Attention service men and women, and veterans! Help us get the word out about eBenefits, a joint DoD/VA initiative.
Through eBenefits, you can transfer your GI Bill entitlement, get imaged copies of your personnel record (DD214), or check the status of your pre-discharge disability claim. These are just a few of the self service opportunities that eBenefits provides with continual enhancements every quarter. Come check us out and register to obtain your account…
Posted in Support
Tagged Department of Defense, Department of Veteran Affairs, veterans
With a flatter course than yesterday and everyone excited about the Packer's game, Day 4 was a fast day in the saddle. The group made it all the way to Lambeau Field in under 5 1/2 hours of riding time! (Photo courtesy of Ride 2 Recovery Facebook page)
Wounded cyclists, and others who joined them in support, traveled from Wasau to Green Bay to Sheboygen and – finally – to Milwaukee for the second half of Ride 2 Recovery’s “Great Lakes Challenge.” As usual, riders new and experienced shared powerful stories of healing and transformation through the experience.
As reported by the Green Bay Press Gazette: “Rider Jen Dreizehn, a 15-year military veteran, has not only been riding with her biking family, but also seeing her real family in her first trip back to Wisconsin over that time. Her family cheered her along at several stops on Thursday and planned to attend the Green Bay Packers game with her.
The Shawano native, who grew up in Mountain, is stationed with the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Eustis, Va. ’I haven’t ridden a bike since I was 12 years old, so this has just been great and a real challenge,’ Dreizehn said. ‘Challenge is definitely the word to use. I’m really glad I did it.’”
The final day of the Great Lakes Challenge saw the cyclists heading into Milwaukee, and then riding in the American Legion parade. (Photo courtesy of Ride 2 Recovery Facebook page)
The final day of the ride was especially poignant, as the group greeted attendees at the The 92nd Annual American Legion National Convention and later participated in a parade. Marty Callahan reported the following: “About 50 cyclists – veterans and servicemembers – arrived in Milwaukee Aug. 28 at The American Legion National Convention, completing a six-day, 426-mile journey from Minneapolis. The cyclists are part of the national Ride 2 Recovery program that helps veterans overcome their wounds and inspire others to do the same.
‘This kind of event does tremendous things for the mental and physical rehabilitation of the wounded warriors,’ said John Wordin, founder and president of Ride 2 Recovery. ‘Whatever kind of injury they may have – amputations, spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, PTSD – cycling helps them to recover. Events like this create such a bond and camaraderie – it’s a great group therapy session.’”
Click here to watch as the cyclists enter the convention, and check out a great video clip from WLUK-TV below!
Posted in Troops
Tagged cycling, Great Lakes Challenge, Ride 2 Recovery, The American Legion, veterans, wounded warriors
By David J. McIntyre, TriWest Healthcare Alliance
They wear our nation’s uniform in defense of our freedoms—and in turn, it’s our responsibility as fellow Americans to provide assistance and resources to the military members and their families who sacrifice so much in service to our great country whenever and wherever we can.
TriWest Healthcare Alliance has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with the USO, partnering in a variety of venues and initiatives to help support service members. And that’s why we are particularly honored to share the USO’s goal of caring for the emotional well-being of our nation’s military members and families—and through our ongoing partnership, we intend to help break down the stigma that seeking out behavioral health services carries in the military’s culture.
Teaming up with the USO last year, we were able to jointly establish a behavioral health pilot in October at four USO Centers, equipping USO staff and volunteers with a collection of resources—DVDs, handouts, web resources and an educational module.
These resources provide USO staff and volunteers with tools on how to best help service members and their spouses during a potential time of need, assisting in our goal of doing whatever we can to stem the alarming rise in the amount of suicides, relationship problems and substance abuse our nation’s military is facing.
