Military & Veterans News Scott's View: 9/11: Remembering Those We Lost. Honoring Those Who Protect. It is hard to believe that twelve years ago this week our nation faced terror on our homeland. Many times it feels like yesterday, other times it feels like long ago. Either way, we must always remember the events that occurred.

Discounts & Benefits Scott's View: Labor Day Weekend - Opportunities and Ideas to Save This Labor Day holiday weekend -- It's "back to school" time for some and "back from vacation" time for others. Either way, many of us find ourselves making consumer purchases this time of year.

Discounts & Benefits Scott's View: DIRECTV - NFL Football and A Free Year Of Veterans Advantage Membership With football season on the horizon just days away, consider subscribing to a DIRECTV introductory package with your Veterans Advantage membership. In an exclusive agreement with the NFL, they offer a "Sunday NFL Ticket" package for all its games. And if you start with DIRECTV today, we will throw in a free additional year of Veterans Advantage – a $64.90 value!

Discounts & Benefits Scott's View: New Veterans Advantage Benefits Directory Included With Membership We are pleased to roll out the latest edition of our Veterans Advantage Benefits Directory which, as many members will agree, is always filled with the latest benefits in our program. All members get this 60-page booklet with their new VetRewards Card.

Discounts & Benefits Scott's View: Veterans Advantage Field Report and Review - Global MedEVac can save you at least $222 For you fans of our Exclusive Benefits Plan, which is packed with vital travel and household benefits, we wanted to provide an update on our Global MedEVac coverage. When looking at what the general public may be paying for this service, we see $222 annually, or $40 for a single trip. Veterans Advantage members pay nothing extra to get this coverage added to their VetRewards Card membership.

Military & Veterans Life Scott's View: Veterans Advantage Board Member Donna de Varona Receives International Sports Award Veterans Advantage Advisory Board member Donna de Varona was recently honored in Lausanne Switzerland for her lifetime's work supporting the spirit of sports worldwide.

Military & Veterans Life Scott's View: July 4 Sentiments I received the following from a great friend John Pinto and his lovely spouse, Donna de Varona, the Olympic Champion and Veterans Advantage Advisory Board member. It reflects so well our sentiments on Independence Day that I wanted to share it with you.

Discounts & Benefits Scott's View: Field Report & Review - Veterans Advantage Member Saves Nearly $1,000 in One Year One of the best things about coming to work each day is the opportunity to communicate with vets around the country. I was pleased to hear from a member who just renewed, Colonel Glenn Goddard.

Military & Veterans Life Scott's View: Father's Day, Miami Heat, & San Antonio Spurs all Have Meaning for Vets With Father's Day next Sunday, consider purchasing products and services from great Veterans Advantage partners like Apple, Dell and Verizon Wireless for high-tech, Eastbay for sporting goods, Coleman for camping, and United  airlines for your travel.

Discounts & Benefits Scott's View: Veterans Advantage Movie Ticket Savings for this Summer's Blockbusters With the unofficial start of summer now underway, that means many Americans are checking out the latest movie blockbusters at theaters nationwide. For Veterans Advantage members, that also means timely discounts through our online entertainment benefits.

Discounts & Benefits Scott's View: Veterans Advantage Benefits Alert - Summer Savings As we just told members over the weekend in our latest Benefits Alert e-newsletter, now is time to take advantage of Veterans Advantage savings benefits which are timely for the summer season. For starters, there are great summer cookout options with savings from Sears.com on outdoor grills and Omaha Steaks. Nothing beats a burger under the sun for the upcoming Memorial and Independence Day Holidays.

Discounts & Benefits Scott's View: Mother's Day Shopping Reminder for Veterans Advantage Members As part of our regular holiday-season reminders for our 1800Flowers discount — 20% OFF — for Veterans Advantage members, we want to remind you that Mother’s Day is coming up May 12, and you have many shopping options with a range of great brand names. Just within the 1800flowers family, your Veterans Advantage discount code will get you 20% at 1800baskets, Cheryl’s Cookies, Fannie May Fine Chocolates, Fruit Bouquets.com and the Popcorn Factory – six sites, just one checkout! Just start at 1800flowers.com, and apply our special members only discount code — log into Members Only to retrieve that.

