Washington - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today it is offering a $50,000 prize to the first team that builds a personal health record (PHR) using the Blue Button? download format, and arranges to install the PHR on the websites of 25,000 physicians across America.  Sponsored by the VA Innovation Initiative (VAi2), the Blue Button Prize Competition is open to all U.S. organizations and individuals.  The contest started July 18.

“Over six million Veterans who receive health care from VA can already download their personal health data using the Blue Button,” said VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki. “We want to be sure the 17 million Veterans who receive care from non-VA doctors and hospitals can do the same.”

VA first offered Blue Button downloads through its My HealtheVet website in August, 2010; since then nearly 300,000 Veterans have downloaded their PHR data, including upcoming appointments at a VA Medical Center, medications, allergies, health reminders and, in a recent upgrade, their laboratory results.

The Department of Defense also provides Blue Button download capabilities to its TRICARE beneficiaries, and Medicare beneficiaries can download their claims histories using the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Blue Button functions.

“Veterans can now expect that downloading their data will be a routine part of the care they receive from VA,” said White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra.  “We want Veterans across America – and the general public – to think of Blue Button downloads as something they receive from their family doctors as a routine matter.”

Getting a low-cost user-friendly application into hands of physicians is a key part of the competition, according to VA Chief Technology Officer Peter L. Levin.

“Moving health data can and should be safe, simple and inexpensive,” Levin said. “Blue Button technology is all of those things.  Doctors who use PHRs developed as part of this competition can give their patients the ability to keep and control their own health data. Blue Button’s simple format can even support patient-authorized health data transfers to other doctors or hospitals.”

The Blue Button Prize Competition is sponsored by the VA Innovation Initiative (VAi2). VAi2 is a department-wide program that solicits the most promising innovations from VA employees, the private sector, non-profits, and academia to increase Veterans’ access to VA services, improve the quality of services delivered, enhance the performance of VA operations, and delivering of those services more efficient.  Through prize contests, private sector innovators help improve federal government operations and technology developed using tax dollars is made readily available to the public.

Qualifying PHRs must be easily installed by physicians and other clinical professionals, must be readily available to all of the physicians’ patients, and must allow patients to download their data using VA’s Blue Button’s simple text-based format – which can be read and printed on any computer without using special software.

Contemporary PHRs are designed to address consumer health information needs by enabling individuals to access, manage, and share their personal health information in a private and secure environment. The meaningful use of technologies such as PHRs has the potential to improve health care processes and outcomes.  The PHRs must also meet data-security requirements. The contest will run through October 18, 2011, unless a winner is declared sooner.

Contest rules are available at http://challenge.gov/VAi2/198-blue-button-for-all-americans.

The service member was discharged April 29, Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Vician said late Thursday.

“The airman in the case asked to be separated expeditiously,” Vician said, adding that he didn’t know other details of the case nor the gender of the service member.

The firing is also the first since Defense Secretary Robert Gates in October made it harder to throw someone out of the military for being openly gay. Gates at the time ordered that all dismissals under “don’t ask, don’t tell” be decided by the person’s service secretary in consultation with the military’s general counsel and Gates’ personnel chief.

Gates said the purpose of narrowing those in charge of dismissal was to “ensure uniformity and care in the enforcement” at a time of “legal uncertainty.” The law was under assault in the courts at the time and a federal judge in California had ordered the military to stop enforcing it.

The April discharge is the only one approved following the Gates directive, said Eileen Lainez, a Defense Department spokeswoman.

Vician said Air Force Secretary Michael Donley approved it after consulting with general counsel and the head of personnel. “Each of these officials evaluated the case carefully and concluded that separation was appropriate,” he said.

Lainez noted that until repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” occurs, “it remains in effect, and the Department of Defense will continue to apply the law as it is obligated to do.”

Under the legislation Obama signed in December, troops are now being trained on the repeal of the old law. The president and top defense officials must still certify the repeal won’t hurt the military’s ability to fight, and repeal would be official 60 days after that.

Aubrey Sarvis of the advocacy group Servicemembers Legal Defense Network said the discharge underscores the need for officials to wrap up the repeal process “and put this ugly chapter in American history behind us.”

