Mclean, U.S.A. – On July 27, 2012 Lynette Spano, founder of Stars, Stripes, & Hearts, announced that her organization is producing a national benefit concert in Washington, D.C. at the historic Warner Theater on October 15, 2012, in recognition and support of Latino/Hispanic American military service members and their families.

Spano, a Puerto Rican American, is among the most successful Latina businesswomen in America. As a way of giving back, she created the first ever online wall of honor, www.awarriorswall.org, where anyone can tweet a photo of a loved one serving in the military.

Her latest and most ambitious effort is the creation of Stars, Stripes, & Hearts, dedicated to raising funds through national benefit concerts in support of exceptional health and education-related charities that provide comprehensive and culturally competent support services to Latino/Hispanic military families impacted by the invisible wounds of war.

Her first concert will be held during National Hispanic Heritage Month. All proceeds from the Bandera y Corazones concert series will be donated to charitable organizations that provide relief to Latino/Hispanic service members and families impacted by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), depression and other invisible wounds of war. Latinos/Hispanics have higher rates of PTSD than any other ethnicity or race in America.

Although all proceeds from the concerts will be donated to charities that provide assistance to military veterans and families facing challenging circumstances, the concerts themselves will be a celebration – a celebration highlighting the strength, honor and commitment of our men and women in uniform and the vast contributions of Latinos and Hispanics serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. Invitations to perform at this year’s concert have been extended to leading Latin recording artists, such as Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony.

“Latino/Hispanic families, statistically speaking, have suffered more than any other ethnicity in America during the recent military conflicts overseas,” says Spano. “However, no one has thanked them in a way that recognizes who they are, where they come from or how important they are to the strength, vitality and security of this great nation.”

For information, please visit http://www.starsstripesandhearts.org/ or e-mail StarsStripesandHearts@gmail.com.

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Washington, U.S.A. — The states of Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina and Texas will receive grants totaling $3 million to develop strategies aimed at helping returning Army veterans find employment more quickly through the public workforce system, Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis announced on July 24. This funding represents an initiative of the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Army under the Unemployment Compensation for Ex-service Members program.

“The Labor Department is deeply committed to providing employment services and benefits that best support the men and women who have served our country, and the grants announced today are an example of that commitment,” said Secretary Solis. “Ensuring Army veterans have expedited access to job training and job placement services is one way our nation honors their sacrifices.”

This initiative will provide each of the four states with $750,000 to develop new strategies to enhance outreach and re-employment services for Army unemployment compensation claimants. Examples of strategies include improved tracking of claimants across federal programs to better link unemployed veterans to potential job opportunities; increasing staff capacity to help claimants understand which military skills can be transferred to civilian careers; expanding service delivery through agency partnerships, such as opening employment service satellite offices in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs locations; and expanding outreach activities to better connect these veterans to American Job Centers, job fairs and other services that can expedite their return to work.

“These grants are an important step toward ensuring that the soldiers who so valiantly and selflessly served our nation get the help they need transitioning back to civilian life,” said Secretary of the Army John McHugh. “By sharing information, improving access to re-employment services and increasing outreach opportunities, we can help Army veterans get better access to and information about job opportunities. I’m grateful to Secretary Solis and the Department of Labor for their support. This is great news for the Army and its veterans.”

The four states selected have large populations of Army veterans who are unemployment compensation claimants and have been actively collaborating with both the Labor Department and the Army to improve veterans’ access to the public workforce system. These grants will be implemented over the next two years, and the promising practices developed with these investments will be shared with other states and expanded to include other branches of the military.

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Mcleam, Virginia, U.S.A - Honor for ALL, in cooperation with the Code of Support Foundation, announced that a special “Visible Honor for Invisible Wounds” event on June 27th will commemorate the third annual National Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Day. This day, that was introduced by Senator Kent Conrad (D, ND), calls for the nation to set aside this date to create a greater level of awareness and understanding of the issues facing many service members returning from war.

The event is open to the public and will include addresses by representatives of the Chiefs of our Armed Services, members of the Executive and Legislative branches, and distinguished individuals from the healthcare sector. Most important, affected service members and veterans will take part in the program. Senator Conrad will deliver the keynote remarks. Ceremonies will begin promptly at 10:00 AM in Upper Senate Park adjacent to the Russell Senate Office Building.

“Our goals are simple, but critically important,” said Thomas Mahany, president of Honor for ALL. “We want all Americans to understand the true nature of PTSD to help remove the stigma that still surrounds this type of injury. And, yes, PTSD is an ‘injury’ for which there is treatment and a healing process,” he added. “Just as our troops never leave a wounded comrade behind on the battlefield, we must not leave those who suffer from invisible wounds behind as we honor our troops, their family members and our veterans. By instilling dignity, we can preserve lives,”concluded Mahany with reference to the disproportionate rates of suicide among these groups.

