Over the next five years, more than one million military service members will return from active duty.

By Stan McChrystal

'Wanted for hire: Enterprising, reliable self-starter. Must work well in teams. Technological literacy and leadership experience a plus."

This notice could be posted by many businesses today as they look for employees to help them survive, and thrive, in difficult economic times.

Coast Guard Mutual Assistance (CGMA) is the official relief society of the U.S. Coast Guard. CGMA is a non-profit charitable organization established to provide financial aid to the entire Coast Guard family. While CGMA works closely with the U.S. Coast Guard, it is an independent corporation. Its mission is to promote the financial stability and general well being of Coast Guard people through interest-free loans, grants, and financial counseling.

The Personnel Service Center (PSC) supports mission execution by recruiting, accessing, assigning and developing careers, maintaining well-being, compensating, separating and retiring 
all Coast Guard military personnel.

Link: http://www.uscg.mil/psc/

Veterans of the United States armed forces may be eligible for a broad range of benefits and services provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Some of these benefits may be utilized while on active duty. These benefits are codified in Title 38 of the United States Code. This booklet contains a summary of these benefits effective Jan. 1, 2014. For additional information, visit www. va.gov/.

Top 50 Veterans Blogs

Typically we reserve our praise and adulation for former members of the armed forces to one day each year, -- November 11 -- but their contributions to our society deserve recognition on a more frequent basis. This is something that individuals with veterans in the family know well, but many people without loved ones who have served can easily forget to acknowledge this importance.

We've combed the Internet in search of the 50 most outstanding veterans-related sites. They range in focus from the army to the navy, from Iraq vets to those from the Cold War. Click around and salute your favorites.

The Five Best - The Rest of the Best

The Five Best

1. The Transitioning Veteran. One of the most difficult aspects of providing military service to the country is how to go about one's life on the outside after the tour of duty. Thankfully, TTV has arisen as one of the Internet's zestiest resources on just this dilemma. This site provides the authentic and dynamic opinion of a former veteran himself, "My thoughts on veteran benefits and life after the military." The topics are applicable to those who've served in the Marines, Navy, Coast Guard, or any other branch.
   
   • Check out My Deployment to Africa.
2. Military Members and Veterans. This blog is devoted to "discussing current military members, veterans, and military personnel. This blog will deal with issues regarding benefits, help, and ways to support our troops and veterans!" Recent features on Pearl Harbor and Afghan translators help to distinguish this blog site via its unique focuses and engaging writing style. A must-read site for anyone interested in the prestige and perils of the military.
   
   • Check out Going to College.
3. What's Really Wrong in America? The zealous, potentially polemic title of this blog immediately clarify it as one of the Web's most personal and passionate military blogs that we found. The blog features a former veteran's "musings on how a middle class American sees what's gone wrong in" his home country. We're not claiming that you'll heartily agree with all of the thoughts and positions he takes on various issues, but one thing's for sure: you will definitely get a kick out of perusing these posts that really are opinion pieces in disguise. An energizing read.
   
   • Check out What's Wrong with Rental Cars.
4. Wounded Times. Thankfully, the harrowing issue of post-traumatic stress disorder, after silently afflicting recently-returned veterans for decades, has received increasingly more attention from both the field of psychology and the media. Capitalizing on the attention to the issue is Wounded Times, which is one of the best sites we located that specifically caters to recent vets and these issues. The site assures readers that they are "not alone" and that PTSD "does not have to win as long as we care enough to learn."
   
   • Check out A Guy Burned Alive.
5. Libertas and Latte. This blog site is a collection of the "rantings and ravings of a disgruntled patriot and coffee slave." The retired paratrooper has discover a new zeal as a "fanatical libertarian" who liberally dispenses his vibrant viewpoints on "National Security, Foreign Policy, Civil Liberties, Politics, Trivial Observations, Family News and various distractions." A fun read for veterans and civilians alike.
   
   • Check out Another Fallen Soldier.

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