By Pauline Jelinek – The Associated Press

The wounds to two of the photographers — Chris Hondros and Guy Martin — were severe, according to Andre Liohn, a colleague at the triage center where they were being treated Wednesday night.

Mr. Hondros, an American working for the Getty photo agency, suffered a severe brain injury and was in extremely critical condition, according to Mr. Liohn. He had been revived and was clinging to life in the evening. A later update from Mr. Liohn said that Mr. Hondros was in a coma at the medical center, which is located near the front lines.

Mr. Martin, a British citizen working for the Panos photo agency, had shrapnel wounds and was undergoing vascular surgery Wednesday night, according to the same account. As the night progressed, Mr. Liohn said that Mr. Martin’s bleeding had been stopped and that his prospects had improved.

The fourth photographer, Michael Christopher Brown, suffered shrapnel injuries to his left shoulder, but his life was not in danger. He was resting Wednesday night.

Misurata, Libya’s third-largest city, has been cut off by land from the rest of the country by military forces loyal to Col.Muammar el-Qaddafi. It has been the scene of intensive, close-quarters fighting for weeks. Hundreds of Libyans have been confirmed killed.

The photographers had reached the city by sea from Benghazi, the rebel capital. The early reports said they had been working together near the front lines when they were struck by a rocket-propelled grenade.

As doctors worked on the wounded men, it was not immediately clear how they might be evacuated.

The Ionian Spirit, a vessel chartered by the International Organization for Migration, was in port in Misurata to evacuate migrant workers, having just completed a third relief trip from Benghazi.

Human Rights Watch, the New York-based organization, whose staff members know the photographers, contacted the vessel and found it was prepared to evacuate them back to Benghazi. But Mr. Martin and Mr. Hondros were not deemed fit for travel, especially on a voyage that could last 20 or more hours.

The loss of Mr. Hetherington reverberated in many circles, including among the journalists, aid workers, soldiers and victims of war he had befriended in a distinguished career.

A British citizen who lived in New York, he had covered conflicts with sensitivity in Liberia, Afghanistan Darfur and, in recent weeks, Libya. Condolences streamed in as news spread of his death.

“This is a devastating loss to many of us personally,” said Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, which was examining options to recover his remains. “But it is also a devastating loss to the human rights community. His work has raised the visibility of many of the world’s forgotten conflicts. May the legacy of his exceptional photographs serve to inspire future generations.”

nytimes.com

I meet with Hicks at her home in Cabrillo Villages, a U.S. Vets-funded women’s living center in Long Beach, Calif. She’s friendly and circumspect all at once, but she eases into talking by passing me some papers — face down and neatly stapled. The papers contain a few excerpts from her impassioned journal, recounting how she was verbally and physically assaulted and raped during her nine years in the service, leading to PTSD, homelessness and living in her car.

For the first time, Hicks is sharing the details of her story. She’s opened up some with her therapist, but she says even with her family, she’s become a good “faker”.

“Our families are expecting the same person to come back home, but the ones who served know we never come back home the same. The individual is gone for good,” she writes in her journal. “I didn’t tell my family anything out of shame and the pity I felt for myself for what I’ve had to endure.”

Hicks, who’s in her 30s, was often the only female doing in-flight management special operations in the Air Force and civil engineering in the Navy. But her plight is far from unique.

The federal government’s first-ever Veteran Homelessness study released earlier this year revealed veterans are 50 percent more likely to become homeless than other Americans. What’s more, the report states, “Female veterans are twice as likely to be in the homeless population as they are to be the U.S. adult female population.”

President Obama’s administration has called for the end of veteran homelessness by 2015. But that won’t be possible unless more is done to understand and tackle the complexities of homelessness, says Victoria Curtin, program director at the Naomi House, a Veterans Affairs-funded recovery-oriented program for female vets in Los Angeles. She says more help is needed to address the unique challenges women vets face and the reasons they become homeless.

Some of these female vet-specific issues include having to leave children when they enlist, dealing with custody battles upon returning and recovering in shame from military sexual trauma, Curtin says. She insists more clinical help is needed for female vets and that too often women’s programs attempt to mirror men’s programs. Typically, help for men is geared toward drug and alcohol abuse and addiction.

