Transitionnews for Monday, December 9th 2013:

Good news of the day

Veterans honored, remembered in wreath-laying ceremony  (Asbury Park Press)  A military aircraft streaked over west Cumberland County Saturday morning just in time for its pilot to witness an extraordinary sight.

Transition

Institute for Veterans and Military Families and JPMorgan Chase Expand Veterans Career Transition Program to Include Military Spouses  (Globe Newswire)  The Institute for Veterans and Military Families has expanded eligibility to enroll in its Veterans Career Transition Program to spouses of eligible veterans and active duty servicemembers.

Special hunt helps veterans transition  (JournalGazette.net)  Cecil Stroud grew up hunting deer. But for the last 10 years, he couldn’t do it. He wouldn’t do it. War will do that to you, he’d say.

Discharge upheld for airman who reported sexual assault  (Air Force Times)  A medical board has upheld the discharge of a security forces airman who claims he was improperly diagnosed with a personality disorder after he reported being sexually assaulted by a superior.

Veterans

Veterans First works to house homeless female vets  (SFGate.com)  Two decades ago, Dana Oviatt started her career in the Army as a combat photographer.

Unclaimed S.C. veterans to be buried in Beaufort National Cemetery Friday  (The State)  The remains of 10 military veterans from South Carolina will be interred Friday at a ceremony in Beaufort National Cemetery by an organization that aims to give military funerals to unclaimed veterans, an organization spokesman said.

Veterans Writing Project comes to William & Mary  (Los Angeles Times)  After Ron Capps saw five wars in 10 years, the horrific images began to collide.

Map: Where the World War II veterans are  (The Washington Post)  More than 2,300 Americans died in the attack at Pearl Harbor exactly 72 years ago on Saturday.

VETERANS’ AFFAIRS: American Legion donates $4,000 to cognitive impairment program at Walled Lake Schools  (The Oakland Press)  Sons of the American Legion Post 224 recently donated $4,000 to the Moderate Cognitive Impairment Transitions Program at Walled Lake Schools.

Veterans Affairs

VA pushes online health info for vets, servicemembers  (WeatherfordDemocrat.com)  The Department of Veterans Affairs is urging all veterans and service members to join the millions already accessing VA health care information and service online.

Backlog of claims to VA shrinking  (FloridaToday.com)  David Scheimreif waited for more than a year while his disability claim sat in limbo, along with hundreds of thousands of others, at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

VA Home Loan Benefits Now Available Through Blue Loan Services  (PR Newswire) Blue Loan Services is a full service mortgage company that has been helping residents of California to find the best loan products and home loan rates for many years.

Roy Exum: Woeful Care Of Veterans  (Chattanoogan.com)   The United States spends $150 billion each year to fund the badly-maligned Department of Veterans Affairs.

Benefits

TRICARE Tools: Worldwide Online Access to Worldwide Coverage  (Tricare.mil)  TRICARE is the worldwide health care program serving active duty service members, Guard and Reserve members, retirees, family members, survivors, certain former spouses and others entitled to TRICARE benefits.

Hawke: Share cost for vets’ benefits  (Sentinel & Enterprise)  Massachusetts has some of the most generous veterans benefits in the country, but Gardner Mayor Mark Hawke said the cost of supplying many of those benefits is falling disproportionately on communities like his.

Help Is Hard To Get For Veterans After A Bad Discharge  (NPR)  More than 100,000 troops left the service with other-than-honorable discharges in the last 10 years.

Military Benefits For Same-Sex Couples Blocked At State Level  (USC Annenberg)  The Supreme Court’s recent ruling to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) has paved the way for military members and their same-sex spouses to receive the same military benefits as married heterosexual couples.

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Have a great day!