The federal bureaucracy moved at an agonizing crawl for the Marine Corps veterans sickened by the contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Some died waiting for government benefits. But the Department of Veterans Affairs Thursday, after more than a year of work, finalized rules that will allow potentially thousands of veterans stationed at the base — or surviving spouses — to receive automatic benefits if they have been diagnosed with one of eight diseases.

This marks the end of a long wait for many veterans who have been denied benefits by the VA and may be in desperate need for disability pensions and medical care. The estimated cost to taxpayers over the next five years is $2.2 billion. FULL STORY CLICK HERE

Today, the 115th Congress has been sworn in with the republicans taking control of both the House and Senate. This is the first time in decades since republicans controlled both houses of congress and the White House. 

More info HERE

Kevin Ziober was a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve in 2012 when he received deployment orders to Afghanistan. On his last day of work before leaving, dozens of co-workers gathered for a sendoff. There was a cake and balloons. And then, Ziober says, he was summoned to the human resources office — and fired. Read rest of the story

The first time Kit Parker's phone rang, everything seemed fine. It was January 2006, and Parker's old Army buddy Chris Moroski was calling to say hi.

Parker and Moroski had jumped out of airplanes together in the 1990s when they were paratroopers in the National Guard. But after the attacks on Sept. 11, Parker had been deployed to Afghanistan, his friend to Iraq. They'd lost touch.

"Somehow I realized he's asking for help," Parker says. "It's not being verbalized, but that's why he's calling." Click here to find out how this scientist discovered how a blast effects the brain...click

A landmark study sheds new light on the damage caused by “blast shock”—the signature injury of wars for more than a century.

A research team in the United States may have solved a mystery that has haunted soldiers and veterans for more than a century: how blast force from battlefield explosions injures the human brain.

The findings, published Thursday in the medical journal the Lancet Neurology, reveal a unique and consistent pattern of damage in the autopsied brains of eight military service members who had served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere in the Middle East.  Full story,click here

We urge you to contact your Senators to support the current NDAA that is being debated in Congress. Some key points you need to be made aware of: