Veterans! Here’s your Top 10 News stories of the day compiled from the latest sources

We encourage you to browse our list so that you can take what you want and keep what you need

1.   Women sue Panetta over combat exclusion.  Four women and an advocacy group are suing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, alleging that the policy excluding women from combat units is unconstitutional.

2.   A veteran’s journey from POW camp back home to Iowa.  Newton resident Verle Kooistra’s military portrait looks nothing out of the ordinary at first glance — a standard garrison cap, neaty-tied neck tie and a pair of eyeglasses. It was these glasses, however, that nearly determined his contribution to the American effort in World War II.

3.   Veteran recalls difference in Vietnam tours.  When Bill Harvey looks back at the two tours in Vietnam, he sees stark differences. In his first tour, he saw countless battles resulting in heavy casualties and few victories. When he returned, he saw less conflict and fewer casualties. The introduction of the new Cobra helicopters was the most important difference.

4.   Study Provides More Clues To Gulf War Illness – And Hope.  USA Today  “Gulf War illness, the series of symptoms ranging from headaches to memory loss to chronic fatigue that plagues one of four veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf war, is due to damage to the autonomic nervous system,” according to a study published online Nov. 26 in the Archives of Neurology. For the study, researchers “sent 97 veterans through 25 tests, including brain imaging, in seven days. The group had been drawn from a sample of 8,000 Gulf War veterans.”
 
5.   VA, Cancer Group Team For Personalized Medicine Research Effort.  Modern Healthcare “The Veterans Affairs Department will participate in a longitudinal study of clinical and genetic patient data, seeking to find better treatments and a possible cure for multiple myeloma, the VA and the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation [MMRF] announced.” The article says that “the VA and the Norwalk, Conn.-based foundation have entered into a ‘cooperative research and development agreement’ under which the VA will participate in the foundation’s study-which has been under way for about a year-targeting treatment approaches for the as-yet incurable blood cancer, according to a news release.” Modern Healthcare adds that “the study, ‘Relating Clinical Outcomes in MM to Personal Assessment of Genetic Profile,’ or CoMMpass, is expected to track 1,000 newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients for at least five years ‘to understand the molecular and genetic changes underpinning the evolution of the disease,’ according to the release.”

6.   Women Veterans Host CalVet Leader.  Riverside (CA) Press Enterprise “Lindsey Sin, deputy secretary for women veterans affairs with the California Department of Veterans Affairs, will speak at a town hall meet-and-greet from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 27, at Smiley Library, 125 W. Vine St., Redlands. The event is sponsored by the San Bernardino County Department of Veterans Affairs and the Inland Empire Women Veterans Collaborative. Sin will talk about her vision for California’s female veterans and take questions from the audience.”
 
7.   SBA Conference For Women Veterans Coming To Jacksonville. Jacksonville (FL) Business Journal “Women Veterans Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (V-WISE), an entrepreneurship training program, is coming to Jacksonville Jan. 10-12, 2013. The program, designed by Syracuse University with the U.S. Small Business Administration, encourages and supports female veterans with an interest in exploring careers and opportunities in small-business ownership.” It “is available to current veteran women, active-duty women who are transitioning out of the military in the next two years, and a spouse or female partner of a veteran.”
 
8.   Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline Launched: 1-800-273-TALK.  Boise (ID) Weekly  “On the steps of the Idaho State Capitol Monday morning, officials launched a new version of an Idaho-based resource to help those contemplating suicide. … As of today, 18 volunteer operators became available at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), available Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.” And “David Brasuell, administrator of the Idaho Division of Veteran’s Services and Meridian Sen. Marv Hagedorn both shared the sentiment that for Idaho service members suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, the hot line is a critical resource.”
 
9.   PTSD May Be Overdiagnosed, But PTSD Deniers Are ‘Wrong,’ Psychologists Say.  NBC News Those who “reject the existence of PTSD.” In the military “some leaders openly call PTSD a mental weakness, according to mental health advocates.” One expert says that “different people possess varying degrees of mental ‘resiliency,'” so that “if an entire platoon collectively endures the same moment of extreme combat violence, not every platoon member will ultimately feel the symptoms of post-traumatic stress.” The story notes that veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan have applied for “service-connected disability compensation,” at a much higher rate than in past wars. One expert says that PTSD is being overdiagnosed, but he rejects any suggestion that PTSD is not real.
 
10.    Learning To Accept, And Master, A $110,000 Mechanical Arm.  New York Times Cpl. Sebastian Gallegos, who lost an arm in Afghanistan and had it replaced with “a different kind of limb, a $110,000 robotic device with an electronic motor and sensors able to read signals from his brain.” Getting used to it “is no small task,” noting that “of the more than 1,570 American service members who have had” amputations “because of injuries in Afghanistan or Iraq, fewer than 280 have lost upper limbs.” And “replicating their actions with robotic arms can be excruciatingly difficult, requiring amputees to understand the distinct muscle contractions involved in movements they once did without thinking.” Due to such difficulties, “nearly half…choose not to use prostheses.” The article describes improvements in controlling artificial arms, but it “remains a challenge, likely to take months more of tedious practice.”