Some of the 'Services' and 'Programs we have available

Welcome to Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida 'a Source for Veteran Resources'
180 W. Idaho Ave, Ontario, Oregon 97914
541-889-1978
Some of the 'Services' and 'Programs we have available

180 W. Idaho Ave, Ontario, Oregon 97914
541-889-1978
Senators introduce bill to abolish military draft agency - read the story further down on this home page
IN COMMEMORATIION OF MAY BEING 'MILITARY APPRECIATION MONTH' HERE IS A QUOTE FROM WINSTON CHURCHILL.........
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
Winston Churchill - B-1874 - D-1965
Historian, Military Officer, Polotician, Painter, writer

HEY FOLKS........ THIS EMPORIUM AND THRIFT STORE IS FANTASTIC AND SUCH AN ARRAY OF ITEMS AND CLOTHING!!!!!! GIVE US A SHOT AND COME ON DOWN TO CHECK US OUT YOU'LL HAVE A GOOD TIME!!!!
Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida has a rathar very nice Thrift Emporium with an excellent selection of donated items !! The prices range from 50 cents up - depending on the kind of items you are shopping for - We have an absolutely WONDERFUL staff of Volunteers eager to help you find items... it is open from 9am to 4pm Monday thru Friday - and you can bring donations Monday thru Friday from 9:30 am to 3:30pm.
Any Questions call 541-889-1978
Stephanie Foo joins me to share her journey with Complex PTSD. We talk about what it was like to receive a diagnosis, the various techniques and modalities she used
The Chairman of Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida, Ronald Verini, writes two articles every month for publication in a Regional Newspaper, this article ."THE HIGH-STAKES SIMULATION: WHEN GOVERNANCE BECOMES A VIDEO GAME"
will be published MAY 13, 2026 Here is a part of Mr. Verini's article, and you can read the full article by clicking the red bar below.
.
The High-Stakes Simulation: When Governance Becomes a Video Game
May 13th, 2026 Veterans Column by Ronald Verini
I’m thinking the modern political landscape has decoupled from the grit of reality, transforming the solemn duty of governance into a high-stakes simulation. We are no longer observing a leadership rooted in the heavy consequences of war, peace, or the survival of the working class. Instead, we are witnessing a detached, digital-age performance where the "intended purpose" of our institutions, specifically our military, is being rewritten by people who view human life as a series of disposable pixels. When a government official flippantly dismisses the gravity of combat by using video game footage to illustrate a real-world conflict, they aren't just being "tech-savvy"; they are signaling a dangerous psychological shift. They have turned the machinery of the state into a game with no timeline, no tangible winners, and no substance, while the citizens in places like the Western Treasure Valley, are left to navigate the wreckage.
I also think this "Pac-Man" evolution of leadership has created a generation of monsters. We have elected representatives who treat the power to create, enforce, and judge laws like a quest for a high score. They sit in cushioned seats of authority, insulated from the laws they impose on the rest of us, viewing the public not as constituents to be served, but as obstacles to be cleared or "crumbs" to be managed. This isn't a tongue-in-cheek observation or a cynical joke; it is a clinical diagnosis of a government that might have lost its pulse. We have reached a point where the "norm" is to be grateful when a public servant accidentally gets something right, a sad state of affairs for a nation that once demanded excellence as a baseline.
The most egregious evidence of this detachment is found in the treatment of those who actually signed the bottom line: our veterans. Recently, a proposal surfaced that would have calculated veterans’ benefits based on their level of function while under the influence of medication, essentially judging a soldier’s health by their "best day" under chemical suppression rather than the reality of their injuries. While public outrage forced the "bean counters" to scrap that specific plan, the fact that it was ever a serious consideration proves a terrifying lack of respect for the sacrifice of service. P.S…With that said, I will publish an article soon regarding the positive actions of our Veteran Health Care System, so you see both sides of the same coin!!
There is a growing, volatile debate about the military’s intended purpose. Historically, that purpose was clear: defend the nation against external threats. Today, that mission is being blurred by domestic deployments, shifting geopolitical agendas, and legal challenges that threaten to turn our elite fighting force into a tool for social or political engineering. While our military remains the best in the world, capable of toppling dictators and securing borders, they are being stretched thin by civilian controllers who understand the "optics" of war but refuse to acknowledge the "aftermath" of it.
The "cleanup" of war isn't just about rebuilding foreign infrastructure; it is about fixing the broken human beings who did the job. A nation that uses its citizens to project power across the globe but turns its back when those citizens need healthcare is a nation in trouble. It is not about medals at fancy ceremonies. It is about healing wounds. When the government treats healthcare and earned benefits as optional line items to be cut, they are treating the defender as a consumable resource in their "video game" of statecraft.
We have to stay on our toes. The folks we send to represent us are increasingly disconnected from the reality of the service member. They use the military with one hand to achieve their agendas and toss them "bones" with the other. This isn't just a policy disagreement; it’s a breach of the social contract.
A Rule by the Veterans Affairs Department on 2/17/2026
Department of Veterans Affairs.
