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Emmanuel Kelly, formerly of X Factor, to open for Snoop Dogg at Salute The Troops Music and Comedy Festival

DisabilityGovernmentLifestyle

Emmanuel Kelly- performing onstage with Chris Martin

Salute The Troops Music and Comedy Festival announced today that Emmanuel Kelly will perform at the Fox Theatre in Pomona, CA on Saturday, March 23rd in direct support of Snoop Dogg. Emmanuel was born in Iraq, is a child of war and was rescued by US Service Members.

He has performed on the X Factor and has most recently been on tour with Coldplay and has recorded tracks with Imagine Dragons.

Emmanuel was born with severely underdeveloped limbs due to chemical warfare in his community. In 2000, he was adopted by humanitarian Moria Kelly and moved to Australia where over the next several years, he had eight life-altering surgeries. Through rehabilitation, Emmanuel learned how to walk, drive a car, dress himself and more.

Read more about Emmanuel’s story via Billboard: billboard.com/meet-emmanuel-kelly

After being discovered on X Factor and fulfilling his goal of becoming the first “differently-abled pop star” Emmanuel is passionate about raising money for disadvantaged, differently-abled children, and cancer research. Emmanuel has now performed in front of audiences of up to 100,000 in venues like the Sydney Opera House, and MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

On the addition of Emmanuel to the Salute The Troops roster, co-founder of the festival, Nate Parienti said this: “This really adds a unique twist to our event and crystallizes the message of Service members, activist artists, veterans, children of war and the general public coming together to heal through music and comedy.”

Watch Emmanuel’s X-Factor performance: youtube.com/watch?v=IY37l4PDsao

About Salute The Troops:

Salute The Troops Music And Comedy Festival was founded by Nate Parienti and co-founded with John Wertz (USMC 2001-2006) of Semper Fi Productions. Salute The Troops will take place at iconic Goldenvoice venues, The Fox Theatre and the Glass House from Friday, March 22nd – Sunday, March 24th in downtown Pomona, CA. The event is aimed at raising awareness of Post-Traumatic Stress and the epidemic suicide rates among returning soldiers and veterans. Two-day tickets are on sale now at SaluteTheTroops.com

Separation Health Assessment Part A now required on claims from transitioning service members

DisabilityTransitioning

Soldier working with laptop in headquarters building

If you are a transitioning service member applying for VA disability compensation under the Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD) or the Integrated Disability Evaluation System (IDES) program, there are some changes coming that you should know about.

Starting April 1, you will be required to complete and submit the Part A Self-Assessment of a new Separation Health Assessment (SHA) with your BDD or IDES application.

The SHA is a single separation examination which supports both the VA disability compensation process and the Department of Defense (DoD) separation/retirement process.

The SHA examination documents any medical concerns identified during your military career, assists with identifying future illnesses, and reduces redundant examinations between both agencies.

The SHA is divided into three Parts:

Part A – medical history questionnaire. You must complete Part A prior to attending your clinical assessment;
Part B – clinical assessment. This is where the examiner will review your Part A and your Service Treatment Records (STRs), provide an examination, and then deliver a clinical assessment;
Part C – this is reserved for DoD reviewer purposes only. DoD is expected to fully begin using the SHA later this year.

The SHA Part A questionnaire will provide VA examiners a history of the service member’s medical conditions and will assist with conducting a more thorough and better-quality examination. A link to the Part A questionnaire will be placed on the VA Form 21-526-EZ Application for Disability Compensation and Related Compensation Benefit, under the eligibility criteria for the BDD program, and on the VA BDD and IDES Fact Sheets. A direct link to Part A is also available here.

BDD claimants who submit applications online can upload the completed Part A with their STRs under the evidence section. After VA receives and reviews the application, STRs, and completed Part A Self-Assessment, an SHA examination will be requested. The SHA clinical assessment will be conducted by one of VA’s contracted examiners or a local VA health care examiner. All evidence submitted by the service member will be made available electronically to the examiner.

The new SHA is a multi-year collaborative effort between both agencies to improve the separation examination process for service members exiting the military.

