Disabled Vets Hit Ski Slopes
Some 350 disabled veterans will ski the Rocky Mountains April
4-9 in Snowmass Village at Aspen, Colorado, site of the 18th National
Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic.
The event is sponsored by VA and the Disabled American Veterans
(DAV) and hosted by the Grand Junction, Colorado VA Medical Center
and VA’s Rocky Mountain Network. A highlight for 2004 will
be the participation, for the first time, of veterans from the
current combat operation in Iraq.
Winter Sports Clinic participants learn adaptive Alpine and Nordic
Skiing as primary activities but also engage in a variety of other
adaptive activities and sports. These include rock climbing, scuba
diving, handcycling, horseback riding, snowmobiling, and sled
hockey. The U.S. Secret Service teaches classes in self-defense.
The Clinic is a rehabilitation program open to all U.S. military
veterans with spinal cord injury or disease, neurological conditions,
orthopedic amputations, visual impairments, or other disabilities.
New National Cemeteries
VA has begun the largest expansion of national cemeteries since
the Civil War with the passage of The National Cemetery Act of
2003.
The law authorizes the establishment by 2008 of new national
cemeteries in Bakersfield, California; Birmingham, Alabama; Jacksonville,
Florida; Sarasota County, Florida; southeastern Pennsylvania;
and Columbia-Greenville, South Carolina.
All six areas have veteran populations exceeding 170,000, which
is the threshold VA has established for new national cemeteries.
Each new cemetery will require 200-250 acres to serve the current
and future burial needs of veterans.
VA manages the country’s network of national cemeteries
with more than 2.5 million gravesites at 120 national cemeteries
in 39 states and Puerto Rico, as well as in 33 soldiers’
lots and monument sites.
TEE Applications Distributed Soon
Applications for the 11th annual TEE (Training, Exposure, Experience)
Tournament will be mailed out to prospective participants on or
about April 15. The 2004 event is scheduled for September 7-9,
once again on golf courses in and around Iowa City, Iowa. Registration
will occur Monday afternoon, September 6, with departure on Friday,
September 10.
According to Christine Kirkwood of the TEE organizing committee,
the format of the applications and procedure for returning for
them will be much the same as in previous years. Interested blinded
veterans are encouraged to return their completed application
materials as quickly as possible after receiving them.
For more information, contact TEE Tournament Coordinator Kirt
Sickels at 319-339-7104.
Reunion Notice
The United States Navy Cruiser Sailors Association will hold
its annual convention May 30-June 4 at the Embassy Suites in Charleston,
South Carolina. For more information, contact Edward August, 21
Colonial Way Rehoboth, MA 02769, call 508-252-3524, or email USNCSA@aol.com
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