Interim final rule.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) amends 38 CFR 4.10 within the VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD). This amendment clarifies VA's longstanding interpretation of § 4.10 and, in doing so, amends the text to correct judicial interpretations that VA has concluded misconstrue the role of medication and treatment in evaluating functional impairment. Specifically, this amendment clarifies that veterans should be compensated for the actual level of functional impairment they experience and, therefore, that the ameliorative effects of medication should not be estimated or discounted when evaluating the severity of a veteran's disability at the time of the disability examination. This regulation is needed immediately to minimize the negative impact of an erroneous line of cases culminating in the recent decision of Ingram v. Collins, 38 Vet. App. 130 (2025), which could be applied broadly to over 500 separate diagnostic codes, requiring re-adjudications of over 350,000 currently pending claims. This in turn would overburden VA's claims adjudicatory capacity. In addition, Ingram requires VA to retrain all of its medical examiners and adjudicators to make assessments and decisions based not on the evidence before them but instead based on what they hypothesize the evidence would show if a veteran's disability were left untreated. For these and other reasons explained below, this regulation is critical to the integrity of the VA disability claims system.
This interim final rule is effective February 17, 2026.

Key MAY Observances -
May 7, 1915 - The British passenger ship Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland, losing 1,198 of its 1,924 passengers, including 114 Americans. The attack hastened neutral America's entry into World War I.
May 7, 1954 - The French Indochina War ended with the fall of Dien Bien Phu, in a stunning victory by the Vietnamese over French colonial forces in northern Vietnam. The country was then in divided in half at the 17th parallel, with South Vietnam created in 1955.
May 7, 1992 - The 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, prohibiting Congress from giving itself pay raises.
May 8
Birthday - International Red Cross founder and Nobel Prize winner Henri Dunant (1828-1910) was born in Geneva, Switzerland. He was also a founder of the YMCA and organized the Geneva Conventions of 1863 and 1864.
May 10, 1869 - The newly constructed tracks of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railways were first linked at Promontory Point, Utah. A golden spike was driven by Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific, to celebrate the linkage. It is said that he missed the spike on his first swing which brought roars of laughter from men who had driven thousands upon thousands of spikes themselves.
May 10, 1994 - Former political prisoner Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as president of South Africa. Mandela had won the first free election in South Africa despite attempts by various political foes to deter the outcome.
May 11, 1862 - To prevent its capture by Union forces advancing in Virginia, the Confederate Ironclad Merrimac was destroyed by the Confederate Navy. In March, the Merrimac had foughtthe Union Ironclad Monitor to a draw. Naval warfare was thus changed forever, making wooden ships obsolete.
May 12
Birthday - British nurse and public health activist Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was born in Florence, Italy. She volunteered to aid British troops in Turkey where she improved hospital sanitary conditions and greatly reduced the death rate for wounded and sick soldiers. She received worldwide acclaim for her unselfish devotion to nursing, contributed to the development of modern nursing procedures, and emphasized the dignity of nursing as a profession for women.
May 13, 1846 - At the request of President James K. Polk, Congress declared war on Mexico. The controversial struggle eventually cost the lives of 11,300 U.S. soldiers and resulted in the annexation of lands that became parts of Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah and Colorado. The war ended in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
May 14
May 14, 1607 - The first permanent English settlement in America was established at Jamestown, Virginia, by a group of royally chartered Virginia Company settlers from Plymouth, England.
May 14, 1804 - Meriwether Lewis and William Clark departed St. Louis on their expedition to explore the Northwest. They arrived at the Pacific coast of Oregon in November of 1805 and returned to St. Louis in September of 1806, completing a journey of about 6,000 miles.
May 14, 1796 - Smallpox vaccine was developed by Dr. Edward Jenner, a physician in rural England. He coined the term vaccination for the new procedure of injecting a milder form of the disease into healthy persons resulting in immunity. Within 18 months, 12,000 persons in England had been vaccinated and the number of smallpox deaths dropped by two-thirds.
May 17, 1792 - Two dozen merchants and brokers established the New York Stock Exchange. In good weather they operated under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street. In bad weather they moved inside to a coffeehouse to conduct business.
National Military Appreciation Month, also known as Military Appreciation Month, is a month-long observance in the United States, dedicated to people who are currently serving in, and veterans of, the United States military.[3][4] Each year, the observance runs from May 1 to May 31.[5]
Senator John McCain proposed the month long observance on February 9, 1999.[6] On April 30, 1999, Congress designated National Military Appreciation Month as a month-long observance.[7][8] Congress chose May because it contains many military related observances, such as Memorial Day and Loyalty Day. Congress recognized the month after a unanimous vote of 93–0 in April of that year.[9]
Since May 1999, almost all of the states have made proclamations about the month, with the first ones being Arizona, Montana, North Carolina, Washington and Michigan.[10][11][12][13][14]
In the 2020s, videogame company Activision Blizzard created virtual events to celebrate and raise funds for Military Appreciation Month through the video game Call of Duty Warzone.[15][16]

On May 2, 2016, Chevrolet donated $5 million+ worth of cars to the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum.[17] Multiple companies give discounts to people who currently serve or resigned in the military which include all 6 branches. Some notable companies that give these discounts are Home Depot, Hulu, Lowe's, T-Mobile and Verizon.[18][19] Some brands only give discounts to veterans on certain days on Military Appreciation Month such as Adidas, Chevrolet, Nike, Chick-fil-A, Ford, Under Armour and IHOP.[20][21] Many families in the United States thanked the military veterans during the month long observance to show respect.[22] The humanitarian organization known as Red Cross provided more than 15,000 military veteran families during the 2021 Military Appreciation Month to the 2022 Military Appreciation Month.[23]There are also about 50 large companies that give discounts during the month.[24]
Nascar recognized the month during May 2022 through the annual NASCAR Salutes Together with Coca-Cola program.[25] The USS Lexington, also known as The Blue Ghost, made an exhibit about some of the veterans that fought on it during WW2 which the exhibit stayed for the entirety of May 2021 Military Appreciation Month.[26]Education discounts for military is also noticeable during the month long observance.[27] The USS Missouri was luminated in red, white and blue for the 23rd annual Hawaii Military Appreciation Month opening ceremony.[28] At the California African American Museum, they made an exhibit featuring black soldiers accomplishments in World War 2
Observation Post by Claire Barrett
Like a lion stalking its prey across the Serengeti, so too does a Jody hunt — lurking in the night, ever vigilant in hopes of hearing that one magic word: “Deployment.”