“Alcohol and drugs are just the aftermath of the trauma,” she points out. “You could deal with the drugs and the alcohol as far as teaching them to stay away from it, but you’re not getting to the core issue of why they’re using it.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes”

Paulina Hicks didn’t battle with substance abuse. “I barely even swear,” she jokes, as she pulls at her green earrings that match her sea foam-colored cardigan.

She tells me the story of being raped at an air show by an officer she knew only by the planes he flew: F14s. “Of course, I’ll never forget his face,” she says. Hicks tells me she was also raped by someone who broke into her dormitory when she was stationed in Texas. And she describes how she was verbally and physically assaulted by a superior in Oregon while she worked with him every day for three years in a secured room the size of a kitchen. She reported a few incidences of verbal abuse, which were loosely investigated. But she kept most things a secret.

Hicks is far from alone. Last month, it was widely reported that two men and 15 women sued the Department of Defense for allowing a military culture that fails to prevent rape. A Pentagon spokesman said in a statement that “sexual assault is a wider societal problem” and that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was working to ensure that the military was “doing all it can to prevent and respond to it,” according to the New York Times.

“I was the only female and my job was classified. It was top secret. You fear for life a lot of times,” Hicks explains to me. “I constantly reevaluated everything as to whether I should suck it up or take the risk of saying something. I sucked it up for a while; I just thought, ‘I’ll do whatever it takes.’”

She dealt with it by sneaking out of town on her time off and just hiding — existing, really, she says — in a hotel. She volunteered for temporary duty assignments overseas whenever possible. “Saudi Arabia, anywhere a few times a year to get away.”

When Hicks reached her breaking point, she told her commander she was resigning, saying she was going back to school. She left at the end of 2008 and had three potential jobs lined up — one of which was in the nuclear civil engineering department at Pearl Harbor. But the economy took a turn that fall and she got a shocking one-line email saying she wouldn’t be needed after all.

She lived with family in Northern California and did odd jobs, even applying to waitressing positions and volunteering at homeless shelters.

“I remember volunteering at a soup kitchen and seeing the homeless people, thinking it was heartbreaking.”

Hicks moved into the Long Beach housing unit last year. She tells a story of living with a family of five, with whom she’d share food and supplies when their money was tight.

“I don’t know where God gave me the strength to help people as broken as I am,” she said. “But we only have each other.”

Identity Crisis

One of the women Hicks lives with is Jennifer John, whose 15-year-old daughter is also a resident. John, who was in the military for four years, has been homeless since 2006. When we sit down to talk, she’s boisterous and unrestrained with smart, snappy opinions. Then in the next breath, she reveals, softly, many of the hardships she’s faced that are unique to being a female veteran.

When John, 42, left Kelly Air Force Base in Texas in 1993, she went back to her home in the Caribbean for a brief stint. But set on making it on her own, she returned to Texas. Within a couple years, she met her then-husband, got married and had a daughter. In addition to the misfortune of enduring some financial problems, she says she felt somewhat of an identity crisis after being accustomed to such a harsh, regimented lifestyle — only to switch gears into being a mother and wife.

“You’re trying to be your tough self but also a nurturer,” she explains. “My husband would say, ‘OK now you’re trying to tell me how to do my job as husband and dad.’”

John admits one of her most trying problems was feeling lost adjusting to civilian life. “When you’re in the service, everything’s structured with different rules and laws, things you don’t do or say. But then you get out, and if you don’t have right structure, you’re lost, like in a washing machine,” she tells me, spinning her water bottle around, then wringing her hands.

The government’s report released this year said minority veterans were more likely to be homeless, especially African-Americans. John agrees and says she’s seen this firsthand. “That’s who joins the military to escape from the negative environment they were brought up in,” she says. “They say, ‘I don’t want to be on welfare and when I leave, I will never look back.’” John says she’s seen the struggles of someone who comes from a troubled background and enlists, only to return to the same situation, not having gained a sense of direction.

John is in school for social work and would like to open her own housing center for homeless female vets one day.

Looking Ahead

Hicks is actively trying to find a job and move out on her own. She’s started seeing a therapist to deal with her PTSD, revealing her experiences little by little. “She cries whenever we talk. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” she laughs.