Other speakers scheduled to appear include the Surgeons General of the Army, Air Force, Navy and National Guard, and the Sergeant Major of the Army, Raymond Chandler. Speakers from key partner organizations include Kristina Kaufmann, Executive Director of the Code of Support Foundation, Pam Derrow from CAUSE, and Mark Robbins of the Yellow Ribbon Fund.

Honor for ALL, is dedicated to establishing visible recognition of the invisible wounds of post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, depression and survivor’s guilt. Its mission is to conquer the stigma, preserve the dignity of families, and most importantly, stop the tragic loss from suicide of service members, veterans and family members.

The Code of Support Foundation is dedicated to bridging the gap between the American people and our Armed Forces. Its mission is to ensure that all Americans understand the service and sacrifice of our troops and their families, and are committed and actively engaged in doing their part in support of our national defense. The foundation, a, was established in 2010, and helps identify, vet and support other non-profit organizations that support military communities.

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San Diego, U.S.A. – Skye Maritime, a new firm offering security and anti-piracy solutions for clients operating in war risk regions at sea, is beginning operations this month. The company, launched by two U.S. Armed Forces veterans, provides a specialized training and ethics based approach to security, employing teams of highly skilled professionals with backgrounds in the U.S. armed forces and law enforcement communities.

The firm helps clients by providing services aimed at understanding and predicting changes in pirate threat tactics, techniques and procedures. In-turn they offer protection to combat those threats, including detailed risk assessments, physical security consulting, and embedded armed teams. Their security professionals are carefully screened, receive extensive follow-on threat-based training, and deploy with superior insurance, weapons and equipment. Skye Maritime’s operations are centered on carefully vetted rules for the use of force and standard operating procedures supported by a 24/7 maritime operations center to ensure each mission is executed with extreme precision. Their procedures and credentials have been carefully vetted and approved by a major U.S. shipping company who now enlists Skye Maritime as an authorized service vendor.

“We are excited to offer our distinctive security services to our clients who are looking for reliable protection for their vessels, crew and cargo,” says Skye Maritime CEO Mike Slattery, who served with distinction in the Navy aboard the submarine USS Jimmy Carter conducting classified missions around the world. “We have carefully and purposefully spent the past year building our procedures and training our teams with extensive care and precision. We are confident our uniquely professional approach to maritime security will distinguish Skye Maritime as a highly trusted company that will bring our clients added value in very uncertain environments around the globe.”

Slattery has partnered with Alexander Martin, who serves as President of Skye Maritime, and is a former active duty Marine Corps Captain who led infantry, reconnaissance and special operations units in multiple combat deployments. Together they formed Skye Maritime, in part, to create full-time jobs for veterans with special operations and combat experience; specifically those who were born to lead, protect and serve. The firm operates under the standard that its in-house assessment, selection and training curriculum coupled with the seasoned combat professionals that go through each course best prepares its maritime security team members to make the right decisions in a complex maritime environment and enable them to more accurately identify credible threats and, in such a situation, react with discretion and restraint.

“While serving as the assault element leader of the counter-piracy operations raid force for Task Force 151 off the coast of Somalia, our unit embraced the understanding that what was ‘special’ about our special operations capability was that we didn’t shoot if we didn’t have to – that we would train harder and perform with a higher degree of professionalism and excellence so that we did not have to take any lives if at all possible. That was exactly what happened when we took back the Magellan Star from pirates in 2010,” explained Martin. “That very same ethos of restraint, discipline, excellence and dedication to our mission is the heartbeat of Skye Maritime.”

Based in Southern California, Skye Maritime is fully certified and licensed to move weapons and provide security services with governmental approvals from the United States and multiple countries at strategic embark/debark positions around the world.

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November President Obama signed into law the “Vow to Hire Heroes Act” designed to increase employment opportunities for America’s veterans. But a key provision in the act creating an expedited process for hiring returning soldiers for federal jobs is being undermined by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) – the very agency responsible for improving veterans’ lives.

The VA hires more veterans than any other federal agency except the Department of Defense. However, according to the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the AFL-CIO union that represents over 205,000 VA employees, the agency continues to violate federal law by contracting out work that has been traditionally performed by veterans. The outsourced jobs include many entry level jobs that disabled veterans rely on to get back on their feet after returning from the battlefield.

The process began during the Bush Administration, when the number of VA hospitals and cemeteries that outsourced work historically performed by veterans skyrocketed.  Jobs that embodied the tradition of “veterans helping veterans,” such as cemetery caretakers, laundry and food service workers, housekeepers, groundskeepers, and transportation assistants, disappeared as more and more contractors were handed the work without the required studies to show whether contracting out was cost-effective to taxpayers.