For further information on the BDD and IDES programs, please visit our website at Pre-Discharge Claim | Veterans Affairs.

Source: VA

Former NFL Seahawk, Dave DesRochers’ The 1st & Goal Project Screens Movie: MVP

EntertainmentGovernment

panel of five onstage discussing the movie promo behind them

By Danielle Jackola

“On the streets of Hollywood, a recently retired NFL player is saved from scandal by a homeless veteran suffering from PTSD. With their ‘glory days’ behind them both, the two men bond in search of real purpose and identity. Inspired by actual events, MVP dramatizes the formation of Merging Vets & Players and features both military veterans and former professional athletes in front of and behind the camera” (@MVPtheMovie).

PHOTO: Christina Ochoa, Mo McRae, Margarita Reyes, MJ Acosta-Ruiz and Nate Boyer attend FilmRise’s MVP Red Carpet Premiere at AMC The Grove 14 in Los Angeles. The film, inspired by true events, is a raw portrayal of navigating the transition to life outside the uniform. Co-written by Nate Boyer, a Green Beret, former Seattle Seahawk and producer, MVP takes viewers on a journey into the intersecting lives of former NFL player Will Phillips portrayed by Mo McRae and Zephyr, portrayed by Boyer, and introduces viewers to the organization, Merging Vets & Players.

Merging Vets & Players

Boyer and Fox Sports insider Jay Glazer founded Merging Vets & Players in 2015. As a veteran and former NFL player, Boyer understands the unique experiences of veterans and professional athletes and how they can support each other. Glazer, a long-time television personality and sports reporter, has trained numerous athletes and co-owns The Unbreakable Performance Center in West Hollywood, California with former Chicago Bears’ linebacker, Brian Urlacher and U.S. Women’s Volleyball Captain, Lindsey Berg.

The organization shares that, “MVP empowers combat veterans and former professional athletes by connecting them after the uniform comes off; providing them with a new team to assist with transition, promote personal development, and show them they are never alone.” The nonprofit offers programs in eight cities plus virtually and boasts 2,000+ participants and over 9,965 program hours offered. There are many ways to get involved as a member, donor and partner. Find more information at vetsandplayers.org.

Screening

The 1st & Goal Project and Merging Vets & Players invited U.S. Veterans Magazine to a recent benefit screening of MVP (the movie) in Laguna Niguel, California. This fantastic film is not to be missed! Prior to the screening, attendees mingled, shared stories and enjoyed the photo opps. We are grateful for Dave DesRochers, Nate Boyer and everyone who organized the event, and the veterans, former NFL players and supporters who attended in support of this thought provoking and inspiring movie.

After the screening, several of the actors and the founder of 1^st & Goal Project, DesRochers, spoke with the audience and explained their connection to the story and the nonprofit MVP. Viewers had an opportunity to ask questions and several veterans in attendance were moved to tears and shared how the film resonated with them.

The 1^st & Goal Project

two men and a woman hold U.S. Veterans Magazines, smiling — (L-R) Nate Boyer, star of MVP, Danielle Jackola, senior editor of *U.S. Veterans Magazine* and Dave DesRochers, founder of The 1st & Goal Project, attend the MVP screening in Laguna Niguel, California.

DesRochers, former offensive tackle for the Seattle Seahawks, is deeply committed to philanthropy including veteran-related causes. He is the vice president of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) in Orange County, California and the founder of The 1^st & Goal Project.

The 1^st & Goal Project is hosting its inaugural Celebrity & Veteran Golf Invitational on Monday, March 20^th at the beautiful Coto de Caza Golf & Racquet Club in Coto de Caza, California in support of veterans and veteran support groups: CarePossible, Veteran Legal Institute, Patriots & Paws, MVP and The 1^st & Goal Project. Nestled in Orange County, the private, 36-hole country club is the perfect venue for the event. Join DesRochers and club sponsors, Pat and Kathy Aitro for a memorable day of golf, the chance to meet numerous celebrities and to impact the veteran-focused organizations benefitting from the event. To get involved, email dave@the1standgoalproject.com.