Hicks says she herself hasn’t cried in years. Not even when she was forced to live in her car for weeks. At that point, she says she felt so much pain that she thought she was undergoing a heart attack. “I was waiting to drop,” she says. “I just kept driving and driving and driving, not knowing where to go and what to do. I stayed in a hotel for three days, just sitting on the bed — just blank, blank, blank.”

It’s this kind of progress that Hicks is making with her therapist that Curtin says is a real solution. The Salvation Army has hired more clinicians — as opposed to just case managers — who can address the issues of psychological trauma, but they still have a ways to go, Curtin says.

“We need money. If we had the money, I could get more clinicians in here,” she says of the Naomi House. “If we don’t have clinicians to meet with women, we’re just cycling. If Obama is serious about ending homelessness, then programs need funding.”

Even Hicks, who prides herself in being a rock, agrees that dealing with all of her trauma is not something she can do on her own.

“When I realized I lost everything, I was shocked,” she says. “I’ve been shocked before because of what I’ve seen in my work, but then you have adrenaline. This was different; it was just me and my emotions.”
This article is part of AOL and Huffington Post’s Military Families Week series, an effort to put a spotlight on the issues affecting the lives of America’s families who serve. Find more at jobs.aol.com/militaryfamilies and aol.com.

Before Gates arrived to meet with 200 soldiers from the U.S. Division-Central headquarters in Baghdad for a typical open question-and-answer session, several unit members said they planned to ask him about the shutdown affecting their pay. And it was the first question asked by one unidentified soldier: “How do you see the possible government shutdown affecting military pay?”

“Well, first of all, let me say you will be paid,” Gates said, drawing a big Army “Hooah!.”

“You know, as a historian, it always occurred to me that the smart thing for government was always to pay the guys with guns first.”

But then Gates turned serious, explaining that based on information he received Thursday morning, if the government shutdown begins on Apr. 8 and lasts for one week, troops would get half a paycheck. If it goes on from April 15-30, however, troops would not get a paycheck.

In that scenario, all troops eventually would be back-paid in full for their time.

“So … that’s the deal,” he said. “And frankly I remember when I was your age I did a lot of living paycheck-to-paycheck, and so I hope this thing doesn’t happen because I know it’ll be an inconvenience for a lot of – a lot of troops.”

Later, he told reporters: “When I start to think about the inconvenience that it’s going to cause these kids, and a lot of their families – even half a paycheck delayed can be a problem for them. So I hope they work this whole thing out.”

Gates has warned Congress for months that its delay in passing a Defense Department budget would negatively affect the entire military, from procuring intelligence hardware wanted for the Afghanistan War to paying troops on time.

Asked for his reaction to Congress’s handling of the issue, he smiled coyly and said, “I’m not going to wade into that swamp.”

By Kevin Baron

But pay for any work done after the shutdown would have to wait until federal operations resumed, said the official, who is familiar with the government’s contingency planning but not authorized to speak publicly.

“The military would be paid through the 8th” — or half a paycheck, the official said. “Beyond that period of time they would not be paid. They would continue to earn their money, and when we have money again, they would be paid at that time.”

Likewise, Department of Defense civilian workers and contractors who, like servicemembers, are deemed necessary for “the safety of life and protection of property,” would continue to work for deferred pay.

Most other civilians would be furloughed, except for those whose offices are funded by fees or other non-appropriated funds.

Veterans services would continue, the administration official said. The Department of Veterans Affairs is funded through multiyear appropriations and reportedly would not be affected by a shutdown.

Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn’s office was preparing a document giving guidance to commanders of various components with the department on how to carry out a shutdown, said Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan.

“We’re pushing to get something today,” he said.

Mid-afternoon on Wednesday, employees in the Pentagon’s Defense Media Activity division were told in a memo that if a budget accord is not reached by Friday night and a shutdown is ordered, they should report to work Monday morning.

At that time, the memo said, they would learn who would continue to work during the shutdown and who would be furloughed.

Although no count has been taken to see how many government workers would be furloughed if a shutdown occurs, the administration official said it would likely be similar to the number of employees — 800,000 — temporarily off work during a government shutdown in 1995.

