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In 2006, 24-year-old Nicholas Koulchar entered the U.S. Army as a private. By 2008, he was deployed to Sadr City, Iraq, with Alpha Company 40th Engineers, Task Force 1/6, conducting counter improvised explosive device (IED) operations. Life, as he knew it, was about to change in ways he’d never imagined.
On August 26, 2008, while...
In the early 1980s, Army veteran Mark Crowl spent a year in Germany rebuilding tank ranges for the new M1 Abrams tank. During that time—as is common among servicemembers—he suffered hearing loss.
After his service, Crowl needed hearing aids but went without them for decades.
“For 30 years I needed them...
During his more than 26 years of service, Navy veteran Louis Johnson served six different ships, logging eight deployments that were six months or longer.
“I was a professional sailor, which encompassed a myriad of different things,” said Johnson. “I loved what I did, and when I was older I loved watching the young sa...
Austin Lasiter served his country for four years as a Marine.
“I didn’t have anything going for me after high school, so I enlisted, and five weeks after I graduated, I was standing on the yellow footprints,” said Lasiter.
While service provided him with the direction he was seeking, entering the workf...
Andrew Clark answered the call to duty—to serve and defend the freedoms he so cherishes—by enlisting in the Air Force in 2001.
In 2003, Clark deployed to Iraq with the 822 Security Forces Squadron. He emerged from his service in 2004 with numerous service-related injuries, most notably a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) a...
Michael Franko knew he wanted to serve his country, but his commitment swelled on a clear blue day in September that suddenly turned dark.
“When September 11th happened, and I watched the atrocities occur on that day, it just solidified the fact that I wanted to be an infantryman and lead Marines in the fight against our enemies,...
Ray Hill was only 17 years old when he volunteered to serve his country.
In 1966, after a tour in Germany, Hill was called to deploy to Vietnam, just outside of Saigon.
“You don’t really know what to expect,” says Hill. “We set base camp up, got everything going, and then started our patrol...
Patt Maney comes from a proud family tradition of military service stretching back to the French and Indian War, so his path to join the Army Reserve in 1971 was well laid before him.
What Maney couldn’t foresee, though, was the massive improvised explosive device blast that ripped through his armored vehicle in Afghanistan three...
DAV (Disabled American Veterans) has named Hailey Curnett of Benton, Arkansas, as recipient of the 2019 Jesse Brown Memorial Youth Scholarship’s top prize of $20,000. Curnett will be presented with the award at DAV’s 98th National Convention August 3, in Orlando, Florida.
The Jesse Brown Memorial Youth Scholarship program h...
Army veteran Tom Moore’s service took him all the way to West Germany, but it was right here in the states where he suffered from a service-related injury. In 2005, Moore sought assistance from DAV, and today he is a proud member of the organization that he describes as “professional” and “considerate.”
Se...
In the fall of 2011, Lorrene Eads was a young wife and mother who had just learned that she was pregnant again. She never had a chance to tell her husband Ronson the good news.
Days before Thanksgiving, Ronson Aaron Eads, 27, an combat veteran of Afghanistan, committed suicide. The young veteran had battled PTSD since his deploym...
Army veteran Mark Henderson was doing all the right things—sending out resumes, attending job fairs—but had yet to receive good feedback from a single employer. That changed when he participated in a DAV virtual job fair.
Henderson learned about the online event while attending ACAP (Association for Community Affiliated Pla...
Air Force veteran Michael Breeden was putting in 100% effort to find new employment after he was laid off from his first job after leaving the military.
“I had applied for more than 50 jobs that I was more than qualified for in aircraft maintenance – had all applicable training, experience and certifications,” says Br...
On June 25, the president signed H.R. 299, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019, into law. This is a huge victory for roughly 90,000 Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans that, effective January 1, 2020, puts the following provisions into place:
• Veterans will be presumed exposed to Agent Orange if they served in the...
Naomi Mathis was a 23-year-old single mother when she left her job as an administrative assistant and enlisted in the Air Force. She was looking for a career that would provide security for her kids and give her a sense of purpose, which is exactly what she found through service to her country. But after three deployments—two to Kuwa...