Photos courtesy of Olivia Sullivan @oliviasullivanphoto

Quick Tips for Settling Into a New Home

GovernmentMilitary Spouse

father in fatigues and young daughter carrying boxes

By Katelyn Nixon

What makes a house feel like a home if we can’t feel rooted where we are? We are constantly shifting. Sometimes it feels like the dust barely settles before we pick up all our things and transition again. A home means something else entirely when your surroundings rotate so often. It has to.

I asked every member of my family this question, and we all had different answers. My 10-year-old daughter said that once all our things are unpacked and put away, it feels like home for her. She dislikes the limbo and the moving process. It unsettles her. She feels better when her new home is set up. My husband said it’s just the people. The family being together settles him. He isn’t the type to get attached to places or things. My 5-year-old son said it’s the calm. When things feel calm, he feels at home. A safe place for him to unleash all his exuberance is what feels like home to him. I have to agree with all of them, and I love their answers.

Here are a few simple things that I like to do to help make a space feel like home:

Find something positive about the new house and appreciate it.

We all get to experience so many living spaces. We get familiar with making it work with whatever we have to work with. You undoubtedly have a mental list of everything you hated or loved about all your previous houses. There is always something different. We are currently settling in a new duty station with so much storage space. I’m literally so excited about all the linen closets because I actually have a place to put all our sheets, pillows and blankets. Even though this seems simple, finding something to appreciate starts your new relationship with your house on positive terms.

Find your new routine.

I like to evaluate our routines in the old house and make some adjustments. It’s like a New Year’s resolution for every PCS. We are changing the rules about screen time and focusing on cooking more in our new house. We also evaluate how the extracurriculars worked for our kids in our last place and change that up as needed. It’s fun for them to try new things and get excited about pursuing new passions. It also makes our life feel fresh where we are. Like we are curating our own stories in a new place instead of living Groundhog Day every day and every duty station.

Start building a community outside your home.

Connections and relationships mean more than belongings and to-do lists. A sense of belonging inside a community can make us feel rooted during constant transition. But it is by far the hardest thing to accomplish. It takes courage, energy and confidence. We all have negative experiences that can bring more fear into a new space. But every place is a new beginning. For me, it seems like the longer we stay in the Army, the smaller it gets. I always think a fun way to start is by pursuing a new hobby or exploring your new area to find all your new spots. It is a simple concept in theory, but this step always takes me the longest.

Feeling grounded is a process. We each have a priority of what it takes to feel settled. There are some simple things we can do to aid us in feeling at home in our new space.

Source: Blog Brigade

The Navy SEAL Approach to Persistence, Resilience and Success

CareerLifestyle

man at desk giving thumbs up towards computer screen

By Jeff Haden

Success never comes down to just one thing. Intelligence, talent, experience, education and even luck all play their part. But often, what separates success from failure is perseverance. Keep going, and you still have a chance to succeed; quit, and all hope of success is lost.

Even so, when things get difficult, and the odds of success seem bleak, doubt naturally sets in and slowly — although sometimes very quickly — drains away your willpower, determination and motivation.

And then you quit. Which means you failed. (At least in this instance.)

That’s why most people try to push away self-doubt. They know that confidence is key. So, they put their blinders on, stay positive, stay focused…until that moment when a challenge straw breaks the confidence camel’s back, and doubt, as it inevitably does when you try to accomplish something difficult, creeps in.

So how do you avoid self-doubt? You don’t.

Doubt is normal. Doubt is part of the process. We all question whether we will actually accomplish something difficult while we’re doing it.

As retired Navy SEAL Sean Haggerty told me, there’s a big difference between doubt and failure:

“Don’t confuse doubting yourself with accepting failure. The best thing I did was to decide that I was going to go to the absolute extreme, even if I doubted myself. I basically told myself that no matter what, I wouldn’t quit. I doubted myself a number of times, but then I put [it] away and thought, ‘If I fail, I fail…but what I will never do is quit.’”

That attitude pushes you past a limit you think you have…but you really don’t.

Instead, doubt is just a sign of difficulty. Doubt doesn’t mean you can’t do something or won’t do something. Doubt just means you need to figure out a way to keep going.

