100 Questions and Answers About Veterans: A Guide for Civilians (Bias Busters) - Softcover

Michigan State School Of Journalism

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1942011008 ISBN 13: 9781942011002

Publisher: Michigan State University School of Journalism, 2015

Synopsis

"One Hundred Questions and Answers About Veterans: A Guide for Civilians" is part of the Michigan State University School of Journalism series on cultural competence.

This guide has sections on military structure, culture and families, demographics, work, money, deployment and discharge, politics and resources for more study.The guide is written for those who want quick answers to the basic, everyday questions that people ask about veterans. The guide is intended for people in business, schools, government, medicine, law enforcement, human resources and journalism who need a basic grounding.


Questions include:
* Who has veteran status?
* How many U.S. veterans are there?
* Which conflict involved the most U.S. service personnel?
* How many U.S. military deaths have there been in various wars?
* In which conflict were the most American lives lost?
* What percentage of veterans are women, and how is that changing?
* Are WACS and WAVES veterans?
* What are the racial and ethnic demographics of veterans?
* What was the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy?
* How did ending the draft in 1973 change the military?
* Why do people go into the military?
* What percentage of service personnel serve in combat?
* Do women serve in combat?
* What do we call members of the different branches?
* How are commissioned and noncommissioned officers different?
* Who commands the military?
* What is military court?
* What are the highest medals in the different branches?
* Is it illegal to wear medals one has not earned?
* Does everyone in the military carry a weapon?
* Are there military rivalries?
* How do job responsibilities vary among branches?
* What are some examples of military jargon?
* Why is military appearance so precise?
* Do service members have a sense of camaraderie?
* Are veterans who served in the same branch at different times close?
* What is the goal of basic training, or boot camp?
* How does being in the military change a person?
* What are the origins of "Reveille" and "Taps"?
* How long does enlistment last?
* What determines deployment lengths?
* Are bonuses offered to induce people to stay in the service?
* How does pay vary?
* What are base pay and additional pay?
* What is the Individual Ready Reserve?
* Can veterans re-enlist once discharged?
* What are the types of discharge?
* What is a DD214?
* Is retiring the same as being discharged?
* What percentage of military personnel were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan?
* Has everyone deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan been in combat?
* What is the role of Veterans Affairs?
* What are veteran benefits?

* What is the GI Bill?
* Are veterans paid after their service ends?
* How does the type of discharge affect benefits?
* Are there special benefits for wounded or injured veterans?
* Are there special benefits for female veterans?
* Are there benefits for families of those killed on active duty?
* Are there death benefits?
* What training comes after basic training?
* Can veterans receive college credit for what they learned in the service?
* Are there scholarships or educational aid for veterans?
* How many veterans attend college after serving?
* What are employment statistics for veterans?
* What advantages do veterans bring to the civilian job market?
* What challenges do veterans face in the job market?
* In what private-sector fields or functions do veterans often find work?
* What other industries are veteran friendly?
* How do civilian employers support veteran employees?
* Could veterans have had more than one specialty or job in the military?
* Do veterans make good leaders and managers?
* Do veterans start their own businesses?
* How much money do veterans make?
* Do military couples marry young?
* Is divorce higher among military couples?
* Do military families move frequently?
* What effect do deployments have on children?

About this title

About the Author

Michigan State University students who created this guide are: Isaac Berkowitz, Madeline Carino, Riccardo Cozzolino, Daniel Hamburg, Tiara Jones, Lia Kamana, Katie Krall, Kary Moyer, David Reiss, Gabriela Saldivia and Darren Weiss.

We had advice and support from Detroit Public Television, which produced the videos that appear in this guide. We thank Detroit Public Television President and CEO Rich Homberg, and Senior Vice President for Content and Community Engagement Georgeann Herbert.

Experts who helped include:

Jeff S. Barnes, director of the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency with the agency's Tina Richardson, Randy D. Calloway and Kim Miller.

Nickki G. Bannister served six years in the U.S. Navy. She is founder and principal editorial consultant of Nik Scott, an "editorial relations" firm.

Cindy Burton was in the U.S. Air Force as a cryptologist linguist. She has been an editor at the Detroit Free Press for more than 16 years.

Bill Elsen worked for 33 ½ years at The Washington Post. He served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and was a reporter in Saigon for Stars and Stripes.

Lily H. Li who has worked for The New Yorker, Money, eFinancialCareers.com, The Glass Hammer, Life and Discover as well as Newsday, the Los Angeles Times and the Dow Jones Newswires.

Brian Mockenhaupt is a contributing editor at Outside and Reader's Digest magazines, and the nonfiction editor at the Journal of Military Experience. He served two tours in Iraq as an infantryman with the 10th Mountain Division.

Mark Thompson has been covering national-security issues in Washington, D.C., since 1979, and for Time since 1994.  His reporting for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on a design problem with Fort Worth-built helicopters won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for public service.

