Veterans Resources

From the Marine Corps to College : Transitioning from the Service to Higher Education by Jillian Ventrone The Iraq and Afghanistan Wars have taken a harsh toll on our military's population. Some service members come back from combat ready for a change of pace, others get caught up in the draw down currently occurring within the services. Many of these service members decide to pursue higher education. Veterans' education benefits are a source of much discussion, but often hard to decipher. From the Marine Corps to College: Transitioning from the Service to Higher Education aims to simplify this process. Designed to help Marines navigate the world of higher education and their available state and federal benefits, this accessible guide will better prepare veterans for tackling their new mission: college. From the Marine Corps to College can be read as a book from cover-to-cover, or as a reference manual section-by-section. The easy to follow format will assist Marines in furthering their educational goals.

Military Education Benefits for College : A Comprehensive Guide for Military Members, Veterans, and Their Dependents by David J. Renza; Edmund J. Lizotte Every branch of the American military provides opportunities for educational benefits and ways to attend college at either no cost or at a cost far below published tuition rates. No military member, veteran, or dependent should have to go through school without knowing what their benefits are or how to obtain them. 'Military Education Benefits for College' guides you in how to access, utilize, and take advantage of your benefits so you can earn the degree you deserve. As a retention non-commissioned officer in the Army National Guard, co-author David J. Renza witnessed firsthand how these education benefits were used as a bargaining tool to encourage people to enlist and/or remain in the military. He also discovered that the vast majority of military personnel, veterans, and their dependents are unaware of what is available to them, and where to find answers to their questions. They needed help. Co-author Lt. Col. Edmund J. Lizotte (Ret.), Director of the Military Program at Post University (and former commander of a recruiting battalion), reached the same conclusion. Lizotte encountered a large population of eligible personnel, many of whom had put off using their education benefits during their military careers. Those who tried to attend college often became confused and discouraged by the perplexing enrollment process required to obtain education benefits. Together, Renza and Lizotte have produced a comprehensive, readable, informative, and indispensable step-by-step guide into every facet of the education journey. From the enrollment process and the classroom experience to the procurement of benefits and determining which type of degree is right for which type of job, 'Military Education Benefits for College' sheds light on the experience of higher education for service-connected students. Their book also dispels myths about the college experience and offers insight from two former military members who have the unique perspective of military admissions counselors and veteran students still using their education benefits to this day. You have qualified on your weapon and you have passed your physical training test. With 'Military Education Benefits for College', you can now improve the most powerful weapon of all--your mind! About the Authors: David J. Renza is a U.S. Army veteran who served in the Connecticut Army National Guard for twelve years. As a combat medic, he was deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina after September 11, 2001. He is a three-time winner of the Army Achievement Medal, and is a recipient of the Army Commendation Medal for his work as a retention NCO. Renza holds a Master's of Arts from the University of Connecticut's Neag School of Education. He is currently a Military Enrollment Counselor with Post University. Lt. Col. Edmund J. Lizotte is a U.S. Army veteran with twenty-five years of service. He has held various positions throughout his career, from platoon and scout platoon leader to battalion and brigade operations officer, recruiting battalion commander, and state logistics officer. Lizotte has received two Meritorious Service medals, five Army Commendation medals, and four Army Achievement medals. He holds a Bachelor's of Science from the University of Massachusetts and is a graduate of both the Combined Arms Staff and Services School and the Army Command and General Staff College. He currently serves as the Director of Military Programs at Post University.

Military Mental Health Care: A Guide for Service Members, Veterans, Families, and Community by Lawhorne-Sc Philpott; Sgt. Bryan (Foreword by); Cheryl Lawhorne-Scott Too often American veterans return from combat and spiral into depression, anger and loneliness they can neither share nor tackle on their own. Military Mental Health Care: A Guide for Service Members, Veterans, Families, and Community seeks to aid our troubled, returning forces by dissecting the numerous mental health problems they face upon arriving stateside. Don Philpott and Cheryl Lawhorne-Scott, co-authors with Janelle Hill of the highly successful Wounded Warrior Handbook, detail not only each issue's symptoms, but also discuss what treatments are available, and the best ways for veterans to access those treatments while readjusting to civilian life. In addition, they connect and explain many alarming trends, such as joblessness, poverty and addiction, appearing in our nation's veteran population on a broader scale. PTSD and struggles with anxiety affect far more than veterans themselves, as sobering phenomena like homelessness, suicide, domestic violence and divorce too often become realities for those returning from war. Military Mental Health Care is both a resource for struggling veterans and a useful tool for their loved ones, or anyone looking for ways to support the veterans in their lives.