One way, especially when you feel overwhelmed, is to keep your world small. According to Andy Stumpf, a retired Navy SEAL and SEAL instructor, there are two ways to approach the BUD/S (SEAL training) program:

One is to see it as a 180-day program and, by extension, to see Hell Week — the defining event of the program — as a five-day ordeal. (Hell Week typically starts Sunday evening and ends on Friday afternoon; candidates get about two hours of sleep on Wednesday.)
The other is to just think about your next meal.

As Stumpf says:

“They have to feed you every six hours. So, if I can stack six hours on six hours on six hours and just focus on getting to the next meal, it doesn’t matter how much I’m in pain, doesn’t matter how cold I am. If I can just get to the next meal, get a mental reprieve and mental reset, then I can go on. If you can apply that resilience to setting and approaching your goals from digestible perspectives, you can accomplish an insane amount.”

When you’re in the middle of Hell Week, and you’re cold, exhausted and sleep-deprived, making it through the next few days seems impossible. It’s too long. Too daunting. Too overwhelming. No amount of self-talk can overcome that level of doubt.

Stumpf knew that. He knew he couldn’t imagine making it through five days.

But he could imagine making it to his next meal, which turned a major doubt into a small doubt.

Doubt was just a sign he needed to figure out a way to keep going. And he did.

See self-doubt not as a sign that you should quit but as a natural part of the process. See self-doubt as a sign that you need to adapt, innovate or optimize. Not as a sign that you should consider quitting but as an early warning sign indicating it’s time to figure out a way to keep going before those doubts grow so large that you do quit.

Doubting yourself? That just means you’re trying to accomplish something difficult.

So, see doubt as a good thing because doubt is a natural step on the road to success.

Jeff Haden is a keynote speaker, ghostwriter, LinkedIn Top Voice, contributing editor to Inc., and the author of The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win.

101-year-old vet receives medal for being one of the 1st Black Marines

Government

first black marine holds his award in ceremony

By Irene Loewenson

Grace King didn’t realize until a few years ago that her cousin, George J. Johnson, was a Marine veteran. And she didn’t realize until January that he was part of the Montford Point Marines, the first Black men allowed to enlist in the Marine Corps.

Her mother and Johnson were cousins, technically making him her first cousin once removed. But they were close. He and his wife, Hannah, often would come down from New York to stay with her family in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the summer.

Photo: Retired Army Maj. Gen. James W. Monroe presents former Cpl. George J. Johnson with a certificate of service from the National Montford Point Marine Association. (Norman’s Photoland/courtesy of Mallorie Berger)

It was strange to her that Johnson, now 101, hadn’t talked about being a Marine until recent years.

“George isn’t a very modest person,” King told Marine Corps Times. “He has that New York swagger.”

In January, King saw a local ABC segment on the Montford Point Marines. That led her to connect with Mallorie Berger, whose grandfather was a Montford Point Marine and who has joined efforts to track down these Marines and their families.

On Feb. 6, Johnson was honored with a bronze replica of the Congressional Gold Medal honoring the first Black U.S. Marines, many of whom served in World War II.

The daughter of former Cpl. Moses Williams, another Montford Point Marine, also received a medal in her father’s honor.

Pamela Y. Williams had long known that Moses Williams was a member of military police in the Marine Corps. But her father, a soft-spoken man, didn’t talk about his experiences in the military. She had heard about Montford Point from a friend whose father also had served there, several decades after he died in 1970 at the age of 44.

Receiving the medal on her father’s behalf left her feeling “overwhelmed and just very, very proud.”

“I can only imagine what types of hardships they had to go through,” Pamela Y. Williams said. “But I know that they had no idea that they were making history — which is exactly what they did.”

Johnson, the other Montford Pointer honored on Feb. 6, now has failing health, according to King. It’s hard to get details from him on his time as a member of military police — though he does sometimes mention transporting prisoners to Alcatraz — and he wasn’t up for an interview with Marine Corps Times.

“When you mention Montford Point, he does light up,” King said.

Leaders of the National Montford Point Marine Association and local politicians attended the ceremony honoring Johnson and Williams, as did the junior ROTC class from Dillard High, Johnson’s alma mater, according to Berger.