Military & Veterans News Scott's View: Hiring Our Heroes Jobs Fair, Helping Transitioning Veterans Start Successful Careers I had the pleasure and honor to meet with patriotic corporations, and special military veterans, in New York City just last week as part of our nation's push to get our Post-9/11 military into the civilian workforce. Last Wednesday, Hiring Our Heroes — a program of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation — hosted another in its nationwide series of hiring fairs at the 69th Regiment Armory in downtown Manhattan.

Military & Veterans Life Scott's View: Ellis Marsalis, Marine, and Father of Grammy Award Winners It has been said that military service shows up in all areas of life, so as this weekend's Grammy Awards hearkens back to the history of its own greats, we should remember those who also wore the uniform. That said, we recognize Ellis Marsalis, the father of Wynton and Branford and the other talented Marsalis children, whose family has brought home more than 10 Grammys. Ellis also served in the Marines, even using his gift of music to help recruitment efforts.

Discounts & Benefits Scott's View: Winter Season Discounts with Veterans Advantage - Ski Lift Tickets With winter now showing its full midseason burst, I wanted to remind you about our Ski Lift ticket benefit, which can save you a lot of money from many of the major ski resorts around the country. And the top locations, including Utah, Colorado, New York and Vermont, just to name a few.

Discounts & Benefits Scott's View: Last-Second Holiday Savings with Veterans Advantage To conclude our recent updates on holiday shopping discounts, we wanted to round out our coverage with a special reminder for you procrastinators out there: Use your Veterans Advantage VetRewards Card for discounts with major retailers and travel providers nationwide.

Discounts & Benefits Scott's View: New Veterans Advantage Benefit - Fold3 for Military Records and History Following on last month's announcement of our new CVS/pharmacy partnership, we are pleased to announce another significant new benefit to the Veterans Advantage program: an exclusive 50% discount on Fold3 services, a division of Ancestry.com. Fold 3 delivers a premier collection of original U.S. military records, including those from the U.S. National Archives.

Discounts & Benefits Scott's View: Holiday Shopping with Veterans Advantage The holiday shopping season is now upon us. As a follow up to our post last week about our new shopping benefit at CVS.com, we also wanted to highlight a broad range of discounts that are perfect for the holiday season, both at retailers and major travel providers.

Military & Veterans News Scott's View: Should Criteria for Purple Heart be Expanded to Include Post Traumatic Stress? Do you think the criteria for the Purple Heart should expand to include invisible psychological wounds suffered during war? That's the question we recently posed to members, and I must admit the current results are surprising.

Military & Veterans News Scott's View: Space Shuttle Landing in New York City This month is a special one in New York City, and for vets. Celebrate the opening of Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum's new Space Shuttle Pavilion and its newly acquired Space Shuttle Enterprise... now officially open to the public. It is a true celebration of veterans.

Discounts & Benefits Scott's View: With Father’s Day on The Horizon, Here are More Benefits For Dads...and Grads Father’s Day is less than a week away! We issued a reminder communication to our members last week about all the great Veterans Advantage benefits that are a great fit for Dads. And, as a proud father of a high school graduate, I can also say we have got great deals for the special student in your life, too.

Discounts & Benefits Scott's View: Kicking Off Key Benefit Season For Veterans Advantage Members As we officially enter the summer season, we hope you enjoy a wide range of timely Veterans Advantage benefits, which we recently highlighted for members via email newsletter. With so many outdoor and travel options, it is the perfect time to enjoy your Veterans Advantage benefits for summer, as well as take advantage of gift savings for Dads and Grads in June.

Military & Veterans Life Scott's View: Celebration of Freedom Gala Veterans Advantage TopVet Bruce Whitman checked in with a great update from his work as co-chair

Military & Veterans Life Scott's View: Honoring Former Veterans Advantage Member Bill Holloman this African American History Month We hope you enjoy reading our profile of William “Bill” Holloman, a former Veterans Advantage member. Bill passed away a few years after we originally worked with him on the piece, but his legacy is alive and well today. As one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, he helped pioneer the way for millions of African Americans who later served our nation with honor.  "We were the forerunners of the civil rights movement. We opened the door…and it has taken years for people to recognize our contribution to the war," he once said. The achievements of the Tuskegee Airmen were recently celebrated in the movie “Red Tails,” starring Cuba Gooding, Jr.