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Sexual assault in the military is taking a toll on the emotional and financial health of the military, even as it threatens unit cohesion.  Last year, more than 85,000 veterans sought help for sexual abuse, including 4,000 who filed for disability benefits.  While 60 percent of victims are women, which means that 40 percent are men, which proves once and for all, that rape isn’t about sex, it is about violence & power.

Responding to one body blow after another in the arena of sexual assault in the military, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel signed a military order requiring review and recertification of every person assigned to programs related to sexual assault.  That may not be enough.  Congress is considering  taking its own steps to change the way the military deals with sexual abuse, including the Military Justice Improvement Act, which would change how military prosecutions are conducted.

As Obamacare comes into full swing next year, veterans will be able to choose between healthcare through the new exchanges or through their traditional VA system or they can take advantage of both, according to a Treasury Department official testifying at a recent House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing.

Once a hero, after taking over the VA, former four-star and Army chief of staff General Eric Shinseki may be facing his biggest defeat.

Unemployed veterans in Illinois are getting certified in building operations and maintenance through a first in the nation pilot program that teaches them how to help businesses and residents save energy.

The most popular governor in the country stepped in it when he took on New Jersey’s civil service system, inciting about a dozen veterans to join with 100 other protestors who said the proposed changes would make it harder for veterans to get jobs.

Cross your fingers; the VA has contracted with a leading IT firm to help streamline the claims process.

Scum artists go where the money is and their newest target is veterans.  The VA is warning veterans and their families to beware of “Pension Poachers” who take advantage of and contribute to the claims backlog by filing bogus claims for caregiver support while advising veterans to hide their assets.

While veterans qualify for benefits that civilians do not, they also depend on benefits available to the general public.  Food stamps just got slashed by $4.1 billion in the current Farm Bill despite 600 veterans signing onto a letter penned by VoteVets.org’s Jon Soltz to Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) begging the Senate to keep food on the table for veterans and other families. In 2012, over $100 million in food stamps were redeemed at military commissaries. An amendment to undo the cut failed 26 to 70.

What to do?  The VA is under fire for setting aside $765 million in funds allocated to purchase medical equipment and supplies including cardiac monitors, radiological equipment, pain-medication pumps and operating room stretchers because of an inability to fulfill its department-wide commitment to allocate 34 percent of its contract dollars to small companies, including those started by returning veterans.

Eighty Florida veterans facing homelessness will be helped through a $20,000 grant from the Disabled Veterans National Foundation to the Center for Independent Living of South Florida for its new program, Innovate and Navigate Veterans’ Employment via Support & Training (INVEST).

Alan McGlade tells Forbes readers why veterans are a smart hire.

The controversy continues in California over bonds that were approved to help veterans get into homes, yet sit, untapped, while other service needs struggle for funds.

Decades after the Vietnam War ended, the “Secret Army” of Laotian and Hmong veterans who served in the war are finally being honored with a national memorial ceremony at the Vietnam War memoria, a bugler, a wreath of white lilies and an honor guard. In addition, U.S. congressman Jim Costa (D-California) and Senator Lisa Murkowski (D-Alaska) are heading a bipartisan coalition to grant burial honors to those secret warriors and military advisers.

Grandparents.com offers up a surprising look at U.S. celebrities who served, including Mel Brooks, whose war experience led to Springtime for Hitler, and a hunky Drew Carey.

California veterans’ advocates seek access to over $1.5 billion in stale veterans’ home loan bonds to improve their lives elsewhere.

Whine, cry and complain enough, and instead of mandatory furloughs, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees get mandatory overtime to clear claims backlog even as other programs for veterans face reduced and unstable funding.

When the Obama administration took office, a little touted but aggressively enacted program was implemented to end homelessness among veterans and the chronically homeless.  Homeless veterans tracking since 2010 has shown significant declines in their population, even as homeless families – including female veterans and their children – has risen.  To continue the inroads, U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced $72 million in new grants to cities and nonprofits addressing the issue.

Veterans who enjoy a raising a glass of wine, now can support fellow veterans in the process as more and more wineries link vines and vets.

Star Trek director, J.J. Abrams , and crew use their enterprise to support veterans – it is, after all, a U.N. Navy star ship – including dedicating the latest film to post-9/11 veterans, casting four veterans as honor guards and donating all the proceed from the sale of the Star Trek Action Movie FX app to The Mission Continues.

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In less than two weeks, two prominent military personnel who are supposed advocates for victims of sexual assault were, themselves, arrested for sexual assault.

In response, Senator Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY), Armed Services Committee, will present a bill to replace commanding offers with legal representatives as the point of contact for military rape victims. The bill is opposed by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, who says that enforcement must remain within the chain of command. Both agree, however, that the ability to overturn a rape conviction should be taken away from military generals and senior military commanders.

As the knife slowly slices deeper across the board for critical national programs due to sequestration cuts, no budget deal  appears to be in line to mitigate the damage. Instead, the key House panel that instituted the cuts moved Wednesday to exempt veterans medical care along with border and  homeland security programs.   The cuts will remain in place in the 2013 fiscal year, but at stake is ongoing cuts  to the Pentagon as well as programs for medical research, science programs and social support for 2014.