Below is a campaign trail dispatch from Don Stanton, a retired Navy pilot who's one of my colleagues on the Obama campaign's veterans policy committee. We're building momentum and getting the word out -- but need your support on Tuesday.

NEW YORK, Feb. 2 -- Veterans for Obama converged on NYC to blanket the city with coordinated small “strikes” at many strategic locations to augment NYC Obama Director Rudi Shenk’s dedicated campaign forces. Vets are trying to target and win over many independent and undecided voters who are considering voting for Barack. Our NYC Veterans group is finding that New Yorkers and international visitors are very interested in Barack’s message of unity and hope.

In less than 24 hours, Vets and NYC volunteers distributed over 500 of Scott Allen’s (former Merchant Marine and the dedicated national syndicator of the latest installment of Veterans for Obama signs throughout the country) throughout lower Broadway, Grand Central Station with commuters heading for Westchester and Connecticut, Harlem, Brooklyn, on subways, and at various rallies throughout the City.

On 31 January, Matt Flavin (USN Iraq/Afghanistan vet) led Mike Donatelli (USAF,) Don Stanton (USN,) and Barry Junker (USN) to help fire up and speak to a Generation Obama pre-Debate rally at The Grand. Organizers had planned for 100 people, but about 700 turned up! RAI Italian TV interviewed Mike and Don.

This morning, NYC Veterans Coordinator, Jan Donatelli (USN,) participated in the Women for Obama family rally at Columbus Circle where she met John Kerry’s sister who came over and wanted a Veterans For Obama sign for her brother. Jan organized a Veterans Meet-up for Change in Union Square where many people showed interest in Obama’s message. The BBC, Huffington Post, Fox, and several local news outlets interviewed Jan and Mike about our Obama veterans efforts.

Other Veterans outreach events for Obama included:
Harlem Victoria Theatre visibility event, where a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation film crew interviewed Don and Mike on how Veterans For Obama got started and what we were doing around the country. A Finnish TV cameraman photographed vet signs in the subway and we participated in the Brooklyn Bridge Walk for Change. Union Square Veterans rally, the MTV rally in Times Square, and Obama volunteer coverage of nightspots.

The energy for Barack is building in NYC, and the region and the media are interested in his positive message!

Yes we can!

The national Commission on the National Guard and Reserves released its much-anticipated report yesterday. According to Ann Scott Tyson in the Washington Post, the basic verdict was one we've been expecting: the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the myriad homeland security deployments of the last 6 years, have stripped the reserves of their capability to respond. This is problematic for the reserves' support to overseas missions; it's absolutely dire for the homeland security support they provide at home. According to the Post:

The situation is rooted in severe readiness problems in National Guard and reserve forces, which would otherwise be well-suited to respond to domestic crises but lack sufficient personnel and training, as well as $48 billion in equipment because of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report by the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves.

Guard readiness has continued to slide since last March, when the panel found that 88 percent of Army National Guard units were rated "not ready," said retired Marine Maj. Gen. Arnold L. Punaro, the commission chairman.

"We think there is an appalling gap in readiness for homeland defense, because it will be the Guard and reserve that have to respond for these things," he said in an interview, noting that the reserves are present in 3,000 U.S. communities. The commission, which was established in 2005, has 12 members, including several other former military officers.

"Because the nation has not adequately resourced its forces designated for response to weapons of mass destruction, it does not have sufficient trained, ready forces available," the report said. "This is an appalling gap that places the nation and its citizens at greater risk."

In the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (full text), a team of physicians reports on their study of Traumatic Brain Injury ("TBI") and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder ("PTSD") among Iraq veterans. Their study found a statistically significant relationship between the two that strongly suggests causation. As the authors told the New York Times: "There’s a lot we don’t know about these injuries, but we do know that context is important,” said the lead author, Dr. Charles W. Hoge, director of the division of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. “Being in combat, you’re going to be in a physiologically heightened state already. Now imagine a blast that knocks you unconscious — an extremely close call on your own life, and maybe your buddy went down. So you’ve got the trauma, and maybe the effect of the concussion is to make it worse.” Here's the abstract of Dr. Hoge's study:

Background: An important medical concern of the Iraq war is the potential long-term effect of mild traumatic brain injury, or concussion, particularly from blast explosions. However, the epidemiology of combat-related mild traumatic brain injury is poorly understood.

