Precision Public Relations for Aerospace, Defense, and Veterans Affairs
Veterans
Navy psychiatrist tells Hill panel: ‘The war continues in our offices’
April 14, 2013
by John Grady
Cmdr. Russell Carr’s said his patients ”feel they deserve to die” and many “feel more comfortable sleeping under a bridge” rather than in a bed inside a house. “The war continues in our offices. Almost everyone we see is suicidal.”
Carr, a psychiatrist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., told the House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee that overcoming that state of being with his patients is “not quick and not easy.”
The stated reason for the April 10 hearing was to hear from the Defense Department’s top medical official and the services’ surgeons general how effective the $1.5 billion spent in the last six years on researching post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury has been and in the words of ranking member Susan Davis’, D-Calif., “where are the patient breakthroughs” and “where do we need to focus our attention.”
But it was Carr’s testimony that best More >
CEO Fred Wellman offers insight to Politico on Gen. Petraeus’ return to the public stage
March 27, 2013
Petraeus hits the comeback trail
By Stephanie Gaskell, Politico
David Petraeus is plotting a comeback.
The “rock star” Army general who resigned as CIA director over an extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, has laid low since the scandal became public last fall. On Tuesday night, he’ll make his first public speech since his fall from grace.
Petraeus plans to speak at an event honoring veterans and the ROTC program at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he intends to open with remarks about the “personal journey” he’s been on since resigning, according to The New York Times, which obtained an advance copy of his speech.
“Needless to say, I join you keenly aware that I am regarded in a different light now than I was a year ago,” an apologetic Petraeus said in the prepared text. “I am also keenly aware that the reason for More >
Army Women’s Foundation Symposium Celebrates Trailblazers
March 13, 2013
by John Grady
Beryle Stipe, The Home Depot associate and U.S. Army veteran
Beryle Stipe shared her experiences as Soldier and now as the Executive Assistant to the President of Home Depot’s Southern Division with 100 attendees at the Army Women’s Foundation symposium about transitioning to civilian life on March 12.
Speaking at the Capitol Hill event entitled, “Refocusing Your Future,” she said what helped in her transition from the Army was understanding, “We have leadership skills that we take with us.” After more than eight years as a Soldier, she re-oriented her priorities to be a better parent.
“I needed to make sure my son felt safe,” Stipe said as part of a panel on looking to civilian careers, but leaving the military “took me out of my comfort zone” of having some career decisions made for her. What she discovered was, “I could create my own More >
Panetta: time to ‘kick ass’ to support wounded warriors
July 29, 2012
by John Grady
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was clearly frustrated by the continuing problems in a program designed to provided coordinated care for “severely wounded, ill or injured” veterans during a joint House hearing when he said, “Frankly, we’ve just got to kick ass and try to make it happen and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Testifying July 25 before the House Veterans Affairs and House Armed Services Committee, Panetta was referring to the five-year-old Federal Recovery Coordination Program run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The one-stop program for clinical and non-clinical services was called for by the commission headed by former Sen. Robert Dole and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala in the wake of the scandal over treatment of wounded and ill service members at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The core of the problem, as detailed by a 2011 Government Accountability Office report, is neither DoD More >
The Scout Report 72nd Edition
July 9, 2012
by Fred Wellman
Military, Veterans and Defense Industry Issues and Analysis
July 9, 2012
It was a relatively quiet week in Washington D.C. in the public, private and non-profit worlds between the holiday and power outages. Things get busy again this week as Congress comes back to town and the heat wave finally abates. The semi-annual Farnborough Airshow kicks off today amid gloomy reports on the defense budgets for most countries. Veteran unemployment dipped this month somewhat while startling numbers on veterans’ success in college got some attention.
Hope you didn’t miss us too much last week but between Fred Wellman recovering from shoulder surgery and the holiday we took a brief hiatus. Enjoy this weeks Scout Report and thanks for being our readers! Please share it widely with the social networking buttons above (which are actually there this week!)