So, how does one stop an insatiable Jody in his tracks? For one seaman, the solution was simple: Beat out the competition by simply being there.
On July 20, 1967, Petty Officer 1st Class David Jarvis Anderson submitted an unusual special leave request. His plea was simple.
“My wife is planning on getting pregnant this weekend,” he wrote, “and I would sure like to be there when it happens.”
Anderson’s tongue-in-cheek entreaty seemed to have worked. It was, after all, the Summer of Love.
While requests for special liberty can often reduce a poor service member to a desperate husk of a man, in 1967, it appears that the powers that be were a little more forgiving — allowing for Anderson to enjoy shore leave in the right port during a particularly crucial tide.
In traveling the seven-plus hours from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the coal mining town of Layland, West Virginia, the sailor thwarted all would-be Jody’s in the area upon his arrival home.
No word was readily available, however, on whether the pair’s weekend’s festivities produced the desired result.
JANUARY 2026
The Food Pantry at Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida has really expanded and grown over the last few years. There has been such an increase of our Veteran and Military Families needing help to handle the increasing problems of 'food insecurity'. We do have a 'modest' pantry open every Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30am to 3:30pm. Give a call to 541-889-1978 to let us know you are coming to pick up Food Box. Please let us know how many in your family and about when your coming.
Also, if you are interested in volunteering to help our veterans and the Food Pantry please give us a call or come on in and see what we are doing...
Sometimes the food donations we receive are unable to meet the demands, but we still hand out the product we receive. So if you need a little something to help you get from one paycheck to the other come on down. Each Family can get a Box twice a month.
BY Jeff Schogol, Task & Purpose
The Army is buying rifle-mounted smart scopes that soldiers can use to shoot down small drones, similar to the advanced fire control systems being used by Marines.
Smart Shooter recently announced that it had received a $10.7 million contract from the Army for its SMASH 2000LE fire control systems and related support services, a company news release says. The smart scopes are scheduled to be delivered between July and September.
Neither the company nor the Army specified how many systems the service is buying under the contract. In March, a Pentagon task force ordered just over 200 of the scopes in a $6.1 million order.
The SMASH 2000LE is mounted on the top of a rifle like a traditional optical scope but its fire control system allows shooters to detect, track, and hit both ground and aerial targets, such as small drones, the news release says.
The system can be added to any type of assault rifle, said Scott Thompson, vice president and general manager of U.S. operations for Smart Shooter.
“Once the user identifies the target (independently or using the detection system guidance) and locks on it, SMASH tracks its movements and synchronizes the shot,” Thompson said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “This is done using computer vision, AI, and advanced algorithms.”
The system is resistant to jamming and can be used to destroy tethered drones — such as those controlled by fiber optic cables instead of radio waves — during both day and night, Thompson said.
disabledamericanveterans.org
By-Benjamin Krause
Attorney. Journalist. Activist.
Unlike a visible physical injury, many mental health conditions don’t leave behind obvious evidence. There may be no scar. No X-ray. No single moment that clearly documents the beginning of the condition.
Instead, veterans are often left trying to explain:
… Inside a system built around documentation and evidence.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs outlines PTSD and mental health eligibility requirements through its official mental health and disability resources on VA PTSD eligibility page and VA mental health services. But understanding the requirements and successfully navigating them are two different things.
Mental health claims often involve a combination of:
In many cases, veterans must also establish a clear connection between their condition and military service. That can become complicated when:
And that last point matters more than many people realize
Military.com by Jim Absher
Accessing military and veteran benefits requires filling out the correct military forms. The following index of official military forms from the DoD, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Department of Veterans Affairs will help you access your earned benefits.
One of the most important documents you need is the DoD form known as the DD-214. Nearly every Department of Veterans Affairs benefit claim and most state veterans benefit applications require vets to submit this military form.
Loss of this all-important form is not the end of the world. Most veterans and their next-of-kin can get free copies of their DD Form 214 Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty - through the eVetRecs website or by mailing or faxing a completed Standard Form SF-180 to the National Archives.
Coast Guard Electronic Forms Library Contains all Coast Guard forms. Requires download in PDF format, requires Adobe Acrobat reader
VA Forms Library searchable database features all available Department of Veteran Affairs forms. Download materials in PDF. Important forms include VA disability claims forms, Post-9/11 GI Bill Eligibility forms and VA healthcare forms.
You can also find information on the VA Home Loan Certification Application and request your certificate of eligibility. The Veterans Administration uses the VA Form 26-1880 to determine your eligibility for participation in the VA Home Loan Program. Military.com can help you get the process started by providing you with the proper form and helping you complete the paperwork.
Once you have submitted your VA Form 26-1880, Military.com can help you take the next step -- finding a VA approved lender.
Our VA loan finder can match you with up to five rate quotes from different lenders.
By Tanya Noury - Military Times
A bipartisan group of lawmakers unveiled legislation on Thursday that would dismantle the government agency responsible for maintaining the military draft database of young, eligible men.