Methods: We surveyed 2525 U.S. Army infantry soldiers 3 to 4 months after their return from a year-long deployment to Iraq. Validated clinical instruments were used to compare soldiers reporting mild traumatic brain injury, defined as an injury with loss of consciousness or altered mental status (e.g., dazed or confused), with soldiers who reported other injuries.

Results: Of 2525 soldiers, 124 (4.9%) reported injuries with loss of consciousness, 260 (10.3%) reported injuries with altered mental status, and 435 (17.2%) reported other injuries during deployment. Of those reporting loss of consciousness, 43.9% met criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as compared with 27.3% of those reporting altered mental status, 16.2% with other injuries, and 9.1% with no injury. Soldiers with mild traumatic brain injury, primarily those who had loss of consciousness, were significantly more likely to report poor general health, missed workdays, medical visits, and a high number of somatic and postconcussive symptoms than were soldiers with other injuries. However, after adjustment for PTSD and depression, mild traumatic brain injury was no longer significantly associated with these physical health outcomes or symptoms, except for headache.

Conclusions: Mild traumatic brain injury (i.e., concussion) occurring among soldiers deployed in Iraq is strongly associated with PTSD and physical health problems 3 to 4 months after the soldiers return home. PTSD and depression are important mediators of the relationship between mild traumatic brain injury and physical health problems.

Update I: Dana Priest reports on today's Washington Post front page about another statistically significant surge -- this time in suicides (and suicidal acts) by soldiers in the Army. According to Ms. Priest:

. . . Suicides among active-duty soldiers in 2007 reached their highest level since the Army began keeping such records in 1980, according to a draft internal study obtained by The Washington Post. Last year, 121 soldiers took their own lives, nearly 20 percent more than in 2006.

At the same time, the number of attempted suicides or self-inflicted injuries in the Army has jumped sixfold since the Iraq war began. Last year, about 2,100 soldiers injured themselves or attempted suicide, compared with about 350 in 2002, according to the U.S. Army Medical Command Suicide Prevention Action Plan.

* * *
The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have placed severe stress on the Army, caused in part by repeated and lengthened deployments. Historically, suicide rates tend to decrease when soldiers are in conflicts overseas, but that trend has reversed in recent years. From a suicide rate of 9.8 per 100,000 active-duty soldiers in 2001 -- the lowest rate on record -- the Army reached an all-time high of 17.5 suicides per 100,000 active-duty soldiers in 2006. [emphasis added]

Last year, twice as many soldier suicides occurred in the United States than in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Col. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, the Army's top psychiatrist and author of the study, said that suicides and attempted suicides "are continuing to rise despite a lot of things we're doing now and have been doing." Ritchie added: "We need to improve training and education. We need to improve our capacity to provide behavioral health care."

With the American economy in a downward slide, political leaders in Washington are working hard to craft a stimulus package that will give our economy a much-needed shot in the arm (or kick in the butt). My colleagues at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America have a great idea for this stimulus package: a 21st Century G.I. Bill for this generation of veterans.

. . . as Washington wrangles over how to jumpstart the economy, there's one proven strategy for growth that no one is talking about — a new GI Bill.

President Bush should call on Congress to pass a modern GI Bill by the end of his term. A new GI Bill would significantly stimulate the U.S. economy and go a long way toward helping our newest generation of heroes build a better life.

When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the original GI Bill in 1944, he ensured that eight million World War II veterans would be able to afford an education. Every dollar spent sending the Greatest Generation to college added seven dollars to our national economy. Educating our country's veterans was the right thing to do after World War II, and it is the right thing to do now.

Sadly, the educational benefits available to new veterans are far inferior to what their predecessors received. Today's GI Bill covers less than 70% of the average cost at a public college and even less than two years at a typical private college.

President Bush can strengthen our country's economy now by investing in our newest veterans. Every year, we can send Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to college for less than 3% of the proposed stimulus package. For the American taxpayer, this would be a fantastic return on investment. To learn more and take action, click here.

Hooah. It's partly about return on investment — the original Montgomery G.I. Bill produced an ROI of 7 dollars for every 1 federal dollar spent on the program. The last time America built a G.I. Bill, after WWII, it served as a powerful engine for economic growth for decades. It's time to do it again. It's partly about the need to invest in our national human capital. But it's also a way to reinforce the value of uniformed service. Investing in a 21st Century G.I. Bill will send a powerful message to Americans that we really care about veterans, and it will send a powerful message to our sons and daughters in uniform that we're looking out for them.

Write your member of Congress — tell them to get on board with S.22, and other efforts to build a 21st Century G.I. Bill. Do it for our veterans, and do it for the country.