mckinsey.com – http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-sector/our-insights/two-views-on-how-customer-experience-can-better-serve-us-military-veterans
Leaders of Zimbabwean war veterans have boycotted a speech by President Robert Mugabe to honour fighters of the country’s independence war, widening a rift with Africa’s oldest leader. The veterans, who boycotted Monday’s speech, have called on Mugabe to step down. The Zimbabwe National – http://Sienaheights.edu/Admissions/MilitaryVeterans.aspx Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) last month denounced Mugabe, 92, as a divisive ruler, in a jolting rebuke underlining mounting anger over economic woes. The ZNLWVA executive was absent from National Heroes Day celebrations in the capital to honour living and dead fighters of the 1970s liberation war against white minority rule. The group has anchored Mugabe’s election campaigns since 2000, when the first major opposition to the president emerged with the formation in 1999 of the main opposition party Movement For Democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
ZNLWVA secretary-general Victor Matemadanda said his group had boycotted Monday’s event because it had lost its meaning. Mugabe’s government has arrested and charged war veterans’ leaders in a crackdown against his formed allies. In his 50 -minute – https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gulf-war-veterans-have-hi/ speech, Mugabe did not mention the war veterans, but instead accused activist pastor Evan Mawarire of calling for violent anti-government protests. ThisFlag movement last month led a protest over delayed salaries for public sector employees that closed businesses, government offices, schools and hospitals – the most significant popular defiance of the long-ruling Mugabe in a decade. Mugabe’s government is drafting a Computer Crime and Cyber Crime Bill, which will allow authorities to seize phones and laptops. This is seen as an effort to curb the use of social media to organise anti-government demonstrations.
For most ad agency staffers, Memorial Day is celebrated with a day off, marching bands, retail discounts and perhaps fireworks. But at one New York shop, it’s decidedly quieter. Sherry Russell, co-founder and chief creative officer of Ayni Brigade. This year the agency plans to post a brief essay by an employee—an Army veteran—on its social media pages about the significance of the day for its staff. And the day does have special signficance for the agency, which by design is heavily staffed mainly by military vets. The idea to hire U.S. Peru. While on hiking trip in the Andes Mountains in 2011 with her husband, Russell wondered why the villagers remained at the mercy of the inclement weather, with their thatched-roof homes constantly ravaged by rain and winds.
A local guide told them about a principle called “Ayni” — a principle of mutual reciprocity, “where everybody looks out for one another,” Russell said. When the family returned stateside, the couple tried to figure out how they could put the concept in practice in their own lives. They considered the high unemployment rate, which was especially high among veterans, and in 2013, Ayni Brigade was born. Russell leads the creative, digital boutique part of the business; Her husband Mark, who is CEO, heads up the marketing strategy and business consulting side. Their third co-founder and the company’s chief operating officer is Brian Hollyfield, a Marine Corps veteran. They three have drawn clients including SAP, St. Joseph’s Health and Eaton’s Ephesus Lighting, a few of which sought out the firm because of its investment in veteran hiring, Russell said.
Military veterans in Canberra, Australia, are getting on with life, and dragging younger veterans along for the ride. Historically, there’s been a divide between World War 1 and World War 11 veterans, and then WW2 and Vietnam veterans. And these days, military personnel tend to serve in two, three, four or more theatres of war in a constantly changing mosaic. The result is that they lack a cohesive network and the critical mass to organize the services and post-combat camaraderie the larger numbers of prior veterans could rely on. The aggregating ‘peacekeeper’ or ‘peacemaker’ terms doesn’t seem to work to draw them together, and consequently many ex-servicemen and women, and their families, feel alone and adrift as they try to make their way in a post-military life.
This becomes particularly evident when illness invades – http://Wisconsindot.gov/Pages/dmv/license-drvs/rnew-and-chge/veterans.aspx a family, often in the form of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Individuals and families start to do it tough, and feel they have nowhere to turn for help, because all the familiar structures are no longer in place. The Vietnam – http://www.Wvf-fmac.org/index.php/members-of-the-wvf-en/74-kosovo/167-kosovo-liberation-army-war-veterans-organization-kla-wvo Veterans’ Federation in Canberra recently changed its name to the inclusive Vietnam Veterans and Veterans Federation to make it easier for young veterans to realize the old warriors’ services are available to young pups, too. Now, veterans of military conflicts in any part of the world and serving Australian Defence Force personnel get help and camaraderie daily at the Federation’s premises at 9 Burkitt St, Page, in the Australian Capital Territory.
