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

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1.   Critics charge DOD’s efforts to fight sexual assault lack substance.  Advocates, victims and members of Congress have been calling for change in the way the military deals with sexual assault since at least 1991, when 83 women reported being sexually assaulted by Navy and Marine Corps aviators at the annual Tailhook convention.
 
2.   Female Marine vets say sexist culture put them at risk.  At Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, female recruits learn to blouse their new camouflage trousers above their combat boots. They learn to low crawl under barbed wire and shoot an M-16. They learn to fight. And, several female Marines told Stars and Stripes, they learn that they must decide which of the three types of Marine women they will be: a slut, a dyke or a bitch.
 
3.   Harrowing returns from the front.  The Vietnam veteran stood in a hospital lobby on Wednesday, reflecting on his military service and his years of drinking as dozens of wounded warriors read his story that was posted on large signs.
 
4.   Class-action suit efforts to uncover military’s experimentation mystery.  A North Carolina’s man’s quest to learn how the military had experimented on him in the 1960s has turned into a class-action lawsuit for as many as 100,000 veterans the government used to test hundreds of different drugs, chemicals and biological agents over more than 50 years.

5.   VRAP could assist veteran students in the short term.  Telescope  The US Department of Veterans Affairs has implemented a new program geared toward helping older veterans reach their educational goals, but it doesn’t come without its problems. Last year, President Obama signed into law the Veteran’s Opportunity to …

6.   Veterans: Come One, Come All.  Santa Barbara Independent  The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that 67,495 veterans are homeless on any given night, including an estimated 18,633 in California. A survey done in Santa Barbara last year found 143 homeless veterans in our county — 15 percent of …

7.   Volunteer Veteran’s Shuttle ready to roll.  Lompoc Record  “This sorely needed program has come to fruition due to local veterans unselfishly volunteering to transport veteran comrades to their local VA Clinic medical appointments and the ongoing operational funding generously provided by the VA,” Batson said ..
 
8.   DoD Must Reassess Military Health System Control Change, Says GAO.  Fierce Government  “The Defense Department hasn’t sufficiently analyzed its own proposed changes to the Military Health System, says” a recently published Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. According to Fierce Government, the DoD is seeking “congressional approval of a significant change to the MHS structure that would put more authority under the Defense Health Agency in an attempt to curb escalating medical costs.”
 
9.   Nebraska Increases Push To Hire Veterans.  AP  “Nebraska officials are launching a new campaign to find jobs for military veterans, increase the state’s population and help employers recruit quality workers, Gov. Dave Heineman said” at a news conference held earlier this week. According to the AP, the “effort includes a new series of Nebraska job fairs aimed at veterans, as well as a four-minute online video in which Heineman – a veteran himself – makes a personal sales pitch.” The AP adds, “The campaign is targeting veterans who have recently left the military, most of whom are younger and willing to move to new places, said Catherine Lang, director of the Nebraska Department of Labor.”
 
10.   From Full-Time Jobs To Combat, Older Players’ Experiences Helping Younger ACC Teammates.  AP  “Older players who have taken different routes to college football have become mentors in Atlantic Coast Conference locker rooms that are filled with teenagers who have known only football.” One older player who has taken on the mentoring role is 24-year-old Daniel Rodriguez, who “served in Iraq and Afghanistan before walking on” to Clemson’s football squad. Rodriguez said that while he may not be a top player, what he went through in the military gives him something to pas on to younger players. Rodriguez added that his time in the military is “definitely something that the guys look up to me for.”

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