The bill — advanced by Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. — would phase out the Selective Service System,citing its annual operating cost of more than $31 million per year. The senators argued that the agency has been largely defunct since 1973, the last time the United States conducted conscription.
“The Selective Service is an outdated program that costs millions of taxpayer dollars to prepare for a military draft that Americans don’t want or need,” Wyden said in a statement. “Our volunteer military forces are the strongest in the world, and there is no need to replicate the same draft that sent two million unwilling young men to war 50 years ago.”
Paul, in a separate statement, added: “I’ve long stated that if a war is worth fighting, Congress will vote to declare it and people will volunteer. This outdated government program no longer serves a purpose and should be eliminated permanently.”
In its 2024 annual report, the SSS acknowledged a recent decline in registration rates, but noted that an automated registration provision could help bolster future enrollment levels.
Congress later incorporated the rule change into the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. The shift from a system of self-registration to automation is set to take effect in December, with noncompliance constituting a felony offense.

By Nate Dion
Art has a way of breaking down walls, revealing the raw, unfiltered stories of the people who create it.
For many veterans, art serves as a vital tool for processing experiences and building resilience. Through creative expression, veterans often find ways to navigate complex emotions, reduce anxiety, and strengthen their sense of self. The therapeutic nature of art—whether through painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, or custom fly rod crafting—provides a nonverbal pathway for healing and self- discovery that can be particularly powerful for those processing service-related experiences.
Recently at the Museum of Art Fort Collins, the Health 4 Warriors exhibition transformed the Community Curated gallery into a vibrant space celebrating resilience, creativity, and healing through art. Featuring works by veteran artists, the exhibit highlighted how artistic expression serves as a powerful tool for personal transformation and recovery. A collaboration between the Healing Warriors Program and Health4Heroes, the exhibit underscored the vital role these organizations play in supporting veterans’ mental health and well-being.
Each piece—created to honor the stories of these veteran artists—provides a glimpse into their lives, offers insight into the struggles they’ve overcome, and makes crystal clear the passion that fuels their creativity. Among the featured artists, nine of the twelve exhibiting veterans shared their stories, exemplifying how an artistic path—no matter the medium—can lead to healing and self-discovery.
US ARMY SPECIAL FORCES
The Ballad Of The Green Berets · SSgt. Barry Sadler Ballads of The Green Berets ℗ Originally released 1966. All rights reserved by RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment Released on: 1997-02-27 Composer, Associated Performer, Lyricist: SSgt. Barry Sadler Arranger, Conductor: Sid Bass Lyricist, Composer: Robin Moore Producer: Andy Wiswell.
Military.com | By Kevin Damask
Stephen Campos came home from war in Vietnam like many veterans from that era – changed
For decades, he didn’t talk openly about his mental health struggles until realizing he could help other veterans by sharing his thoughts. It led to Campos to becoming an advocate for veterans and a successful business owner, selling his trademark Senor Campos Salsa across the Phoenix, Arizona area.
Campos, an Army veteran, served in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969, a particularly intense year of fighting in Southeast Asia. As a member of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, the violence he witnessed, all the horrors of war, he kept locked deep inside until only a year ago.
“I didn’t talk about my Vietnam experience until 2025,” Campos told FOX 10 in Phoenix. “And when I met my Vietnam buddies for the first time... at the Vietnam War Memorial.”
Seeing the names of his fallen comrades triggered memories and raw emotions for Campos he hadn’t experienced in many years. But it also reminded him of the fierce camaraderie he developed with his fellow soldiers, forged in the muggy, wet jungles of Vietnam.
“We were involved in a horrific firefight,” Campos said. “And that firefight, we bonded together at that time because we were scared and we made a vow that we would come back to the end and reunite after the war if we made it out alive and well. We made it.”
Coming home from the war, Campos didn’t receive the celebrations and adulation his predecessors did following World War II. Many Vietnam War veterans were shunned, called names like “baby killers” and worse.
To add to the disillusionment, the general public couldn’t even comprehend what Campos was dealing with, a mental health battle that wouldn’t even be properly diagnosed until 1980 – post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I was having a lot of problems,” Campos said. “I got picked up for drunk driving and I had living problems. I hadn’t really addressed the things that I had been through in Vietnam. Everything came to a head in 1982, and I had a spiritual awakening.”
Which changed everything.
5,934 views Mar 18, 2026 #centcom #airstrike #iran
US Central Command shared video on X showing airstrikes targeting military vehicles in Iran, though the exact location and timing of the strikes were not immediately disclosed. The footage emerged as Israeli officials said overnight strikes killed senior Iranian figures, including security official Ali Larijani and Basij militia chief Gholam Reza Soleimani.
Search Assist
Recent studies suggest that ketamine may be effective in treating PTSD, particularly when combined with psychotherapy. Research indicates that ketamine can enhance the extinction of traumatic memories and improve symptoms more rapidly than traditional therapies.
bbrfoundation.org
Yale Medicine
Overview of Ketamine in PTSD Treatment
Ketamine is being explored as a treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) due to its rapid effects on mood and anxiety. It is an NMDA receptor antagonist that can induce changes in brain connectivity, potentially enhancing therapeutic outcomes when combined with psychotherapy.
Mechanism of Action
How Ketamine Works
Treatment Approaches
Combined Therapies
Study Findings
Eligibility and Considerations
Who Can Participate
Ketamine represents a novel approach to treating PTSD, with ongoing research aimed at confirming its efficacy and safety in clinical settings.