Unfortunately, under the Obama Administration, the illegal outsourcing of entry-level VA jobs has become more prevalent.  Recently, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) entered into a $54 million, three-year contract with ACS Government Systems, a major contractor in the federal sector, for claims processing work currently performed by large numbers of veterans.

ACS will develop disability and pension claims, help VBA convert to a paperless system, and conduct outreach to encourage more veterans to file claims online.  To add insult to injury, the VBA employees are being asked to volunteer to train the contractors to do their work.

The excessive use of contract health care services also presents a serious dilemma for veterans receiving VA care and the many veterans who join the VA health care workforce after saving lives on the battlefield.

“Contract physicians and nurses lack the specialized skills and best practices of clinicians who dedicate their lives to serving the veteran population as VA employees,” said AFGE National VA Council President Alma Lee. “It’s the workforce’s commitment to veterans’ care that makes the VA a world-class and very cost effective health care system.  Excessive contracting out has put many medical centers in the red, without benefitting the patient. ”

“We all know who is hurt the most by these growing outsourcing practices,” said AFGE National President John Gage, “It’s the veteran on the receiving end of the agency’s services. Contract claims processors working for profit will now handle the most personal information of our veterans.”

Moreover, said AFGE, most of the VA’s contracts violate federal sourcing law that bans federal work from being given away to contractors without a fair competition between public and private employees. The requirement for agencies to conduct a cost-benefit analysis before awarding a contract was set in a 2009 Appropriations law passed by a bipartisan Congress.

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Generation Opportunity President Paul T. Conway, former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Labor under Secretary Elaine L. Chao, responds to the January 2012 jobs numbers report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

“Young Americans, including young veterans who have honorably served their nation, are being told by President Obama and his administration to settle for a new economic status quo where the lack of jobs, high unemployment, a record high number of people dropping out of the labor force, and limited economic opportunity are considered normal.

Instead of being allowed to pursue their dreams and careers through meaningful work, regular paychecks, and new skills gained on the job, the ongoing poor economy is forcing young adults to delay their plans, delay their lives, and scramble to simply make ends meet.

“Despite thirty-six consecutive monthly jobs reports with unemployment over eight percent and a new CBO forecast of higher unemployment in the year to come, the message from the Obama administration to young Americans is to expect more of the same — higher taxes, more regulations, and more federal interference targeted at private sector job creators.

Young adults pay dearly for this administration’s disregard and diminishment of private employers. Their level of aloofness and lack of empathy for the daily concerns of young Americans is as astounding as it is unacceptable.”

January’s 8.3 percent overall jobless rate fails to reflect the significant and ongoing challenges faced by young Americans in the continually poor economy. Joblessness among Millennials ages 18-29 is already at historic levels since the end of World War II, and hidden behind January’s numbers is the fact that many Americans have either accepted short-term, seasonal work or simply given up looking for work and are, therefore, not factored into the unemployment rate.

Even worse, the long-term U.S. job growth picture remains grim based on an official report released this week by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). CBO’s January 31, 2012 report concluded “a large portion of the economic and human costs of the recession and slow recovery remains ahead.”

CBO is also forecasting that the U.S. unemployment rate could reach 8.9 percent by the end of 2012, and could potentially increase to 9.2 percent in the year 2013. Finally, the report forecasts that the unemployment rate could remain as high as seven percent through the end of 2015, and that economic activity may remain “below the economy’s potential until 2018.”

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Paralyzed Veterans of America commends President Obama for stressing the important need to take care of our veterans in Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

In his speech, he said: “Above all, our freedom endures because of the men and women in uniform who defend it. As they come home, we must serve them as well as they’ve served us. That includes giving them the care and the benefits they have earned – which is why we’ve increased annual VA spending every year I’ve been President. And it means enlisting our veterans in the work of rebuilding our nation.”

He then highlighted the new tax credits package that was passed last fall for companies that hire veterans and also spoke about the efforts by first lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden to get American businesses to secure a pledge of 135,000 jobs for veterans and their families. He also proposed a Veterans Jobs Corps that will help communities hire veterans as cops and firefighters, so that “America is as strong as those who defend her.”

“Paralyzed Veterans of America applauds President Obama for the work he’s done with Congress to continually increase VA funding each year and the efforts he has made to help get our unemployed veterans back to work. We hope the increased funding for VA continues with his budget request for this year,” said Bill Lawson, national president of Paralyzed Veterans of America.