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Airborne Division Vietnam 1969-1970
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SUR — Surgeon, Asst. Surgeon, Surgeon – https://victoryforveterans.org/ Mate
An ex-service organisation, VV&VF’s primary focus is helping everyone who is eligible to lodge a claim with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) for compensation or pension entitlements, to do so. The service is free, effective, and particularly relevant to veterans of recent conflicts. The volunteers who provide the service are trained on the three separate pieces of legislation under which claims can be made to DVA. They prepare claims and represent claimants who wish to appeal against a rejection of their claim by Veteran Affairs. Representation is available at the Veterans’ Review Board and also at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The organization also provides a drop in center, complete with meeting rooms and a Garden of Peace. The Vietnam Vets started the organization when they were virtually rejected by the Returned Servicemen’s League (RSL) after their return home. They did the hard yards convincing governments, of both political persuasions, to recognise mental health problems that were very prevalent after the Vietnam War. They also ensured that the government set up the Vietnam Veterans’ Counselling Service. The VVCS provided counselling for veterans, their partners and children that proved vital in saving many marriages and lives.
Next month, Clark County councilors will likely decide the fate of a proposal to build a retreat for military veterans called Camp Eagles Rest in Bratton Canyon Park north of La Center. The source of the proposal is Columbia River Veterans Organization, a nonprofit group led by Washougal Mayor Sean Guard. According to the organization, Camp Eagles Rest would provide relaxation, quiet camaraderie and healing. Veterans who come to the camp could stay for free up to a week. Bratton Canyon Park is an 80-acre property that was transferred from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources to Clark County in 2011. According to Bill Bjerke, the county’s parks manager, most all of Bratton Canyon Park is not developed. If the retreat site becomes a reality, it will be situated on 30 acres of the park’s east end.
Bjerke said the proposal calls for eight cabins – four veterans per cabin – a restroom/shower/laundry building, an office/kitchen/dining hall and outbuildings for storage. He said there is an open meadow area on the 30 acres where those buildings would be located; however, plenty of brush would need to be cleared. It would be a nice spot, and we would try to leave as small of a footprint as possible,” Bjerke said. The Columbia River Veterans Organization plans to finance the construction and operate Camp Eagles Rest through fundraising. We’ll get money from grant programs, events — lots of different ways,” said Guard. Guard said the idea of Camp Eagles Rest came to his mind about a year and a half ago. We want to put something together for veterans that can help them, but isn’t so clinical or connected to the government,” Guard said. In early stages of the camp’s development, three other sites were considered. This spot (Bratton Canyon Park) has the most and is the best for what we’re going to need,” Guard said. Bjerke said when he was first approached by Guard about the idea, he was surprised. I had never heard of anything like that before,” Bjerke said. About two weeks ago, an open house was held to gather public comments on the proposal. Most attendees supported the idea.
PETERSBURG, Fla. – Local military veterans are finding renewed purpose amidst the chaos of winds and strong currents. During a 3-day event, operating out of the St. Petersburg Sailing Center, participants of the Warrior Sailing Basic Training Camp are working together in small teams aboard Sonar sailboats, with an on-board professional coach accompanying each team. By the end of the camp, they will have the basic skills to maneuver a boat on Tampa Bay or wherever they live. The Warrior Sailing Program (WSP) was founded in St. Petersburg and has grown to serving locations around the country. The mission is to introduce active military and veterans with disabilities to the sport of sailing, with opportunities ranging from introductory level sailing to world championship competition and maritime career development.