THERE ARE MANY ARTICLES ABOUT THIS TYPE OF TREATMENT FOR PTSD. SUGGEST YOU GOOGLE "KETAMINE THERAPY FOR PTSD" TO READ ALL THE RESEARCH AND TESTING NOW HAPPENING.
1,998,360 views Jun 18, 2025 #engineering #technology #science
Explore the groundbreaking features that make the Ford-class carriers a revolutionary leap forward in naval aviation. From their ability to launch more aircraft sorties than any predecessor to their advanced weapons systems and futuristic design, this episode delves into the complex engineering challenges and triumphs involved in creating these ultimate symbols of American military might.
After 9/11, the military saw a dramatic spike in tattoo culture. For many post-9/11 veterans, ink became both a cathartic outlet and a way to memorialize fallen comrades. Dog tags, battlefield crosses, KIA dates and American flags — often inked across the chest, ribs, or forearms — became some of the most common images.
One symbol rose to near mythic prominence during this period: the Punisher skull.
Originally a comic book antihero created by Marvel in 1974, the Punisher’s white skull logo was adopted by many military units during deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Special operations units were particularly fond of it, using it as a symbol of aggression and dominance.
The skull’s popularity eventually spread to conventional forces and law enforcement — and not without controversy. Even the character’s co-creator, Gerry Conway, has criticized its use. In a 2019 interview with SYFY Wire, Conway said: “The Punisher is a vigilante who shouldn’t be held up as a role model. Using his symbol as a military emblem or a police symbol is completely antithetical to the character’s purpose.”
It wasn’t long ago that tattoos could disqualify someone from joining the military. But now, they’re so ubiquitous that even generals sport them, albeit carefully hidden. The Navy, which once banned visible tattoos above the collar, now permits neck tattoos and full sleeves, as long as they don’t contain offensive content.
Tattoo parlors have popped up near every major base, and entire deployments have been marked with group tattoos — a modern-day version of a class ring or a battle streamer.
While tastes have evolved (we’ve moved past barbed wire and tribal suns, mostly), the desire remains the same: to mark a moment, remember a comrade or show the world you were there.
Because in the military, you earn your scars. Sometimes on the battlefield. Sometimes in the tattoo chair.
Observation Post by Clay Beyersdorfer
It happens about 80 minutes into “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.” SpongeBob, denied a promotion and humiliated in front of his co-workers, wanders into the Goofy Goober Ice Cream Party Boat. He proceeds to spiral.After a binge of sundaes and shame, he stumbles on stage, belting out a shredded guitar solo rendition of “I’m a Goofy Goober (Rock!)” in front of a confused crowd. There’s glitter. There’s foam. There’s full-throttle emotional release.
And if you’ve spent any amount of time in uniform, you’ve likely seen that clip — or at least a meme of it — shared with eerie sincerity. Maybe you laughed. Perhaps you rolled your eyes. But maybe, just maybe, it hit a little too close to home.
For all its absurdity, SpongeBob’s “Goofy Goober” breakdown has become an unlikely touchstone in military circles, particularly among those who know what it feels like to carry more than they’re allowed to say.
It’s the screaming catharsis that never happens in a formation. The ridiculous meltdown captures the quiet, internal ones that don’t make it into war movies. Every service member who’s ever needed to cry and didn’t, who’s ever felt out of place in their own civilian life and who’s ever tried to joke their way through pain that had no good language. SpongeBob just says it louder.
Military culture breeds stoicism. You learn quickly not to complain, hesitate or show weakness. And when the mission ends and the uniform comes off, all that armor doesn’t just evaporate. It calcifies. You carry it home, to your relationships, jobs and silence.
SpongeBob, in contrast, is absurdly open. He is the emotional inverse of everything military training drills into you. He’s hopeful. He’s naive. He wears his feelings on his sleeves — and when those sleeves get dirty, he cries about it in a room full of strangers.
And that’s the point. Strangely, that scene feels honest. Honest about what it feels like when you’ve been holding it together for too long. Honest about what happens when the ridiculousness finally outweighs the rules. SpongeBob’s meltdown is a stand-in for the veteran who doesn’t drink to party, but to forget. It’s the laugh-before-you-snap moment familiar to anyone who’s ever been “fine” until they weren’t.
The song “I’m a Goofy Goober” isn’t just silly. It’s defiant. When SpongeBob shouts, “I’m a kid, you say? When you say I’m a kid, I say: Say it again!” he’s rejecting the labels people assign to him. He’s rejecting the structure. He’s saying, “I’m still me, even if I don’t fit what you think I should be.”
That hits hard when you’ve gone from commanding missions to being told to use the kiosk at the DMV. When you’ve gone from decision-making in high-pressure scenarios to being passed over for jobs because “you don’t have corporate experience.” When you’ve buried friends, you get asked to “tone it down” in staff meetings.
It’s easy to laugh at SpongeBob’s dramatics. But a lot of veterans would tell you it’s the closest thing to what their emotional breakdown might look like — if they ever let themselves have one.
NICHOLAS SLAYTON Task & Purpose
UPDATED JAN 1, 2026 12:53 PM ESTIn the 1950s the Navy and Army worked on small VTOL machines to make troops go airborne. They worked, just not well enough.
For decades the United States military has dreamed of developing jetpacks to ferry troops around. Personalized flying machines could turn an infantryman into an airborne fighter. But alongside rocket-propelled soldiers, the U.S. military also once gave personal vertical take-off and landing machines a shot.
They are better described, and are classified as flying platforms. Soldiers would stand on a small platform, which itself was over a large fan that would generate lift and get troops airborne. Steering itself would actually be simple: soldiers would lean, tilting the platform and directing it where they wanted to go, almost like a surfboard.