Support for Servicemembers and Veterans: Programs Addressing the Effects of Combat and Transition to Civilian Life by Gayle Marsh The Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) play key roles in offering post-combat support to servicemembers and veterans through various programs and activities. This book identifies the number of programs, including the types of services offered that address the effects of combat on post-9/11 active-duty servicemembers and their families; help post-9/11 servicemembers and veterans transition to civilian life; and help raise public awareness and understanding of servicemembers' and veterans' combat and transition experiences.

The Veteran's Money Book: A Step-By-Step Program to Help Military Veterans Build a Personal Financial Action Plan and Map Their Futures by Mechel Lashawn Glass; Scott Scredon Most of the 2.5 million men and women who were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan received little education in personal finance during their service. Now these veterans are making the transition to civilian life with little knowledge of how to manage their money. In The Veteran's Money Book, Army veteran Mechel Glass tells how she came home from war 20 years ago and took control of her financial life - and how post-9/11 veterans can, too. Veterans making the transition to civilian life will learn how: To build a personal financial action plan that meets their individual needs. To understand credit and insurance, avoid scams, and develop lifelong habits to stick to a budget. Other veterans are paying down debt and developing long-term plans to save and build wealth. Glass served her country honorably as a U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Turkey during the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s. Now she speaks regularly with service members and veterans at military bases, VA hospitals, and elsewhere, providing them with guidance and counseling on a variety of financial matters.

Veterans: Health Issues, Coping Strategies and Benefits by Madison Mccleod; Chad S. Hewitt In this book, the authors discuss topical issues relating to veterans including transfusion therapy for veteran patients; low serum vitamin D and its association with metabolic syndrome in African American and Caucasian American male veterans; eye care issues in veterans; substandard and lack of affordable housing in the veteran population; the rehabilitation of shaken soldier syndrome; and genetic markers in suicidal and non-suicidal veterans with combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder.

What's Next for Student Veterans? : Moving from Transition to Academic Success by David DiRamio (Editor) With the passage of the Post-9/11 GI Bill in 2008, more than 1.4 million service members and their families became eligible for higher education benefits, and veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan enrolled in colleges and universities in record numbers. The first wave of research about these new student veterans focused primarily on describing their characteristics and the transition from military service to civilian life and the college campus. This new edited collection presents findings from the second wave of research about student veterans, with a focus on data-driven evidence of academic success factors, including persistence, retention, degree completion, and employment after college. An invaluable resource for educators poised to enter the next phase of supporting military-connected college students.

When the Warrior Returns: Making the Transition at Home by Nathan D. Ainspan (Editor); Walter Penk (Revised by) Nearly two million soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen have been deployed in recent conflicts. When the Warrior Returns addresses the practical and psychological needs of the families of these transitioning service members and provides a convenient list of key resources. Combining the knowledge of fifty experts, the book provides answers to questions about the post-deployment transition process, how it affects families, and how family members can help their service members and themselves navigate the transition successfully as a family. These experts provide straightforward answers to questions about the transition process and how it impacts the warrior and their children. A one-stop source of information filled with useful advice, this book is unequalled. The book features a foreword by Patty Shinseki and is published in cooperation with the Association of the United States Army.

War and American Popular Culture by M. Paul Holsinger Spanning more than 400 years of America's past, this book brings together, for the first time, entries on the ways Americans have mythologized both the many wars the nation has fought and the men and women connected with those conflicts. Focusing on significant representations in popular culture, it provides information on fiction, drama, poems, songs, film and television, art, memorials, photographs, documentaries, and cartoons. From the colonial wars before 1775 to our 1997 peacekeeper role in Bosnia, the work briefly explores the historical background of each war period, enabling the reader to place the almost 500 entries into their proper context. The book includes particularly large sections dealing with the popular culture of the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Indian Wars West of the Mississippi, World War II, and Vietnam. It has been designed to be a useful reference tool for anyone interested in America's many wars, to provide answers, to teach, to inspire, and most of all, to be enjoyed.

Twentieth-Century War and Conflict: A Concise Encyclopedia by Gordon Martel (Editor) Drawn from the award-winning 5-volume Encyclopedia of War, this valuable, one-volume reference provides readers with essential information on the conflicts and concepts that shaped global warfare in the twentieth-century and up to the present day. Provides essential coverage of twentieth-century warfare across the world Incorporates entries on all major wars, conflicts and concepts in the study of warfare during the period Features detailed coverage of the First and Second World Wars, along with conflicts including the Russo-Japanese War, the Greco-Turkish War, the Falklands Conflict, the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, the Gulf Wars, the War Against Terrorism, and the Somalian Civil War Covers topics including chemical warfare, ethnic cleansing, psychological warfare, and women and war Creates an affordable and handy personal reference for students of modern and contemporary history, professional scholars, and military history enthusiasts Comprises authoritative, up-to-date content - each entry ranging from 1,000 to 6,000 words - written by the best international scholars.