Read the complete article on Marine Times.

From SEAL to Gaming Creator

BusinessGovernment

Meet the Master of Escape and Evade — Joel Lambert

By Annie Nelson

U.S. Navy SEAL and Afghanistan and Kosovo veteran Joel Lambert keeps things interesting. The star of the Discovery Channel’s Lone Target TV show (known outside the U.S. market as Manhunt) started on his journey due to fear, and fear has never defined him.

If you ask Lambert WHY he became a SEAL, he will tell you, “I wanted to be a SEAL because it was the thing that scared me the most!” You see, he wasn’t sure he could achieve it, so something inside him told him that was what he had to do. As Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club, said, “Find out what you’re afraid of and go live there.”

I asked Lambert how being a SEAL changed him as a man. “How did it change me? It rewrote my DNA. It inducted me into a sacred brotherhood that stretches back to time immemorial and goes forward to who knows where. There are a few true warrior societies left on Earth, and the SEAL teams are one of them. Long Live the Brotherhood.”

Residing in middle Tennessee now, Lambert loves the country life and living off the land. He has a passion for the people in his life, his dogs and our freedom and independence as humans.

Lambert has found his freedom and independence and is thriving! “I had to get out of California. Tennessee is gorgeous. I live on 80 acres of paradise with deer, turkey and all kinds of wildlife on our property. We are becoming self-sufficient, and I can drive into downtown Nashville [which is] 20 minutes away and have world-class entertainment, the city and everything I might need. It’s paradise here.”

I asked him what things from his military career led him to the life he has lived after his Navy career. Lambert said, “It was such a shaping experience that I can’t dissect it like that. To do so would cheapen the complete metamorphosis that the SEAL Teams were for me. However, the things that were uncovered/revealed in my being from that experience are some of the most precious in my existence.”

After his military career, Hollywood came calling. Lambert did quite a bit of scripted acting at first, and he still does occasionally, but he is mostly done with that chapter. The show Lambert is most proud of is Manhunt. He was dropped into foreign countries where he would sneak over their border, parachute in or come out of the ocean. The host nation’s Special Operations Forces, fugitive recovery team or specialty tracking unit would then try to track him down and capture him before he made it to his designated extraction point — one to four days after he started.

Lambert would use anti-tracking, counter-tracking (a primitive skillset) and all his wits and experience to try to get away before they could catch him. They would use everything at their disposal: Dogs, drones, human trackers, electronic gear, thermal imaging, whatever they wanted. Per Lambert, “It was an amazing experience and a great show.

We aired in over 240 countries and territories worldwide. I know exactly what drew me to Manhunt. [It] was precisely because I didn’t want to do it that I knew I had to [do it]. I did not want to do it because it would be hard. It would be dangerous; it would require all my skills, mental toughness and ability to endure miserable conditions and even then, even if I performed at my best, there was no guarantee that I would prevail. The deck was stacked against me — the constant threat of international humiliation looming. I looked at all the reasons NOT to do it, which were precisely [why] I knew I had to do it.

When I was going through BUD/S, the SEAL selection and training program, all I did was dream of graduation day when I would finally be on top of that mountain, the peak, the pinnacle. When I finally arrived, I stood up on that mountain and realized a funny thing: The darkest moments were the ones that were the most significant — where I had grown and evolved the most. Since then, I have tried to continue to find my best in the darkest, hardest places. Manhunt, while it was definitely not the SEAL Teams or life-and-death, still challenged me and allowed me to access that place of struggle where we can find ourselves at our greatest expression.”

Lambert also has a passion for innovation. He is constantly researching, engaging and moving forward. Behind the blue jeans and boots is a mind that does not stop.

So, what is the most captivating thing on the planet right now for all ages? Gaming. That is the space you will find Lambert engulfed in right now. Not as a gamer, but as a creator.

Lambert shared, “I have started a gaming company, and we are in our angel investor round. We have an incredible concept that we’re bringing to market in the augmented reality genre. Escape and Evade!”

People can go to escapeandevademobile.com and sign up. You can also follow their Instagram accounts: @joel5326 and @escapeandevademobile.

