Serving America's Veterans: A Reference Handbook

(Hardback)

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In this authoritative handbook, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense lays out the infrastructural, administrative, and health care challenges facing the Veterans Administration, policymakers, and our veterans themselves. Serving America's Veterans: A Reference Handbook comes from an impeccable sourceformer Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations, and Logistics Lawrence J. Korb. Korb and his team of experts survey, analyze, and evaluate the infrastructural conditions, administrative and health care service challenges, policies, and politics affecting veterans affairs in the United States. They overview the historical context of contemporary veterans affairs and project the capabilities of the Veterans Administration to cope with the needs of active, reserve, and retired veterans. Most critically, they provide practical prescriptions and policy recommendations to address veterans' many, pressing needs. The full spectrum of veterans issues is examined: changing personnel policies in the armed forces; unprecedented levels of National Guard and Reserve mobilization; societal reintegration and funding adequacy when the professional military is a relatively small fraction of the U.S. electorate; rising costs of medical technology; and the growing proportion of veterans with conditions requiring protracted rehabilitation or lifelong intensive care.

Reviews

Korb et al. (defense information and national security, Center for American Progress) examine veterans' affairs in the US, and the related infrastructural conditions, administrative and health care service challenges, and policy and political issues. They consider the history of veterans affairs; veteran demographics and their impact on the American political system; issues such as administrative barriers to accessing health care and benefits; and mental health problems, all of which have been affected by changes to personnel policies, unprecedented levels of National Guard and Reserve mobilization, changes to the length and number of tours, and the length of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other factors. The final chapter considers the challenges faced by General Eric Shinseki, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. * Reference & Research Book News *
Filled with statistics and facts, this work offers a balanced approach to the good (caring for wounded veterans and the impact of veterans on the present society) and the bad (administrative barriers to VA health care and benefits). It is perfect for academic libraries. Summing up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above. * Choice *
This book would make a lasting contribution to the library of any service family or concerned citizen. * Parameters *

Author Bio

Lawrence J. Korb, is Senior Fellow for Defense Information at the Center for American Progress. He served as Director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, Director of the Center for Public Policy Education at the Brookings Institution, Vice President of the Raytheon Company, and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations, and Logistics. Sean E. Duggan is a research associate for national security at the Center for American Progress, Washington, D.C. Peter M. Juul is a research associate at the Center for American Progress, Washington, D.C., specializing in military affairs. Max A. Bergmann is a research associate at the Center for American Progress, Washington, D.C.