Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 10-03-08

1. VA Awards Last Construction Contract For Nevada Hospital. 
2. Secretaries Of Interior, VA Stress Commitment To US Insular Areas.  
3. Vets Learn About Sailing During Summer Sports Clinic.  
4. Peake’s Address Said To Be The "Highlight" Of Military Reunion.  
5. Head Of Training Center For Visually Impaired Hopes To Assist Iraq, Afghanistan Vets.  
6. Iraq Vet Receives Special Quilt During Ceremony At VA Hospital.  
7. Wounded Iraq, Afghanistan Vets To Participate In Fundraising Race.  
8. FRC Program Still Small In Nature.  
9. Federal VA Represented At Stand Down Event.  
10. VA Nurse Assisted Hurricane Ike Victims.

1.      VA Awards Last Construction Contract For Nevada Hospital.   The Las Vegas Sun (10/3, Manning) reports US Sens. John Ensign (R-NV) and Harry Reid (D-NV) announced Thursday "that the Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded the final construction contract to complete the long-awaited veteran’s hospital in North Las Vegas. The VA informed both" lawmakers Thursday "that this is one of the last steps to making the hospital fully operational. The $364,924,000 contract was to Clark/Hunt of Las Vegas." The Sun adds, "During a visit to the site" of the hospital "in August, VA Secretary James Peake said that this would be the ‘crown jewel’ of the VA infrastructure." 

      The AP (10/3) notes, "The contract announced Thursday is the largest ever awarded" by US VA. A spokesman for US Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) "says the total cost for the project is $600 million. It is slated to open in mid-2011." KVBC-TV  Las Vegas (10/2, 5:09 p.m. PT) broadcast that Berkley, who "was instrumental in securing funding" for the hospital, "says the award is great news for Nevada’s vets.

        The Modesto (CA) Bee (10/3) reports, "Berkley spokesman David Cherry says" the North Las Vegas project "is one of two new veterans hospitals approved since 2003," when the VA "began evaluating its facilities nationwide." The KXNT-AM Las Vegas (10/2) website and the Las Vegas Review-Journal (10/3) also covered this story.

2.      Secretaries Of Interior, VA Stress Commitment To US Insular Areas.   In continuing coverage, Samoa News (10/3, Mata’afa) reports that at a two-day Insular Areas Health Summit held this week in Honolulu, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne "told" leaders of US "territories and freely associated states that the federal government is committed to working with them to improve and expand their public health care systems." Kempthorne emphasized that commitment with a federal task force, which will include Veterans Affairs representatives, to prioritize the insular areas’ critical needs. Samoa News notes that VA Secretary James B. Peake, who also attended the Insular Areas Health Summit, "announced that a $4.5 million contract has been awarded for the construction of a clinic on Guam."

3.      Vets Learn About Sailing During Summer Sports Clinic.   In continuing coverage, the American Forces Press Service (10/2, Miles) reported that on Wednesday, as part of the first National Veterans Summer Sports Clinic Pilot Program, volunteers with knowledge of sailboat racing taught veterans participating in the clinic how to sail. The "week-long clinic, sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs, opened Sept. 28 and continues through" Friday.

4.      Peake’s Address Said To Be The "Highlight" Of Military Reunion.   Near the end of its "People In The News" column, the Hampton Roads (VA) Daily Press (10/3) reports, "On Sept. 25-28, the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division convened at the Hampton Holiday Inn and Conference Center for its 11th biennial reunion. More than 300 attendees from across" the US attended, but the "highlight" of the event "was an address by Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake, a highly decorated veteran whose career spans more than 40 years in military medicine." 

5.      Head Of Training Center For Visually Impaired Hopes To Assist Iraq, Afghanistan Vets.   The Buffalo News (10/2, Michel) said Ron Maier, "president of the Olmsted Center for the Visually Impaired," believes Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffering from visual impairments do not need to resign themselves "to…a life sentence of menial jobs or unemployment." Instead, Maier "wants to fling open the doors of the Olmsted Center’s highly specialized training program that is already giving others who are sight impaired a chance to step into the mainstream economy." To "that end, he has met with local and national Department of Veterans Affairs officials and representatives of veterans service organizations. Next month, he is scheduled to meet again with VA officials to outline" his organization’s "approach in assisting the sight impaired." 

6.      Iraq Vet Receives Special Quilt During Ceremony At VA Hospital.   On its website, WTOL-TV Toledo, OH (10/2) reported that during a "Sept. 17…ceremony" at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Iraq veteran Morris Crocker was given a Quilt of Valor. According "to information provided by the program, Quilts of Valor recipients are located through military chaplains at bases and VA medical centers in the United States and around the world."

7.      Wounded Iraq, Afghanistan Vets To Participate In Fundraising Race.   The Washington Times (10/3, Bauder) reports, "Wounded soldiers and Olympic kayakers will take the plunge in a whitewater-rafting race Saturday in Garrett County, Md., to raise money for veterans’ rehabilitation. Team River Runner (TRR), a nonprofit organization that promotes kayaking as therapy for wounded veterans," is teaming up with "Adventure Sports Center International of McHenry, Md., to hold the charity event. Soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Olympic kayakers and canoeists…will race down Adventure Sports’ 1,700-foot manmade whitewater course in rafts sponsored by local businesses and organizations. They hope to raise" money "that will be used to set up more TRR groups across the nation."

8.      FRC Program Still Small In Nature.   In his syndicated "Military Update" column, Tom Philpott (10/3) wrote about the Federal Recovery Coordinator (FRC) Program, "a joint Veterans Affairs-Defense Department" venture "launched last January." The program was recommended last year by the President’s Commission on Care of America’s Returning Wounded Warriors, which "reported that more than 3000 seriously wounded veterans might need the oversight of FRCs." But in its current form, the program is "quite small, with only eight FRCs serving 119 combat wounded veterans." However, program director Dr. Karen S. Guice "said the 3000 figure for severely wounded needing FRCs was an estimate, based on the number of veterans who, at the time, had qualified for Traumatic Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance."

9.      Federal VA Represented At Stand Down Event.   The Central Kitsap (WA) Reporter (10/2, Brant) reported, "Agencies such as" the US Veterans Affairs Department and the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs were on hand Wednesday "to provide assistance to veterans" attending the 2008 Fall Kitsap County Stand Down for Veterans.

10.    VA Nurse Assisted Hurricane Ike Victims.   The Monroe (CT) Courier (10/3, Hoffman) reports, "When Hurricane Ike struck Texas, Monroe resident Kathie Loehr," who "works in nurse management of inpatient psychiatry at the VA hospital" in West Haven, Connecticut, "felt the call to respond. She joined thousands of medical volunteers from around the country in assisting displaced residents." Loehr "stepped in as a nurse to care for people in the medical center of a make-shift shelter at an abandoned Air Force base in San Antonio as part of a group of Disaster Emergency Medical Personnel." Most of the staff at the base came from VA hospitals "across the country."