Veterans for Common Sense

From Stars and Stripes

by By JENNIFER HLAD

WASHINGTON — A group of veterans is asking the Marine Corps to stop sponsoring the Ultimate Fighting Championship, saying the mixed martial arts organization tolerates inappropriate and offensive speech and is inconsistent with the Corps’ values.

The Veterans Committee of UNITE HERE, a union that represents 250,000 hotel, food service, restaurant, textile, industrial laundry and gaming industry workers, wrote a letter to Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos in July and to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta this month, asking that the Corps terminate its relationship with UFC, the nation’s largest promoter of professional cage fighting events.

“The UFC is an organization that has tolerated people associated with it making jokes about rape, homophobic slurs and sexually explicit remarks that are demeaning towards women,” the group wrote in its letter to Amos. “We believe these statements are deeply at odds with the culture, mission and values of the Marine Corps, and the values of the people you are trying to recruit.”

The letters cite several examples of offensive statements, videos and tweets by UFC fighters and UFC president Dana White. A video of several examples is featured on a website with the petition, including a clip of a press conference in which one fighter told another he was going to “put those hands on you worse than that dude did them other kids at Penn State.”

The National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence, Protect Our Defenders, Veterans For Peace and other organizations have joined the union in its efforts.

Debby Tucker, executive director of the Texas-based National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence, said her organization got involved after it began urging UFC to institute a code of conduct for its fighters. She didn’t initially know the Marine Corps sponsored the sport.

Tucker co-chaired the Department of Defense Task Force on Domestic Violence, where she worked with Marines who were “very bright and progressive and not at all disparaging of women,” she said. “To turn around and find out the Marine Corps is one of the [sponsors of UFC] really shocked me.”

A 2010 sponsorship agreement the union obtained through an open records request and provided to Stars and Stripes indicates the Marines paid more than $2 million to sponsor UFC pay-per-view events and feature associated videos and other content on the UFC website in 2010 and 2011.

A Marine Corps commercial posted online shows shots of UFC fighters juxtaposed with shots of Marines. The commercial starts by showing the words, “There is still a path for warriors,” and later, after the words “proven on the field of battle” are shown, there is a shot of Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima followed by UFC fighters raising their arms in victory.

Jim DuPont, chairman of the union’s veterans committee, said he believes equating sports with what Marines do is just wrong.

“Those are mercenaries for sport, and they’re out to make money for themselves and have no greater social good,” DuPont said of UFC.

The Marine Corps is “not about hate, it’s about protecting our freedoms,” he added.

Marine spokeswoman Capt. Kendra Motz said the Marine Corps has “expressed its concern to the UFC regarding issues articulated in the petition involving inappropriate conduct, alleged or substantiated, by a handful of individuals.”

The UFC “has been forthright in addressing the issue and have proactive measures in place to deal with these isolated transgressions,” she said, without describing the measures.

UFC representatives did not respond to a request for comment. In May, White told mixed martial arts publication MMA Weekly he does not plan to institute a code of conduct for fighters and is “going to take it as it comes.”

The Corps sent a letter to the union, noting that the Marines partnered with UFC “to leverage the Warrior Lifestyle similarities of our two organizations,” and that mixed martial arts programming reaches a large portion of the Corps’ recruiting prospects.

DuPont said the viewers might be the target audience, “but they’re sending the wrong message.”

Mike Bolduc, an Army National Guard veteran and member of the union’s veterans committee, agreed.

“A warrior is not all about number one,” he said. “There’s no such thing as a martial art without a moral context. That’s just violence, really.”

The group has delivered its petition to the Marine Corps and to the Panetta Institute for Public Policy in California and hopes the DOD will get involved in severing the sponsorship.

“We’re more determined than ever to get this done,” DuPont said.

Tucker said she hopes the letters and petition will spark a discussion about whether the recruits spurred to join through the UFC sponsorship have the values the Marine Corps is looking for, and that any continued sponsorship is examined with an eye on “how are we going to make sure that the UFC doesn’t contribute to a misunderstanding of what it really means to be a Marine.”

