Veterans Voices- Camp Lejeune’s Toxic Legacy: Marine Corps families who were exposed to decades of contamination search for answers
- Suicide help on the home front: Symposium April 20 at Fort Belvoir, Virginia for military spouses and children
- Frank Kowalski’s forgotten war: In the mid-’50s, Kowalski and hundreds of other U.S. soldiers were sent to a largely unknown country called Vietnam
- Upside Down Lives: Spouses and parents of severely injured veterans struggle under weight of 24/7 caregiving
- For Air Force veteran, challenge trumps comfort
- Mission Possible: Team Rubicon’s rapid response to natural disasters gives combat veterans the challenge they crave
- More than 40 years after he came home from combat, John Wayne Cloud is still walking point for fellow veterans
- Seconds to Win: For nearly 60 years, Wyoming veterans have helped develop some of America’s top rodeo talent
- Restorative Justice: Veterans treatment courts make differences in the lives of those who served
- Rare Victory: Vietnam Navy veterans struggle to prove, and keep, Agent Orange benefits
Tag Archives: The American Legion Magazine
Frank Kowalski’s forgotten war: In the mid-’50s, Kowalski and hundreds of other U.S. soldiers were sent to a largely unknown country called Vietnam
By Ken Olsen (Copyright 2013, All Rights Reserved) The Pentagon didn’t acknowledge Frank Kowalski’s tour in Southeast Asia for more than 40 years. Some of his fellow veterans still don’t. Kowalski was handed orders for Vietnam on his 19th birthday … Continue reading
Upside Down Lives: Spouses and parents of severely injured veterans struggle under weight of 24/7 caregiving
By Ken Olsen (Copyright 2012/All Rights Reserved) By the time Debbie Schulz got help, she had been her wounded son’s full-time caregiver for more than six years. She had lost her husband, her teaching career and her retirement. She lay … Continue reading
Mission Possible: Team Rubicon’s rapid response to natural disasters gives combat veterans the challenge they crave
By Ken Olsen (Copyright 2012 / All Rights Reserved) The moment he saw the destruction on TV in January 2010, former Marine scout-sniper Jake Wood knew he had to get to Haiti. He called a few friends, posted a quick … Continue reading
More than 40 years after he came home from combat, John Wayne Cloud is still walking point for fellow veterans
By Ken Olsen (Copyright 2012 / All Rights Reserved) To anyone except John Cloud, the Vietnam veteran’s case was hopeless. Johnny Pryor had gone AWOL three times, tried to kill himself twice, spent months in the stockade and was booted … Continue reading
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Tagged American Legion, AWOL, Brandi Simons, Cornelious Henderson, John Cloud, Johnny Pryor, Justice for Vets, Ken Olsen, Matt Stiner, National Guard, Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, Sandra Oxford, The American Legion Magazine, Thurman Phillips, Tulsa Vet Center, Tulsa Veterans Treatment Court, Vietnam veterans
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Seconds to Win: For nearly 60 years, Wyoming veterans have helped develop some of America’s top rodeo talent
BY KEN OLSEN (Copyright 2012, All Rights Reserved) Emily Faber steps off her galloping horse, flies to the goat, flanks it, ties its feet and steps back. Time: 8.31 seconds – one of the fastest on this 98-degree summer evening … Continue reading
Restorative Justice: Veterans treatment courts make differences in the lives of those who served
By Ken Olsen (Copyright 2012, All Rights Reserved) Glenn Slocum faced as much as 25 years to life after his arrest in late 2010 for stealing food and diapers. The Marine Corps veteran had two previous felony convictions for robbing … Continue reading
Rare Victory: Vietnam Navy veterans struggle to prove, and keep, Agent Orange benefits
By Ken Olsen (Copyright 2012, All Rights Reserved) Surgeons started removing strange growths from Mark Crosbie’s body a few years after he came home from Vietnam. Over the next three decades, they took sebaceous cysts from the Navy veteran’s back, … Continue reading
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Tagged Agent Orange, B-cell leukemia, Blue water Navy, Blue Water Veterans, boots on ground, Brown Water Navy, Brown water veteran, Bush Asministration, cancer, Charles Yunker, cysts, inland waters, John McCain, Ken Olsen, Lloyd Thomas, Mark Crosbie, Parkinson's, Patty Murray, Sen. Akaka, The American Legion Magazine, Tom Coburn, VA, Vietnam, Vietnam Navy veterans, Vietnam veterans
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Road to Nowhere: Returning veterans face the worst job market of their lives.
By Ken Olsen (Copyright 2012, All Rights Reserved) Kai Jorgensen was laid off just before Thanksgiving 2011, the third time the recession has cost him his job since he left the Marine Corps in May 2009. He wasn’t prepared for such … Continue reading
A Heart Apart: Interactive book gives children, military parents safe way to share feelings about the difficulty of deployment
By Ken Olsen (Copyright 2012, All Rights Reserved) Melissa Seligman knew she had to help her children find their emotional voices. Her daughter’s depression spiked to near self-destructive levels when her husband deployed. Her son’s anxiety was gut wrenching. “We … Continue reading
When doing everything right isn’t enough: A Marine’s suicide shows that even the unlikeliest veteran can fall through the cracks.
By Ken Olsen (Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved) Of all the questions raised by Clay Hunt’s suicide, perhaps the most perplexing is this: why did a 28-year-old former Marine who was receiving VA health care, taking medications for post-traumatic stress … Continue reading
