At present, the facility is open on a limited basis, but will have its grand opening on March 10.

It is an outpatient clinic offering primary care, mental health, physical therapy, and other specialty fields.

Community Covenant is a nationwide program started by the U.S. Army that seeks to “develop a greater awareness of the needs of our Military members, veterans and their families who live and work in our community.

In addition to a job and resource fair for Veterans and their families, the San Francisco event will include and Armed Forces Community Covenant signing ceremony.

During the ceremony, “elected officials, community leaders and the community of San Francisco will gather . . . to address the community and sign the community covenant, committing their awareness and support to our service members and their families.

When signing the pledge, community members are committing to build “partnerships that support the strength, resilience, readiness and reintegration” of service members, to provide “the necessary resources and support our community relies on,” to hold outreach events for military members and their families, and to understand “that the strength of our military members and veterans comes from the strength of their families and the support of our community’s employers, educators, service providers, civic and business leaders and citizens.”

Since the first event took place in Columbus, Ga., events have been held in communities in 48 states, three territories and Washington, D.C.

The San Francisco Armed Forces Community Covenant Veterans and Military Resource Fair will take place at the War Memorial Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Ave. from 9 am to 5 pm. The covenant signing ceremony will take place from 12 pm to 2 pm.

An association between TBI and PTSD – the “signature wounds” of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars – has been observed for several years.

A 2008 study found that 44 percent of soldiers with a TBI were also diagnosed with PTSD.  The connection between the two conditions seemed to some to be quite simple – the event that results in the TBI is also very frightening, leading to PTSD.

However, in light of the UCLA study, published in the journal Biological Psychology, some researchers now believe the link is deeper.  The study indicates that the physical damage from the TBI alters the brain in a way that makes the victim more likely to develop PTSD.

The study was conducted in rats, where the researchers were able to separate physical from emotional traumas.

The rats were divided into two groups, and one group was subject to brain trauma.  Then, 2 days after the brain trauma, all the rats underwent “fear conditioning.”

The researchers found that rats with the earlier TBI became more fearful than the control group of rats.

Michael Fanselow, senior author of the study, described that “it was as if the injury primed the brain for learning to be afraid.”

After examining the rats’ brains, the researchers found that the amygdala – which regulates the fear response in the brain – of the rats who had the TBI was in a more excitable state.

Their research indicates that when a person is exposed to a traumatic event, the brain is more capable of learning fear.  It further suggests that if two soldiers were exposed to the same psychological trauma and one had previously suffered a TBI, the one who had suffered the TBI would be more likely to develop PTSD than the soldier with the uninjured brain.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on the Stolen Valor Act this week. The law has been found to be unconstitutional because it restricts free speech.: Photo by Flickr user dbking

Those who have served and sacrificed for our country deserve special honor and recognition. One way these sacrifices are recognized is through the awarding of military medals and decorations.

Unfortunately, sometimes individuals who have not earned these honors falsely pretend to have done so. In response to this issue, the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 was passed and became effective in December 2006.

The law made it a federal offense for individuals to claim verbally or in writing to have received any military award that they have not. This offense is punishable by a fine and/or up to six months in jail, double if the offense involves valor awards, such as the Medal of Honor, or the Purple Heart.

Since the law’s enactment, courts have been prosecuting individuals under this law. As these cases have come through the Court system, however, there have been differences of opinion as to whether the law is Constitutional.

A California man, Xavier Alvarez, was prosecuted for falsely claiming to be a Medal of Honor recipient at a public meeting. He was fined $5,000 and sentenced to community service at a Veterans’ hospital.

He appealed his conviction on the grounds that it violated his First Amendment free speech rights. In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.

The majority found that there was no evidence that the lies harmed anyone, and no compelling reason for the government to ban such lies. The dissenting judge pointed out that Supreme Court precedent indicates that false statements are not entitled to First Amendment protection.

Last month, another Federal Court, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, upheld the law in a separate case. The Court reasoned that the First Amendment does not always protect false statements.

The Court noted: “The Supreme Court has observed time and again, false statements of fact do not enjoy constitutional protection, except to the extent necessary to protect more valuable speech. Under this principle, the Stolen Valor Act does not impinge on or chill protected speech, and therefore does not offend the First Amendment.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has now agreed to examine Constitutionality of the Stolen Valor Law and will be hearing oral arguments on the issue this week.

In addition to a free and confidential text-message service that will work in tandem with the existing Veterans Crisis Line, the new services will allow former service members and their families to call toll-free from Europe and will provide a higher standard of support as a result of cooperation with Vets Prevail and Vets4Warriors.

What is more, Veterans can now contact the service 24 hours a day, year round, including through direct online chats.  Since the program’s founding in 2007, the Veterans Crisis Line has helped prevent more than 18,000 suicides.

If you are a Veteran in crisis, please call 1-800-273-8255 right away.

To learn more about VA’s mental health and suicide prevention efforts, click here.

The Pentagon announced that it will expand the number of jobs women will be allowed to hold. While women will still not be allowed to serve in combat, these additional roles will take them closer to the front lines.: DoD photo by 1st Lt. Belena Marquez

The Pentagon recently announced that women in the military would formally be allowed to serve in certain jobs closer to the front lines, but did not go as far as allowing women to serve in combat.