We are incredibly proud that the behavioral-health initiative recently expanded to 17 additional USO Centers in the Western United States, bringing added resources to thousands more military members and their families during their time of potential need. Learn more about the added sites here. Resources include information on 24/7/365 video and chat resources to talk about stress, viewable video demonstrations and more.
It’s with great excitement that we are able—together—to assist more of our military members and families through the behavioral-health initiative and its expansion. But even more so, we are privileged and honored to be able to stand in support of our Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen, Coast Guardsmen and spouses who have given so much. Thank you for your service to your country.
David J. McIntyre, Jr., is a member of the USO Board and is President and CEO of TriWest Healthcare Alliance, which partners with the Department of Defense to do “Whatever It Takes” to support the healthcare needs of 2.7 million members of America’s military family. A Phoenix-based corporation, TriWest provides access to cost-effective, high-quality health care in the 21-state TRICARE West Region. Follow TriWest on Twitter and Facebook, or visit www.triwest.com for more information.
Posted in Families, Support, Troops
Tagged behavioral health, David J. McIntyre, military families, TriWest, veterans
Cyclists participating in Ride 2 Recovery's "Rocky Mountain Challenge" head out on August 1, 2010. (Photo courtesy Ride 2 Recovery Facebook Group)
Ride 2 Recovery’s “Rocky Mountain Challenge” – presented by UnitedHealthcare – took off from Cheyenne, Wyoming, with riders leading off the annual Frontier Days Patriot Parade! The first day’s ride would culminate at Fort Collins, and it was an especially poignant ride for one cyclist. Enjoy this great story from one of the ride leaders:
“The highlights of each ride are the wounded warriors that come to the rides to find out something about themselves or try to break through their place in their rehabilitation. One such new rider is Camille from the Ft. Carson WTU. She was injured in an ATV accident in El Paso, TX while stationed at Ft. Bliss. She shattered her right knee in the accident and had to undergo major knee reconstruction.
When Camille showed up in Cheyenne, it was typical of a R2R newbie, part wide-eyed gung ho and part what the heck have I gotten myself into. She was sent with a handcycle. It has been the mission of R2R to work with the Medcom folks to educate them on the proper bike for the specific type of injury a warrior is facing. All too often, the default is to put them on a handcycle. Sometimes that is a good thing and sometimes not.
Camille is all smiles as she heads across Colorado during the Ride 2 Recovery "Rocky Mountain Challenge." (Photo courtesy of Ride 2 Recovery's Facebook Group)
As was the case with Camille, she needed something different. When the R2R staff took a look at her, the question immediately was why a handcycle? It is a fact that leg muscles are bigger and more powerful than the arms. It is the philosophy of R2R to put a warrior on a bike that will give that warrior the most benefit as part of their rehab and the most enjoyment. With Camille, her knee injury and rehab was tailor made for a road bike. After all, one of the first things they do with knee rehab is put them on a stationary bike.
We convinced Camille to try a road bike and in fact to ride tandem with Jim Penseyres. After just a couple of miles, Camille was sure she made the right choice and by the time we reached the day’s USO lunch stop in Nunn, Camille had a grin ear to ear and said she could not stop smiling she was having such a great time.
Another great R2R story and a great example of the warrior can do spirit…”
Day 2 took riders from Ft. Collins to Estes Park through the Big Thompson Canyon. It was 32 miles from the turn in Loveland until the riders found the hotel in Estes Park…and almost all of that 32 miles was uphill! The grade varied from 1 or 2 % up to 6% in the steeper sections. It made for a challenging – but ultimately rewarding – day.
The three hand cyclists and one trike rider had a tall order on day 2, in order to make it over the pass and into Estes Park. he ride started at just over 5,000' and climbed to over 7200'. For anyone riding a handcycle or a 3 wheel trike, it is a tall order! (Photo courtesy of Ride 2 Recovery Facebook Group)
Stay tuned for more pictures and stores as the “Rocky Mountain Challenge” continues…
Posted in Programs, Support, Troops, US
Tagged cycling, Ride 2 Recovery, veterans, wounded warriors
by Shad Meshad, National Veterans Foundation Founder & President
As someone who has been diagnosing and treating Post-Traumatic Stress (PTSD) for more than 30 years, I applaud VA for their recent decision to make it easier for veterans to receive PTSD disability benefits.
