that goal has been achieved.
The Washington Post reported that in 2010, there were 222 homeless veterans living in Phoenix. Although 56 remained as of November, the state allocated a fund of $100,000 to house the remaining homeless veterans.
"Phoenix can take its place as role model city for gratitude and care towards veterans," Mayor Greg Stanton said in a statement, as quoted by the news source.
To eradicate chronic veterans homelessness, the city used federal grants amounting to more than $6.5 million, as well as nearly $2 million in city funds, the news outlet stated.
A January 2013 report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development found that more than 1,000 veterans in Arizona are homeless. Arizona also saw one of the largest increases in its homeless veterans population between 2012 and 2013. However, the number of homeless veterans only make up 1 percent to 2.9 percent of Arizona's overall homeless population.
According to the HUD report, there were more than 57,000 homeless veterans in the U.S. on a single night in January 2013.
An organic farmer from California has formed a nonprofit to help veterans transition to life after service in an unexpected way – through farming.
Launched by Michael O'Gorman in 2008, the Farmer Veteran Coalition pairs returning servicemembers with experienced farmers, giving military veterans the chance to hone their agriculture skills. The nonprofit also offers a job-placement program, as well as grants for fledgling agriculture entrepreneurs, according to AARP The Magazine.
Through this newfound mentorship, O'Gorman hopes that veterans will be able to heal the mental wounds from their time in combat and find a peaceful after-service career in farming.
"It seemed like there was something that drew people to the concept – something to do with the healing of the veterans, something to do with maybe healing for everybody," O'Gorman told the magazine. "You go back to the Bible and you see the verse about turning swords into plowshares. There's a power in the transition between those two things."
O'Gorman added that the nonprofit has gained popularity over the years, with about 100 veterans inquiring about the farming mentorship each month. The organization currently works with veterans in 48 states.
A career in agriculture may be a good fit for many veterans, considering their high levels of unemployment in the U.S. According to The Washington Post, the unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is around 10 percent – the highest out of any veterans group.
Despite reducing the disability claims backlog by 36 percent, the Department of Veterans Affairs still has thousands of pending claims. Many of them affect veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, who are unable to receive the treatment they need as a result, The Los Angeles Times reported.
In a recent report, the news source interviewed many veterans with PTSD who experienced long waits when applying for health care benefits through the VA. Ari Sonnenberg, an Iraq veteran, told the news outlet that the process of receiving the military benefits was another burden in his life after service.
"You'd call up and you'd ask, 'What's the status?' Nobody knew," Sonnenberg said. "Then you'd make an official inquiry, and they would say, 'OK, here's the number.' And then when you call up a week later, there's no record of that inquiry. … I was losing my mind at one point."
It took Sonnenberg a year before he received his 80 percent disability rating, according to the news source. Many other veterans like Sonnenberg also had to wait at least a year for their ratings. However, by that time, the veterans told the news source that their symptoms had grown worse.
The VA has continued to cut its disability claims backlog through new initiatives and increased employee productivity, with the ultimate goal of eliminating the backlog by 2015, the federal agency said in a statement.
The Joyce-Herbert Veterans Museum in Bayonne, N.J., has been paying tribute to local war heroes since it opened in 2006. However, securing the funding to keep the museum's doors open to the public hasn't always been easy.
According to The Jersey Journal, the Bayonne veterans museum is currently struggling to stay open. Members of the museum told the news source that it costs about $2,000 per month to run the facility – an amount that is sometimes hard to come by.
"We count on donations to keep running," Glen Flora, commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 226, told the news outlet. "I want to keep the museum alive. I want to keep it permanent."
In addition to the monthly payments, the museum also had about a $14,000 in back electric bills. Flora told the news source that several city officials, such as Bayonne Mayor Mark Smith, are helping the museum with donations and grants.
Despite the lack of funding, the museum's members are determined to continue the facility's already-established legacy in the north Jersey area. Featuring military artifacts dating back to the Civil War, the museum is a leading source of information for local schoolchildren, interested residents and those adjusting to life after service. The museum has had more than 8,000 visitors since 2006, including local politicians.
For the past year, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been working on reducing its disability claims backlog, which currently has thousands of veterans across the country waiting longer than the standard 125 days for a response. The Washington Post reported that the waiting period varies drastically from city to city, with nine VA offices making veterans wait more than one year.
Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Reno, Nev., St. Louis and Winston-Salem, N.C., are the cities with the longest waits for disability claims. Reno is the worst offender, with an average wait of 433.9 days, according to data from the VA. Baltimore has the second-longest wait at 395.7 days, while Winston-Salem, Los Angeles and Cleveland round out the top five.
Although Reno has slowest rate of processing disability claims, it also a relatively low number of claims, according to the news source. About 6,600 Reno veterans have claims pending, while the Winston-Salem office has nearly 37,000 veterans waiting for a response.
After President Barack Obama prioritized reducing the disability claims backlog earlier this year, the VA has made considerable improvement in cutting down the wait time. The federal agency announced last November that the backlog dropped by 34 percent since March.
Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans are finding some relief from their symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder with the help of animal therapy.
A new type of 12-step treatment, Saddles for Soldiers is helping veterans adjust to life after service by partnering them with not service dogs, but horses, according to CBS Los Angeles. The Southern California-based organization has returning servicemembers work with horses, thereby creating a human-animal bond and re-establishing working skills.
"There are a lot of people who don't know we are hurting. There are a lot of us who won't admit it," Blade Anthony, a veteran Marine, told the news source. "For a Marine, we always say, 'Suck it up'. You don't know you are hurting, you just keep going on. I went to the VA on Sepulveda [Boulevard]. I did all that stuff, but this really, really helped me."
Veterans meet at the Shadow Hills Equestrian Center, an 11-acre ranch located in the San Fernando Valley, for the recovery program, as well as an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, stated the organization's mental health and operations manager, Susan Kelejian.
According to the Department of Veteran Affairs, about 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have symptoms of PTSD.