Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 4.18.11
Posted by Isabel Black on April 18

Here are some of today's top stories and happenings at IAVA. Prefer to receive real-time updates about major stories and legislation that IAVA is tracking? Follow us on Twitter @IAVAPressRoom or subscribe at www.IAVA.org/DailyNewsBrief.

MUST READS

1) Fighting at Home: Fighting for Employment

Young male veterans returning from the fight overseas are encountering another one at home- with unemployment.  Young male veterans between the ages of 18 and 24 had an unemployment rate of 21.9 percent in 2010.  IAVA Member Veteran Eric Smith testified at a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on the huge problems of unemployment among veterans.

2) Veteran loses battle with depression after helping others with their own

Clay Hunt battled depression and PTSD in the year since leaving the Marines, but volunteering with Team Rubicon and veterans organizations like IAVA seemed to have given him a new sense of purpose. But it was not enough- Clay committed suicide in his apartment on March 31. News of Clay’s death has ricocheted through the veterans’ world as a grim reminder of the emotional and psychological strains of war- and of the government’s inability to stem military and veteran suicides, which have climbed steadily in the decade since the 9/11 attacks.

3) Larger helmets could guard against brain injury to troops

The Army could reduce the risk of brain injury to soldiers simply by having them wear a size larger helmet containing slightly thicker padding, according to a study to be released today. An eighth of an inch more in cushion could decrease the force of an impact to the skull by 24%, according to findings by researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

4) In Afghanistan’s south, signs of progress in three districts signal a shift

Signs of change have sprouted this spring amid the lush fields and mud-brick villages of southern Afghanistan. These indications of progress are among a mosaic of developments that point to a profound shift across a swath of Afghanistan that has been the focus of the American-led military campaign: For the first time since the war began nearly a decade ago, the Taliban is commencing a summer fighting season with less control and influence of territory in the south than it had the previous year.

AFGHANISTAN

• Five troops killed in a suicide bombing this weekend at a military base in eastern Afghanistan were members of the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division, a senior US military official said Sunday.

• Greg Mortenson, the high-profile advocate of girls’ education in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been forced to defend his best-selling book “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations…One School at a Time,” against charges that key stories in it are false.

IRAQ

• Two suicide car bombs have exploded from cars that were entering the Green Zone in Baghdad, killing nine people and wounding 25.

• With the last American troops obligated to be gone from Iraq by year’s end, the protection of American diplomats that remain will fall almost entirely to private contractors and Iraqi security forces, raising concerns about their safety.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

• The restrictions on women in combat seem destined to change as military and congressional leaders give careful consideration to softening- if not eliminating- combat exclusion rules.

• Oregon National Guard soldiers returning from Iraq received poor treatment as they were processed through Madigan Army Medical Center at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

• Democrats appear to have recruited retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez to run for the US Senate in Texas, setting the stage for a potentially competitive race in 2012 for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

• Five members of Congress called the Department of the Navy to task- again- for what they say is an apparent resistance to keeping veterans informed about past water contamination at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

A wide-range of views, positions, and publications are represented in these articles. These views, positions and publications are not endorsed by nor do they necessarily represent the views of IAVA.