Wednesday June 25, 2008

The Veterans Administration (VA) is making a special effort to assist veterans who are having trouble making their home mortgage payments.

“VA is reaching out to veterans — both those who use our home-loan guaranty program and those who don’t take advantage of our guaranties — to keep people in their homes,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake in a press release. “I’m proud of our solid record of success in helping veterans and active-duty personnel deal with financial crises.”

By beefing up the staff at its regional loan centers, VA can now provide financial counselors to personally offer advice and even work out special financing arrangements to help veterans and active duty personnel with VA-guarantied loans avoid foreclosure.

The VA can work directly with the lenders on the veteran’s behalf to establish repayment plans, forbearance, and loan modifications that can help veterans keep their homes.

To obtain help from a VA financial counselor, veterans can call VA toll-free at 1-877-827-3702 or visit the VA’s home loan guaranty program Web site.

Also See:
VA Releases 2008 Veterans Benefits Booklet
Veteran’s Suicide Prevention Hotline Begins Operation

A Veteran’s Home Program

Our Foundation works with home improvement companies, veterans’ organizations, local VFW groups and business owners to create suitable homes for veterans.

Veterans may apply through our on-line application process. Each application is carefully evaluated by a screening committee who determine which veteran will benefit the most.

By Jennifer Brooks and Chris Echegaray • THE TENNESSEAN • May 28, 2009

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Fort Campbell soldiers are dying. Not in combat, but at their own hand in a baffling wave of suicides that has claimed at least 11 lives this year.

More soldiers have committed suicide at Fort Campbell than at any other Army post, and on Wednesday, commanders ordered the entire post to shutter its normal military operations for three days. During the stand-down, commanders will talk with their troops and try to identify those who are overwhelmed by the stress of war and multiple deployments — those most at risk of killing themselves.

“This is not a place where Fort Campbell and the 101st Airborne Division want to be,” Brig. Gen. Stephen Townsend said. There have been 11 confirmed suicides, with several other deaths still under investigation. “We don’t want to lead the Army in this statistic.”

This year the Army has reported 65 apparent suicides, 35 of which have been confirmed. There were 128 suicides in 2008 and 115 in 2007.

From January to March, the Clarksville installation averaged one suicide per week, Townsend said. After an Army-wide suicide prevention campaign in March, there were no suicides for six weeks, he said.

“But last week we had two. Two in a week,” said Townsend, who plans to speak with every one of the approximately 25,000 soldiers assigned to the division. The suicides, he told soldiers Wednesday, must stop.

After seven years at war, suicides are up in almost every branch of the military. The question that haunts Fort Campbell is why so many more of their soldiers are killing themselves.

“I think the guys who are in trouble are the ones that don’t want to talk. Then things start to build up. That’s when things happen,” said Pvt. Jason Tara, 37, who is preparing for his second deployment to Afghanistan in January.

Fort Campbell’s suicide rate may be aggravated by the strain of frequent deployments.

Since 2001, three 101st Airborne combat brigades have gone through at least three tours in Iraq. The 3rd Brigade also served seven months in Afghanistan, early in the war, and the 4th Brigade has just returned from a 15-month tour in Afghanistan.

“Our soldiers are just a bagful of stress,” said Joe Varney, Fort Campbell’s lone suicide prevention program manager. “A mental or emotional wound is just as serious as a physical wound. That’s the message we’re trying to get out there.”

Common thread emerges

The strain at Fort Campbell spills into the families and the community beyond.

Britt McBryar, a Clarksville resident and son of a retired Army man, said the soldiers’ stress is manifesting itself on the roads around town — soldiers driving recklessly, driving angrily.

“They’re so stressed out, they’re causing the roads to be really dangerous,” McBryar said.

Varney, who has studied every suicide, looking for common patterns and triggers, has built a profile of the typical soldiers most at risk: young white males between the ages of 19 and 25, at the lower end of the military pay scale.

One common thread runs through the deaths — 70 percent of them suffered through a major breakdown in their personal relationships before they took their own lives, Varney said.

“When a soldier deploys for 15 months, their social network starts to break down,” Varney said. The soldiers lose contact with their parents, siblings, friends, wives, husbands, children and significant others and find it hard to reconnect when they return home.

Heather Meyer, the wife of a Fort Campbell soldier and the daughter of a Navy man, knows well the toll military life and repeated deployments can take on an entire family. Although her husband has been through several suicide-prevention seminars, she said she wasn’t aware just how widespread the problem was at the base until the stand-down.

Her husband has been through one deployment and will head back overseas in January. She said the two of them survived the stress, but she knows others struggle.

“He seems fine,” she said of her husband, whom she didn’t want to identify. “I know some of them don’t come back fine. There’s stress with the marriage or divorce. I just try to wish them well, and people need to be more supportive of them.”