On the complex issue of tackling the problem of unemployment, Lawson welcomed the President making it one of his top priorities. “We need all leaders and all sectors — public and private — to play their part to get this economy moving for everyone and especially our unemployed veterans who have so many great skills to offer and have done so much for our country,” added Lawson.

Immediately following the release of the President’s budget request (expected to be released on February 13), Paralyzed Veterans of America, along with AMVETS, the Disabled American Veterans, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, will release ‘The Independent Budget’, a comprehensive budget and policy document that outlines veterans’ health-care and benefits funding and policy recommendations for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Please visit www.independentbudget.org or www.pva.org for more information.

Sixty-six years ago, Paralyzed Veterans of America was founded by a band of spinal cord injured service members who returned home from World War II to a grateful nation, but also to a world with few solutions to the challenges they faced. These veterans from the “Greatest Generation” made a decision not just to live, but to live with dignity as contributors to society. They created an organization, dedicated to veterans’ service, medical research, and civil rights for people with disabilities. For more than six decades, Paralyzed Veterans of America and its 34 chapters have been working to create an America where all veterans, their families, and people with disabilities have everything they need to thrive. (www.pva.org).

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It seems to be a growing trend across all of the major sporting leagues in the United States that aging veterans seem to spend the final years of their career doing anything they can to put one more championship ring on their finger.

Players who were once dominant, but that father time may have finally caught up with, often claim in their last years that they are ready to take a diminished role in order to help a team win. This humble attitude rings true when the contract is signed, but often hits a snag once the games begin.

One of the most recent examples of this has been seen with recently retired center Shaquille O’ Neal. In his last four seasons in the NBA he saw stints with Phoenix, Cleveland, and Boston all end in disappointing fashion.

In Shaq’s case, injuries got the best of him, which is both understandable and commonplace for athletes that are in their upper 30′s or even 40′s. Unfortunately some of these chases end in an even uglier fashion.

Let’s take Ricky Henderson for example. He was so sure that he could still play the game and run the bases like he used to, that he spend the last years of his career playing for the Newark Bears in the Independent Atlantic League while desperately trying to prove that he could still contribute to a Major League club. A failed attempt.

There are countless other examples that I could run through. Brett Favre with the Vikings, Karl Malone with the Lakers, and even David Beckham with the L.A. Galaxy are just some off the top of my head that didn’t quite live up to what they once were. This is not to say they weren’t contributing, but it is surely to say that they weren’t doing exactly what they thought they could do for the team.

I admire the fact that these athletes still believe that they can go out and perform to their prime potential even in their later years. To be honest, in the same position I could see myself making a similar decision.

I also respect the fact that these people are used to living a lavish lifestyle, and a multi-million dollar contract is nearly impossible to walk away from no matter how old you may be.

What is tough for me and many other sports fans to see is when these players do one of two things. Sometimes, as sad as it is, they find a way to embarrass themselves, and somewhat tarnish their greatest moments.

As mentioned before, Brett Favre is the most obvious example of this phenomenon. His ridiculous faux retirements and countless comebacks put a terrible taste in most fans mouths. Many Packers fans turned on him, and many Jets and Vikings fans were disappointed when they saw his limited production on the field.

I actually am a big Brett Favre fan when I take in the entire arc of his career. That being said, I, and many other fans I’m sure, wish he would have just hung up the cleats after his days in Green Bay. Having the itch to play is one thing, but his antics were something else altogether.

The second thing I hate to see is when an aging vet still can’t accept a reserve role to help the team. All too often they still believe that they could be the dynamic starters they once were, even when that is clearly no longer the case. The ego gets in the way.

Last season in Germany, 32 year old Miroslav Klose demanded a starting spot on Bayern Munich. He insisted he was in top shape. The sad truth however was that Mario Gomez is a rising star for the team, and at 25 years old, he is the clear choice for the future. As tough as it may be for some former stars to accept that their prime has passed them by, any humble qualities go out the window with an act like this.

It is incredibly difficult to say what should be done in such a situation. As a fan however it is equally difficult to see some athletes make the choices they do and fail in the latter years of their career.

Another key example is about to happen before our eyes in the upcoming NBA season.

Last week the news was broken that former Philadelphia 76′ers guard Allen Iverson wanted to make a return to the NBA to finish his career “the right way.”

I refuse to bash him just yet, because I fully understand why he would want to end his fantastic career in the NBA rather than in the Turkish league, but I am surely not expecting a complete success here.

The sad truth is that so many things can go wrong with this kind of move. Maybe Iverson will be one of the few exceptions to the rule given just how dynamic he once was. Maybe he can accept a diminished role compared to his 40 minute days of years past. Maybe he can finally get that championship he has always been yearning for.

Unfortunately many athletes that make these moves are merely left with what could have been, rather than what actually did. But maybe.
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