With the budget debate at an apparent impasse, politicians Wednesday were seeking a legislative solution for the issue of military pay. Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican, introduced a bill in the House of Representatives last week that would authorize funds to pay troops and Department of Defense civilian employees. On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of legislators introduced the measure in the Senate.

One part of government that would go on hiatus is the Internal Revenue Service, which would not conduct audits or process paper forms,  although electronic filing could continue, the official said. The National Park Service, Small Business Administration and Federal Housing Administration would be among other agencies to stop functioning.

If military pay is cut off, military members who are in a bind likely will be able to access offices on their base where they can apply for quick, interest-free loans.

Representatives for the Air Force Aid Society and the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society said their services would be available during a shutdown. A spokesman for the Army Emergency Relief has not responded to a request for comment.

GIVE A THOUSAND THANKS PROJECT AIMS TO SHOW FAMILIES OF OUR FALLEN THAT AMERICA CARES

WASHINGTON – Less than one percent of Americans today serve in the military but anyone can express their gratitude and support for the families of our fallen military through a new website at www.GiveAThousandThanks.org.

Organized by the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), The Give a Thousand Thanks project aims to collect thousands of messages, photos and videos from across the country that remind the loved ones left behind after a service member dies that America remembers and appreciates the service and sacrifice their families have made.

The Give a Thousand Thanks website (www.GiveAThousandThanks.org) is easy to use and anyone can post a thank you message, photo or video. All submissions are reviewed. Easy tools enable site visitors to share the project website on Facebook and Twitter with their friends.

“Saying ’thank you’ may seem simple, but it reminds survivors that their loved ones and the sacrifices they have made are not forgotten,” said Bonnie Carroll, TAPS founder and chairman. “People often ask us what they can do to help military families who have experienced the death of a service member. Expressing your gratitude is a great first step.”

The site’s “Thanks in Action” page lists other ways to get involved in helping the families of our fallen military. Users can learn about how to volunteer, donate to support TAPS services for surviving families, join the TAPS Run & Remember Team or purchase a Baghdad bracelet to wear.

“Community support plays a role in helping surviving families. It takes 5 to 7 years for survivors of traumatic loss to reach their new normal. No one should have to make that journey alone,” said Carroll. “The Give a Thousand Thanks project gives America a way to show its care and support for these families who have sacrificed so much for their country.”

The Give a Thousand Thanks project was a natural fit for Telos Corporation. “We originally got involved with TAPS three years ago, when one of our employees had a friend go through losing a loved one who served in Iraq. The family turned to TAPS for help in coping with their loss,” said John Wood, CEO of Telos Corporation.

“We saw what TAPS does for the families of our fallen military, so we began donating to TAPS and built a relationship with their staff and families,” said Wood. ”Lending our technical expertise to assist TAPS with a website for the Give a Thousand Thanks project is something we are very happy to do. We hope thousands of people will post a thank you message, photo or video for the families to see.”

The messages, photos and videos posted on the site will be displayed at the TAPS National Military Survivor Seminar & Good Grief Camp being held near Washington, DC over Memorial Day Weekend, where they will be seen by hundreds of surviving families of our fallen military. Postcards can also be mailed in and will be displayed at the event.

The website will gain additional functionalities in a few weeks, including an interactive map showing the locations of participants, as well as a search function and running tally of the number of messages, photos and videos submitted.

About TAPS
The Give a Thousand Thanks project is organized nationally by the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS). TAPS is the national organization providing compassionate care to anyone grieving the death of someone who served in the military. TAPS provides peer-based emotional support, grief and trauma resources, seminars for adults, Good Grief Camps for children, case work assistance, and 24/7 crisis care for all who have been affected by a death in the Armed Forces. Services are provided free of charge. Founded in 1994 out of tragedy by bereaved military families, the nonprofit organization has offered support to more than 30,000 people. For more information go to www.taps.org or call toll-free 800.959.TAPS.

About Telos Corporation
Telos Corporation has provided innovative IT solutions and services to the federal government for more than 30 years, focusing since 1997 on cybersecurity. Telos solutions ensure that the government’s most security-conscious organizations comply with demanding federal and DoD information security mandates. Offerings include Xacta® IA Manager for enterprise IT security management, enterprise security consulting services, secure networks, secure enterprise messaging, and secure identity management solutions.  Solutions are represented to the federal government on Telos’ GSA schedule. For more information, visit www.telos.com

For more information about the Give a Thousand Thanks project, go to www.GiveAThousandThanks.org.

