Author Archives: Troy

The Pentagon’s recent military strategy document will shape budget reductions across the Defense Department (DoD) beginning in 2013, but these cuts will not be distributed proportionately.  Top DoD officials hope the much anticipated strategy, officially titled: Sustaining Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense, will change the budgeting culture within the services. To understand these cuts further, please check out: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/01/dn-coming-dod-cuts-will-hit-some-services-harder-010512/

African-American military veterans in Buffalo, N.Y., “could use a place of their own, a place where they feel honored, a place where they are not forgotten” says an Army veteran hoping to establish a minority focused post in the city’s East Side.  Only two African-American focused veterans posts exist in Buffalo, both on the East Side.  Both are American Legion posts-Bennett Wells Post 1780 and Jesse Clipper Post 430.  The city’s only black VFW post, Private Fleming Post 8747 turned in its charter in the late 1980’s.  The post will be named in honor to two African-American veterans from Buffalo, Evelyn W. Jones and Nathaniel Clifford Jones Jr., who are not related.  To learn more about who is behind this effort, please go to: http://www.military.com/news/article/vet-seeks-minority-focused-vfw-post.html

Yes this is in my neck of the woods and I am absolutely against this. America wonders why we still have racism in 2012, well this is one reason why. “A place of their own….where they feel honored”, yeah that is called the local VFW or American Legion. Americans have fought and died next to each other from all races since the the dawn of our country, to include the Civil War. Why does there need to a “special” black VFW? That is about as racist as it gets. If you want America to look past the color of someone’s skin, then quit trying to group them all together and making a certain race stand out. Continue reading →

President Obama signed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, which increases active-duty and reserve pay by 1.6 percent and governs Defense Department activities, from procurement to military personnel policy.  Several provisions in this year’s act will potentially affect active-duty and retired Servicemembers and their families.  The act states assessments are intended to “identify post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal tendencies, and other behavioral health conditions in order to determine which Servicemembers are in need of additional care and treatment for such health conditions.  Assessments are not required for Servicemembers who were subjected or exposed to operational risk factors during deployment in the contingency operation concerned.  To learn more, please go to: http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=66626