For years, Vets have been in the difficult position of having to prove the traumatic incident that was the genesis of their PTSD. You’d think this would be easy, but it was a rule that discouraged and prevented many Veterans from seeking or receiving the benefits that they needed and deserved.
One of the issues was record keeping. Many battlefield incidents are not properly documented, especially when they involve troops whose military jobs are not technically combat related. But in Iraq and Afghanistan, a road-side bomb, a sniper or an RPG can come at any time, from almost anywhere and there are service members who aren’t infantry who are finding them themselves in combat. This includes troops who witness the horrors of war in military hospitals, at checkpoints, and those that go in and clean up the bodies after a bomb blast or firefight.
Compounding this problem has been the antiquated record keeping systems at Department of Defense and VA. Most records are still not computerized, and those that are stored electronically are not shared between the two agencies. So veterans, already suffering from debilitating PTSD, were forced to chase down their military documents, often one a time, to submit to VA. And too often those paper documents were lost in the system.
This new guideline, which makes a PTSD disability rating available to a veteran who served in a combat zone, without making him or her document the incident that caused their PTSD, is a great step forward by VA in getting men and women who have served the benefits and the treatment they have earned. The National Veterans Foundation has received hundreds of calls from veterans who were declined for PTSD disability benefits or gave up in frustration, and we are now calling these men and women with the good news, encouraging them to reapply for their benefits.
There is still more progress to be made. VA continues to require that PTSD diagnoses be made by a VA mental health professional, which can be one more obstacle to a veteran receiving the proper diagnosis. Many veteran advocates argue that VA doctors are pressured to limit the number of PTSD diagnoses. Some veterans are also more hesitant to see a government doctor, especially former soldiers who have had negative experiences with the military system, and don’t trust these institutions. There are many qualified civilian physicians who specialize in treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder who are perfectly capable of diagnosing the condition, and those diagnoses should be honored by VA.
For information veterans can call the National Veterans Foundation Lifeline for Vets™ at 888-777-4443 or visit our website at www.nvf.org.
Floyd G. “Shad” Meshad is the Founder and President of the National Veterans Foundation and an Army veteran. The opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of Mr. Meshad and do not necessarily reflect those of the USO.
The group 4Troops consists of United States combat veterans Sergeant Daniel Jens; retired Staff Sergeant Ron Henry; Sergeant David Clemo; and Captain Meredith Melcher.
4TROOPS, the hot new vocal group comprised of U.S. combat veterans, will perform a 30-minute USO concert LIVE from New York City on July 2, 2010, at 2:00 pm EST. The concert is being streamed with the help of Stickam, an industry leader in online multimedia communications services.
Click here to bookmark the concert page!
Each member of the group served on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is on a mission to give back to troops. Their self-titled debut album was released May 11, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the USO and other organizations that support U.S. soldiers, veterans and their families. Most recently, the quartet has made appearances on “Good Morning America,” “The View,” “CNN,” “Nightline” and “Larry King Live,” among other prominent news programs. Their PBS special “4TROOPS: Live From the Intrepid” is currently airing on PBS stations nationwide and this fall the group will embark on a 50-city national tour.
During the concert, 4TROOPS will answer questions from fans, share their thoughts on what it means to serve our nation and reflect on their USO experiences. Fans will be able to view the concert live and submit advance questions for the group online via www.uso.org. Leave your question for the group in the comments section below! We’ll take submissions through 12pm EST on Thursday and two lucky winners will receive 4Troops prize packs! (Sorry, USO employees and their families are not eligible.)
Posted in Celebrity Entertainment, Support, Troops, US