The report by the Seattle Times found that the number of soldiers medically retired from the Army with at least one musculoskeletal condition increased nearly tenfold from 2003 to 2009, according to Army statistics.

The heavy loads contributed to rising numbers of Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans retiring with degenerative arthritis, cervical strains and other musculoskeletal injuries. The newspaper estimated that disability benefits for these injuries exceed $500 million annually.

Since returning to western Washington 2½ years ago after serving in Iraq, Spc. Joseph Chroniger has been diagnosed with bone spurs in the vertebrae of his neck caused by a degenerative arthritic condition. While on patrol in Iraq, Chroniger carried about 70 to 80 pounds, including his body armor, his M14 rifle, radio batteries, food and ammunition.

“This is ridiculous,” Chroniger said. “I’m only 25 years old. Arthritis is supposed to happen when you get old. What’s it going to be like when I’m 50 or 60?”

An Army Science Board study in 2001 recommended that no soldiers carry more than 50 pounds. Yet the Times said a 2003 Army study found that soldiers on extended foot patrols carry an average load ranging from 87 to 127 pounds.

A study led by a Johns Hopkins University researcher found that nearly one-third of all medical evacuations from Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004 through 2007 resulted from musculoskeletal, connective-tissue or spinal injuries. That was more than double the number of evacuations from combat injuries.

In 2003, Col. Charles Dean, a military-equipment expert, formed a team to study the weight worn in the combat zones of eastern Afghanistan. His report noted that if the Army didn’t undertake a program to lighten loads, “physical performance will continue to be even more severely degraded.”

The Army has launched programs to develop lighter gear, but at the same time beefed up body armor and other measures. It was unclear what headway was made over the next six years.

It also has sought to prevent injuries by improving soldiers’ conditioning, where soldiers exercise or run with full body armor and other gear while training.

Staff Sgt. James Knower, a wiry, 155-pound soldier from Joint Base Lewis-McChord served in Afghanistan for a year despite injuries to his arm and rotator cuff. His injuries worsened while carrying loads in Afghanistan; his right arm often went numb while on patrols through the Arghandab Valley in southern Afghanistan.

“Basically, it comes down to: If you want to do your job — and you take pride in what you do — you’ve just got to suck it up,” said Knower, 29.

A staff sergeant in the same platoon, 130-pound Kenneth Rickman, patrolled with gear that typically weighed between 80 and 90 pounds. Earlier in his Army career, the 35-year-old suffered a pinched nerve while carrying his gear in Iraq and then a cracked vertebra in his spine while back in the United States. In Afghanistan, he injured his shoulder when he fell off a roof with his gear on.

He described the pain as bone-on-bone grinding. He gradually ditched gear, leaving behind extra batteries, ammo magazines and switching to a lighter rifle.

Finally, he headed back to Washington state and underwent a spinal-fusion operation and the removal of a ruptured disc. “I told them I had had enough. I was done,” Rickman said.

For some soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, the combination of chronic pain and opiates to treat their physical injuries can push them deeper into despair. Judith Gorman believes the pain contributed to her son’s suicide.

Orrin Gorman McClellan, a veteran of the war in eastern Afghanistan, returned to Whidbey Island with severe PTSD. He took an opiate he obtained online, but it failed to relieve his muscle and back pain. In May 2009, he committed suicide at the age of 25.

“One of the things that he was angry about was that he always hurt,” Gorman said. “He never really got a break.”

The Army has been searching for ways to improve the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries, according to the Times. It has created teams of physical therapists and other specialists to serve with infantry brigades in combat areas, and it stepped up screening for serious injuries at clinics.

“The faster you can address some of those issues at the clinic level, the less likely the soldier is to need hospital-level care … in the theater (or need) to be evacuated,” said Col. Stephen Bolt, Madigan Army Medical Center’s chief of the department of anesthesia and operative services.

The Army also is trying to reduce the use of opiates for pain. An Army report recommended the increased use of alternatives, including chiropractic care, massage, meditation and acupuncture.

