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A public service campaign starting Tuesday _ Veterans Day _ encourages Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to log onto a new social networking site calledhttp://www.CommunityofVeterans.org. The site was developed by the nonprofit organizations Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and the Ad Council

As organizations throughout the U.S. work to help combat veterans, the Coalition for Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans decided to bring them all together so they could share knowledge about what they're doing and talk about what still needs to be done. CIAV is a clearinghouse of 50 agencies that seek to help veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the three-day conference, veterans like McGinnis talked about their experiences trying to access care after returning from deployment, family members talked about their own versions of "combat stress," and care specialists talked about what they had to offer as well as how the different organizations could team up.

U.S. Army Europe's only airborne surgical team is headed to Afghanistan this spring to provide quick, lifesaving surgeries for U.S. troops during the upcoming "surge."

TalkingWithHeroes.Com announces a New Online Publication with stories from our Troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world, talking about their progress and what they do in the areas in which they serve.

A mental health clinic has opened at Bagram Air Base that is modeled after a program successfully used in Iraq, officials say. Called the Bagram Freedom Restoration Center, the clinic houses servicemembers for several days during a structured program. Servicemembers come from across Afghanistan, according to Capt. Don Hawkins, officer in charge of the clinic.

For two soldiers who lost limbs in Afghanistan, the chance to become certified scuba divers has changed their lives.

Research from the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC), http://www.dvbic.org/, indicates as many as 10 to 20 percent of U.S. troops who had combat exposure may have sustained a concussion during the time they were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The number of Internet Web logs or blogs, as online diaries are known by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan is soaring, giving people everywhere unprecedented windows into servicemembers' lives.

After years of tough deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military is struggling to retain soldiers

More than 44 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who have sought treatment at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical facility have been diagnosed with one or more possible mental disorders, according to the agency's most recent summary of veteran health care.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 15, 2008 - Hundreds of people in Afghanistan's Zabul province received the gifts of medical care and humanitarian assistance earlier this month. Members of the Zabul Provincial Reconstruction Team, the Afghan National Army and coalition forces participated in a medical operation in a local village.

The offensive in southern Afghanistan hasn't come without its casualties for U.S. and NATO forces there. Stripes reporter Drew Brown tells us that over the last few weeks helicopter ambulance crews from the 2nd Platoon "Gypsies" of Company C, 3rd Battalion, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade have pulled dozens of wounded - and sometimes dead - U.S., British and Afghan troops from the battlefield. Brown's dispatch takes you to the battlefield and safely back out again with a group of dedicated medevac crewmembers.

A veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who entered a Veterans Affairs medical center in Kansas with a gun surrendered after trading his ammunition for cigarettes. VA spokesman James Gleisberg said the veteran arrived at Colmery-O'Neil VA Medical Center in Topeka around noon Sunday. Gleisberg said the man then pulled out a gun and threatened to use it on himself. VA police and a SWAT team were called, but the man surrendered about 1:45 p.m. and is now being treated at the VA.

The Veterans Affairs Department has launched its new "Returning Veterans" Web site at http:// www.oefoif.va.gov to welcome home veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts with a social, veteran-centric Web site that focuses on their needs and questions, VA officials announced today.

The Army has dropped Lariam - the drug linked to side effects including suicidal tendencies, anxiety, aggression and paranoia - as its preferred protection against malaria because doctors had inadvertently prescribed it to people who should not take it. Lariam, the brand name for mefloquine, should not be given to anyone with symptoms of a brain injury, depression or anxiety disorder, which describes many troops who have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Maj. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho, RN, the new chief of the Army Nurse Corps, has ambitious plans to transform Army nursing using lessons learned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the best of military nursing research, and the latest advances in the nursing profession.

"The Air Force will begin teaching 'battlefield acupuncture' early next year to physicians deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan," reports the Baltimore Sun's David Wood. "The initiative marks the first high-level endorsement of acupuncture by the traditionally conservative military medical community, officials said."

About one out of seven female veterans of Afghanistan or Iraq who visit a Veterans Affairs center for medical care report being a victim of sexual assault or harassment during military duty, a study reports today.