Nearly seven years after he was killed, a Marine is being honored by his mother in a unique way. Amy Wolfe is preparing to debut a touching ballet tribute to her son Colin who was killed just several weeks into his first deployment in Iraq, reports Prince William Today.

Wolfe is the artistic director for the Manassas Ballet Theatre in Manassas, Virginia, and she was recently approached by a local composer about creating some new music for an upcoming performance. Eventually, the idea of an act dedicated to Colin's life came to the forefront and Wolfe got to work on the emotional undertaking. Not only was it a way for Wolfe to remember her son, but it's a fitting tribute given that he studied ballet since he was young.

"Actually, for me, it really brings Colin back to life," she told the newspaper. "Now I have something I can listen to that is Colin. Now there is something that I can watch that is Colin," she told the newspaper. "It makes it as if he is right here with me."

The ballet is set to open on March 16 and will incorporate many pieces of music familiar to soldiers, reports Military Times. In fact, the score includes both a 21-gun salute and the Marine Corps Hymn.

It's important for the civilian population to know the challenges servicemembers, veterans and their families face on a daily basis, and Goodwill Industries recently teamed up with StoryCorps to help make sure that happens. The two organizations have partnered together to record stories as part of the StoryCorps Military Voices Initiative, which aims to record the experiences of 700 post-9/11 veterans, servicemembers and their loved ones.

The program is slated to kick off in Houston on March 14 and 15, when 12 veterans will share their stories. The interviews will be conducted by a friend or family member and will seek to uncover what challenges each participant faced when he or she transitioned back to civilian life. StoryCorps officials say the initiative may not only be therapeutic for each servicemember, but will also help highlight the often difficult road they travel so others can learn about their experiences. 

"The Military Voices Initiative will not only provide military families with a national platform to share their stories of service in their own voices, but will also enable civilians to understand more clearly the complex challenges of their bravery and sacrifice," said StoryCorps' president Dave Isay.

Programs such as the StoryCorps Military Voice Initiative are especially important now as the war in Afghanistan draws to a close. Around 34,000 troops will return home by the end of 2013, with the remaining forces expected home by the end of 2014.

The unemployment report for February was released Friday, and while the results were encouraging for the civilian population, the news was even better for the country's youngest veterans. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that the unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans dropped more than two points to 9.4 percent, an indication that the many initiatives aimed at helping servicemembers find jobs are paying off.

The report
The monthly report signals another step forward on the road to economic recovery. Overall, the unemployment rate in the United States dropped from 7.8 percent to 7.7 percent. While it may seem like a modest decrease, it's the lowest unemployment rate in nearly four years. Veterans of all generations enjoyed a good month as well, with their rate dropping from 7.6 percent to 6.9 percent. 

A step in the right direction
Any gains in employment are certainly to be applauded, but it's important not to let the momentum drop. There is still considerable work to be done, veteran advocates say. In a speech to Congress earlier this week, Veterans of Foreign Wars commander John Hamilton spoke before Congress and said it should shoulder some of the responsibility of helping them, according to Military Times.

"Our government must do all that it can to encourage private sectors to hire more veterans," Hamilton said. "This includes creating a vocational rehabilitation for life program, as well as closing the military-civilian skills gap and promoting legislation at the state and federal levels for a clear, easier path to civilian licenses."

White House leading the charge
The issue of veterans' unemployment has been one of the chief concerns for White House officials. In February, it released a report analyzing how states can streamline credentialing and licensing processes for servicemembers separating from the Armed Forces. As of last February, only 11 states had passed such legislation, but the Obama administration hopes that all 39 follow suit by 2015.

"Our service men and women are some of the most highly trained, innovative, resilient [and] adaptable … individuals that our country has to offer," Marine Corps Sgt. Major Bryan B. Battaglia told reporters recently. 

Need for focus will increase
By the end of this year, 34,000 troops will be home from Afghanistan. The remaining forces stationed there will return to the United States by the end of 2014, and many of them will be looking for civilian jobs.

More than a decade of war has affected both servicemembers and their families in a variety of ways, and that is especially true for those who care for a loved one who was injured during combat. A new study from the Rand Corporation sought to uncover what challenges these family caregivers face on a day-to-day basis, and the findings reveal a surprising lack of information about these vital members of the military community.

Military caregivers face unique challenges
Among the most surprising findings is that 96 percent of people who care for wounded warriors are women, but researchers also determined that military caregivers encounter some obstacles that the civilian population – those who care for elderly or ill relatives – do not. For instance, their loved ones often have more significant injuries and they have to navigate a more complex healthcare system. Furthermore, they often provide care for longer periods of time – sometimes around the clock. 

Not much known
Experts say as many as 1 million spouses, parents or relatives provide some form of assistance to a loved one who was injured serving overseas. In addition to the more than 50,000 soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands more have post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other similar conditions. Still, despite the numbers, military caregivers often don't get the same amount of attention that those in the civilian population receive.

"Just as the nation's longest period of wartime has posed challenges for the military, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have created hardships on the family members and others who provide care to the wounded warriors once they return home," said study author Terri Tanielian. "Unfortunately, we know relatively little about this group of caregivers and there is no unified effort to make sure their needs are being met."

