On January 25, IAVA Deputy Policy Director Tom Tarantino was featured in a Bloomberg Businessweek article, "B-Schools Recruit More Veterans." The article discussed why so many new vets are using their GI Bill money to get business degress.
Tarantino spoke positively about the unique lessons vets can bring to the table. Vets “understand the concept of mission and what it means to be flexible in order to reach a goal,” he said. “Many times, their survival depended on that.”
IAVA Legislative Associate Ramsey Sulayman, a Major in the Marine Corps, wrote in The New York Times "At War" blog about a video that depicted four Marines urinating on the bodies of dead militants in Afghanistan.
"Marines don’t get a pass on doing the right thing because they are in combat," he wrote. "We do the right thing because it is the right thing regardless of what those around us would allow."
On January 12, IAVA Senior Membership Associate Timothy Kudo spoke on NPR about a recent Youtube video that showed four Marines urinating on the bodies of three dead Taliban fighters.
A former Marine Captain who served in the very same region of northern Helmand province, Kudo spoke with the host about the incident and its repercussions. Other Marines were given the opportunity to call in and give their own opinions.
On January 12, former Marine and IAVA Senior Membership Associate Timothy Kudo appeared on CNN Newsroom. Kudo spoke with host Brook Baldwin about a video depicting a group of Marines urinating on the bodies of three dead Taliban.
IAVA issued a statement condemning the actions of the four Marines in the video. "For 10 years, our troops have served honorably in unimaginably tough conditions-and they continue to do so in Afghanistan and around the world. This incident does not reflect the service, leadership and honor of our new generation of veterans."
On January 8, IAVA Founder and Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff was featured in Rolling Stone as one of twelve leaders who "gets it done" in Washington, D.C.
In 2011, Rieckhoff was part of a coalition that championed the VOW to Hire Heroes Act to near unanimous passage in Congress. It was the only jobs bill that passed all year.
Air Force veteran and IAVA Senior Fellow Matt Colvin writes in Stars and Stripes how the Dover Air Force Base scandal has done a disservice to the Air Force’s legacy and to all service members who put on the uniform. Donning the uniform is both a great privilege and a weighty responsibility.
IAVA Founder and Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff was recently featured in the Fall 2011 issue of USAA Magazine. A veteran of Iraq, Rieckhoff has been a leading force in the new veterans movement since he returned home in 2004.
On December 1, IAVA Senior Legislative Associate Tom Tarantino joined NPR's Morning Edition to discuss the high rates of unemployment in the veteran community. The unemployment rate for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan was 11.1 percent in November 2011, well above the 8.6 percent national average. IAVA Member Veteran Nick Workman also spoke about the difficulty of finding a job after serving for four years in Iraq as an infantryman.
On Wednesday, November 30, IAVA Founder and Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff appeared on the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC and reacted to the news that several major U.S. banks illegally foreclosed on thousands of homes owned by U.S. service members. The foreclosures were particularly egregious because they occurred while the service members were deployed overseas.
“The idea that your serving in Fallujah while your house is being foreclosed back home is outrageous... it should force all Americans to ask hard questions,” Rieckhoff insisted.
In an interview with Howard Fineman for the Huffington Post, IAVA Founder and Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff spoke about his work advocating for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Rieckhoff addressed the challenges facing the newest generation of veterans and the leadership lessons that can be gleaned from their experiences overseas.
