IAVA Daily Brief 3.11.10

Here are some of today's top stories and happenings at IAVA.  Prefer to receive real-time updates about major stories and legislation that IAVA is tracking?  Follow us on Twitter @IAVAPressRoom [1] or subscribe to the Daily News Brief at http://iava.org/dailynewsbrief [2].

MUST READS

1) Mental Health Evacuations Spike in War Zones [3]

More than 10 percent of medical evacuations from Iraq and Afghanistan over the past eight years have been for mental health reasons, according to the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center.  Mental health issues only accounted for 6 to 9 percent of the evacuations from 2001 to 2005, then jumped by 50 percent from 2006 to 2007.

2) Colleges Should Help Veterans on Path to New Future, VA Secretary Says [4]

Colleges should reach out to the veterans arriving on their campuses and help them make the transition from combat zone to college, Eric Shinseki, secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, told college students in Phoenix.

3) Big Moves by the House Veterans Affairs Committee [5]

On Wednesday morning, the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee held a markup session for a set of bills that IAVA has been tracking on, including the Helping Heroes Keep Their Homes Act and the National Guard Employment Protection Act.  Click here [5] to read more.

AFGHANISTAN

• In the wake of a helicopter attack that killed at least 15 civilians [6] in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province, Gen. Stanley McCrystal apologized to Afghan President Karzai and the Afghan people, and opened a formal investigation in to the incident.
• The House on Wednesday soundly rejected [7]
• President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan met with Prime Minster Yusuf Raza Gilani in Pakistan Thursday in a show of public friendship [8]

IRAQ

• Election officials had expected to release the first results [9] of Sunday's parliamentary elections Wednesday, but by early afternoon Thursday no official vote counts had been made public.
• Awaiting results, a coalition of Shiite parties [10] called the vote-counting process into question, challenging both the transparency of ballot counting and the computerized system being used to tabulate the votes.
• Two days after learning of the death of their oldest daughter in Iraq, the family of a fallen Fort Benning soldier [11] spoke about her passion for life and love of the Army.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

• Army officials will debut a new devise [12] designed to combat the deadly threat of improvised explosive devices later this month.
• The VA inspector general has launched a criminal investigation [13] into a physician assistant's alleged downloading of veterans' clinical data at the Atlanta media center.
• Many soldiers returning to law enforcement jobs feel the need to use tactics they employed in war zones [14] and feel less patient toward the public they serve, a recent study shows.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

• The Senate Armed Services Committee is asking the Senate Budget Committee [15] to make adjustments to the 2011 federal budget to accommodate $264 million in additional benefits in 2011, and $5.4 billion over the next 10 years to allow an expansion of "concurrent receipt."
• The Women Airforce Service Pilots [16], or WASPs, the first women to fly U.S. military plans, were honored with the Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday.
• VA Secretary Eric Shinseki told a House panel [17] on Wednesday that he could cut $2 billion from the department's $15 billion annual procurement budget through management reforms.

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.