According to an October 20 posting by Peter S. Green on The Skyline Task & Purpose website, combat-related insomnia is taking a toll on U.S. veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. A report from Van Winkle’s cited it as the most unnoticed, under-prevented, and untreated injury that servicemembers face, a major problem when the best treatment for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is sleep.
As the longest war in U.S. history drags through its 13th year, America’s armed services are discharging an increasing number of soldiers with serious sleep problems. Exact numbers are hard to lock down, but the RAND Corporation found earlier this year that 48.5 percent of service members reported such poor sleep quality, it would qualify as a “clinically significant sleep disturbance” on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. With roughly two million U.S. veterans of the wars in Iran and Afghanistan, that means some 900,000 active or retired service members may have significant sleep disturbances or sleep disorders

According to an AP article published in the February 2 Washington Post, the Obama administration has pushed back by one year its goal for ending homelessness among the general public. However, it’s still maintaining a goal for ending homelessness among veterans by the end of the year.
Officials at a Housing and Urban Development Department briefing Monday said both goals were being pushed back a year, but then corrected that description to say that only the benchmark for chronic homelessness among the public had been delayed.
Veterans Affairs officials say they will push hard to end homelessness among veterans this year, but caution the results won’t be known until 2016.

According to a February 4 Hill article by Martin Matishak, Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee grilled members of a military commission that recommended abolishing Tricare, the healthcare system for service members.
Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday grilled members of a military commission that recommended abolishing Tricare, the healthcare system for service members.
The proposal was one of 15 unveiled last week by the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission, and it is quickly proving to be controversial on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) asked five members of congressionally appointed panel how doing away with the network and replacing it with an array of private provider options would be an improvement