So, when the rooster crows, you will find Lambert feeding his chickens, “The Ladies” as he fondly refers to them, then tending to his produce and hay as well as his favorite girl, Miss Petunia, a foster-failure dog that he rescued fall of 2022. By midday, this entrepreneur creator will be grinding on the Escape and Evade gaming company. To think it all started because this young man feared being a SEAL.

Photo Credit: Discovery Channel

How two WWII veterans built Waffle House into an empire

BusinessGovernment

Waffle House restaurant image with veteran owners superimposed

By Sarah Sicard

Nary a soul has been stationed at a military base or made it through four years of college without stumbling one drunk Saturday night into the 24-hour greasy spoon chain known lovingly as “Waffle House.”

With more than 2,000 locations across 25 states, it’s safe to say that the humble breakfast haunt is really more of an empire than a mom-and-pop shop. But it wasn’t always that way. The first Waffle House was actually opened by two veteran neighbors in the small town of Avondale Estates, Two World War II veterans opened the first Waffle House in 1955. (Sarah Sicard/Waffle House via Canva)

Georgia, in 1955. “Tom Forkner joined the military and served in military intelligence and security based out of Oak Ridge, TN,” according to Njeri Boss, Waffle House’s vice president of public relations.

Drafted into the Army in 1941, he covertly worked to transport valuable products from a “Tennessee facility to Los Alamos,” according to the Atomic Heritage Foundation. He eventually was sent to work on the infamous Manhattan Project, where he served until heading home and taking his place with his family’s real estate business.

His eventual partner, Joe Rogers Sr., enlisted with the Army Air Corps at age 16.

“The bulk of his service was in the Army Air Corps where he trained to fly BT-9s, B-29s, AT-17s and B-24s,” Boss said. “When his military service ended in 1945, I believe he was a B-24 pilot instructor with the Eighth Air Force at Smyrna Airfield. He achieved the rank of at least Captain during his service.”

The pair met in 1949 when Rogers moved to Georgia. Wanting to do something different and create an environment where friends and family could come together and eat, they opened a 24-hour diner-style joint in their Atlanta suburb and painted the sign bright yellow to attract the eyes of drivers.

Its reputation for being the best place for late-night food and overall popularity led Forkner and Rogers to begin franchising Waffle House in 1960.

And while the times have changed greatly since that first greasy spoon opened in the 1950s, much of the Waffle House aesthetic and menu has stayed the same.

“We serve the basic foods, and the basic foods never change,” Rogers told NBC.

Alas, the iconic restaurateurs both passed away in 2017, but their waffle legacy lives on in the hearts of troops in dire need of hash browns and syrup boats after a night of barracks shenanigans.

Click here to read the original article posted on Military Times.

PTSD nearly killed him, now USMC Vet uses it to help fellow warriors

Disability

After serving in the Marines for six years, including a tour in Afghanistan, Cole Lyle returned home and suffered severe PTSD, social isolation, and difficulty reintegrating into civilian life.

In his own words, “Coming home really was just the lowest point in my life, and I was two pounds of trigger pull away from being one of the statistics – a veteran’s suicide statistic – if it had not been for another Marine that intervened.”

Determined to overcome his struggles, Cole requested a service dog from the VA to provide emotional support. However, after months of waiting, the VA denied his request. Cole then paid over $10,000 out of his own pocket to secure his famous service dog, Kaya, who has become his constant companion and best friend.

Now serving as the Executive Director of Mission Roll Call, Cole is dedicated to advocating on Capitol Hill for the 18 million veterans across the U.S. and to ending veteran suicide through holistic care, community integration, and greater access to quality healthcare.

Visit Mission Roll Call for more information.

All-female Super Bowl flyover team to make history

Government

This Super Bowl Sunday, a group of women will make history. The flyover before Sunday’s game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs at Phoenix’s State Farm Stadium will be piloted by an all-female team.

The four female pilots orchestrating the diamond formation will be honoring 50 years of women flying in the U.S. Navy. “It was surreal,” one of the four pilots, Navy Lt. Catie Perkowski, told “Good Morning America” of being selected to pilot the flyover.