The group delivered the petitions to the Marine Corps as an amendment was being introduced in the House to end all military sports sponsorships, including NASCAR and UFC. The House decided not to ban the sponsorships; the Army went on to announce it will end its NASCAR sponsorship after the season ends because of a poor return on investment. The Army National Guard will continue to sponsor NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. through the 2013 season.

From Armed Forces Press Service

by Terri Moon Cook

Washington, D.C. –  The Defense Department is conducting pilot classes of a new program designed to better prepare service members transitioning out of the military to civilian life.

Transition Goals Plans Success, known simply as Transition GPS, replaces the 20-year-old Transition Assistance Program, or TAP. In a sweeping overhaul of the 20-year-old TAP, as part of the VOW to Hire Heroes Act passed in 2011, Transition GPS takes military members through a week-long class, compared to the original TAP’s mandatory two to four hours of separation counseling, said Susan Kelly, the Defense Department’s deputy director for the newly formed Transition to Veterans Program Office.

“The Defense Department wants our service members to succeed when they become civilians,” Kelly said during an American Forces Press Service interview.

“Separating from the military lifestyle is a major life change,” she said, pointing out that there are some things that veterans can’t control during the transition process, but there are others that they can. “And that’s exactly what the Transition GPS helps you do. It’s going to walk you through a set of modules, help you build your skills, and takes you through what you need to consider … [through] deliberate planning that makes you more open to the success you want to be in the civilian work force.”

Naval Station Norfolk is one of seven installations now conducting pilot classes of the new five-day Transition GPS workshop. Full use of the program is expected to be in place by the end of 2013, according to a White House release.

Kelly said senior leaders from the Defense Department, the military services, Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Labor, the Small Business Administration, the Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management met regularly for a year as the Veterans Employment Initiative Task Force to develop the new program.

“It was President Obama’s mandate to DOD and VA to establish the joint Veterans Employment Initiative Task Force,” Kelly explained, “that brought all the partners together in a very structured and very goal-oriented way. It was the major impetus for bringing all those lessons learned together and helping us develop a very comprehensive curriculum for our service members.”

She said representatives of the agencies contributed in multiple ways to develop Transition GPS, which, she added “we hope will eventually evolve into the military lifecycle transition assistance program.”

Transition GPS will be mandatory for service members, Kelly said, including reservists and national guardsmen, with some exceptions. A key part of the weeklong program is a three-day Labor Department Employment Workshop, which is mandated by the VOW to Hire Heroes Act to be in place by Nov. 21.

“Between the mandatory DOL employment workshop, plus the core curriculum for Transition GPS, there is a holistic view that starts with looking at the challenges of transition, and preparing military members to meet those challenges, including family considerations. It also helps plan for the financial changes they’ll face as they become civilians,” she said.

Kelly said the DOL employment workshop introduces challenges a service member might confront, and how to deal with such stressors. Staff members help them determine what’s most important to them in a job — salary, advancement, stability and other considerations.

The workshop takes service members through job searches using up-to-date technology, and has them look at whether their skills are in demand in the civilian sector, where the best opportunities exist, and whether moving is a consideration. The DOL wants military members to develop a second plan if the first one doesn’t pan out.

“They might look at what skills are in demand and how they can fill that gap,” Kelly said. “There are some very serious questions to look at.”

“There are specific pieces of the new curriculum that give them the information they need to make very well-thought out decisions as well as skills building to help them succeed in whatever pathway they chose,” Kelly added.

In the course of five days, about 50 students develop an individual transition plan that maps out financial planning and a budget to follow the first 12 months after separating from the military. It also covers how to write a resume and how to interview for a job, along with exploring how military skills can be carried over into the civilian work force. In addition to the DOL workshop, a Veterans Affairs representative goes over benefits. 

If certain skills are not transferrable, service members’ personal goals are identified for the type of employment they want to pursue, the education they want to gain from college or technical training schools, or to start their own business, she said.

Optional two-day tracks, to be piloted in the coming months, will include help for those who want to pursue a college degree, or technical training.

“We found that military members weren’t making the best of their post-911 GI Bill,” Kelly said. “So we are getting them the information to help them choose wisely.”

The new GI Bill, she said, is a generous benefit. “Make it work for you, and choose wisely,” Kelly suggested.