Sarah Welliver is an award-winning multimedia photojournalist with the Elkhart Truth in Indiana. Welliver was a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. --Joe Grimm, series editor, Michigan State University School of Journalism

From the Back Cover

Why do some veterans prefer not to have people thank them for their service?
How are commissioned and noncommissioned officers different?
How common is it for veterans to be homeless?
What is the GI Bill?
What are the meanings of Memorial Day and Veterans Day?

This guide was created to help civilians better understand the millions of veterans who fought to protect and uphold U.S. interests around the world. These men and women served in World War II, the Korean conflict, Vietnam, the Gulf wars, Afghanistan, other conflicts and in peacetime. They were in the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps or Coast Guard. Some were in the Merchant Marine during World War II. Others were called to active duty from the National Guard or Reserves.

Differences in experience, age and background mean veterans' perspectives are individual and unique. Yet all face similar questions and assumptions. This guide answers basic, everyday questions that veterans say civilians ask about their experiences, needs, challenges and achievements.

This guide exists to encourage understanding and better face-to-face conversations.

100 Questions and Answers About Veterans is part of a series of guides published by the Michigan State University School of Journalism.

From the Inside Flap

By J.R. Martinez

I'm a son, brother, friend, father, and sometimes I can even be a goofball. That's who veterans are. We are you. The only thing that separates us is that we've decided to join the military and we've experienced things in our line of work that many others have not.

Some people have called me a hero for being in the military. Others have called me a monster for being in the military. I wish people would take the time to listen to me. Maybe eventually they'd just call me J.R.

For many people, military life is completely foreign unless they have a direct connection to it; say, a family member in one of the service branches, or maybe a friend. But less than 0.5 percent of the U.S. population serves in the armed forces. And if you don't know a member of the military or a veteran, it's hard to truly see the differences, and more importantly the similarities, between us and civilians. So how do we bridge that gap of understanding? We are just like you, yet we seem so unfamiliar to so many.

Every day in the news we see a new story about the effects of service-related Post Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injuries. We see more injured troops returning home. We see military spending cuts. We see homelessness and joblessness among veterans reaching near epidemic proportions.

And at the same time we see stories of escalating conflicts throughout the world, which might mean a need for more boots on the ground. And that will certainly mean more injuries, more casualties, and more troops returning home to see their benefits slashed.

The public sees all of this and might not see it for the growing problem that it is. All it would take is just listening to a veteran or service member. Let yourself learn from us. Ask us questions. Listen and try not to judge or to let your perceptions get in the way of our answers. And in turn, we will allow ourselves to understand that it is our duty to teach. It's a partnership we will all have to agree on to shorten the distance between our two worlds.

J.R. Martinez enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2002 and was deployed to Iraq in 2003. There, the Humvee he was driving hit an improvised explosive device. He suffered smoke inhalation and severe burns to more than 34 percent of his body. He is an actor, motivational speaker and the author of "Full of Heart: My Story of Survival, Strength, and Spirit," Hyperion, 2012.

By Ron Capps

I suppose the first question is why? Why is this book necessary? Well, how's this for starters: more than 21 million Americans are veterans. That's a pretty good chunk of people. But given our current population of over 310 million, it's perhaps the smallest percentage of the population since the Second World War. Fewer people serve in the military, so fewer Americans really understand the military or those who have served in it.

And there are other questions. The editors here came up with 100, beginning with, "Who is a veteran?" This question is troublesome. Because there are different answers depending on why one is asking the question.

When the Greeks came home from Troy, people were naturally curious to know what had happened. This was, of course, before Twitter, so no one had been reading their feeds to stay current on the Trojan War. So naturally the first question was, "Who won?" But after that, after the parades and the family reunions, probably after a good meal and some wine, each Greek soldier took part in a ritual telling of his experience. Each soldier stood in the town square or the village amphitheater and, in front of his neighbors, told his story of the war as a way of communalizing the experience of war and of sharing the burden of it.

We don't do a particularly good job of this today. Soldiers come home and get lots of "Thank you for your service" and recognition at baseball games, but rarely have the chance to tell their story. This lack of communication leads to a lack of understanding. Veterans can become isolated, and keep to themselves. And this is wrong. We all have a responsibility to share the experience of our military even if only vicariously, through a telling or a reading.

Why? Because within the small slice of America we think of as our veteran population, all of America is present. There are big-city and small-town veterans, black and white veterans, male and female veterans, straight and gay veterans, young and old veterans.

Like all good books, this one furthers a continuing conversation. In this case, it's a necessary and important conversation about service, values, war, humanity and much more, and we should all take part in it.

Ron Capps served in the Army and Army Reserve for 25 years. He is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and of numerous other conflicts. Capps founded the Veterans Writing Project in 2011. He is the author of "Seriously Not All Right: Five Wars in Ten Years," Schaffner Press, 2014.

Edition details

• Publisher: Michigan State University School of Journalism
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1942011008
• ISBN 13: 9781942011002
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 76