What's being done?
While there are no unified efforts to meet the needs of military caregivers, that's not to say there aren't initiatives and benefits available to them. For instance, legislation from 2010 created the Special Compensation for Assistance with Activities of Daily Living (SCAADL), which is a program operated through the Department of Defense that offers a monthly stipend to military caregivers. The Department of Veterans Affairs also runs a caregivers program that provides a variety of benefits. 

With a continued focus on lowering the unemployment rate among young veterans, a new survey conducted by G.I. Jobs Magazine provides a bit of good news. Researchers polled a number of Fortune 500 companies and found that many of them are in the process of actively seeking out young vets to fill leadership and management roles, USA Today reports.

The poll
To gauge the interest of hiring veterans, researchers talked to more than 575 companies. Many of them said they want to hire servicemembers to fill a number of different positions ranging from project managers to customer service experts. Respondents said that veterans are well-suited to such roles because they are well suited to making split decisions under pressure. While they are certainly much different situations, the skill set is still important.

"They're in situations where they have to make critical decisions with minimal information and a lot of distractions around them," Dan Piontkowski, veterans staffing program manager for Hewlett-Packard, told the publication. "And they have to make the right decision. And they do."

Good positions for big name companies
Perhaps most importantly, the findings reveal that many of the open jobs are paying well, with salaries ranging from $54,000 to $90,000 yearly. The hiring companies include a number of big name corporations including AT&T, Amazon, Capital One and Lowe's. The results indicate the unemployment rate among post-9/11 may be on its way down. 

Part of a larger effort
The results underscore the countrywide effort to find jobs for former soldiers, a cause that has first lady Michelle Obama as one of its most vocal advocates. Last week, she called on governors to implement policies that make it easier for soldiers to transfer skills they learned in the Armed Forces to positions in the civilian world.

"In the coming years, more than 1 million service members will make the transition to civilian life," Obama told them. "Think about that – a million people hanging up their uniforms … figuring out what's next … and doing everything they can to make that change as seamless as possible for their families."

Where to look?
There are many resources available to servicemembers looking to find new employment opportunities including AFBA's Career Center. This online tool helps troops connect with employers who are looking to fill vital open positions. 

Education benefits are among the most important incentives offered by the Armed Forces and a pair of new bills that recently entered Congress could extend them to more members of the military community. The two pieces of legislation were introduced into the House of Representatives and are focused primarily on troops who had to retire due to injury, according to Military Times.

The first of the two bills is officially known as HR 833, but more commonly referred to as Expanding Education Opportunities for Post-9/11 Vets' Families. Introduced by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the bill would make it easier for troops who retired from active duty for medical reasons to transfer their benefits to an immediate family member. Specifically, it would provide soldiers with 36 months after their separation from service to transfer their benefits.

"The bill simply restores equality and fairness to the process, allowing the service members to determine who gets to use their earned benefit," Chaffetz said in a statement.

The second bill deals primarily with troops who transfer from active duty to the reserves. Most importantly, it helps close a gap that resulted in soldiers who retired or transferred to the reserves due to injury not receiving all the benefits to which they were entitled.

When President Barack Obama officially repealed "don't ask, don't tell" more than a year and a half ago, it was signaled as a big win for gay and lesbian troops, but there is still a lot of work to be done when it comes to extending benefits to same-sex couples. Handcuffed by the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the Pentagon currently denies gay military families nearly 100 individual benefits. However, changes might be in the works.

DOMA heads to SCOTUS
DOMA is one of the biggest obstacles in the path to extending military benefits to same-sex couples. The law, which was passed in the 1990s, prevents the federal government from recognizing any marriage that is not between a man and a woman. While this hamstrings efforts from the Obama administration to advocate for marriage equality, the situation may change in the next few months as DOMA heads to the Supreme Court.

Whether the Supreme Court declares DOMA unconstitutional is still up in the air, but public support for the bill is low, according to MSNBC. In fact, numerous surveys over the last year have shown that the majority of Americans support making gay marriage legal.

How are same-sex families hurt?
As one of his final acts as Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta extended certain benefits – such as ID cards to get on base and legal assistance – to gay couples, but The Huffington Post reports there are still many that they cannot take advantage of. For instance, education benefits offered by the GI Bill, the coverage of reassignment costs and the Family and Medical Leave Act are all still unavailable. Rep. Adam Smith plans on introducing a bill that would redefine the word "spouse" under U.S. Code so that DOMA has no impact. 

"The administration is doing what it can within the constraints that are in place, but the job is not done," he said earlier this year. 

Obama opposes DOMA
Since officially announcing his support for gay marriage last year, President Obama has not been shy about voicing his opinion on DOMA. In February, his office released a brief that called the act unconstitutional. Specifically, the brief said that the law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. 

With or without sequestration, the military is planning to downsize in the coming months, and that includes changes to TRICARE. In particular, the areas where TRICARE Prime is available is expected to shrink come October 1, and in an effort to help troops prepare, TRICARE Management Activity recently unveiled a new tool to allow servicemember​s to search their availability based on their ZIP code, according to Military Times.