The Small Business Administration will also offer an optional two-day curriculum to put new veterans on the path to start up small businesses, Kelly said. “The SBA is very passionate about our military members being very innovative, [being] creative, and self-initiating … and they’re going to help them build [business] skills.”

The SBA also developed an eight-week online course to help new veterans build a solid business plan, she added. It also assigns a mentor to each military member, who will see them through their small-business startup, sustaining the business, and remain a long-term mentor.

Navy Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Peter Adams is one such small business candidate. He wants to go into film and video production and start his own company. He said Transition GPS has allowed him to look at reinventing himself.

“The class has given me ways to take my leadership and organization skills and [others] I never would have thought of and how to market them for myself,” he said. “It gives me the confidence on my resume and in an interview to say, ‘This is what I can do for you,’” Adams said.

Navy Machinist Mate 1st Class Jason Christian has worked in cryogenics throughout his military career, and his goal is to stay in his field in the civilian sector.

He had previously attended the original TAP, and he says the new pilot program is more interactive.

“The technology made everything change significantly,” Christian said. Aside from the major companies in his field, he said he found others he didn’t know existed. “I plan on coming back and bringing my spouse so she can be involved in this. [We need] to look at housing, the cost of living, what traffic is like, the crime rate and what the schools are like for my children — things I never took into account.”

From the Washington Post

By Lisa Rein The Department of Veterans Affairs spent $5 million—and set aside $4 million more — last year for two training conferences whose organizers are under investigation for breaking ethics rules by improperly accepting gifts, congressional committees and government sources said Monday.The agency’s inspector general is investigating whether event planners and other organizers of the conference for human resources employees improperly accepted alcohol, concert tickets and spa treatments. Investigators also are looking into tens of thousands of dollars spent on promotional items for conference attendees, government sources said.

A total of about 1800 VA employees attended the four-day events, held in July and August 2011 at the Marriott World Center in Orlando, officials said.

The investigation comes four months after the General Services Administration was engulfed in scandal over a Las Vegas conference for the agency’s West Coast employees that cost $823,000. That four-day event, revealed by the GSA inspector general, was billed as a training exercise but was little more than an entertainment junket. The agency’s top leaders were fired or forced out as a result.

The VA conferences, by contrast, “were for legitimate training purposes,” the office of Inspector General George J. Opfer said in a statement Monday. But investigators “have uncovered questionable activities” in a review that started in late April, the statement said.

“We are reviewing conference expenditures for compliance with government laws and regulations, the reasonableness and oversight of these expenditures, and whether actions taken by VA staff were in compliance with government ethics and rules of behavior,” the office said.

Republican lawmakers said the veterans agency, the government’s largest after the Defense Department, authorized $9 million for the conferences. VA officials said $5 million was spent.

The allegations of wrongdoing came from whistleblowers who came forward in the wake of the GSA scandal, the inspector general’s office said.

In a statement, VA officials called the alleged misconduct “unacceptable” and said the agency already has made changes to address possible misspending.

“While the inspector general has stated that the conferences were for legitimate training purposes, that would not excuse the misconduct or poor judgement that is alleged of even a few individuals,” the statement said.

The agency said it has removed the purchasing authority of any employees under investigation. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki also ordered an outside review of all training policies and procedures and is requiring any employee involved in planning training conferences to take ethics training.

Lawmakers on congressional committees that oversee the agency were briefed by the inspector general’s office last week.

Rep. Jeff Miller, (R-Fla) chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said in a statement, “If the results of the IG investigation are upheld, this represents an egregious misuse of funds meant to provide for the care of America’s veterans.”

The inspector general’s preliminary findings have concluded that “multiple planning trips to multiple destinations cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars,” Miller said.

The inspector general’s full report on the conference is expected in September.

From federalnewsradio.com

by Ruben Gomez

Vietnam Veterans of America has thrown support behind a congressional effort to loosen a rule that governs service-disabled veteran-owned businesses working for the Veterans Affairs Department.

“Congress may need to move to synchronize the standards of control between VA and [the Small Business Administration],” said Rick Weidman, VVA’s executive director for policy and government affairs, in an interview with Federal News Radio.

Weidman criticized a VA rule requiring that service-disabled veterans competing for SDVOSB contracts unconditionally control decision-making within their companies. He said SBA regulations allow more flexibility.