Cultural change needed

During the stand-down, commanders will try to hammer home the message that soldiers need to be there for each other. Getting that message through means combating the stereotype that soldiers don’t talk about their feelings, especially with each other.
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“Unfortunately, it’s going to take a cultural change to overcome that stigma,” Varney said. “Our biggest battle is at the unit level, peer on peer — the ribbing, the taunting, the teasing” that soldiers can face if they admit to needing help.

Pastor Tommy Vallejos, whose Faith Outreach Church counts at least 250 soldiers among its members, often finds himself urging soldiers to seek more comprehensive mental health.

“I think it all adds up,” Vallejos said. “They’ve been deployed four or five times, and it’s a strain on the marriage, a strain on the finances, a strain on your personal life.”

Vallejos, who was in the military for 21 years, understands the stress.

“You try to resume your life with some normalcy, but it’s hard,” he said. “As pastors we can pray and give Biblical guidance, but some need psychological help that we are not qualified to give,” he said. “Here’s the truth about it: Yes, we have to defend our country, but we have to be fathers, husbands and have to function.”

Contact Jennifer Brooks at 615-259-8892 or jabrooks@tennessean.com.
The Associated Press and Leaf-Chronicle reporter Jake Lowary contributed to this report.

Our Veterans, Our Heroes™ Foundation was created to directly address four of the most serious challenges and needs of our military personnel upon their return home – long-term health care, home foreclosures, homelessness and the growing suicide rate among veterans.  The OVOH Foundation has a unique way to answer this call.  We present a series of OVOH entertainment events where proceeds go directly to veterans in need of help.  We offer our supporters an opportunity to make an immediate and positive difference in our heroes’ lives by buying tickets to OVOH Foundation entertainment events and donating their time and resources to the organization in order to make these events highly successful.

The 2009 OVOH Concert Series consists of three events  – “This Is Our Country,” a country music show scheduled at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville; “Stand Up for Veterans,” an evening of comedy  at Fort Hood and “Heroes Live,” a 3-day rock music event scheduled at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington. The talent for each show will include a mix of marquee entertainment industry artists as well as “stars on the rise” in the business. These awareness-driven concerts will elevate the issues that impact our veterans. Each show will be distributed to television, radio, Internet. They will also be recorded for CD/DVD packaged releases.  The OVOH Foundation is committed to distributing 100% of the concert earnings, after expenses, to organizations that directly address the needs of individual veterans and their families.

We value every donation and to show our appreciation each donation of $20 or more will receive a stainless steel dog tag.  The Our Veterans, Our Heroes ™ team elegantly redesigned the Dog Tag and proudly presents it as a universal non-partisan symbol of patriotism and support for our troops. This unisex necklace is engraved with “Our Veterans” on one tag and “Our Heroes” on the other.  The tags serve as a continual reminder of the sacrifice of our men and woman in uniform.  Since symbols carry so much meaning in our culture we believe that it is essential to have a national symbol that honors our veterans and acknowledges the struggles they face today and every day.

The dog tag design is also incorporated into other items such as lapel pins, bracelets, baseball caps, T-shirts, license plates, car magnets, bumper stickers and more. These items are available through www.ovohfoundation.org as well as other retail outlets.  As a “thank you” for larger donations, we will gift some of these additional items.

The OVOH Foundation core team consists of three business executives, Ken Fry, George Nauful and Lisa Knorr. They bring a wealth of experience and knowledge that is highlighted by decades of work in the entertainment industry.  The members of the large and diverse Board of Directors lend their expertise in fundraising, marketing, Internet and finance.  Ken Fry, OVOH Founder and CEO, is motivated by the belief that “Our men and women in uniform have fought and continue to fight for what we all believe in – our country and our freedom.  It is by caring for them when they return home that we honor them for their remarkable service.”

NVF’s hands on approach is needed now more than ever, especially as a new generation of veterans begin populating the streets. The work of the Street Team aims to get these vets off the streets and give these men and women who have fought for our country, but who now fight depression, PTSD, and alcoholism, a second chance at life. By offering these vets dignity, information, a listening ear, and a chance to get help the street teams make meaningful contact that can lead to successful rehabilitation.

The NVF knows that vets respond best to fellow vets who can relate to their experiences—up close and in person. By making personal contact with people on the street, the Street Team establishes trust and rapport that makes them more likely to seek help and in turn, enables the NVF to better communicate their needs to other service providers and the public.

As the Street Team program grows the NVF hopes to reach out to more and more homeless vets and help them on the difficult journey of coming home. Your generous contribution will help support this crucial mission.

Donate Now!

The film makers turned to the military for an accurate account of the protocol. Beginning at Walter Reed, our fallen are prepared for burial by a devoted and reverent staff. The soldier’s dress uniforms are crisp and tailored, their brass plates and buttons polished. They then are escorted home by a comrade who takes on the role of watchman and witness. This lengthy and heart-wrenching ritual has been played out thousands of times since we began our conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Since media coverage of deceased vets returning home since the 1991 Gulf War has not been encouraged by the Defense Department, many of us who are not family, friends or comrades have not been part of this awe-inspiring ceremony. As I sat on my sofa with tears in my eyes, I was struck by how essential it is for all Americans to know that our servicemen are treated with so much respect. I highly recommend that you and your family watch “Taking Chance” as the script is both thoughtful and respectful. This story carefully draws you into this sad, important and beautiful observance.

