Written by: Mike Haynie, IVMF Executive Director and Founder As a young Air Force lieutenant, I was assigned as a procurement officer at a place called Defense Supply Center Richmond, in Richmond VA. One of my first jobs DSC Richmond was to direct a procurement team responsible for – among other things – the acquisition [...]
Written By: Jane Gardner, V-WISE San Diego Graduate, IVMF Intern, SU Student Discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1981, like many other service women, I completely disregarded anything having to do with my military service. I just wanted to forget about it. I was married, divorced and raised two sons as a single mom. For [...]
Written By: Professor Sue Doe, Colorado State University At Colorado State University, together with my colleagues Professor Lisa Langstraat, an Army brat, Colonel (retired) Jenny Pickett, Director of Adult Learner and Veteran Services and recent graduate student (and current U.S. Military Academy English instructor) Major Erin Hadlock, we have been offering, over the past few [...]
Written By: Mirza Tihic, IVMF Director of Program Support Services While the national unemployment rate (population 18 and over) hovers at 7.5 percent, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans (Gulf War Era II or Post-9/11 veterans) face a higher rate of unemployment at 10.8 percent. Overall, more than three quarters of a million veterans are currently unemployed, [...]
Written By: James Schmeling, IVMF Managing Director and Co-founder Nationally, veteran unemployment numbers, overall, are dropping –though the trend line over the past five years is still higher not lower. Despite this upward trend over time, the overall unemployment picture of our nation’s veterans (all ages and all eras of service), when taken as a [...]
Written By: Roger Thompson, IVMF Senior Fellow Having spent nearly two years visiting colleges and universities with my colleague, Alexis Hart, while investigating campus practices for veterans, I have seen a wide range of creative, thoughtful and engaging ways to create more military and veteran friendly institutions. Often, this has taken the form of an [...]
Written By: Kara Smith, IVMF Student Intern and military child I grew up constantly reminding myself that you can’t pick who your parents are, and you can’t decide their occupation. All too often I found myself wishing my Dad had been a banker or a teacher, anything with a normal work schedule. For 30 years [...]
Written By: Gerald Young, EBV-Purdue, Class of 2010 The opportunity to pursue a small business — and to eventually provide job opportunities to other disabled veterans — is a dream come true for me, and is just one of the drivers behind my business. I’m also fortunate enough to have a product that I believe [...]
Written By: Brigitte W. McKee, EBV-SU, Class of 2011 One of the “benefits” of military life is access to base commissaries and exchanges. Commissaries sell discount groceries and exchange market household and electronic goods tax-free. Usually, there is an attached food court that serves the appetites of its target customers: military members, their families and [...]
Written By: Stacy L. Pearsall As a combat photographer, I traveled to over 42 countries documenting military training exercises and real-world operations. I witnessed and documented the best and worst in humanity. Over the course of my time spent in the warzone, the implements of war injured me as well as the unseen wounds combat [...]
Written By: Charlotte Moore, EBV-F-FSU, Class of 2013 During the last part of February, I left my husband and two young children at home in northern Virginia and joined a class of 13 other women as a part of the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans’ Families (EBV-F) program at Florida State University. I walked through the [...]
Written by: Mike Haynie, IVMF Executive Director and Founder Last week, the Department of Labor released data summarizing the employment situation of the nation’s veterans for 2012. In response, many voices in the veterans’ community have recently felt compelled to express opinions about what is–or is not–true about veterans’ unemployment. Unfortunately, as happens far too [...]
Written by Brig Gen Wilma L. Vaught I’ve been associated with the Women In Military Service For America Memorial Foundation in some capacity since 1987: first as a board member and then, starting in March of 1987, as the president. We started with a dream: to build a Memorial in the Nation’s capital to honor the [...]
Written by Ginger Miller In the early 90′s after a medical discharge from the Navy, I became homeless, along with my husband who is a disabled veteran and our young son. The sad part is, I didn’t know I was homeless; I thought I was simply surviving. To make ends meet, I worked three jobs [...]
Written by Marylyn R. Harris For over ten years, I never told my story. I rarely mentioned the fact that I was in the military or that I was a combat veteran. Like many women Veterans, I kept this information tightly guarded and believed that the memories of my military service were safely in the past, [...]
Written By: Shawn Miller When I returned home from Iraq in 2011, I had one distinct goal: to go back to school. My enlistment was ending and it seemed like I had a solid plan at the time, but I underestimated the adjustment process of transitioning from the military to higher education. For many veterans, [...]
Written by James Schmeling, IVMF Managing Director and Co-founder First Lady Michelle Obama addressed CEO members of the Business Roundtable at their quarterly meeting and challenged them to ask themselves, “What more can we do?” She asked that question very appropriately, in context, recognizing that American business and industry already has done much while asking [...]
