•1.    Evidence for Agent Orange on Okinawa.  The Japan Times  In addition to these three veterans interviewed for The Japan Times, records from the United States Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) contain hundreds of similar accounts of Agent Orange on Okinawa during the late 1960s and early '70s, a time when the ...

•2.    More about the relationship between veterans and the VA.  Norwich Bulletin  Many veterans going back generations have had a hard time getting the compensation they deserve from the US Department of Veterans Affairs. As a sidebar to Sunday's profile, I briefly told the story of Leonard Morganson of Danielson who only recently ...

•3.    WSU receives DOD grant to determine common genetic link among Gulf War Illness.  PhysOrg.com   It wasn't until 2008 that a scientific panel from the US Department of Veterans Affairs concluded that a third of American troops who served in the Gulf War were suffering from combinations of these symptoms, now recognized collectively as Gulf War ...

•4.    Federal Court Issues Rare Order Prohibiting Termination of Title 38 Employee.  PR Newswire WASHINGTON, April 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 29, 2011, a federal court issued a rare order prohibiting the US Department of Veterans Affairs from terminating a physician while the physician's civil rights complaint was pending before the Equal ...

•5.    Back from the front lines, A TOUGH JOB MARKET AWAITS.  MiamiHerald.com  The US Department of Veterans Affairs also has information about job training, employment opportunities and successful transitioning at vba.va.gov/bln/vre/. • Even while still in the military, troops should go to job fairs and research job openings. ...

•6.    Japanese PM thanks U.S. troops during visit to devastated region.  undefined Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan praised U.S. troops for their efforts to help people recover from last month’s devastating earthquake and tsunami during a visit here Sunday.

•7.    Army to transfer just one brigade from Germany to States.  The Army will return one Europe-based combat brigade to the United States in the coming years, not two as previously announced, the Pentagon said.

•8.    Legislation would ensure GI Bill changes don't land vets in debt. Legislation introduced in Congress this week would ensure that students attending college under the new post-9/11 GI Bill will have their full tuition covered, even if the cost exceeds the $17,500 cap put in place under recent changes to the program.

•9.    Gates: U.S. troops could stay in Iraq for years.  Defense Secretary Robert Gates said U.S. troops could remain in Iraq for years to come.

•10.                       Disabled Fontana veteran looks forward to Golden Age Games.  San Bernardino Sun  The program, for veterans receiving care through the US Department of Veterans Affairs, is "a form of preventive medicine, promoting optimal involvement of spinal cord-injury veterans by enhancing their mental, social, physical and emotional well-being ...

•11.                       Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn Signs Proclamation Honoring Ex-Prisoners Of War From Around The State. AP  "Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has signed a proclamation honoring American service men and women who have been imprisoned during war. Approximately 20 Illinois ex-Prisoners of War and their families attended a ceremony at the Governor's Mansion on Saturday to pay tribute to their service."

•12.                       POW Recognition Day Marked At State Veterans Cemetery. New Hampshire Union Leader  "The names of 22 New Hampshire soldiers and sailors who died in captivity in World War II and Korea were read" on Saturday, "during a solemn, hour-long ceremony marking National POW Recognition Day."

•13.                       Giving Female Veterans A Chance To Share Their Pain. Los Angeles Times  "About 255,000 of the more than 2 million US military personnel who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are women." Like "their male counterparts, a growing number of female service members are returning with wounds that are harder to see: post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries, depression."

•14.                       Move For Smaller Veterans Mental Health Clinic. AP The US Department of Veterans Affairs is "taking steps to create an out-patient mental health clinic in Fort Wayne, with a budget request for $2.85 million in the coming federal fiscal year and a projected opening in March 2015." That plan is "greatly scaled back from a now-scrapped 2009 plan for a $60 million, 200,000-square-foot veterans health facility in Fort Wayne."

•15.                       Homeless Texas Veteran Finds Viable Housing Option. AP  After two years of being homeless, Larry Lochala, a Vietnam vet "with post-traumatic stress disorder and liver cancer," was "able to get a roof over his head through a joint program of the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso" and the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The two-year-old "program is called …

•16.                       Lakeland Man With Anxiety Disorder Keeps Close To Home. Lakeland (FL) Ledger A dispute between the US Department of Veterans Affairs and 63-year-old Vietnam vet Jerry Moore, who is "classified as 100 percent disabled due to a service-connected mental health problem of general anxiety disorder." Until last fall, VA was allowing Moore to "get treated close to home by non-military doctors. With the establishment of an expanded outpatient VA clinic in south Lakeland, however, and Moore's switch to a new private psychiatrist, his VA-based coverage to see non-VA doctors has been withdrawn, he said."

•17.                       Red Tape Tangles Wounded Veteran. Norwich (CT) Bulletin 40-year-old Afghanistan veteran Alan MacGeachie receives disability compensation from US Department of Veterans Affairs for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a vision disorder, VA has "put off making a decision on whether he should receive special compensation" for a traumatic brain injury "because of a lack of evidence, according to VA documents provided by MacGeachie."

•18.                       Reputed Counter-Terrorism Expert Pleads Guilty.  Army Times  William G. Hillar, a Maryland man accused of lying about his academic, military, and professional background, "pleaded guilty March 29 to a single count of wire fraud in a federal court in Baltimore. As part of his plea, Hillar agreed to pay back $171,000 he made by lecturing universities, soldiers, and federal and local law enforcement agencies while falsely claiming he was a counter-terrorism expert and had earned doctorate from the University of Oregon." He also "admitted that over 12 years, he accepted thousands of dollars in speaking fees from the likes of the FBI Command College and the Drug Enforcement Administration."