Transitionnews for Monday, December 2 2013:

Good news story of the day

Military Veterans Are Leading The Way In Delivering Aid To The Philippines  (Business Insider)  The plastic crate sitting outside a sweltering makeshift military terminal serves as both a seat for Peter Meijer and a container for 150-plus pounds of nails, hammers, and military-style quick-prep meals.

Transition

Anne Arundel readies for job hunting veterans  (SFGate.com)  Marine veteran Bernard Jenifer was one of hundreds of vets at Fort George G. Meade last month for a job fair. He trained in engineering, but has been unemployed for months.

Connect-a-Vet program helps veterans get work skills, jobs  (WacoTrib.com)  A new program aims to help local veterans learn new work skills through community service projects to increase their chances of finding jobs.

Veterans

Veterans Running For Congress Campaign As Can-Do Candidates  (Huffington Post)  When he meets voters in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, former Army Ranger Kevin Strouse recounts how he helped clear a city block in Iraq during the rescue of prisoner of war Jessica Lynch in 2003.

Female veterans do battle for benefits at home   (Chicago Tribune)  When Xatavia Hughes, the granddaughter of a military man, went to serve in Iraq, she was prepared to prove herself to the male soldiers.

Veterans’ Corner: New license plate design benefits vets’ fund   (Indiana Gazette)    Gov. Tom Corbett recently announced a number of new initiatives to help and support Pennsylvania’s more than 950,000 veterans.

Affordable Care Act Q&A: Most veterans don’t need exchange  (The Tampa Tribune)  There’s a reason the national health insurance debate doesn’t include much about the men and women who served in the military. The new exchange doesn’t apply to them.

Veterans Affairs

Report: VA prescribes opiates to patients not seen  (SFGate.com)  Doctors at the San Francisco VA Medical Center regularly renewed prescriptions for highly addictive narcotic painkillers for veterans they had never seen, according to a new report by the Department of Veterans Affairs‘ inspector general.

Tom Hayden: Merchant Marine vets deserve benefits for service  (News-press.com)  Recently, I was privileged to speak before a group of people, who struggle to hear, struggle to see and struggle to take their next steps. For me, none of that mattered.

Georgia veterans face disability claim delay  (The Augusta Chronicle)  Georgia veterans filing disability claims often face longer delays than their counterparts in other states.

Benefits

GI sex-assault victims face battle for disability benefits  (San Antonio Express News)  Months have passed since sexual-assault victim Virginia Messick left the Air Force and sought disability compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Army extends new benefits to soldiers’ same-sex spouses  (Army Times)  Army Secretary John McHugh has approved several policy changes that support extending military benefits to the same-sex spouses of soldiers.

CNO: You may have to pay for tuition benefit  (Navy Times)  The Navy plans to fully fund its tuition assistance coffers in fiscal 2014 at the same $84 million level it paid out in 2013. But after that, all bets are off.

Putting Military Pay on the Table  (The New York Times)  Big-ticket weapons like aircraft carriers and the F-35 fighter jet have to be part of any conversation about cutting Pentagon spending to satisfy the mandatory budget reductions known as the sequester. But compensation for military personnel has to be on the table, too — even though no other defense issue is more politically volatile or emotionally fraught.

Employment

Defense Executives: Shortage of Engineers Is Not a Myth  (National Defense)  U.S. defense executives are pushing back on suggestions that a shortage of science, math and engineering graduates is a fake crisis.

Hiring underway as expansion of VA Clinic nears completion  (Billings Gazette)  Contractors anticipate finishing the newly expanded 70,000-square-foot Veterans Affairs Clinic in Billings by Feb. 1.

Have a great day!