The week ahead:
Tradeshows and Conferences:
A conference on volunteerism turns the spotlight on veterans as volunteers
June 24, 2012
by Geoff Ball
Geoff Ball is a ScoutComms special correspondent
For all the talk you hear about helping veterans, rarely do we actually listen to someone speak about the importance of empowering some of our youngest and most talented leaders. Too often they are treated as liabilities or to feelings of pity, rather than regarded with the recognition that they deserve. But over the course of the past week veterans and military families were cast as resources to be utilized and harnessed within our communities at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service (NCVS).
Hosted by Points of Light, a leading non-profit promoting volunteerism, NCVS for the first time ever featured a track about serving veterans and military families, which centered on engaging this group of citizens in service. The Points of Light Community Blueprint program boasts a new online resource for non-profits seeking to serve members of the military community that helps More >
The Scout Report 70th Edition
June 18, 2012
by Fred Wellman
Military, Veterans and Defense Industry Issues and Analysis
June 18, 2012
It’s a busy week ahead filled with discussions on the challenges our veterans face both in the halls of Congress and among some of the leading non-profits. At the same time the pressure is mounting on Congress to head off sequestration budget cuts before its too late. UAV’s dominated the news last week as these systems continue growing in the national conversation from new ways to precisely target the enemy on the battlefield to fears of privacy invading government programs here in the U.S. The Eurosatory show in Paris was heavily attended even as budget pressures have the defense industry in flux. In Germany, the Colonel accused of multiple felonies surrounding his elicit affair with an Iraqi woman got off with a fairly light punishment that has infuriated soldiers around the world.
Enjoy this week’s Scout Report More >
The Scout Report 69th Edition
June 11, 2012
by Fred Wellman
Military, Veterans and Defense Industry Issues and Analysis
June 11, 2012
There is a lot of great material this week for you to review. Take your time and check out our featured stories this week to get a better understanding of the issues in aerospace, defense and veterans issues. We even threw in some good celebrity gossip at the end to get you to scroll down!
The week ahead:
Tradeshows and Conferences:
Eurosatory 2012 (Mon-Fri, 11-15 June) Paris, France
Taking place every two years in Paris, Eurosatory has a reputation as one of the biggest land and airland defense tradeshows in the world. They expect over 1,400 exhibitors and 55,000 visitors to this years show. In 2010, 54 countries were represented and visitors from a total of 130 countries attended. This is the big one for land based technology in the defense industry.
Congress: More >
The Scout Report 68th Edition
June 4, 2012
by Fred Wellman
Military, Veterans and Defense Industry Issues and Analysis
June 3, 2012
We had a great week supporting the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans Annual Conference and our client The Home Depot Foundation who brought together 500 hard working American’s laboring to end veteran homelessness. It was an incredibly informative week. Check out some of the coverage below.
The week ahead:
Tradeshows and Conferences: No significant shows that we are aware of this week.
Congress: The full Congress is in session this week.
Senate:
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee – Hearing (10:00 AM, Tues, 5 June)
Revised
Contracting Oversight Subcommittee hearing on “Veterans Employment and Government Contractors.”
Witnesses: Ted Daywalt, president and CEO of VetJobs; Spencer Kympton, COO of The Mission Continues; Ramsey Sulayman, legislative associate for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America; Pamela Hardy, senior manager of More >
The Scout Report 65th Edition
May 14, 2012
by Fred Wellman
Military, Veterans and Defense Industry Issues and Analysis
May 14, 2012
We just completed our participation in the Milblog Conference and it was a fascinating opportunity to meet with the unique voices in the military community. It was also a week of launches in the military and veterans communities with Hollywood jumping into help veterans, Facebook adds a new tool to help military families in crisis and Blue Star Families found that many service members are simply not seeking treatment for PTSD. A stay-at-home dad is this year’s Military Spouse of the Year and there was an outstanding look at how snipers are changing warfare in today’s military. There is lots of good stuff all the way to the bottom of this weeks report and a happy belated Mothers Day to all of our mom readers!
The Scout Report is a weekly analysis of the news More >