WASHINGTON —  The Army is investigating a stunning number of suicides in January — a count that could surpass all combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan last month.

According to figures obtained by The Associated Press, there were 24 suspected suicides in January, compared to only four in January of 2008.

Yearly suicides have been rising steadily since 2004 amid increasing stress on the force from long and repeated tours of duty to America’s two ongoing wars.

The alarming monthly count follows an annual report last week showing that soldiers killed themselves at the highest rate on record in 2008. The toll for all of last year — 128 confirmed and 15 pending investigation — was an increase for the fourth straight year and even surpassed the suicide rate among civilians.

“The trend and trajectory seen in January further heightens the seriousness and urgency that all of us must have in preventing suicides,” Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, said of the new monthly report Thursday.

The 24 suspected January suicides include seven confirmed and 17 still being investigated. Usually the vast majority of suspected suicides are eventually confirmed, and if that holds true it would mean that self-inflicted deaths surpassed the 16 combat deaths reported in all branches of the armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan last month.

In announcing the 2008 figures last week, the Army said it would hold special training from Feb. 15 to March 15 to help troops recognize suicidal behaviors and to intervene if they see such behavior in a buddy. After that, the Army also plans a suicide prevention program for all soldiers from the top of the chain of command down.

Yearly increases in suicides have been recorded since 2004, when there were 64 all year. Officials said they found that the most common factors were soldiers suffering problems with their personal relationships, legal or financial issues and problems on the job.

Credit:

As a small-business leader I often struggle to find good people to hire in order to add much-needed value to my business. Over the years I have tried pretty much every approach and the typical methods have yielded sporadic results at best.

But one tactic that has always been successful is to hire US military veterans. This may have come naturally to me: I grew up in a military family, surrounded by my father, aunts, uncles, and cousins, all who served in various branches of the armed forces and all living examples of integrity.

The following sets forth a list of reasons employers should strongly consider candidates with military experience on their resume:

Veterans Are Team-Players.

Few people understand the value of teamwork better than someone whose life has depended on it. From basic training on, veterans have been taught that each member of the team has a responsibility to his or her colleagues and that failing to uphold that responsibility can have disastrous consequences. In business this translates into a candidate who works hard to foster teamwork and camaraderie and goes the extra mile to maintain a strong and effective team.

Veterans Understand & Adapt to New Technology.

It is well known that the US Military is the most technologically advanced organization in the world. In fact, today’s veterans are often trained on cutting edge technologies that have not yet reached the private sector. Gone are the days where an infantry soldier’s only weapon was his rifle; today wars are fought with high technology and the skills obtained in military service can often be a great benefit to businesses of all sizes.

Veterans Bring a Global Perspective.

Many military veterans have traveled the world in order to serve our country and spread democracy. In the process, they were exposed to a variety of cultures, which fosters the kind of global outlook needed in virtually all enterprises operating in today’s global economy.

Veterans Are Trained Leaders.

The US military trains people not only to follow orders but also to lead by example. Veterans have experience communicating direction, delegating tasks, and motivating others. Veterans are used to managing people and personalities even in the most trying circumstances.

Veterans Perform Under Pressure.

No matter how well-run your business seems to be, there will eventually be times when things become stressful and in order to succeed a successful candidate will need to be able to think clearly, adapt to change, and stay focused on objectives. A military veteran knows what it means to be under-fire and has experience successfully dealing the rigors of tight schedules and limited resources. Today’s veterans have proven themselves capable of accomplishing priorities on time, no matter how much pressure is applied.

Veterans Take Pride In Success.

Some may call it confidence or even arrogance but many US military veterans take great pride in the fact that they have proven their mettle in the most effective military the world has ever known. A veteran is used to holding themselves to the highest standard and that translates into a disciplined employee who pushes to achieve and over-achieve on a regular basis. It’s no wonder you can often see that ‘Top-Gun’ swagger in veterans for years after leaving the military.

Veterans Know the Value Of Integrity.

The Military experience fosters personnel who take pride in doing an honest day’s work. A core set of values is developed in a soldier who is rewarded for serving with honor, integrity, honesty, sincerity, and trustworthiness. In addition military vets have often obtained security clearances that can be valuable for many businesses.

In addition to the above cited benefits and the obvious warm and fuzzy feelings that come from hiring someone who has served our country, I’m sure there are still more reasons that can be added to the list. If you can think of any, please add them to the comments below.

Brent Phelps is VP of Business Development & Marketing for FullTurn Media, a producer of expert health-related text and video content funded by Village Ventures. Brent is also a professional photographer and has many relatives who served in the US Military.

By Brent Phelps

Credits:  http://www.myvetwork.com/article_hire_vets.htm