In the mid-1950s the Office of Naval Research, in a joint project with the Army, began to see if flying platforms would be both feasible and practical. And it turns out, the personal VTOL machines worked. Troops did fly on them
According to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, the idea for flying platforms started in earnest in the late 1940s. In 1953 the Army began its flying platform projects, contracting with Hiller Aircraft and de Lackner Helicopters. The Office of Naval Research was already working with Hiller, so a joint-service venture started. De Lackner created its DH-4 Aerocycle (designated the HZ-1), which had a smaller platform right above spinning rotors. It worked but was shelved due to the risk.
More success came with the Hiller projects. The Office of Naval Research got Hiller’s first design, the 1031-A-1 flying platform. It stood 7-feet tall, with an 8-foot-in-diameter platform, with the fan almost as wide. With two engines, it could hit a top speed of 16 miles per hour. The flying platforms were meant to be stable enough and easy enough to control that soldiers on them could still aim and fire small arms while airborne. Photos from some of the tests of the 1031-A-1 show service members aiming and firing rifles while in the sky
The Army, after giving up on the Aerocycle, turned to Hiller, getting a larger version of the 1031-A-1 with more thrust. The Hiller VZ-1 Pawnee began testing in 1957, with three engines. However the increased size made the idea of kinesthetic control impractical. Soldiers could not easily steer or maneuver on the Pawnee. Attempts to adjust the power and size didn’t resolve the issue.
WILD BATS WITH NAPALM,
WHAT COULD GO WRONG????
by Joshua Skovlund, Task & Purpose
Bats use echolocation to find food and places to rest. Add in an incendiary device glued to their chest, and you now have a firestorm that can wreak havoc on any enemy. Or so Pennsylvania dental surgeon Dr. Lytle S. Adams thought during World War II.
The problem is that you don’t know where they will go once released. Add to it that it’s generally a bad idea to mix explosives, adhesives, and wildlife.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Adams made a fateful trip to the Carlsbad Caverns National Parkduring a vacation to New Mexico. He was awed by the hundreds of thousands of bats that nested in the caves.
The bats were still on his mind later in day as he drove away when news came across the car’s radio of the attack on Pearl Harbor. According to the National Institute of Health, he was “outraged over this travesty, [Adams] began to mentally construct a plan for U.S. retaliation.
The idea Adams came up with — a ‘bat bomb,’ with 1,000 bats carrying napalm into a city full of wooden buildings — led to one of the U.S.’s most bizarre weapons development programs of all time, one that Adams believed could bring about a quick end of the war but did little more than burn down a flight training base in the U.S.
Adams knew that buildings in Japanese cities were predominantly built of wood. His idea was to develop an empty bomb case that, rather than hold explosives, would hold 1,040 bats toting napalm-like incendiary gel with timed fuses. Dropped over Tokyo, the bats would create a hellish cyclone with incendiary devices throughout Tokyo, hopefully bringing about an end to World War II
Adams put his idea in a letter to the White House, where he had professional contacts who got the letter to President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was interested, if cautious, telling staffers, “This man is not a nut. It sounds like a perfectly wild idea but is worth looking into,” according to author Jack Couffer’s book, “Bat Bomb: World War II’s Other Secret Weapon.”
Couffer was a young filmmaker who had grown up studying bats and other birds as a teenager. He would go on to a career making dozens of nature documentaries, but he was drafted into the Army early in World War II and assigned to the bat bomb project and witnessed much of its three-year development.
The development and testing, dubbed Project X-Ray, was based in New Mexico. The program developed a metal bomb casing with three horizontal layers, similar to upside-down ice cube trays, where bats would nest. To keep them docile — or as docile as a bat strapped with a bomb can be — they would be placed in an artificial cold-induced hibernation. The “bat bomb” was designed to be released from high altitudes just before dawn, when bats naturally seek out a place to sleep during the daylight hours.
Sarah Sicard MilitaryTimes
The Navy may have the most complicated rank structure when it comes to its ratings system, but there is another, much more uncouth method for establishing hierarchy among sailors: Filthy coffee mugs.
It is a commonly-held truth in the seafaring service that one can tell a higher-up from a newbie based on the amount of sludge that lives in the bottom of one’s coffee cup.
So, in the interest of salt, here are some professional tips, from Navy veterans, to get an optimally seasoned mug.
1. Always drink black coffee. Milk or creamer curdles and introduces bacteria into the mix. Sour lactose creates a hostile environment — not ideal for going years without washing your mug.
2. Drink the whole cup of coffee. Don’t leave even a drop behind. You want to season the mug with a faint film, not swigging day-old coffee every morning.
3. For extra flavoring, take the leftover coffee grounds from the filter and let them rest in the cup for a few days before dumping it out. Treat your mug like a cast iron skillet.
4. If you need to, rinse it lightly with just a little water. This is only to be done in cases where the buildup is starting to become untenable.
5. Don’t wash the mug with the soap. Ever. You might be tempted every now and again to give it a good soak. Don’t. You will lose all the flavoring, respect from your near-peers and any chance at an honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) released in January an updated Department of Defense (DOD) list of locations outside of Vietnam where tactical herbicides were used, tested or stored by the United States military.
“This update was necessary to improve accuracy and communication of information,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. “VA depends on DOD to provide information regarding in-service environmental exposure for disability claims based on exposure to herbicides outside of Vietnam."
DOD conducted a thorough review of research, reports and government publications in response to a November 2018 Government Accountability Office report.
