Joining Forces Updates
  • September 2012
    Department of Veterans Affairs has instituted the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP), a new training and education program for unemployed Veterans to upgrade their skills for in-demand jobs. Thus far, VA has approved more than 36,000 applications for VRAP. “The tremendous response illustrates how important this program is in providing Veterans the opportunity to find employment in a high-demand field,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki.  The VA expects to fill all 45,000 available slots for the fiscal year 2012 phase of the program, and will continue processing new applications for the 54,000 slots available in fiscal year 2013. The program, a provision of the Veterans Opportunity to Work (VOW) to Hire Heroes Act of 2011, is managed by VA and the Department of Labor (DOL). It allows qualifying Veterans to receive up to 12 months of education assistance equal to the full-time Montgomery GI Bill – Active Duty rate, which is currently $1,473 per month. VRAP aims to train a total of 99,000 Veterans over the next two years in more than 200 job skills that DOL has determined are the most sought-after by employers.  For more information about the DOL’s programs for Veterans, visit www.dol.gov/vets.
  • August 2012
    It is estimated that between 10 and 20 percent of U.S. troops, or between 150,000 and 300,000 service members, suffer from mild or moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI). The James Haley VA Medical Center in Tampa, Fla. hosts one of VA’s five Polytrauma/Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation Programs and has established a research laboratory dedicated to understanding how the brain is injured. Doctors Joseph Gutmann and John Lloyd recently conducted a series of experiments using an industrial air cannon to produce blast waves of varying intensity on a mannequin wearing various types of military helmets and a football helmet. After completing numerous tests, the two VA researchers discovered that a football helmet offered the best protection against the simulated blasts that would cause TBI in a human. “The football helmet has holes in it,” said Lloyd, “which allows pressure to escape unlike military helmets. Current combat helmet technology is not based upon the current war, but previous wars.” For more information visit: http://www.polytrauma.va.gov/facilities/Tampa.asp.