The tool can be found at PSA Zip Code Look-Up, and is helpful because it allows beneficiaries to see if their area will be impacted by the impending changes to TRICARE. Specifically, the policy is changing so that TRICARE Prime only is available to servicemembers who live within 40 miles of a military base. Other retirees and family members who live outside that range will have to switch to the standard plan. The hope is that the slight change will save as much as $65 billion a year. 

"People who use Standard are very, very pleased with it. Our customer service satisfaction of those using Standard is the highest of all our beneficiaries," Dian Lawhon, TRICARE's director of beneficiary education and support, said recently, according to the publication. 

Limiting the availability of TRICARE Prime is not the only way officials have considered cutting costs. According to Military.com, proposed increases to the annual enrollment fees have been suggested. 

For years, the Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have been working toward coming together to create an all encompassing electronic database of medical records. Such a system would make moving from one department to the other much easier and could significantly improve the level of healthcare servicemember​s receive, but the process has been long and some officials do not think it can be done.

Years in the making
Both departments have been working to transition to electronic records for a decade, but in 2008 Congress officially ordered the two departments to create a joint system so that when soldiers left active duty, it was easier for their medical records to come to the VA with them. The original plan was to have the endeavor completed by 2017 – at an estimated cost of $4 billion – but the process has certainly not been easy. 

Delay after delay
Over the last several years there have been significant challenges in developing the integrated system, and earlier this month then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki announced they were doing away with the original plan of one system, and instead looking toward developing technologies that make each of their individuals records more interoperable. The idea, Panetta said, is to cut costs and finish the project more quickly

"All of these facilities will be interoperable by the end of July 2013, so [it's a] fast time track, but we think we can get it done," he told reporters. 

Lawmakers unhappy
Despite Panetta's insistence it was for the best, many members of Congress recently expressed their disappointment that the two departments were unable to come up with a system that fell under the original plan. Among them is California Rep. Jeff Denham, who said that the delay has been inexcusable and could threaten the health of veterans and servicemembers. 

"In the private sector, this would be done by now – it would have to be," he said. "I don't feel the same sense of obligation here. I question the will to get it done."

Service​members' advocates have also made their feelings known. For instance, the National Organization of Veterans' Advocates said that continued delays could make it difficult for vets to receive disability benefits and other vital services. 

Suicide is undoubtedly one of the biggest issues facing the military community. Whether it is soldiers who have separated from service, veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan or active duty troops, it's clear that the rate of servicemembers taking their own lives is on the rise. Though the situation may seem dire, both the Department of Veterans Affairs and Pentagon plan on taking steps to address the problem in the coming years, and there are many resources available to soldiers grappling with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other conditions that may raise the risk of suicide.

Issue on the rise
There's no question 2012 was a bad year for suicide in the military. Pentagon statistics show 349 soldiers took their own lives last year, which was up considerably from the 301 in 2011 and also more than the 295 Americans who were killed in combat. In response to the startling statistics, Senator Patty Murray, the former chairman of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, said that her colleagues in Congress should do more to address the issue. 

"This is an epidemic that cannot be ignored," she said earlier this year, according to The Associated Press. "As our newest generation of servicemembers and veterans face unprecedented challenges, today's news shows we must be doing more to ensure they are not slipping through the cracks."

Pentagon recognizes the issue
Given the rise in the number of soldiers committing suicide, it's no surprise that the Pentagon has made prevention a priority. Still, experts say addressing suicide in the military is not an easy task. Kim Ruocco, who heads a suicide prevention program Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), says that it's near impossible to be with an at-risk individual every hour of the day to make sure they don't take their own lives. Instead, she says the goal is to recognize risk factors, whether they be PTSD, substance abuse, or trouble transitioning, and make soldiers aware that there are resources available to them. 

"Now that we're decreasing our troops and they're coming back home, that's when they're really in the danger zone," Ruocco, whose husband killed himself in 2005 after serving in Iraq, told the AP. 

Glimmers of progress
The situation may seem dire, but some outposts in the military have shown success in preventing suicides, including Fort Bliss. The New Mexico installation had the lowest suicide rate in the military during 2012 and actually saw a decrease from 2011 to 2012. Officials at Fort Bliss say there is no one magic solution to curbing suicide rates, but rather a well-rounded approach to risk education and resilience may be the best method. The base has also made a concerted effort to reduce behaviors such as drug abuse, motor vehicle accidents and other deaths that can be prevented. 

"Our approach creates layer upon layer upon layer of safety nets," explained Army Lt. Col. Leonard Gruppo.

Resources available
Veterans and active duty soldiers should know that they have resources available to them if they are considering suicide. Specifically, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) operates a 24-hour counseling service not only to soldiers, but also to their family members. Known as the Veterans Crisis Line, servicemembers can either dial 1-800-273-8255 and press 1, visit www.VeteransCrisisLine.net or text 838255. Since it was launched in 2007, the line has fielded more than 650,000 calls. There are a number of other places soldiers can turn as well, including the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, which can be reached at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).