“DOD will continue to be responsive to the needs of our interagency partners in all matters related to taking care of both current and former service members,” said Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper. “The updated list includes Agents Orange, Pink, Green, Purple, Blue and White and other chemicals and will be updated as verifiable information becomes available.”
Veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange or other herbicides during service may be eligible for a variety of VA benefits, including an Agent Orange Registry health exam, health care and disability compensation for diseases associated with exposure. Their dependents and survivors also may be eligible for benefits.
by Sarah Sicard, Observation Post
Is there anything sweeter — literally or figuratively — than biting into the plastic-wrapped chemical compound of luxuriously spongey cake with vanilla cream that is a Twinkie?
Perhaps not. But the original Hostess delicacy was once something else entirely. The preservative-filled dessert that many once believed could withstand nuclear war got its start as a banana cream shortcake, until World War II changed everything.
In 1930, a baker named James Dewar began experimenting while serving as manager of Continental Baking Company’s Chicago area plant in River Forest, according to the Chicago Tribune. He wanted to prove that shortbread could serve a purpose outside strawberry shortcake.
“The economy was getting tight, and the company needed to come out with another low-priced item,” he told the paper. “We were already selling these little finger cakes during the strawberry season for shortcake, but the pans we baked them in sat idle except for that six-week season.”
While in St. Louis on a work trip, Dewar saw a billboard for “Twinkle Toe Shoes,” and thus found the name for his compact confections.
by Patty Nieberg, Task & Purpose
The first woman to lead the U.S. military’s massive logistical enterprise and one of just a handful to ever reach the rank of four-star general in the U.S. military retired Friday. Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost passed command of U.S. Transportation Command to Gen. Randall Reed in a ceremony at Scott Air Force Base attended by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Promoted to General in August of 2020, Van Ovost was the senior officer in that rank among the four women four-star generals and admirals across the U.S. military.
As the head of TRANSCOM, Ovost was responsible for coordinating nearly all movement of U.S. troops, weapons and supplies around the globe. The logistics command dispatches hundreds of military and civilian-owned planes, ships, trains and trucks every day.
“Just a few days ago, we celebrated the 37th birthday of TRANSCOM — a command that was born out of necessity that was built to deploy U.S. forces. Over time, our mandate has expanded to project, maneuver and sustain the joint force at a time and place our nation’s choosing,” Van Ovost said at the change of command ceremony. “If we were a necessity, we are indispensable now.”
At the ceremony, Austin spoke of Van Ovost as a trailblazer for women in the service.
“You’ve always had a message for women in uniform. And that message is: ‘Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it,’” Austin said. ”Every time that you encountered an obstacle, you kept at it.“
CBS News reported in 2023 that only 10 women have ever reached the four-star rank across the military, including the Coast Guard. Of those, Van Ovost was the fifth woman in the Air Force to reach the rank. However, the military she retired from Friday holds far more opportunities for women than when she joined, an era when women not yet allowed to fly fighter jets, Van Ovost’s lifelong goal.
So she found a workaround.
“You wanted to fly Mach 2. But back then, women weren’t allowed to fly fighters. So once again, you made the path wider,” Austin said. “You became a test pilot. And you flew more than 30 aircraft, including F-15s and F-16s.”
Van Ovost retired with more than 4,200 flight hours in more than 30 aircraft.
by Matt White - Task & Purpose
Eddie Vincek landed on Iwo Jima about an hour after the first wave of Marines hit the beach. A member of 1st Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, it was his first taste of combat, he told an interviewer with his Veterans of Foreign Wars post.
“Working on a dairy farm,” he told the VFW, “I was used to seeing animal blood, but not human blood covering over the ground.”
On Sept. 29, Vincek celebrated his 100th birthday at a Ruritan Club in Chesapeake, Virginia, where he was a farmer for most of his life after leaving the Marine Corps in 1946.
For the party, 100 active-duty Marines showed up to help him celebrate. The Marines came from Training Company, Marine Corps Security Force Regiment, in Yorktown, Virginia, about an hour from Chesapeake.
The Marines stood in formation to sing Happy Birthday for “Corporal Vincek.”
On Feb. 19, 1945, Vincek was assigned to A Company, 1st Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division for the Iwo Jima landing. In fierce fighting, the 28th Regiment was the only Marine unit to reach its objective for the day at the base of Mount Suribachi.
It was also Marines from the 28th Regiment — though not Vincek’s battalion — who first planted a flag on top of the mountain (and a second one the next day), leading to the iconic photograph and design of the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial.
Two men from Vincek’s 1st Battalion were awarded the Medal of Honor at Iwo Jima. Of the battalion’s 22 officers, only two emerged from the battle uninjured.
“I was one of the few that walked off carrying my own gear,” Vincek told the VFW. “So many others had been killed or wounded and weren’t able to carry their own gear off the island.”
Whiskey has likely been around for some of your most memorable late-night shenanigans in the barracks or downtown. If there’s anything America’s airborne paratroopers know, it’s how to fight and how to drink good whiskey.
So we talked to four Airborne-qualified master distillers who took their well-researched opinions and made some of the best whiskeys out there. Although they make good whiskey, remember that you have gone too far if you find yourself in the brig. Drink responsibly.
In the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, America was struggling to pay off its war debt (ah, the good ol’ days when America cared about keeping the nation’s debt under control). Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton proposed a tax in the late 1700s on domestic liquor as a means of paying it off — which was met with opposition from whiskey makers in Pennsylvania.