Women make up almost 15 percent of the active duty military, and more than 255,000 women have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.  More than 140 women from the U.S. military have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The decision was the result of a year-long review ordered by Congress.

In recognition of the changing roles of female services members in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department of Defense’s modifications allow female troops to be eligible for approximately 14,000 new jobs related to combat.  It allows women to be permanently assigned to a battalion.

The new positions that will be available include: tank mechanics, radio operators, medics, and intelligence officers.  However, women already served in many of these jobs as temporary attachments to the battalions.  Furthermore, women will still not qualify for 238,000 other combat positions – approximately 1/5 of all active duty military positions – such as infantry and combat tank units.

The Pentagon’s announcement has already been received with mixed reviews.  Some have labeled it, “too little change, a decade too late.”

California Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) found it “ridiculous” to “open a few positions at the battalion level to basically create a pilot program.”

Some assert that infantry service is an important factor in career advancement in the military and believe that women are unfairly held back.

On the contrary, others think the Pentagon’s new rules went too far.  Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum stated that having women in combat is “not in the best interests of men, women or the mission.”

Retired Army Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis also indicated that he does not think the new policy promotes national security.

The lift on these restrictions will gradually go into effect, beginning in March, if Congress does not oppose it.

Madigan Army Medical Center is under intense scrutiny after reports of doctors mishandling PTSD tests have surfaced. Photo by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

According to the Seattle Times, Madigan Army Medical Center has launched an investigation and suspended two physicians after reports that they could have mishandled testing for post-traumatic stress disorder.

One of the doctors was suspended after he made “controversial remarks” about the cost of disability benefits Veterans receive when they are diagnosed with PTSD.

Amy Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho has stepped in and reassigned 12 potential victims who feel their claims of PTSD were not handled accurately to Walter Reed Army Medical Center for reevaluations.

Murray told the Seattle Times, “I am deeply concerned about the things that I am hearing. Their [the doctor's] job is only one thing — to determine whether or not the patient has PTSD. And it’s Congress’ job to make sure we have the resources to compensate them.”

For more information on Veterans’ benefits, please visit: www.vetlawyers.com.

A Veteran receives assistance at a VA job fair in January. GE recently announced that it will hire 5,000 Veterans and sponsor Veterans job fairs. Photo by the Department of Veterans Affairs

GE pledged Monday to hire 5,000 Veterans over the next 5 years.

The company will also partner with the Chamber of Commerce in order to sponsor 400 job fairs for Veterans in 2012 as part of the Chamber’s “Hiring our Heroes” initiative.

GE will also offer hiring training and services at several of the job fairs.

Unemployment appears to be hitting the post-9/11 generation of Veterans particularly hard. Although the unemployment rate dropped from 13.3 percent in December to 9.1 percent for January, the U.S.’s newest Veterans still have a higher jobless rate than that of the general population, which dropped to 8.3 percent for January.

Although Congress passed tax credits as incentives for businesses to hire Veterans, it is unclear how much of an effect the legislation will have in the long run.

She was born Florence Beatrice Patterson in London on February 19, 1901.  She joined the newly-formed Women’s Royal Air Force in September 1918 at the age of 17. The service trained women to work as mechanics, drivers and in other jobs to free men for front-line duty.

Green went to work as a steward in the officers’ mess, first at the Narborough airdrome and then at RAF Marham in eastern England, and was serving there when the war ended.

Several other World War I Veterans passed away just last year, including the last known American Veteran of the conflict, Frank Buckles of Charles Town, West Virginia, who drove ambulances in France for the U.S. Army. He died in February 2011.

The war’s last known combatant, Royal Navy veteran Claude Choules, died in Australia in May. There are no known French or German Veterans of the war still living. After Choules’ death, Green became the war’s last known surviving service member, according to the Order of the First World War, a U.S. based group that tracks Veterans.

An article published in the New England Journal of Medicine this past July reported the results of a study involving soldiers with inhalational exposures during service in Iraq and Afghanistan. The study involved Veterans who were experiencing shortness of breath with exertion. Many of the study participants had been exposed to inhalation exposure from a 2003 sulfur mine fire in Iraq.

The study found that a respiratory condition known as constrictive bronchiolitis was present in 48 previously healthy soldiers, which was possibly associated with inhalational exposure in 38 of them.

According to a recent Military Times article, Dr. Robert Miller, a pulmonologist at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee has diagnosed more than 40 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans with constrictive bronchiolitis. His diagnoses have been challenged by doctors from the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio who do not find that the data establishes a convincing link between exposure and the condition.

Other studies are on-going to determine whether a link exists between Veterans’ health problems and exposure to burn pits and other environmental hazards in Iraq and Afghanistan.  An allergy and asthma specialist at New York’s Stony Brook University Medical Center is conducting a study of Veterans whose health problems may be linked to burn pits and other environmental exposures.

The research, led by Dr. Anthony Szema, the school’s assistant professor of medicine and surgery, will analyze data provided by Veterans and service members to the advocacy group Burn Pits 360, examining symptoms, diagnoses, place and date of assignment, age, gender and other data.

Burn Pits 360 hopes the results will help the Veterans Affairs and Defense departments develop health care models to treat illnesses related to environmental exposures.