Transitionnews for Tuesday, December 24th 2013:

Good news story of the day

Hundreds of strangers give veteran’s ashes trip of lifetime  (Fox News)  For 3 ½ years, a black stone urn of C.J. Twomey’s ashes has sat on a shelf in his parents’ Maine home, not far from the door he walked out of one beautiful April day shortly before shooting himself.

Transition

Nonprofit: Group helps veterans find temporary housing  (Missoulian)  A group of nine Billings residents are the first to join the Fort Knox Warrior in Transition Association (FK WTA), a nonprofit organization established in March 2013. According to the FK WTA’s president Dr. Pete Trzop, under the current administration there is no government funding available to provide temporary housing for the soldiers and their families of the Warrior in Transition Battalion (WTB).

Eligible officers, enlisted members offered early retirement  (Air Force Personnel Center)  Staff through senior master sergeants and captains through lieutenant colonels in certain Air Force specialty codes may apply to retire with fewer than 20 years of active service under the Temporary Early Retirement Authority, Air Force Personnel Center officials announced.

Norwalk Community College Launches Program To Help Veterans  (Fairfield Daily Voice)  Norwalk Community College is making it easier for returning veterans to succeed in college and get back in the workforce by launching a new program just for them.

State Officials Celebrate “Mission: Veteran 2 Entrepreneurs”  (The Times Weekly)  As many veterans struggle to find a job or start a career, the administration of Governor Pat Quinn hosted more than 100 veterans at the College of DuPage to learn about starting or growing their own businesses as part of the state’s “Mission: Veteran 2 Entrepreneurs” (MV2E) program.

Airmen facing Quality Force Review Board to be notified Jan. 6  (Air Force Times)  Airmen will be told Jan. 6 if they will be considered by the Air Force’s first Quality Force Review Board that will convene May 5 to 16, according to a Dec. 19 memo obtained by Air Force Times.

Veterans

Penske Truck Rental Donation Brightens Holidays for Paralyzed Veterans of America  (Business Wire)  Paralyzed Veterans of America (Paralyzed Veterans) today announced that Penske Truck Rental, one of the leading consumer and commercial truck rental providers in North America, donated $255,157 to benefit Paralyzed Veterans’ Mission: ABLE campaign.

Winning Veterans’ Trust, and Profiting From It  (The New York Times)  With every slip and fall, every bruise and ache, the reality set in: Henry Schaffer, 86, could no longer live on his own. So his daughter, Kristi, began searching for a retirement home — and the money to pay for it.

Local Charity Helps Disabled Military Veteran  (DigTriad.com)  Breaking the cycle of poverty isn’t easy. That’s why one organization prides itself on helping people before they fall into poverty.

Medal of Honor recipient Hernandez dies at 82  (Military Times)  Cpl. Rudy Hernandez, who fought in the Korean War and was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1952, has died at Womack Army Medical Center. He was 82.

Veterans return to streets to make inroads with chronically homeless vets  (Fox News)  Not far from where the Boston Massacre helped sow the seeds for the Revolutionary War, David Dyer points toward the underpass where he’d score crack cocaine by day and the train depot where he’d sleep some nights.

Village Grande at Little Mill residents give $2,400 to Wounded Warrior Project  (Press of Atlantic City)  At this giving time of year, the residents of the Village Grande at Little Mill adult housing community in Egg Harbor Township wanted to do something to make life easier for those who don’t get much recognition.

Veterans Affairs

Grand Island group’s plan for veterans home ready  (SFGate.com)  A Grand Island group opposing construction of a new veterans home in Kearney has finished drawing up plans for an $80 million project at the existing Grand Island facility.

Oklahoma City VA Medical Center patients get holiday cards  (NewsOK)  Cards collected during the Holiday Mail for Heroes program were given to patients at the Oklahoma City Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Friday.

Veterans Affairs supervisor indicted, accused of stealing government property  (WKYC.com)  A supervisor at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has been arrested, according to Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

Benefits

1 percent pay raise latest pinch for troops, veterans struggling to pay bills  (Fox News)  President Obama on Monday signed an executive order giving military personnel and civilian federal workers a 1 percent pay raise, the first raise for civilians in four years. But for military families, it was another hit.

Cuts to military pensions in doubt, but future changes to troop pay, benefits likely  (Associated Press)  The Pentagon’s top civilian says it’s time to tame burgeoning military personnel costs, but he’s facing a test of wills with the nation’s powerful veterans groups, which want no cut in their benefits.

Lawmakers to Address Unemployment and Military Benefits  (KTSP.com)  More than 1 million people are set to be cut off of federal unemployment benefits just three days after Christmas.

Veterans groups vow to fight cuts in military pensions  (Fox News)  The Pentagon’s top civilian says it’s time to tame burgeoning military personnel costs, but he’s facing a test of wills with the nation’s powerful veterans groups, which want no cut in their benefits.

Paul Ryan: Retirement pay can’t take over defense budget  (USA Today)

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Have a great day!