This Week at American Veteran

This week, American Veteran has been seriously hampered by the back-to-back blizzards affecting the Washington metro area.

As weather permits, we plan to be back online in the next couple of days.

With the near-total federal government shut-down, all veterans' affairs hearings have been postponed, along with VSO coordination meetings. We will keep you posted as the schedule evolves in the next couple of weeks.

However, with the blizzard, the work continues. This week, the Associated Press published a story about the continued inequities in dependent indemnity compensation and survivor benefits program (DIC/SBP) offsets for military widows. The veterans' community also lost a vocal, and sometimes controversial, advocate in Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa.), who died from complications in surgery. Military Times covered the story here.

Murtha was a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran and the first Vietnam veteran elected to Congress in 1974. During his time in office, Murtha fought for improved veterans' benefits, but became a controversial figure when he criticized the actions of American troops involved in the 2005 Haditha killings in Iraq.

Finally, reports of Post-9/11 G.I. Bill payment issues continue to trickle in, with more questions on back pay from fall 2009 and inconsistent payments. AMVETS leaders will continue to look for answers, though the government shut-down has hindered these efforts for the moment. Veterans should continue to monitor their bank accounts as VA continues to bring its accounts current.

Barring further complications from the weather, the winter issue of American Veteran should go to print this week. We will keep you posted on this blog with more details.

(Photo: M Street NW in Washington after Friday's first wave of the blizzard. Cell phone photo by Ryan Gallucci.)