O’Fallon High School teacher looking for military vets to share their stories

Calling all Veterans: O'Fallon Township High School Social Studies teacher Kristin Strubhart is looking for 15 veterans willing to share their stories as part of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.

Strubhart needs to get a commitment from the veterans this summer, so when the students return to school in the fall the veterans can be matched with student interview teams. The interviews will take place the first two weeks of October.

A reception is scheduled to take place at OTHS Milburn Campus the Sunday before Veterans Day, on November 6. The main push is to get the stories of WWII veterans, but plans call for veterans from all eras to be interviewed. If you would like to volunteer or would like more information, please contact Strubhart at strubhartk@oths.us to see the interviews from 2013 go to https://vimeopro.com/user.

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The Washington Post is reporting that U.S. military officials are considering ways to ramp up training of Syrian fighters against the Islamic State as the Pentagon moves cautiously forward with a revamped program to create an effective local ground force.

Several U.S. officials, speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing military efforts, described the steps the Pentagon has taken since late last year, when the Obama administration abandoned an earlier Syria training plan. After repeated setbacks to that program, which aimed to create an army of Syrian fighters from scratch, officials settled on a different approach, one that would train only small numbers of leaders or other key personnel from local units who could act as a liaison with U.S. and allied forces attacking the Islamic State from the air.

Since the original program was revised, U.S. military personnel have trained fewer than 100 additional fighters, mostly outside of Syria, officials said. Those trained are specialized fighters whom military officials describe as “spotters” rather than ordinary infantry troops.

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Thousands of Marines serving throughout the infantry and in other key positions are about to get new gender-neutral job titles, but the service's top leaders are pushing to leave the word "man" in some of its most iconic occupations, according to the Marine Times.

In all, the Marine Corps plans to rename 19 of its military occupational specialties, or MOSs, as the result of a months-long review mandated by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. A service-wide message announcing the changes is expected to be published within the next few days.

The terms “rifleman” and “mortarman,” are among those that remain untouched, according to a list — obtained by Marine Corps Times on Monday — of 33 MOSs that were reviewed. And that was by careful design, said a Marine official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

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Dozens of military veterans have come to Detroit to rebuild neglected areas of the financially distressed city, according to the Fayetteville Observor.

It marks the latest - and largest - effort undertaken by St. Louis, Missouri-based The Mission Continues, a nonprofit that encourages and aids volunteerism by veterans to ease the post-military transition.

Teams of volunteers fanned out Monday to three locations in a neighborhood on the northeast side of Detroit. At a park, Iraq and Afghanistan veteran Ben Eichel, 33, and others picked up trash and built benches.

“When you're not part of something that's bigger than yourself, you lose that identity. You become isolated, and a lot of us tend to go to dark places,” said Eichel, of Denver, taking a break from trying to remove a rusted-out fence. “So, The Mission Continues was there and got me involved in the community. It helped me reintegrate in civilian society effectively, because I learned that I'm not just a veteran.”

This story was originally published June 28, 2016 at 11:15 AM with the headline "O’Fallon High School teacher looking for military vets to share their stories."