White House Finally Gets Veterans Want to Talk to Veterans?

VA staffing new White House VA Hotline Principally with Veterans
08/11/2017 05:59 PM EDT

Today the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced that the two-month pilot phase of the new White House VA Hotline that began in June has demonstrated that Veterans calling the hotline respond best when their calls are answered by fellow Veterans and others with first-hand experience on their issues.

As a result, VA announced that it will target highly qualified Veterans to staff the hotline going forward, instead of contracting the service to a third-party vendor, and is hiring additional VA personnel to complete the planned move to a 24-hour operation.

“The message we’ve heard loud and clear is Veterans want to talk to other Veterans to help them solve problems and get VA services,” said VA Secretary David J. Shulkin. “We’re taking steps to answer that call.”

This decision will delay the full-time stand-up of the 24-hour service by two months, to no later than October 15, in order to ensure the hiring and training processes are complete.

Until that time, the hotline’s current pilot program service is available to receive calls from Veterans from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.

He said what? What about the Veterans Choice Act sending them to private doctors instead of fixing the VA?

Veterans prefer face-to-face interaction to find jobs

Hiring Our Heroes 2013: Veterans prefer face-to-face interaction to find jobs
by Kristina Puga
03/27/2013

Today, more than 500 veterans attended the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring Our Heroes job fair in New York City. The program, which launched last year, is committed to hiring 500,000 veterans and military spouses by the end of 2014. So far, 108,000 have found jobs as part of the campaign in the last year.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, there are currently 1.3 million Latino veterans — 308,000 of whom are from the Gulf War and have an 11.7 percent unemployment rate. This is almost two percentage points higher than non-veteran Latinos.

Ronal Arevalo, 30, was a specialist in the U.S. Army from 2003 until 2011 and has been looking for a stable job since 2012. He got to the fair bright and early and is feeling hopeful.

“I don’t have a college degree yet,” says Arevalo, who was born in Colombia, but is now a U.S. citizen residing in the Bronx, NY. “I learned leadership, discipline and can adapt to any environment thanks to the Army.”
read more here

Sen. Tom Udall gets it half right for veterans

I agree that there should be a push on to hire veterans. I even posted about this several times, but Senator Udall is only half right. The problem is, this should be for ALL veterans and not just the newer ones.
Older veterans are having a hard time finding and keeping jobs. Disabled veterans spouses qualify to use the status of their spouse if the veteran is unable to work. Congress needs to stop separating one generation of veterans from all other veterans. Either they are all worthy of the efforts of this nation or none of them are.
I ran into this problem last year when I lost my job. The church I worked for did not pay into unemployment because they are tax exempt and didn't think to do the right thing for the people they employ. I went to the unemployment office anyway looking for help finding a job. Lines were long and then I spotted the veterans table. I went over there and said my husband was a disabled veteran. The man said he could help then asked if my husband served in Iraq or Afghanistan. I said, "Vietnam" and the expression on his face changed from hopeful to all is lost. He said they were only trying to help the new veterans and their families. I walked away.
The push is on to help new veterans and their families to understand what PTSD is, seek help to heal and know what benefits are available for them. The problem here again is that the older veterans and their families feel forgotten about.
Stop and think that had it not been for the Vietnam veterans coming back, fighting for research and compensation for PTSD, none of the newer veterans would receive what they are receiving, as limited as it is. All other generations before them had the same wound, but no one fought to have all veterans treated, compensated for this wound of combat besides the Vietnam veterans. That's right. All veterans!
Now these same veterans are being pushed aside to make room for new veterans. Is any of this right? When will they actually be honored and treated equally? We owe them a lot more than lip service. We owe them a lot more than just taking their efforts for granted while we push them away.
Plan for hiring vets tacked on stimulus bill
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Feb 6, 2009 17:35:47 EST

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An amendment worked into the national economic stimulus bill would expand tax incentives to employers who hire veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said the measure is needed because the current generation of soldiers and sailors are returning home after military discharge to find a shrinking work force.

The amendment was approved Friday as the Senate worked on the recovery package. The measure would apply to veterans who are discharged from September 2001 through December 2010.

To qualify for the tax credit, employers would need to hire a post-9/11 veteran who has received unemployment benefits for at least four weeks within the past year. The veteran would need to work at least 120 hours for the employer to be eligible.
click link