Search Results

10/25/2012 - BACKGROUND: The Budget Control Act of 2011 raised the federal debt ceiling on an agreement to offset the increase with a corresponding decrease in discretionary spending over a 10-year period. A bipartisan Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction was created to identify what federal accounts to reduce. As an added incentive, an automatic 10 percent across-the-board sequester—or seizure of property (money)—would kick in at the beginning of the next Congress should th...

9/5/2017 - Efforts from a Rhode Island VFW Post have provided Afghanistan War veteran Tim Underwood with an all-terrain wheelchair, improving his quality of life. Underwood, who served in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010 with the 3rd Sqdn., 61st Cav, 4th BCT, 4th Inf. Div., was wounded in April 2010. He was shot three times (once in the throat/jaw, once in the spine and once in the kidney), and spent roughly seven months hospitalized. As a result, Underwood is paralyzed from the waist...

4/17/2017 - It happens daily: You meet someone standing in line for coffee, at a job fair, or at a networking event, and they turn to you and ask, “So, what do you do?” How do you respond? An elevator pitch is what we call that brief response that introduces you to a stranger. It might actually happen in an elevator! The goal of the elevator pitch is to be succinct and interesting enough that the other person will want to continue talking to you, and a possible professional relation...

1/6/2017 - This article was originally featured in the January 2017 issue of VFW magazine. Carol Bakke knows what veterans who have post-traumatic stress disorder are going through. She’s been there. An Iraq War veteran, Bakke served from 2010 to 2011 with the 778th transportation company with the Army National Guard as a heavy equipment transporter. An explosively formed projectile hit her team on July 18, 2011. When she returned stateside, the dreams and nightmares started — dr...

2/1/2017 - VFW’s Action Corps is a force of more than 300,000 grassroots political activists. Its members reinforce VFW’s positions—such as the organization’s Priority Goals—through emails, letters, phone calls and social media posts aimed at the nation’s lawmakers. According to Ken Wiseman, who leads the Action Corps, the group is a sophisticated tool that harnesses the power of the VFW’s and its Auxiliary’s 1.7 million members. “The Action Corps is what gives the VFW its strength...

11/22/2013 - The Department of Veterans Affairs has issued a fraud alert about a marketing scam that is targeting veterans who misdial the VA National Call Center (800-827-1000) or the GI Bill Call Center (888-442-4551) phone numbers. A marketing company created two phone numbers that differ from the real VA numbers by one digit. If a veteran misdials and calls the bogus number, the answering party will offer a gift card and try to obtain sensitive personal data, to include credit ...

1/13/2014 - Mike, a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He spent years keeping his combat-related emotions locked up—and depression, anger, and stress kept building in him. A hunting trip with fellow Veterans spent talking about combat experiences finally prompted him to reach out for help. Through counseling and with assistance from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Mike was able to overcome his challenge...

6/21/2017 - In the civilian workplace, jobs are attained through a very different application, screening and evaluation process than in the military. A critical part of the hiring process is the job interview – a meeting where you are evaluated on how you present yourself, interact with others, answer and ask questions, and set yourself apart from others. The interview determines whether you move further in the hiring process, or you’re shown the door. Types of Interviews Recruiter...

6/12/2017 - Retired Master Sergeant Jim Carver, 53, of Powhatan, Va., describes the initial process of separating from the military as “hectic.” A disabled veteran who served over 21 years on active duty, Carver “had the basics taken care of” with his initial VA claim. However, when he heard about the VFW’s National Veterans Service program, he reached out to his VFW Department Service Officer, Ms. Bobbiejo Lazo. “Once I was on the phone with her, I knew I was talking to the right p...

12/11/2014 - “You can’t internalize this forever. You gotta find that link with somebody or some group or something that’ll make you let it go, that’ll help you let it go.” – Don, Vietnam War veteran When Don returned home from Vietnam he brought horrific memories from the war back with him. To make matters more difficult, some of his peers looked down on his service. Don busied himself at home to avoid situations that might evoke feelings that he wanted to bury. After 9...