The Associated Press

Giunta has opted not to re-enlist and will leave the Army in mid-June, said Army spokesman George Wright. Giunta and his wife, Jenny, plan to move to Fort Collins, Colo., where he will attend school.

Wright said he didn’t know what school Giunta will attend, but Fort Collins is home to Colorado State University.

Giunta, 26, is the first living service member from the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq to receive the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor.

His decision not to re-enlist was made before Giunta received the medal, his public affairs officer Todd Oliver wrote in an e-mail on Tuesday from Italy.

“Giunta and his wife decided on leaving the U.S. Army a few years ago,” Oliver said. “They both feel that this is a good time to separate from the service so that he can continue his education.”

A decision on which school Giunta would attend was “still up in the air,” Oliver said.

He said Giunta was not available for comment on Tuesday and was flying back to Italy on Wednesday. Giunta is with the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade and is assigned to a base in Vicenza, Italy.

Giunta was serving as a rifle team leader in Afghanistan when his platoon was attacked in 2007.

In announcing the award, the White House noted he went beyond the call of duty by exposing himself to enemy fire to pull a soldier back to cover. He also shot two insurgents who were trying to carry away a U.S. soldier.

Giunta has since been the Army’s most noted serviceman, waving to the crowd from the field at the Super Bowl and appearing on late-night television shows. He sat with first lady Michelle Obama for President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address last month.

Col. Greg Hapgood, a spokesman for the Iowa Army National Guard, said Giunta is an “incredibly high-quality young man and wonderful ambassador for the Army and the United States.”

Hapgood called it “a huge loss to the military” to have him leave the Army, but said he is happy for Giunta because whatever his dream is, “he will pursue it.”

Giunta enlisted in the Army in November 2003 after graduating from Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids. He was in his second tour of duty in Afghanistan at the time of the ambush. In an earlier interview with The Associated Press, he refused to take credit for any extraordinary feats.

“I did my job and I did it to the best of my ability,” he said.

Giunta’s family did not immediately respond to a telephone message Tuesday.

His father, Steven Giunta, told the AP in an earlier interview that his son was humbled because he believes he was just doing what he was supposed to be doing.

“He mentions every other soldier would have done the same thing. It kind of rocks his world that he’s being awarded the Medal of Honor for something each and every one of them would have done. He’s very aware of that,” he said.

One of Giunta’s high school teachers, Michelle Frye, said she was “thrilled” he was getting out of the Army and was continuing his education.

“He loves to learn,” she said. “This is really good for him. I think he will appreciate school, whatever it is he does, so much.”

journaltimes.com

A revised budget proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the House Budget Committee chairman, calls for a 2 percent increase in defense spending over 2010 levels, which is about 2 percent less than the Obama administration requested.

As a result, defense spending would increase about $9.5 billion above the 2010 level but would be about $13 billion less than requested, according to a table circulated by the House Appropriations Committee.

For veterans and military construction programs, Ryan’s plan called for a 3 percent reduction from the 2010 budget, which amounts to a 2 percent reduction from the Obama request. Exactly how this reduction would be allocated between veterans and construction programs is yet to be determined, but the total for the combined appropriations is $1.9 billion less than the Obama administration requested for fiscal 2011 and $1.3 billion less than the 2010 budget.

Ryan’s proposal could come to a vote in the House as early as next week as Congress attempts to approve a 2011 budget before the latest temporary funding bill expires at midnight on March 4.

This is far from the final word. While Ryan is acting with the authority of House Republican leaders, the Democratic-controlled Senate has yet to unveil its plan for approving a 2011 budget.

Reductions are part of a House Republican plan to trim $35 billion from the fiscal 2011 budget, covering the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Federal agencies have been operating with temporary funding since the start of the fiscal year because lawmakers were unable to agree on budget priorities.

Military and veterans programs would do fairly well under Ryan’s plan, which calls for funding reductions of as much as 18 percent for some federal agencies. The Defense Department is the only agency that would get an increase under Ryan’s plan, although he would also spare the Department of Homeland Security from any reductions by proposing a flat budget for that agency under what would amount to an overall $1.05 trillion discretionary budget.

By Rick Maze

www.militarytimes.com