If you’re an Active Duty service person, a retiree, or a Reservist/National Guard member, you can visit a number of museums in Pennsylvania for FREE!

Blue Star Museums is a partnership among Blue Star Families, the National Endowment for the Arts, and more than 750 museums in all 50 states to offer free admission to military personnel and their families from Memorial Day, May 31, 2010, through Labor Day, September 6, 2010.

The free admission program is available to any bearer of a Geneva Convention common access card (CAC), a DD Form 1173 ID card, or a DD Form 1173-1 ID card, which includes active duty military (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard), National Guard and Reserve members and up to five immediate family members.

For more information, check out the Blue Star Museums site.

From a report on NPR, here’s a depressing look at the poor quality of care some of our wounded veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are getting.

Even when traumatic brain injury is diagnosed in soldiers, many find they have to fight to get adequate treatment. Medical records show brain-injured soldiers at Fort Bliss have been told that their main problems are psychological, not related to blasts. Some soldiers have turned to clinics outside the military to get help. Read More…

May is Military Appreciation Month and GM is celebrating with a special offer! Check it out: http://gmmilitarydiscount.com

This is a great program for retirees, so make sure to check it out if you’re in the market for a new vehicle.

From Rep. Sam Rohrer’s website:

Representative Sam Rohrer (R-Berks) is encouraging military veterans who served in the Persian Gulf between 1990 and 1991 to apply for a bonus from the Commonwealth.

The Persian Gulf Conflict Veterans’ Bonus is available to military veterans who served on active duty in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

“This bonus program is a small token of appreciation from a grateful Commonwealth,” Rohrer said.  “Our armed forces personnel traveled halfway across the globe to perform their duty.  They repelled the military of dictator Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait and back into Iraq.  Our brave men and women did everything that was asked of them.  For their courage, valor and dedication, we offer this bonus as a sign of our appreciation.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs offers the Pennsylvania Persian Gulf Conflict Veterans’ Bonus to veterans who served on active duty, including mobilized National Guard and Reserve personnel, between Aug. 2, 1990, and Aug. 31, 1991, with a payment of up to $75 per month for every month of active Gulf War service.  Veterans who received a Southwest Asia Service Medal and were legal residents of Pennsylvania at the time of their service are also eligible for the benefit.

An additional bonus of $5,000 is available to surviving families of those killed in action during the same period.

“While the military victory in the Persian Gulf was swift, it was not without casualties,” Rohrer said.  “There is no way to adequately compensate the family of a fallen hero.  No dollar amount can ever properly capture the sense of obligation and gratitude felt by the people of Pennsylvania.  We humbly offer the survivor bonus payment, knowing it can never replace the loved one who died in battle.”

For more information on the Persian Gulf Conflict Veterans’ Bonus, visit Rohrer’s Web site at SamRohrer.com and click on “Persian Gulf Conflict Veterans’ Bonus.”

Rep. Samuel Rohrer
128th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
(610) 775-5130
(717) 787-8550
www.SamRohrer.com
Contact: Dan Massing
House Republican Public Relations
(717) 772-9845
www.pahousegop.com

Nearly two decades after vets began returning from the Middle East complaining of Gulf War Syndrome, the federal government has yet to formally accept that their vague jumble of symptoms constitutes a legitimate illness.

Since the early 1990s, some 175,000 U.S. troops have returned from service in the first Gulf War reporting a host of vague complaints, notes Richard Briggs, a physical chemist at UT Southwestern involved in the new imaging. Their symptoms ranged from mental confusion, difficulty concentrating, attacks of sudden vertigo and intense uncontrollable mood swings to extreme fatigue and sometimes numbness — or the opposite, constant body pain.

With funding from the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, Haley has assembled a team of roughly 140 researchers. Many work with patients. Others are developing new animal, biochemical and genetic studies to identify the biological perturbations underlying Gulf War Illness. But the vast majority — two-thirds of these scientists — are now involved in brain imaging.

As a result of these studies, Briggs says, “In the last two years we have learned more about Gulf War Illness than we did in the previous 15.”

What’s emerged is evidence to suggest “that there are three major syndromes responsible for Gulf War Illness,” he says. They appear loosely linked to at least three different types of agents to which many troops were exposed: sarin nerve gas, a nerve gas antidote (pyridostigmine bromide) that presented its own risks and military-grade pesticides to prevent illness from sand flies and other noxious pests. But Briggs acknowledges that no one knows for sure which combination of agents or environmental conditions might have conspired to trigger Gulf War illness.

For more information, read the full article: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/gulf-war-syndrome-brain-scans/