Lt. Caitie Perkowski and Lt. Suzelle Thomas are part of an all-female Navy team performing the flyover at Super Bowl LVII in Phoenix. Photo Credit: Lissette Rodriguez/ABC News

“I didn’t believe it,” Navy Lt. Suzelle Thomas said of her own reaction.

On Sunday, Thomas will be piloting an F-35C, the newest aircraft in the Navy. She has already made history as the first woman to qualify directly to fly the aircraft, meaning she didn’t have to train on other jets first.

Perkowski will be piloting the plane at the back of Sunday’s formation as they cruise over State Farm Stadium at around 345 miles per hour, a task she called “any pilot’s dream.”

“My dad did ask me to call him from the sideline on the Super Bowl,” she said, delivering a direct message to her dad, saying, “I’ll do my best.”

Perkowski continued, “But for me, as a football fan, when I got the call to do the Super Bowl flyover, it’s almost like a dream initially for someone who loves the NFL.”

Perkowski has spent most of her military career flying on and off a 100,000-ton aircraft carrier that primarily operates in the Indo Pacific Region, including the South China Sea, where she says there is no distinction about her gender.

“What it boils down to is that we trained to do this job together,” she said. “I didn’t join the Navy to be female fighter pilot. I joined the Navy fighter pilot, so to me it makes no difference.”

Perkowski and Thomas will be flying with fellow female pilots and Naval Officers in jets mostly maintained by women as well. Sunday’s flyover will be paying special tribute to all the women that came before them Capt. Rosemary Mariner, the Navy’s first female jet pilot.

When Mariner died in 2019 at the age of 65, the Navy conducted its first-ever all-female flyover during her funeral service in Maynardville, Tennessee.

“The wisdom that she had to share was really amazing,” Perkowski said of Mariner. “To have the ability to represent people like her that came before us and made everything that we do possible is truly an honor.”

Both Perkowski and Thomas said they will also be honoring every man and woman in the service during the flyover.

“There’s also men and women that we serve with every day. They work on my jet. They’re the ones that make sure that I am able to fly,” Perkowski said. “So to be able to carry them with us, it’s really exciting.”

Read the original article posted on ABC News here.

Landing a job was no fluke

CareerDisability

By Camille Cates, DAV

Steven Culp turned 18 only nine days after 9/11. “I felt the call to serve immediately after that event,” said Culp.

He served six years in the Navy as an electronic warfare technician and a cryptologic technician.

After his enlistment, Culp enrolled in college and earned a degree in engineering. But his wartime service had changed him, and after seeking help from the VA, he was enrolled in their Veteran Readiness and Employment program.

That’s when he discovered DAV job fairs.

“At the job fair, there was just about every profession you could think of: engineering; software; technicians for electronics, mechanics or engines; law enforcement. There are opportunities for just about everything there,” said Culp. “With the skills that are built in the military, there is something for every veteran.”

Though he had interviewed with several companies, there was one in particular with whom Culp wanted to connect.

“I was first introduced to Fluke when I was on active duty in the Navy. I used their multimeters for all kinds of tests around the shop, making sure our gear was in spec and working correctly,” he said. “When I saw their logo at the job fair, I went over and spoke with them. Turns out the two gentlemen there recruiting were former Navy. They took a look at my resume and my experience and they said, ‘Can you start on Monday?’”

Culp accepted a position as a service engineer with Fluke Corp., a maker of industrial testing and diagnostic equipment.

“Steven’s story is an excellent example of securing meaningful employment through participation in a DAV job fair,” said DAV National Employment Director Rob Lougee. “Separating service members, veterans and their spouses should take the time to check out our employment resources at jobs.dav.org.”

“They can find everything from our full schedule of in-person and virtual job fairs to resources for entrepreneurs.”

DAV job fairs and employment resources provide veterans and their spouses with the prospect of an exciting career path.

“This opportunity means the world to me,” he said. “It’s truly a second chance. I’m eternally grateful to the VA and DAV for the opportunity I’ve been given.”

Read the article originally posted on dav.org.