WSP is partnering with the St. Petersburg Yacht Club and the St. Petersburg Sailing Center to give back the gift of competition, camaraderie and being a part of a unit. The program is offered at no cost to participants, with adaptive technology brought in by the Warrior Sailing and sailboats provided by St. Petersburg Yacht Club. The participants come from all branches of the military and have varying injuries that range from limb loss, traumatic brain injuries, post traumatic stress and other physical disabilities from injuries incurred while serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and even Vietnam. Two area Paralympians take to the waters of Tampa Bay to share their skills with wounded veterans, giving them a new challenge, to learn the sport of sailing. Graduates from the Basic Training Camp will learn about local sailing opportunities and those in their hometowns. Select graduates have the opportunity to join the advanced training to earn a keelboat certification or learn racing skills to compete in open and disabled racing events both across the country and around the world. More information on the Warrior Sailing Program can be found online at www.warriorsailing.org.
I know an owner of a company that supports military veterans by placing them into information security positions within the Minneapolis/St Paul area. His motto is, if we trust our military to protect our country, why shouldn’t they also protect our companies from infosec attacks? So, I’ve been considering what career tracks they can have that would lead to a financially beneficial career for them and their families. My first thought focuses on the variety of security analyst roles that exist related to Security Operation Centers. The SOC is the center of the storm when a breach occurs, the storm escalates to the Security Incident Handling experts. But the SOC analysts need to be vigilant in reviewing data (e.g. Security analyst roles can grow up into higher and higher analyst roles.
I’ve seen 5 levels of analyst roles within local large banks. It would be beneficial for the analysts to pick up a CISSP certification to give them a good background in InfoSec concepts. Read reviews of today’s top security tools and bookmark CSO’s daily dashboard for the latest advisories and headlines. Sign up for CSO newsletters. Another career path is that within product administration. Administration of simple products is profitable and as one moves to administration of more complex products one can see large gains in financial compensation. One can start with Linux administration. They can get a good Linux administration book from a local bookstore.
After Linux administration, I would recommend the next role would be virtual machine administration. Virtual machine solutions give great insight into the core functionality of a datacenter and they support custom and purchased applications in all the SDLC (dev, test, stage, and production) environments. Help desk work is also beneficial because it gives one insight into a company’s critical solutions. Once someone understands the datacenter, they can move into specialty administration functions like: storage subsystems, firewalls, load balancers, two factor authentication tools, and identity and access management products. Specializing in administration of any of these areas is quite profitable and there are limits in the number of experts that can perform these functions.
People that don’t understand IT complexity shouldn’t apply. So, what is the most profitable work? Security engineering and sales is the most profitable. It is difficult to deploy security products well within large corporations. Security engineers are often flown in to deploy their company’s products within companies that have paid for their products. Common products include switches/routers, firewalls, load balancers, storage products, virtualization products and identity and access products. Sales and marketing roles are critical roles and they are also very profitable. Sales roles are likely the most reachable for some of the military veterans. The veteran’s skills in gaining trust and persuasive communication are most important. As they learn more about various security solutions they become even more valuable.
Marketing is a little harder to break into because some of the marketing roles require an in-depth understanding of a product. That can be hard to gain over time if one lacks a product development background – designing the product. Another area is security architecture. Architects are concerned about how the security and other IT products work together. They often do the research to determine which products should be deployed to meet security needs. They also interact with sales engineers to do the planning for deployment of new products. The architects often interact with the engineers who deploy the products. In summary, I would recommend the following career paths for military veterans: security analysts, product administration and sales. I would not recommend sales engineering, marketing and security product marketing until they have more experience with products and IT infrastructure. Getting a CISSP certification would also be beneficial to give them some understanding of the infosec business. This article is published as part of the IDG Contributor Network.
As the daughter of former Gov. Mario Cuomo and the sister of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and as the wife of footwear designer Kenneth Cole, Maria Cuomo Cole has not one but two famous family names. But Cuomo Cole has made her own mark as chairwoman of HELP USA, a major nonprofit organization providing housing and other services for homeless and low-income people. The nonprofit, founded by Andrew Cuomo three decades ago, has also launched innovative programs directed toward military veterans, who have long made up a disproportionate share of the homeless population. Cuomo Cole, who took the reins 25 years ago, was honored this month with a lifetime achievement award at City & State’s annual event to recognize 10 remarkable military veterans who are still serving their communities.