Vet News: Former VA Secretary Joins AMVETS in Planning Young Veterans Symposium

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17

Former Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) Anthony J. Principi has agreed to co-chair the National Symposium for the Needs of Young Veterans, a landmark project that AMVETS, one of the nation’s foremost Veterans organizations, will host next year in Chicago, Ill. The Symposium, scheduled for October 18 to October 21, 2006 is expected to draw upwards of 1,500 Veterans from across the country.

Symposium attendees will address the unprecedented challenges service members coming home from Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere are facing as they transition to post-military life. The Symposium will focus on ways to ensure that these new Veterans as well as current ones have access to promised health care, education, civilian employment and job training benefits. The issue of benefits for National Guard and reservists because of their expanded military role is also expected to be on the Symposium agenda.

"The benefit system created more than 50 years ago, as good as it was then, needs to be modernized. Our military has changed. The needs of our Veterans have changed. The Symposium is going to challenge Veterans to suggest concrete ideas on how to make the system more effective and efficient," said Principi.

Younger Veterans have an active role in the Symposium as participants and as organizers according to William Boettcher, AMVETS past national commander who is co-chairing the event with Mr. Principi. "Our goal is to have 50 percent of our participants under the age of 40. They don’t have to be AMVETS members or associated with any of the other Veterans organizations. The Symposium will be a place to listen to the ideas of as many Veterans as possible and come up with an action plan to modernize the benefits system," said Boettcher.

Principi has dedicated much of his career to serving Veterans. Prior to his term as secretary of Veterans affairs from 2001 to 2005, the combat- decorated Vietnam veteran was chair of the Congressional Commission on Servicemembers and Veterans Transition Assistance, which, in 1999, presented a report that raised concerns about the adequacy and effectiveness of programs and services provided to service members and Veterans.

"The benefits we offer our young men and women in uniform have to meet their needs. It’s a promise we’ve made to every generation that has served and one we must honor. The Symposium will be a forum for out of the box thinking on the benefit system of the future," said Principi.

A leader since 1944 in preserving the freedoms secured by America’s Armed Forces, AMVETS provides, not only support for Veterans and the active military in procuring their earned entitlements, but also community services that enhance the quality of life for this nation’s citizens.

Source: PRNewswire