After the War Zone: A Practical Guide for Returning Troops and Their Families by Matthew J. Friedman; Laurie B. Slone From the Director and Associate Director of the VA's National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: a highly practical, user-friendly guide that answering all conceivable questions about returning from war--for veterans and families. Two experts from the VA National Center for PTSD provide an essential resource for service members, their spouses, families, and communities, sharing what troops really experience during deployment and back home. Pinpointing the most common after-effects of war and offering strategies for troop reintegration to daily life, Drs. Friedman and Slone cover the myths and realities of homecoming; reconnecting with spouse and family; anger and adrenaline; guilt and moral dilemmas; and PTSD and other mental-health concerns. With a wealth of community and government resources, tips, and suggestions, After the War Zone is a practical guide to helping troops and their families prevent war zone stresses from having a lasting negative impact.

Back from the Front: Combat Trauma, Love, and the Family by Aphrodite Matsakis The purpose of this book is to help you (and your veteran) better understand combat trauma and its possible effects on intimate relationships and family life and to guide you to resources that can help strengthen every member of your family. The beginning chapters provide basic information about combat trauma and how it can lead to depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other forms of emotional pain. The remaining chapters focus on some of the most common problems confronting families of combat veterans: emotional numbing, sexual difficulties, anger, and guilt. There are also chapters on family violence, children, women veterans, and military couples and sections on how to cope with anger and depression, how to find helpful organizations and books, and how to communicate effectively on difficult issues. In addition to describing the tensions that can result from combat trauma, this book emphasizes the many ways a veteran s war experiences can help enrich individual family members and the family as a whole.

Called to Serve: A Handbook on Student Veterans and Higher Education by Florence A. Hamrick; Corey B. Rumann Over the past several years, veteran enrollment in universities, community colleges, and vocational programs has increased dramatically, with over a quarter million student veterans taking advantage of military-related educational benefits packages, which have become one of the few remaining federal sources of grant funds for students pursuing higher education. Yet existing literature on the topic harkens back to Vietnam era issues and practices, and current administrators and faculty members likely have little experience serving this population. Significant changes in higher education and wartime military personnel policies in the last 30 years necessitate a fresh look at how colleges and universities can best respond to the needs of student veterans. Examples of contemporary issues include current patterns of multiple deployments and returns and the accompanying stop-out and re-enrollment periods. Costs for students have risen, as have military educational benefit provisions and institutional incentives. Building upon the long history of educating veterans, this comprehensive volume offers the most up-to-date scholarship and practical program guidance to help student affairs professionals, academic administrators, and faculty understand, serve, and support student veterans. It offers recommendations for enhancing and strengthening current campus efforts in serving veterans, planning additional services or programs, and perhaps most importantly coordinating the efforts of potentially disparate campus-based services and programs with community-based or government-sponsored veterans? programs, services, and affiliated groups.

Healing Suicidal Veterans: Recognizing, Supporting, and Answering Their Pleas for Help by Victor Montgomery Veterans are suffering a "mental breakdown" epidemic, often linked to post traumatic stress from the terrors of combat, traumatic brain injury, and drug and alcohol abuse. The problems triggered by an excessive number of deployments, financial and family trouble, fragmented or nonexistent support systems, and increased domestic stress have caused a mass depression among vets. Healing Suicidal Veterans takes readers firsthand into the "situation room" where crisis intervention and addiction therapist Victor Montgomery explores the psychological wounds of war and the ways they contribute to the tragedy of suicidal veterans. He presents the Montgomery Model for ending veterans' suffering and anguish and putting them on solid paths to healing. The book offers veterans strategies for realizing they are not failures if they seek aid, and it gives families and loved ones ways to understand, cope with, and help their veteran in need.

The Military Advantage by Lynn Vincent; LearningExpress Staff This book will show you how to make the most of military service-first, by serving your country with honor, courage, and commitment; and second, by taking advantage of civilian education and career opportunities afforded by military service. In the next 10 chapters, you'll learn how to: - Put your best foot forward during your military career - Earn a college degree while on active duty - Finance your college education - Match your military experience with civilian career options - Market your military skills to civilian employers - Execute a successful transition from military service to a great civilian job.