Written By: Mike Haynie, IVMF Executive Director and Founder I started my day in a way that has become all too familiar – in a hotel lounge. It was crowded with people scrambling for their free muffin and coffee, just like me. There was a TV in the lounge, but you couldn’t hear it over [...]
Written By: Shannon P. Meehan, IVMF Communications Specialist Recent government figures show an overall 2.9 percent decline in enrollment at for-profit institutions of higher education.[1] The decline follows an announcement by Apollo Group Inc., parent company of the University of Phoenix, that it will be closing almost half of its physical locations. An enrollment that [...]
Written By: Mike Haynie, IVMF Founder and Executive Director, and Nicholas Armstrong Stand on the corner of H Street and Vermont Avenue in Washington, D.C., and in every direction you’ll see the ways and means of American government — the White House in front, the Treasury to the left and the huge Office of Management [...]
Written By: James Schmeling, IVMF Managing Director and Co-founder James Collins and Jerry Porras in their classic book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (HarperBusiness, 1994) gave us the term “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” (BHAG), which represents an idea so big and bold that it drives results. In a contemporaneous Inc. Magazine article, [...]
Written by Professor Sue Doe and Dr. William W. Doe III, LTC, U.S. Army (Retired) It was September of 2004 when we awakened to the voices of long-time friends Lieutenant General Mark Hertling (then a Brigadier General in the U.S. Army, now retired) and his wife, Sue, who had granted an interview to National Public [...]
Written By: Shannon P. Meehan, IVMF Communications Specialist I recently read film director Michael Moore’s New Year’s Resolution, in which he declares to not say, “I support the troops” anymore. Moore, an avid objector to the Iraq War, explains that he no longer supports them because, “we know our military leaders do things that have [...]
Written By: James Lee Schmeling, IVMF Managing Director As I read my colleagues’ recent reminiscences about holidays passed in service to our country, I was reminded of my own holiday experiences while I served in the Air Force beginning 25 years ago. As a junior enlisted service member, I was one of the “married guys” [...]
Written By: Dan Cohen, Veterans’ Technology Program at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies As the holidays approach, I, like many others, have been spending what little time I have setting up a tree and hanging lights on my house (which almost killed me, twice). In the midst of all the seasonal preparation, I’ve spent [...]
Written By: Shannon P. Meehan, IVMF Communications Specialist As Christmas descends upon us, I find myself wrapped up in the more trivial matters of the holiday season–buying gifts for our sons, planning Christmas activities to do with them, and sketching out some sort of “visitation schedule” for the extended family. In the silent pauses between [...]
Written By: Dr. Roger Thompson, IVMF Senior Fellow For the past year and a half, my colleague Alexis Hart and I have visited colleges and universities across the country to see how they are addressing the rising tide of veterans on their campuses. Funded by a grant from our professional organization, the Conference on College [...]
Written By: Shannon P. Meehan, IVMF Communications Specialist As the country wrangles over the sexual exploits and extramarital affairs involving an adulterous CIA director, a jealous – and quite territorial – biographer, and a Tampa socialite, a less publicized hearing regarding the worst case of civilian slaughter attributed to an individual U.S. soldier in our [...]
Written By: Eliza J. Spencer, IVMF Marketing & Communications Intern I am not a military girl. I didn’t grow up in a military family or with relatives that were part of the armed forces. I grew up in a family that was anti-war, liberal and feminist. The closest I ever came to the military was [...]
Written By: Shannon P. Meehan, IVMF Communications Specialist The aftermath of the presidential election presents an opportune time to reflect on past policies while exploring what’s on the horizon for our nation’s military and veterans. As we contemplate how the president and his administration will handle military and veteran-related challenges presented during the second term, [...]
Written By: Dan Savage, IVMF Chief of Staff When I was deployed, I wanted nothing more fervently than for those back home to understand what I was doing. I suppose many soldiers feel this way as they wrestle with the inevitable doubts and fears that creep into the minds of those who pledge to give [...]
Written By: Jared Lyon, EBV and EBV-F National Program Manager November is an interesting month; you may notice men nationwide participating in “Movember” whereby they commit to growing their mustaches in an effort to raise funds and awareness for men’s health issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer. In this age of social media, a great [...]
By: Dawn McDaniel, Bravo Delta Consulting (EBV-F at SU, Class of 2011) Editor’s Note: November is Military Family Month, in which the nation honors the commitment and sacrifices made by the families of our service members. We are American Military Families. We love our service members and our country and believe that patriotism is the highest [...]
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