The Whiskey Rebellion that resulted was short-lived, but it was not the last time whiskey would be involved in war. The brown elixir fueled soldiers throughout the Civil War, especially the North, who were paid better and could afford it.
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant slammed Old Crow whiskey, and President Abraham Lincoln allegedly likened the General’s success on the battlefield to his liquor consumption. The New York Herald reported in a Sept. 18, 1863 edition of the newspaper that Lincoln was approached by a group calling for Grant to be removed from his position, claiming he was a drunk.
The tall hat-wearing president allegedly responded with a quirky quip, asking the group if they knew what Grant was drinking.
“If I can only find out, I will send a barrel of this wonderful whiskey to every general in the army,” Lincoln allegedly said. Historians contest the legitimacy of the quote because of the anonymous sources, but the legend lives on to this day.
Whiskey’s relationship with soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen is not a coincidence, in Derek Sisson’s opinion.
by Sarah Sicard, Observation Post
One of the best pieces of advice, for people in careers both in and out of service, is to learn to deal with things or take the bad in stride.
But the military, famed for its ability to turn a phrase or ruin anything with an absurd acronym, came up with its own colloquialism for making the best of any situation: “Embrace the suck.”
Though it’s impossible to trace back the phrase definitively to its first user, it became popularized in 2003 by Marines in Iraq.
Retired U.S. Army Reserve Col. Austin Bay authored a book in the mid-2000s called “Embrace the Suck,” in which he explains the meaning of the phrase.
“The Operation Iraqi Freedom phrase ‘embrace the suck’ is both an implied order and wise advice couched as a vulgar quip,” Bay wrote.
He likens the slang phrase back to legendary military strategist Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz and his views on “friction.”
“Clausewitz went to war when he was 12 years old,” Bay wrote. “Over the last few decades, critics have argued that his treatise ‘On War’ is a bit dated in terms of theory. However, everyone with military experience agrees that Clausewitz understood ‘the suck.’ He called it ‘friction.’”
For Clausewitz, it’s this “friction, or what is so termed here, which makes that which appears easy in war difficult in reality.”
Troops, in their resilience, in effect, mitigate the chasm of difference between training or planning and the often harsh realities they face on the ground. And they do it with aplomb, because they must.
The U.S. military may be a professional war-fighting organization, but it is also filled with people, and people can be very stupid sometimes. That’s why last week, Task & Purpose put out a call for readers to share the dumbest moments they had in uniform. We were not disappointed.
From drunken samurai sword fights to bored forklift drivers, a clear theme emerged: boredom is one step away from a chewing-out by the nearest platoon sergeant.
The best example of this is a story that one Marine veteran named Mike Betts sent us about the time he and his buddies got drunk on salty dogs (a cocktail of gin or vodka and grapefruit juice) in Vietnam. One of the Marines pulled out “a cheap samurai sword he got in Japan,” Betts recalled. Our reader then took the sword and, as one does while inebriated, “commenced my best samurai impression, slashing at anything and everything in the hooch.”
You can see where this is going: at some point during the demonstration, our brave Samurai smacked something that loosened the blade and sent it flying from the handle, striking the sword owner in the chest “and inflicting a pretty nasty wound.”
Nobody wants to have to explain that kind of trouble to someone in charge, so our reader and his fellows snuck the wounded Marine past the officer and sergeant on duty that night and “hustled him off to the hospital” before anyone could notice. Luckily, he was “stitched up and pronounced fit for duty,” Betts said.
“Needless to say, I felt terrible about hurting him,” he added.
Vietnam War kept Bob Kroener from walking across stage with USC classmates in 1971.
Having to wait an extra year to participate in his graduation ceremony due to the coronavirus pandemic paled in comparison to the 49 years that had already passed for Bob Kroener, 78, who finally attended his graduate-school commencement on May 17.
The now-retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and civil engineer missed his pomp and circumstance in 1971 due to his deployment during the Vietnam War. So, when he was thumbing through the University of Southern California's alumni magazine a few years ago and saw pictures of that year's graduation festivities he felt it was finally his time to walk across the stage.
"I was sitting there looking at it and I thought, You know, I never got to go through graduation,” he said. “So I picked up the phone, and I called over to the Marshall School of Business."
During the call, USC officials inquired if he had received his diploma and whether he had other information that would help them locate his decades-old records. The school also asked for his student ID number, to which he replied, “I'm too old for that, we only had a Social Security number."
The road to Southern California started north of the border. Then a captain in the Air Force after receiving an undergraduate degree from the University of Detroit, Kroener was stationed at a military base in Canada when he learned that he secured one of 26 government-funded spots offered to Air Force officers for graduate school. From a snow-covered mountaintop in Newfoundland he was informed of the schools he could apply to.
"I heard the University of Southern California and I said, ‘I'll take it. I'm going back to sit on the beach after being in 110 inches of snow for a year.’ It wasn't too hard of a decision to make,” said Kroener.
However, it wasn't just the weather that Kroener appreciated about going to school in Los Angeles. He was able to take advantage of the wide variety of corporations that would open doors to students like himself.
"I went to [oil company] Atlantic Richfield to do a paper, I went to Mattel toy company to do a paper, I went to Continental Airlines to basically write a master's thesis, myself and another captain,” he said. “All you had to do was say you're a student doing graduate work at USC. And I mean, they just opened the doors."
Kroener earned his MBA in 1971, but before the graduation ceremony took place he was deployed to Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. As part of his duties, he managed combat engineering teams by setting up their directives and getting them all the equipment needed to prepare for combat in Vietnam. He eventually retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1993.

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