Blog Post

IAVA Daily News Brief 07.05.12
Posted by Gretchen Andersen on July 5 2012

Here are some of today's top stories and happenings that IAVA is tracking. Prefer to receive real-time updates about major stories and legislation that IAVA is tracking? Follow us on Twitter @IAVAPressRoom and click here to get the News Brief delivered to your inbox every morning.

MUST READS

1.) Iraq, Afghanistan War Veterans Struggle With Combat Trauma

David Wood, the Huffington Post journalist whose reporting on wounded servicemen earned him a Pulitzer Prize, writes about the struggles Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans face upon returning home to civilian life. Wood reports that combat veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are “forcing” mental health practitioners to realize that “the effects of combat trauma extend far beyond the traditional and narrow clinical diagnoses of PTSD and traumatic brain injury (TBI).” Wood also reports that many veterans who committed suicide struggled in isolation without help. 

2.) Soldiers Seeking Routine Medical Care Now Get PTSD Screening As Well

Many soldiers who see the doctor for common physical ailments will now be screened for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, said Col. Charles Engel, a Walter Reed National Military Medical Center doctor, at a recent American Psychiatric Association meeting. This process, started in 2007 by the Army Surgeon General at 40 targeted primary care clinics, will be available at 96 designated health care centers at the end of this month.

3.) Didn't Send Your Kid to War? Maybe You Can Send $$

As the founders of the Veteran Support Fund, the Green, Garland and Stimmel families say that raising money to help veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is a moral obligation. The families are challenging at least 1,000 affluent Americans to contribute 1 percent of their net worth to the Veteran Support Fund. To learn more about the Veteran Support Fund and IAVA’s involvement, click here.

AFGHANISTAN

• A man in an Afghan army uniform opened fire outside a NATO base in eastern Afghanistan, wounding five American soldiers.
• Although Pakistan land routes are now open to Afghanistan, U.S. and NATO commanders still face the prospect of transporting at least a third of their cargo from northern Afghanistan on a winding, makeshift network of railways and roads.
• 24-year-old Private First Class Cody O. Moosman died Tuesday in Afghanistan when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire.

IRAQ

• A suicide bomber blew himself up in Mosul today, killing at least three people and wounding 15.
• Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said he had “solid information and intelligence” members of al-Qaida’s terrorist network have gone to Syria through Iraq.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

• The North Carolina National Guard released the names of four airmen killed when their C-130 crashed Sunday while fighting forest fires in South Dakota: Lt. Col. Paul K. Mikeal, Maj. Ryan S. David, Maj. Joseph M. McCormick and Senior Master Sgt. Robert S. Cannon. There is an on-going investigation into the crash.
• The Pentagon has decided to lay an estimated $40 million underwater fiber-optic cable from Guantánamo Bay to South Florida, the largest known infrastructure improvement for the base by the Pentagon.
• Capt. Katie Petronio argues that men and women are not created equally, and placing women in the infantry will not improve the Marine Corps or national security.

THE NEW GREATEST GENERATION

• In fewer than seven weeks since the VA began accepting applications for the Veteran Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP), 27,080 unemployed veterans have applied.
• Artist Monica Haller established the Veterans Book Project, a book-crafting program to help returning soldiers process their experiences through sharing stories and photographs.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

• President Obama thanked the military and their families on the Fourth of July at White House picnic.
• Mitt Romney launched his Veterans and Military Families for Romney coalition, with both President George H.W. Bush and Former Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole serving as National Honorary Chairmen.
• Retired Air Force major general J. Scott Gration is the latest high-ranking military official to resign from a senior civilian post in the Obama administration.

A wide-range of views, positions, and publications are represented in these articles. These views, positions and publications are not endorsed by nor do they necessarily represent the views of IAVA.

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