Biography
Readers are more than welcome to use the articles I've posted on Veterans Today News, I've had to take a break from VT as Veterans Issues and Peace Activism Editor and staff writer due to personal medical reasons in our military family that take away too much time needed to properly express future stories or respond to readers in a timely manner.
I've now returned to VT on a limited basis to focus and comment on innovative and insightful ideas and views that others have on Veterans Issues and Peace Activism.
My association with VT since its founding in 2004 has been a very rewarding experience for me.
Bobby Hanafin
BOB'S BIO
Retired from both the Air Force and Civil Service. Went in the regular Army at 17 during Vietnam (1968), stayed in the Ready Reserve to complete my eight year commitment in 1976. Served in Artillery, Infantry (4ID), and Mech Infantry Division (4MID) Fort Carson, Co. Used the GI Bill to go to college, worked full time at the VA, and non-scholarship Air Force 2-Year ROTC program for prior service military. Commissioned in the Air Force in 1977. Served as a Military Intelligence Officer from 1977 to 1994. Upon retirement returned to the DVA, Justice Department, and Department of the Navy retiring again in 2000. Been with Veterans Today since the site originated. I'm now on the Editorial Board. I was also on the Editorial Board of Our Troops News Ladder another progressive leaning Veterans and Military Family news clearing house. I remain married for over 35 years and had a child in Iraq. I am both a Vietnam and Gulf War Veteran I served on Okinawa during Vietnam and in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm.
In my latest issue of The Veteran Magazine (September-October 2011), from Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA), is an excellent series of articles focused on PTSD.
October 9th, 2011 | Posted in PTSD | Read More »
Poll: 1 in 3 vets sees Iraq, Afghan wars as wastes
October 6th, 2011 | Posted in Vet News | Read More »
This article focuses on who has not been asked about sea lane cargo shipping and unloading of the Rainbow colored toxic chemical agents on Guam and Okinawa to include the US Merchant Marines, civilian contracted US Navy cargo ships, and the smaller fleet of Army contracted cargo vessels.
September 24th, 2011 | Posted in Agent Orange,Health | Read More »
With the 10th Anniversary of September 11th fast approaching. I, for one, am getting tired of (or is it immune to) how every politician regardless of ideology, most every lame stream media outlet, and especially the Pentagon has exploited 9/11 for political, ideological, psychological, and propaganda motivations and effect.
September 6th, 2011 | Posted in Editors Picks,Politics | Read More »
This story from AP Reporter Richard Lardner is a follow-up to two earlier stories I posted dealing with the need for cuts to the Defense Budget.
September 3rd, 2011 | Posted in Economy,Politics | Read More »
Research into the views that there is a cultural clash between Veterans and Non-Veterans on college campuses.
August 31st, 2011 | Posted in Editors Picks,Military | Read More »
Historic speak out at Ft. Lewis brings together active-duty soldiers, veterans and military families
August 27th, 2011 | Posted in Peace | Read More »
It was wrong to demonize our service members in Vietnam; to canonize them now is wrong as well. Both distortions make us forget that they are human beings.
August 25th, 2011 | Posted in Editors Picks,Politics | Read More »
It is remarkable how politicians with close ties to the Defense Industry love to demonize and label any significant cuts to our defense budget with terms like DOOMSDAY.
August 23rd, 2011 | Posted in Politics | Read More »
As gridlock and debate recently raged over debt ceilings and how and where to cut the federal budget a band-aide was applied that raised the U.S. debt ceiling for now.
August 18th, 2011 | Posted in Economy | Read More »
It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything on Veterans Today, the main reason being that I plain ran out of anything to say negative, positive, debating, challenging, or agreeing. Simply put, I had a brain fart.
August 5th, 2011 | Posted in Heroes,Military | Read More »
We’ve done a series of stories here at Veterans Today (VT) dealing with the shocking scandals that tend to plague the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system
May 10th, 2011 | Posted in Heroes,Military | Read More »
Despite the fact that both the Bush and Obama Administration have made it easier for Americans to go to war, since most U.S. citizens have never been asked by either administration or any political party to share in the sacrifice of our troops and military families, both the conservatives and so called liberals have been able to neutralize the anti-war movement (defined as pure pacifists) into being as much of a nuisance as a mosquito on an elephant.
May 1st, 2011 | Posted in Military,Support the Troops | Read More »
URGENT AGENT ORANGE ACTION ALERT – DEADLINE IS TODAY! My apologies to Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA), but we at Veterans Today received a request from VVA Director of Communications, Mokie Porter to help spread the word on this Agent Orange related project idea. I screwed up thinking that I posted this yesterday as I [...]
April 30th, 2011 | Posted in Agent Orange,Health | Read More »
Since that update, instead of the scandal simply going away, we have witnessed (1) the scheduling of a U.S. Senate hearing next week on Tuesday 26 April, and (2) reports in Dayton Daily News and local TV station news that both patient and VA employee satisfaction with the Dayton VA Medical Center falls below that of other Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers.
