University of Alabama launches program to help student veterans

Published by Tuscaloosa News this week:

The University of Alabama launched a program Thursday that will help student veterans adjust to life on campus after serving in the military. The Veterans Education and Transition Support initiative will provide academic and personal support for veterans entering or re-entering college, including help with unresolved problems related to combat.

“This is really going to be revolutionary for veterans on campus,” said Ashkan Bayatpour, the founder of the Campus Veterans Association. “Now, the University of Alabama is making an active effort to reach out to veterans.”

To celebrate the new program, UA held a luncheon for campus veterans Thursday that featured an address by national veterans expert Floyd Meshad. Meshad touched on many of the issues facing veterans today and recalled his experience upon returning home to Alabama after Vietnam.

“Quite frankly, after Vietnam, I spent three or four months in and out of the VA. I needed to get the war out of my head,” Meshad said.

After moving to Los Angeles, Meshad started the Vietnam Veterans Re-Socialization Unit that focused on the readjustment problems of Vietnam veterans. He was also one of the first to study post-traumatic stress disorder and would go on to found the National Veterans Foundation.

Read the rest of article here.

For information about the VETS initiative, visit www.vets.ua.edu or call 205-348-6770.

Bessemer’s VFW supports today’s wounded vets with a big donation

Printed in this weekend’s edition of The Birmingham News:

Over the years, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1762 in Bessemer has dwindled.

Twice-a-week bingo stopped in 2006. Enrollment has fallen to 90, and 89 of those are veterans from World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Yet one thing hasn’t diminished — a dedication to helping other veterans in need.

Once a month the post does bingo night for veterans in a Tuscaloosa nursing home. Every patient wins coupons to buy sundries.

But next week Commander Paul Calhoun and Quartermaster James Mosier will make the post’s biggest donation ever.

The post will pay $50,000 for naming rights for a duplex being built at the Lakeshore Foundation campus. It’s one of 10 new residences that will offer free lodging for injured veterans and their families when they come to Lakeshore for free Lima Foxtrot programs.

In Lima Foxtrot, injured veterans learn to be active and independent through recreation or sport — despite blindness, amputation, paralysis or other severe injury.

Since 2006, about 800 military service members have gone through the program, but they stayed in dorms while family members had to stay elsewhere.

The new housing effort, dubbed Operation Lakeshore, will change that.

The entire family — including children — will live together on campus. Ground was broken on the $2.3 million project April 5, and the new residences, with their private, home-like atmosphere, will open on Veterans Day.

Calhoun, 80 years old and post commander for the past 18 years, had been looking for a deserving project. The retired U.S. Air Force technical sergeant knew that if the post ever has to close, remaining assets will go to the state VFW. Instead, he hoped to find a local charity to support with money the post has raised from bingo, investment and dues.

“A lot of our people were getting older,” Mosier said.

When Calhoun and Mosier heard about Operation Lakeshore, they invited Mike Mouron, president of Capstone Companies, his wife, Kathy, and veteran Noah Galloway to tell them more at a post meeting earlier this month.

Kathy Mouron was the one who came up with the idea of building the cottages as a charitable effort, which her husband leads. More than 90 companies have donated nearly $2 million in labor, materials and money.

Galloway, an Iraq veteran who lost one arm and one leg in a roadside bombing, did most of the speaking.

He told post members how much he appreciates Vietnam-era veterans, and said he regretted how they had been treated when they returned from the war. Several of the Bessemer veterans audibly said, “Thank you.”

He told them he signed up for the Army right after 9/11 and was in the first invasion of Iraq with the 101st Airborne “Screaming Eagles.” He told them that he re-upped for a second tour, during which his Humvee triggered a roadside bomb on a night patrol.

Galloway told the post how the cottages will serve injured veterans as they try to gain confidence through physical activities, and how much having families with them will help.

After the Mourons and Galloway left, the members of Post 1762 voted. The decision to make the gift was unanimous.

“This is going to be the largest donation the post has made anywhere,” said Mosier. “This donation is going to help veterans, and that’s what our job is.”

To help furnish the duplex, the post plans to donate photographs of veterans who were VFW members. Even as the older soldiers fade away, a plaque on the door and the historical photographs on the walls will be lasting tributes to Bessemer’s proud VFW post, and a memorial to its many wartime veterans.

New commander takes post at Army Reserve Center near Hoover

Printed in today’s Birmingham News:

Brig. Gen. Joe Chesnut today assumed command of the Fourth Brigade, 75th Combat Training Division at the Horace B. Hanson Army Reserve Center near Hoover.

Chesnut, a native of Starkville, Mississippi, succeeds Brig. Gen. David Puster, who is moving on to take command of the 302nd Maneuver Support Command in Massachusetts.

Chesnut holds a bachelor of arts degree in communication from Mississippi State University and a master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College.

He is a contract senior engineer analyst with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

The Fourth Battle Command Training Brigade provides Army Reserve, National Guard and active duty units with specialized battle command and staff training in order to enhance the units’ readiness and meet wartime requirements.

Congratulations, Brig. Gen. Chesnut!