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

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1.   Mexico frees ex-Marine jailed for bringing in gun.  Jon Hammar, the Marine veteran from South Florida detained for months in a Mexican border prison for bringing his great-grandfather’s shotgun into the country, was released Friday night in what his mother called a “Christmas miracle.”

2.   Obamas Offer Holiday Wishes, Call for All to Remember Vets. During the weekly address from the White House, President Obama and his wife Michelle wished service members, veterans and their families a happy holiday season, and called on all Americans to remember those in harm’s way.

3.   Panetta Makes Holiday Calls to Deployed Service Members.  Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta called four service members deployed to Afghanistan today to wish them happy holidays.   Panetta expressed his gratitude, and that of the American people, to the service members and to their families for their service and sacrifice, according to a statement issued by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs.
 
4.   Sex assault reports at Air Force Academy continue to rise.  Sex assault reports involving Air Force Academy cadets increased by about 50 percent over the previous academic year, accounting for the majority of reported assaults across the nation’s three military academies, according to a Defense Department report issued Friday.
 
5.   Obama takes heat on Hagel candidacy.  President Barack Obama’s consideration of Chuck Hagel to be defense secretary has set off an outcry of criticism that could force a second damaging White House retreat over a Cabinet pick.

6. Texas Dept. of Veterans Affairs to track deaths.  abc13.com  The Department of Veterans Affairs in Texas will conduct a mortality study to track causes of death for veterans putting together a model that could allow similar data to be gathered …

7. Bay of Pigs invasion veterans mark 50 years since their release.  In the days before Christmas 50 years ago this weekend, 1,113 Bay of Pigs fighters captured by Fidel Castro’s forces and imprisoned for 20 months were finally released to a heroes’ welcome in Miami.

8.   WWII veteran returns to Germany where injury ended combat career.  Fred Woelkers never thought he’d return. But there he was, 68 years and 13 days later, standing near the same spot where a Nazi bullet ended his fighting days on the front lines of World War II.
 
9.   Aviation interest led Fla. woman into historic WWII role.  It was 1944, and Dora Dougherty knew how to fly – four decades before the first woman would be selected by the Air Force for test pilot school. She was assigned to a top secret mission – to prove the value of the plane called the B-29 Superfortress, which would soon fly a terrible mission, dropping the nuclear bombs that would hasten the end of World War II.
 
10.   Veterans struggle with hiring decisions, transitions.  His Army experience, one veteran said, gave him the mental and physical strength for many things that civilians couldn’t do without rigorous training. But some employers don’t see it that way, and veterans don’t always know how to translate their skills learned in the military for companies back home.

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