Female Vets Issues Getting Attention
Female veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan number more than 230,000 and their ranks grow daily, yet their health issues have rarely received much attention - until now. More...

Brother, Can you Spare a Chair?
Monday morning found Virgil Whitehead delivering furniture to Navy families in southern San Diego County, though it could've just as easily been to Marines in North County or Army reservists in East County. More...

Military Job Fairs a Sham
Mark Baird flunks the subtlety test when talking about military job fairs, especially those attended by defense companies with contacts with the Defense Department, which is just about all of them. "They are a sham. They are a complete waste of time," said Baird, a pastor who, with his wife, Tori, started the free Internet job site HirePatriots.com six years ago at this Fallbrook home. More

DefenseTracker.com offers information on items of interest to the military and veteran communities
* The Department of Labor Announces New Grant Opportunities
* Making the Future: Meet the San Diego Veteran Coalition
* Information on this summer's Purple Camps, A Number Are In California
* Support Needed for USO Airport Center and Downtown Building
* Regulatory Fairness Hearing for Small Business
* Burger King Campaign to Assist VFW Unmet Needs Program Nets $500,000
* Tricare and VA working Together, USAA's Best Year Ever
* Nearly 3,000 Have Responded to the CalVet Survey To Help Prioritize Services to California's Veterans
* VFW FIRES BACK AT DEFENSE OFFICIAL
* SBA Proposes Subtraction Rule to Contracting Goals
* Web Site Aims to Uncover Fakers in Fatigues
More...

True North: A new vet voice rises from the concrete
The grass-roots effort to start a major veterans' organization in San Diego began one dark morning on a North County walkway. The year was 2004 and Chuck Atkinson's Oceanside American Legion Post 146 was hopscotching from place to place to find a meeting location. More...

Book Review: "Distant War: Recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia" By Marc Phillip Yablonka. Time operates in unrelenting linear fashion. Days turn into weeks and then months and then years and then decades. But time in memory obeys its own laws. Events that took place years or decades ago can have sharper focus than yesterday's dinner. More...

San Diego County Veteran Services: Good People, But Better System Needed
It's a paradox found here in Southern California but probably also from Peoria to Miami as well: The worst-off veterans -- often homeless and mentally ill single men -- can get help while veterans struggling to raise families or pay child-support are more or less on their own. More...

inTransition Program helps
If you are a service member currently receiving mental health treatment and you will be transitioning out of the service, or to a new assignment, the new "in Transition" program is for you. Maintaining your psychological health is important. Often during treatment, service members receive new orders, choose to separate from the military, or must retire as a result of an injury related or unrelated to battle. To find out more, go to: inTransition Now Available for Service Members in Mental Health Treatment

VA Changes Rules for Contracting With Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses, But Will it Stop the Fraud?
To squelch fraud by so-called service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, the Veterans Affairs Department has issued new guidelines for bidding on set-aside contracts. But some question whether the changes will provide tangible oversight of a program that awards contracts worth billions every year to SDVOSBs, as they are known. More ...

Fighting Back: A Marine Colonel Takes the Navy to Court
A little case with huge implications is winding its way through federal court back East, where Gary Lambert, a former Marine Corps reserve colonel, is battling his involuntary retirement. More...

Veterans Need Better Support From the Community to Find Jobs; Better Organization Among Service Providers Would Help Too
David Dickey knows life after the military can be hard, even for an infantry officer with a college education and strong credentials. The former major remembers leaving the Marine Corps in 2007 and wondering what to do next and how to do it. Now times that by 30,000, the number of veterans returning to California each year, and you get an idea of the job creation needed to give these men and women a fighting chance to succeed in the civilian world. More...

Navy's Future, North Korea, Pirates and Cyber Space Robustly Debated at Conference
Certain things just aren't said in public. Former Navy commanders don't harangue sitting Navy undersecretaries. Coast Guard advisors don't suggest that "hanging a few colonels" might be good for the services. Marine generals don't advocate a greater role in domestic law enforcement at the expense of civil liberties. And Navy admirals and Marine colonels don't discuss turf battles between major U.S. military commands that allow criminals to have their way. More...

Military Families, Vets Whipsawed by Wars, Economy
How are military families and veterans doing in San Diego County? Like vulnerable populations elsewhere, strapped and struggling, if North County figures from the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society and Interfaith Community Services are any indication. More...

Career Expo
Camp Pendleton hosts job fair Feb. 25, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Advance registration is required. Vets who have no military ID card must register before Feb. 11 so they may be included on a base-access list. More...

Courage to Call
Courage to Call is a new Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) program in San Diego County providing services to those who have served in the Military, Reserves or Guard, and their Families & Loved Ones. More...

Vets: Don't Hide Your Light Under a Bushel Basket!
You've got stories, tell them and enlighten those not fortunate enough to have served in the U.S. military. Veterans and veteran groups are invited to participate in a video history project with the goal of capturing insights and experiences of those who have served our country. Individuals may also wish to sell their story to interested distributors, such as The History Channel. More...

Researcher: Combat No Predictor of Vet Homelessness
Information emerged from the Department of Veteran Affairs Homeless Summit that might raise some eyebrows: The psychological trauma of combat is not the main reason most homeless combat veterans are on the streets. More...

GAO: Better Long-Term Health Care Needed for Vets
The Department of Veterans Affairs is beefing up staffs that handle long-term health care for acutely wounded younger veterans as it grapples with the broader issue of how to take care of aging veterans. More...

San Diego Vets Get Unexpected Help
A Michigan firm is spending millions on pilot programs in San Diego County and San Antonio to design a veterans' services model that might one day become standard nationwide for the country's 24 million veterans. More...

The Ripple Affect: Rep. Bob Filner and Assembly member Mary Salas Discuss SoCal Vet issues with National Implications
A "brain-storming" session headed by House Veterans' Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Bob Filner and state Assembly Member Mary Salas began with both criticizing the California Department of Veterans Affairs for short-comings outlined in a October 2009 state
audit. More...

Marine generals questioned in Pendleton intell case
The case of an intelligence breach at Camp Pendleton that began more than three years ago when naval investigators stumbled upon stolen national security documents has taken an intriguing turn. Two of the Marine Corps' most revered generals have now been questioned about an alleged ring of reservists who military prosecutors say operated under their watches and funneled domestic intelligence to law enforcement in Los Angeles County. More...