April 25th, 2011 | Posted in Health | Read More »
Now that Congress and the President have finished playing Let’s Make a Deal on the annual gridlock over the federal budget, readers may think this debate is over.
April 20th, 2011 | Posted in Economy | Read More »
On 12 April, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden kicked off a new initiative called “Joining Forces,” which encourages every department of the government as well as companies, schools, philanthropic organizations, religious groups and local communities to recognize the burden placed on military families by the ongoing military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
April 16th, 2011 | Posted in Military | Read More »
Thinking that maybe politicians in Ohio would eventually back off on the Dayton VAMC Dental Clinic scandal under pressure from mainstream Veterans Service Organizations defensive of the VA system, I placed the last update on this story in the comments section of Ohio Congressman calls for a Congressional Investigation into the VA System. WRONG – [...]
April 9th, 2011 | Posted in Veterans Affairs | Read More »
Congressman Mike Turner (R.OH) plans on pushing for a Congressional Investigation into the Dayton VAMC calling the VA investigation and actions by VA leadership a cover-up. Though we do not totally doubt the views of Congressman Turner, Veterans Today does question his sincerity and partisan political motivation. However, we also question the partisan motivation of [...]
April 6th, 2011 | Posted in Health,Veterans Affairs | Read More »
As Congressional Representatives in Congress continue to raise questions about how the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) has mishandled the Dental Scandal at the Dayton VAMC in Ohio, one Veterans Service Organization has downplayed the incident in defense of the VA.
March 16th, 2011 | Posted in Vet News | Read More »
What the little media coverage the heckling of a Wounded Iraq Vet who advocated bring ROTC back to the campus of Columbia University got from a few anti-ROTC protesters. Press coverage has been political and ideological in view points. This article strives to give a balanced two sided view.
March 2nd, 2011 | Posted in Education,Military | Read More »
In early February Veterans Today (VT) reported that the Dayton VA Medical Center in Ohio was notifying Veterans who may have been exposed to Hepatitis or HIV/AIDS. Veteran’s activist Darrell Hampton has been a thorn in the side of Dayton VAMC management long before this investigation began, and he has worked closely with investigative reporters [...]
February 26th, 2011 | Posted in Veterans Affairs | Read More »
This article and expose of National Guard and Reserve troops being treated inferior to active duty troops when it comes to combat readiness to include corrective vision without eye glasses or contact lens comes in two part (1) explaining the situation, and (2) justification for waiving the time remaining on active duty requirements that ban all Guard and Reserve members from being treated the same as Regular troops when it comes to combat readiness.
February 20th, 2011 | Posted in Health | Read More »
The Dayton VA Medical Center is notifying 535 Veterans they are eligible to obtain free screenings for possible infections due to potential lapses in infection control procedures that occurred in the Dental clinic from January 1, 1992 through July 28, 2010.
February 11th, 2011 | Posted in Health,Veterans Affairs | Read More »
This video aired on Wisconsin Public Television and may be the first public or Town Hall Meeting in the nation to recently discuss the impact that the wars in Iraq and Afhganistan have had on a state’s economic and moral health.
January 16th, 2011 | Posted in Politics | Read More »
According to Major General Dennis J Laich, U.S. Army-Retired, in his article Ideals Versus Interests , he tells readers a few things most everyone who questions or opposes the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan already know, and a few tidbits about the overall Costs of Wars that people should be thinking about. Robert L. Hanafin, [...]
January 7th, 2011 | Posted in Peace,WarZone | Read More »
The PBS program Religion and Ethics Newsweekly last Sunday morning downplayed the existence of any Peace Movement to oppose the continued occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan going into 2011.
January 3rd, 2011 | Posted in Peace,WarZone | Read More »
Daniel Ellsberg’s message to Support VFP This message was sent into Veterans Today by the Peace Activist group Veterans for Peace. Posted on behalf of VFP by Bobby Hanafin, Veterans Issues and Peace Activism Editor, Veterans Today News Network Veterans Today (VT) is a network of 63 web sites that service the U.S. Military Family [...]
December 30th, 2010 | Posted in Peace,Politics | Read More »
Dayton, Ohio Chapter of Veterans for Peace represented at the 16 Dec 2010 Peace Protest at the White House. It is important to emphasize that the reason why I’m spending so much time and energy focusing on – what – one War Protest in Washington, DC when over the past decade or so there have [...]
December 27th, 2010 | Posted in Peace,WarZone | Read More »
Veterans lead dramatic act of civil resistance at White House – Over 130 arrested protesting the wars. This statement was sent into Veterans Today via Facebook on December 21, 2010 from the young Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans’ group March Forward and is closer to the reality of war than the sanitized versions of Happy Military [...]
December 24th, 2010 | Posted in Peace,WarZone | Read More »
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