“Literally every day I get emails on both sides of this issue,” he said. “And the two sides being people begging for help to throw the frauds out because they’re stealing the business, and letters from veterans who are saying, ‘look, you know me Rick. You know my business. And [VA is] saying that I’m not qualified.’”

Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), chairman of the Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, is crafting legislation to force VA to loosen its rule. Johnson said he favors SBA’s process, although he did not say exactly how the bill would change the steps VA uses to verify SDVOSB program eligibility.

The unconditional control requirement creates a “bright line” and removes subjectivity from the process examiners use to decide whether a business qualifies for the service-disabled veteran set-aside program, said Thomas Leney, executive director of VA’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, during in a recentsubcommittee hearing.

“We have improved our quality control and become more aggressive in referring firms that we suspect are misrepresenting their status,” said Leney in written testimony. “In fiscal 2011 we referred 25 firms to the Office of Inspector General for investigation as possible misrepresentation. So far in fiscal 2012, we have referred 59 firms.”

VA is the only federal agency required by law to verify the status of service-disabled veteran-owned businesses. The department conducts audits of businesses through its Center for Veterans Enterprise (CVE).

But some lawmakers and veterans groups believe VA is keeping legitimately qualified veterans from receiving contracts, saying no investor in his or her right mind would give the majority owner carte blanche control over the investment.

“You can take almost anything and absolutize it and make a muck of it. And that’s really what the VA has done … in a way that makes no sense in terms of business,” Weidman said.

He said statutory change is the only way to address the concerns.

“If we can ever make CVE work properly, then VET-Force and Vietnam Veterans of America and virtually all the other veterans organizations and military service organizations would be in favor of making it a governmentwide standard, if you will, but not at this point because it’s driving our people out of business who are legitimate,” he said.

VA is considering the possibility of improving its SDVOSB processes and is accepting suggestions for change, said agency spokeswoman Josephine Schuda.

By Anna-Lysa Gayle, CNN

Washington (CNN) – Veterans are getting a helping hand in developing their “personal brand” and hopefully raising their chances for employment.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will distribute Personal Branding guides to veterans as part of a new initiative to help more veterans secure civilian jobs. The initiative offers tips for vets to compete against other job-seekers. Many tools have already been placed at their disposal so that they have everything they need to request and get employment, going so far as to provide access to a service called resume builder so that they can have an excellent written resume that should help them get a foot in the door. Still, we are listening to their feedback and making sure that we take it into account as the program continues to develop.

“You need to talk about your military experience in terms that employers will understand, and not just about your military occupation and not just about the intangibles. Talk about your leadership experience, talk about the fact that you work well in team, talk about your incredible work ethic,” said Kevin Schmiegel, vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The new effort was announced at a job fair hosted at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, and is part of the chamber’s “Hiring Our Heroes” program launched last year. Job-seekers at the fair on Monday included veterans, military spouses and current Marines hoping to line up employment before the end of their duty.

The initiative could result in approximately 10{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} to 20{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of veterans at the job getting hired by the 62 companies registered, according to Bryan Goettel, director of communications of the Hiring Our Heroes program.

“We got employers along with the veterans in the same room, and that’s a good start,” said former Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer, who has partnered with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to promote the new initiative. Meyer already has a calling card of note, he was the first living Marine to receive a Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.

“You get someone who is not in the military and I tell you ‘I’m a sniper’ and … what do you automatically think? You automatically think you should shoot a gun. Well, that’s only like 10{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of the job. I’ve been to coach’s course, I learned how to teach, I learned how to use PowerPoint. I’ve been to sniper school, which briefs using PowerPoint,” said Meyer.

He believes his skills can easily translate to the civilian workforce. He currently is a construction worker, a speaker and the author of the book, “Into the Fire: A Firsthand Account of the Most Extraordinary Battle in the Afghan War.”

Andria Johnson served in the Navy for 20 years, and since retiring has faced a tough time finding a job in her field. She said the new iniative could help her present her skills in a more appealing way to employers. Johnson said while in the Navy she was a multimedia manager and a recruiter

“It will help in really helping me to not only develop and realize some of the skills that I have already, but actually kind of put a footprint out there and help with networking,” said Johnson.