WASHINGTON - Reacting to shabby treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the House on Wednesday created a coterie of case managers, advocates and counselors for injured troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The “Wounded Warrior Assistance Act,” approved 426-0, also establishes a hotline for medical patients to report problems in their treatment and demands an end to the red tape that has frustrated disabled service members as they move from Pentagon to Veterans Affairs Department care.

Read more at Newsvine.com

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense continue to have problems collecting and sharing medical data, hampering treatment for wounded soldiers, lawmakers said at a Congressional hearing today.

The hearing before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee was a follow-up to a January hearing where officials of the Defense Department and the Veterans Administration, which are two separate government departments, said that significant progress had been made in collecting and sharing data on wounded soldiers.

Read more at NYTimes.com

We like to point out people and organizations that do a lot to for the military community. Recently,we have heard a lot of great feedback about AnySoldier.com, so we thought we would do a post talking about this great organization.

AnySoldier.com is an organization with the mission to encourage the support of American troops stationed abroad by simplifying the process of sending care packages to be distributed by servicemen and women associated with the
organization. They volunteer to distribute the containments of the packages they receive to soldiers in need. It’s a great way to show your support of the United States military forces.

AnySoldier.com has received many accolades, including these words from President George W. Bush, “Your [AnySoldier] organization’s troop posting help our citizens show their steadfast support for our Armed Forces and I am grateful. May God bless you and your family, and may God continue to bless America.”

Marty and his wife, Sue, started AnySoldier.com idea simply by sending care-packages to their son, Brian. He distributed some of the things he got to his fellow soldiers and soon enough he was getting packages specifically for distribution with the AnySoldier label on them. In order to further increase the number of packages for distribution, Marty started the website that eventually became AnySoldier.com. A few local TV and radio interviews raised the profile of the project and soon more soldiers were volunteering to distribute AnySoldier packages.

Since AnySoldier started including any member (active duty and reservists) of any of the Armed Services in January 2004 the site has grown to include over 3,700 volunteers distributing AnySoldier care-packages.

AnySoldier has tried to simplify the process of sending care packages in order to increase the number of packages sent. They make it quite easy to go online and find a soldier and their needs. They provide an in-depth question and answers page to address common issues newcomers to the site might have.

Major Michael Consiglio is in Afghanistan and is new to the AnySoldier program. He has this to say about AnySoldier.com: “The hearts of every soldier here in Jalalabad Airfield thank you and others who support us back home. It truly does make a different in our lives. May God bless and keep you and your family.”

Major Michael Consiglio (left)

We would like to say “Thank You” to everyone that has volunteered or donated to AnySoldier. And if you are interested in helping, visit the site for more information.

As soon as Abdel Salam Abdel Salam heard about the attack on the World Trade Center, he went to the supermarket in his Brooklyn neighborhood and bought enough cases of water to fill up his van. He then headed to ground zero and gave it out to anyone who needed it.This week, the Egyptian-born Muslim-American is embarking on another venture motivated by his desire to help: He’s joining the US Army as a translator.

Read more at CSmonitor.com

Head over to Gazing at the Flag to see eight amazing photographs of Iraqi sand storms. Also read about the conditions of the storms and how soldiers cope.

The VA Mortgage Center.com is announcing its Military Education Scholarship program for this semester. Beginning today and running through May 1st, they are accepting submissions for our essay prompt “Why I Choose to Serve”. On May 10th, we will be awarding three $1,000 scholarships to the winning students to be used towards the ever-increasing costs of higher education.

As you can see from the program details listed here, this initiative is being fully funded by the employees of VA Mortgage Center.com (this is not a “You Served” program, though we will help facilitate it). It was their decision to sponsor a program that would help benefit the very people we happily work with every day - veterans and military servicemembers (and their families).

We encourage all eligible parties to apply for our Scholarship Program. If you know someone who is currently enrolled or looking to enroll in a higher education program and has military affiliation please pass this along.

As always, thanks to all of you who have served our country. We all owe you a collective debt of gratitude - so let us help you towards getting that college degree.

Who is Eligible?

All ROTC program students or active duty military looking to return to college are eligible for these scholarships.

Get more information or apply for the scholarship.

There is an insightful post by Terri from A Soldier’s Mind revealing some of the innovative tactics employed by the Iraq surge and why he believes it is already becoming a success.

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - British forces said on Friday there had been “an incident” in the northern Arabian Gulf after an Iraqi sailor reported seeing up to seven British or American military personnel being seized by an Iranian ship.

“There has been an incident somewhere in the north of the Persian Gulf,” British military spokesman Major David Gell said in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, without elaborating.

Read more at Reuters.co.uk

For years, the Pentagon has come under harsh criticism its brain-dead approach to handling the media, broadly defined. From clamping down on bloggers to chucking out embedded reporters to banning digital cameras to quaking in fear of web developments, the military’s press operators seemed to miss no opportunity to shoot themselves in the collective foot, repeatedly. All this, while insurgents trained potential terrorists online, advertised their martial prowess on YouTube, even sold t-shirts over the ‘net.

But recently, things have begun to change. The Defense Department’s Pentagon Channel started posting YouTube-esque videos. Bloggers have been called into more and more conference calls with senior leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan. Multi-National Force-Iraq set up its own YouTube channel.

Read more at BoingBoing.net

The US military commander in Iraq says there are grounds for optimism over the latest security drive.

Gen David Petraeus told the BBC that with two out of the five extra brigades now on the ground in Iraq, there had been fewer sectarian attacks.

He said he would have an idea of the chance of success once all extra troops were deployed in the coming months.

Read more at BBCnews.com