News Blog

LVMAC Tidbit: Op Homefront Changes Lives

One of the more worthwhile national, military support organizations to have arrived on the scene since the second Gulf War is Operation Homefront.  It focuses on those still serving and also those just discharging.  While it cannot replace the value of certain, long-established, chartered veterans service organizations and their grassroots support activities (one would be ignorant to think so), it is definitely a value-for-the money organization which attempts to address some of the more pressing concerns of military families in often imaginative ways. (more…)

By LVMAC, ago

LVMAC News: Businesses! We Need Your Help and Thinking

The Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, working with the Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council and others, intends to create a formal Veterans and Military Affairs Council.  More immediately, it is in the process of making a baseline assessment of those chamber of commerce initiatives most needed.   It realizes it must get beyond anecdotal experiences to have informed efforts.  Therefore, as part of the assessment, it must conduct a short survey to uncover what problems — if any — local employers are facing in finding, hiring and retaining veterans as employees. (more…)

By LVMAC, ago

Forward Observer: Bethany UM Adds to Its Military Veteran Family Support Services

LVMAC Poster Art 2005As we reported in a 19 September blog, Bethany United Methodist Church located in the Macungie/Wescoville area, intended to conduct two workshops to promote a better understanding of PTSD with the ultimate intention of starting a peer-to-peer support group afterwards.

As a result of those meetings, we have learned that the church has started two of these types of support groups instead:  one for male veterans and another for women, whether veterans or spouses or ‘significant others’ — which makes this group unique to the valley when looked at from a veteran’s context. (more…)

By LVMAC, ago

Forward Observer: Something for Other Veterans Organizations to Consider for Their Own Well-Being?

Momentum for PA VFW’s No Smoking Indoors Campaign Continues to March On

LVMAC Poster Art 2005There has been loads of talk these days about improving the well-being of military veterans and their families.   But without the well-being of chartered veterans organizations such as the VFW, The American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, AMVETS, Vietnam Veterans of America and others also being maintained, that prospect instantly becomes harder.  The veterans benefits we have today were largely hard-earned through these organizations. (more…)

By LVMAC, ago

LVMAC Tidbit: Updated Eligibility Requirements for Blue Water Navy Claims

“The Department of Veterans Affairs will soon mail letters to Blue Water Navy veterans and survivors who were previously denied benefits. The letters provide updated eligibility requirements approved in the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019, the paperwork required of a veteran or survivor, and available resources to assist in the claims process. The law says that veterans who served offshore of the Republic of Vietnam from 1962-1975 are presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange or other harmful herbicides. Exposure to these herbicides have been linked to a list of several harmful medical conditions: (more…)

By LVMAC, ago