Blog Post

IAVA Daily News Brief 11.15.12
Posted by Jacob Worrell on November 15 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 @IAVA and click here to get the News Brief delivered to your inbox every morning.

MUST READS

1) IAVA Vets Have Brian Williams and He is Enough

Liz Smith writes about IAVA’s sixth-annual gala Tuesday night that welcomed veteran supporters such as Roger Waters, Joan Ganz Cooney, Pete Peterson and Cpl. Aaron Mankin, among many others. NBCNews’ Brian Williams, emcee for the event, spoke about veterans leading the way with helping areas destroyed by Hurricane Sandy while keeping veterans issues at the forefront during the night. Check out other videos from the Gala here!

2) Medics fight to save troops with horrific injuries

USA Today reports on the devastating injuries many troops experience in Afghanistan while on foot patrols, sometimes dealing with triple or quadruple amputations. The wave of blast-devastated casualties has left military medicine grasping for better ways to treat what doctors say are the worst casualties they have seen in 11 long years of fighting two wars. While on the forefront, the military is ramping up medical resources to counter this wrenching pattern of wounds in the waning months of this war, such as increasing the number of medevac helicopters. Check out graphics of troop injury statistics.

3) Boston Veterans Launch Military Social Network

Two Harvard Business school graduates and veterans, Aaron Kletzing and Yinon Weiss, have created a new social network for service members called RallyPoint. The network is similar to LinkedIn, helping military personnel and veterans stay connected and network for jobs after they leave the military. Look up the RallyPoint here.

AFGHANISTAN

• Reuters reports security negotiations began between the United States and Afghanistan that will eventually define how many American troops stay in the country after most NATO combat forces leave at the end of 2014, and the scope of their mission. Thursday’s meeting is about the legal basis for U.S. soldiers to work in the country after 2014.

IRAQ

• A series of attacks across several provinces in Iraq yesterday left 20 people killed and wounding more than 100. The New York Times reports some of the some of the worst violence was in the north. It is not clear whether the attacks were coordinated.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

• At least five current and former U.S. generals at the rank of one-star or higher have been reprimanded or investigated for possible misconduct in the past two weeks.
• Gen. Edward Rice, commander of Air Education and Training Command, said the Air Force is instituting 45 policy changes recommended by Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward, who investigated Air Force training in the wake of the Lackland scandal.
• Military doctors are fighting to defeat a fungal infection that has killed a handful of direly wounded troops in Afghanistan and infected scores of others, often requiring that more of their limbs be cut away to get above diseased areas.

THE NEW GREATEST GENERATION

• StoryCorps’ has launched the Military Voices Initiative (MVI), which will honor the stories of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, service members, and their families. Listen to the first MVI broadcast here.
• Business Insider interviews different veterans participating in the New York City Veterans Day Parade why they served and what it was like to return to the States.
• Check out some photos of the New York City Veterans Day Parade here.
• Government retraining and readjustment programs help, but much has been left to the private sector, especially in the area of information technology, a skill set common to many ex-military personnel.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

• Former CIA director David Petraeus is set to testify about the Sept. 11 attacks in Benghazi, Libya on Friday. The hearing is closed for the public.
• In a memo to Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta asked Dempsey to review ethics training and to brainstorm on ways to steer officers away from trouble.

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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