Out of Uniform: Your Guide to a Successful Military to Civilian Career Transition by Thomas Wolfe After completing military service, veterans can have a difficult time finding employment when returning to civilian life. Out of Uniform, Second Edition is designed to help all transitioning military personnel, regardless of service, branch, rank, rating, time in service, time in grade, or specialty. Although all service members share common denominators, each individual brings something unique to the job market. Not only does this book cover the basics--search techniques, networking, interview preparation, résumés, negotiation, and a new chapter on social media--it also offers guidance on topics that are often overlooked, specifically the central issues of self-knowledge, interviewing empathy, and the power of questions. In addition to the technical guidance, readers will also discover important information in the anecdotes based on the experiences of soldiers, sailors, air force personnel, and marines. Out of Uniform, Second Edition is an invaluable resource for veterans who want to make the most out of their civilian career opportunities.

Returning Wars' Wounded, Injured, and Ill: A Reference Handbook by Nathan D. Ainspan (Other Adaptation by); Walter E. Penk (Editor); Walter Penk Thousands of American service members are returning from their tours of duty with physical and/or psychological disabilities. Many--if not most--of these service members will need at least some assistance to adapt to their disabilities and learn how to reintegrate back into civilian life. Also impacted will be the spouse, friends, employers, family members, counselors, and community members of each veteran with a disability. The veterans may not be aware of the ways in which their disabilities are impacting them, nor knowledgeable about the resources available to help them cope. In addition, many such individuals feel isolated and reluctant to acknowledge their difficulties or ask for assistance. The volume compiles and summarizes the information disabled veterans and those with whom they interact will be interested in knowing and using. It describes how disabilities can impact an individual physically, psychologically, and spiritually. It also provides a context of these disabilities to reassure the readers that they are not alone in the thoughts, feelings, and pain, and that others have experienced the same problems and found solutions. The work provides guidance on different forms of treatment that may help the veteran and includes a list of contact information for local VA centers, peer-to-peer counseling services, and other programs, services, and individuals available (frequently for free) for veterans and their families. Brief biographies of disabled veterans and case studies of the ways they reintegrated back into civilian society provide support and perspective. In addition to aiding veterans, the book will serve as a useful reference source for librarians and other information providers.

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger We have a strong instinct to belong to small groups defined by clear purpose and understanding--"tribes." This tribal connection has been largely lost in modern society, but regaining it may be the key to our psychological survival. Decades before the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing over to the Indians-but Indians almost never did the same. Tribal society has been exerting an almost gravitational pull on Westerners for hundreds of years, and the reason lies deep in our evolutionary past as a communal species. The most recent example of that attraction is combat veterans who come home to find themselves missing the incredibly intimate bonds of platoon life. The loss of closeness that comes at the end of deployment may explain the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by military veterans today. Combining history, psychology, and anthropology, TRIBE explores what we can learn from tribal societies about loyalty, belonging, and the eternal human quest for meaning. It explains the irony that-for many veterans as well as civilians-war feels better than peace, adversity can turn out to be a blessing, and disasters are sometimes remembered more fondly than weddings or tropical vacations. TRIBE explains why we are stronger when we come together, and how that can be achieved even in today's divided world.

The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans by Aaron Glantz The War Comes Home is the first book to systematically document the U.S. government's neglect of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Aaron Glantz, who reported extensively from Iraq during the first three years of this war and has been reporting on the plight of veterans ever since, levels a devastating indictment against the Bush administration for its bald neglect of soldiers and its disingenuous reneging on their benefits. Glantz interviewed more than one hundred recent war veterans, and here he intersperses their haunting first-person accounts with investigations into specific concerns, such as the scandal at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. This timely book does more than provide us with a personal connection to those whose service has cost them so dearly. It compels us to confront how America treats its veterans and to consider what kind of nation deifies its soldiers and then casts them off as damaged goods.

When Janey Comes Marching Home: Portraits of Women Combat Veterans by Laura Browder; Sascha Pflaeging While women are officially barred from combat in the American armed services, in the current war, where there are no front lines, the ban on combat is virtually meaningless. More than in any previous conflict in our history, American women are engaging with the enemy, suffering injuries, and even sacrificing their lives in the line of duty. When Janey Comes Marching Home juxtaposes forty-eight photographs by Sascha Pflaeging with oral histories collected by Laura Browder to provide a dramatic portrait of women at war. Women from all five branches of the military share their stories here--stories that are by turns moving, comic, thought-provoking, and profound. Seeing their faces in stunning color photographic portraits and reading what they have to say about loss, comradeship, conflict, and hard choices will change the ways we think about women and war. Serving in a combat zone is an all-encompassing experience that is transformative, life-defining, and difficult to leave behind. By coming face-to-face with women veterans, we who are outside that world can begin to get a sense of how the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have shaped their lives and how their stories may ripple out and influence the experiences of all American women. The book accompanies a photography exhibit of the same name opening May 1, 2010, at the Women in Military Service to America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, and continuing to travel around the country through 2011.