A happy find:a program called Guardian Angels for Soldier's Pet came to the aid of Thomasa Jordan when he was deployed. The family moved and the new home had no room for the two German Shepherds.

Enter the program which helped team up the Jordans with Barbara Lawrence who watched the pooches until the father, Adam Jordan, came home to his family - wife, newborn and young daughter. They all were reunited. [Fort Worth Star-Telegram]

The Citizen Soldier Support Program in North Carolina has provided a flood of paperwork defining its mission, spent a lot of its money, and done little for the soldiers. [Raleigh News & Observer}

John Mayo served a year in Iraq and came back needing medications for his PTSD and his wounds. Julia O'Malley interviewed him and his wife, baby in tow, about an incident that he doesn't remember: shoplifting from the Base exchange. It's gotten him kicked out of the Army.

But there's more to the story than that. [Anchorage Daily News]

Sgt. Andrew Brandi, author and veteran, is a combat trauma consultant in alliance with the Department of Defense. He served in Vietnam and part of his reason for doing this job to help the younger generation not face what he did when he came back in the 1970s. Brandi wrote a book, ' “The Warrior’s Guide to Insanity,” which has been endorsed by the Department of Veterans Affairs for use in its counseling centers nationwide.'  [Centre Daily Times]

 

"Approximately 44 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who are women have enrolled in VA programs,” Tammy Duckworth said in an interview with the Citizen-Times. “That’s an astonishingly high number, so it is one of our key initiatives to expand and improve services for female veterans.”

Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran and now an assistant secretary at the Veterans Administration, says that each VA hospital will have a women's health coordinator. She also says take advantage of the increased funding that Congress has sent their way. [Ashville Citizen-Times]

A new veterans center will be opening that has long-term assistance for veterans in the Midwest. The center "will also receive long-term life skills and job training, along with drug- and alcohol-abuse counseling." It took 8 years to build.  [Belleville News Democrat] 

One of a raft of studies aimed at soldiers with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, the DOD is pairing up soldiers with psychiatric service dogs. The study will be held at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the DC area. [McClatchydc/Kansas City Star]

"Veterans chat" is a way for veterans to talk one-on-one anonymously to counselers. If it becomes clear that further help is needed, the counselor can instantly refer them to the VA Suicide Prevention Hotline.

Apparently it has already paid off in getting one veteran some necessary help when he needed it. It's also acessable on the VA's suicide prevention Web site, www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org.

[thetowntalk.com of Louisiana]

PTSD is in court at the 9th Circuit Court  in San Francisco.  A group, Veterans for Common Sense, is "asking the court to order the Department of Veterans Affairs to reform the way it deals with disability claims for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury." [Salem-News.com]