At a press conference yesterday, SecArmy Pete Geren teamed up with Chancellor Robert Hemenway of the University of Kansas to announce a new program for wounded and medically retired troops (mostly officers) to get their grad degrees at KU -- and then return to public service. The Army plans to pick up the tab for these troops' education, and then reap the benefit by having them serve as military academics, instructors and civilian officials. According to the Army release on the event:

Soldiers and those medically retired who are part of the Wounded Warrior Program are eligible to participate in the new education initiative. They must already have a baccalaureate degree and must also be physically and mentally prepared to attend school.

Under the pilot program, participants will complete their master's degree at the University of Kansas, while the Army picks up the tab for that education.

"The welcome mat is out at KU," Chancellor Hemenway said.

* * *

At the completion of their degree program, graduates would take jobs as faculty or staff at the Army's Command and General Staff College or Combined Arms Center here. Those Soldiers who are still on active duty would remain on active duty, while those retired due to injury would serve as civilian instructors.

The program is one way the Army can stem the loss of military knowledge, education and experience that comes when wounded Soldiers leave the service, officials said. By helping wounded Soldiers complete their master's degree, the Army can keep some of that corporate knowledge in house.

* * *

If these wounded warriors choose to complete their education at the University of Kansas, they will take jobs at CGCS, filling positions already identified by the school and applying their own education and personal experience to benefit students enrolled there.

Those wishing to participate in the Wounded Warrior Education Initiative must have been wounded in the war on terror and have a campaign medal. They may be either active duty, or medically retired active-component or reserve-component Soldiers.

Hooah. But let's not stop there. This is a brilliant idea, but it needs to be broadened considerably to take care of a lot more troops. The article hints at this, but I want to suggest a couple of ways the program can be enlarged straightaway:

1) Troops, not just officers. Let's broaden this program to include soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who are wounded in action and/or medically retired -- and who want to pursue their bachelor's degree. Let's have the services pick up the tab for them to get that degree if they promise to continue their service after graduation in whatever capacity they can. Army ROTC does something similar today with "Green to Gold," but it's not good enough for our wounded troops. Let's keep them on active duty, paying them and giving them (and their families) full access to DoD medical care, and pay for their tuition at a state university too. Let them go to school full-time. And then bring them back into public service after they graduate.

2) Public service, not just military service. College is a time of growth and change. You may come in with one major, and one idea of what you want to do, and emerge with another. We give these servicemembers some freedom of choice -- so that if they decide, halfway through their degree program, that they want to be a teacher instead of an Army civilian, that's okay. Or, maybe a young veteran discovers a talent for chemical engineering that he never knew about, and decides that he wants to pursue a research career. That's okay -- it's still public service, and the nation is still getting a return on its investment.

3) Broaden beyond KU. I don't want to take anything away from KU, but it's just one school. And these men and women might not want to go to a school in Kansas. Let's start working now to establish similar programs at state universities across America. We'd probably want to focus first on those near DoD facilities, if only because that makes it easier for servicemembers to get access to DoD housing and medical care. But let's also look at elite public universities like Berkeley, Virginia, UCLA, and Michigan.

Day 90 of the Hollywood writers’ strike – still no relief in sight. And today, we read that the strike has claimed another casualty: the much-hyped, much-photographed, ultra-glamorous Vanity Fair Oscars Party.

Chalk up the VF party to a kind of collateral damage from the strike. With no resolution on the horizon, organizers for the Academy Awards are panicking, and making contingency plans for a “press conference” style awards ceremony that doesn’t require the services of any writers. According to the Times, VF is cancelling the strike out of solidarity with its writers. Maybe. But my bet is that VF decided to cancel its party because the strike takes the glitz and glamour out of the event, and it’s no fun to throw a party after a press conference. Here’s what the Times reports:

Imagine a wedding reception without food, music or Champagne, and you get an inkling of how a lot of Hollywood would view the Oscars without the Vanity Fair party. But Hollywood will no longer have to imagine it — the party is off.

In sympathy with striking writers, Vanity Fair on Tuesday canceled its annual multimillion-dollar must-attend party. There are other parties, but this is the one Oscar-related trapping that has come to rival the main event for a cast of above-the-title stars, assorted billionaires and several hundred of their closest friends.

The editor of Vanity Fair, Graydon Carter, said on Tuesday that canceling was the right thing to do, whether or not there was a breakthrough in talks between the Writers Guild of America and production companies before the Oscar ceremony on Feb. 24.

“A magazine like Vanity Fair is a group of writers and artists, and we are in solidarity with the writers and artists out there,” Mr. Carter said. “Whether the strike is over or not, there are a lot of bruised feelings. I don’t think it’s appropriate for a big magazine from the East to come in and pretend nothing happened.”

He added, “There will be something sort of liberating about ordering Chinese food and watching the Oscars in bed.”

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has pledged that the Oscars will go on, and it has asked the writers not to picket given recent progress in contract talks.

But the guild insists that it will picket, and many stars are expected to skip the event rather than cross a picket line.

And there are other casualties too, besides the VF party.

Forget about the stars, the glamour, the excitement, the art of cinema, and all that jazz. Hollywood is a business. A huge business. (Its close cousin in Los Angeles, the porn industry, is also a huge business.) Besides the actors, directors, writers, and other creative people that we traditionally think about when we think about The Industry, the Hollywood industry also employs (directly or indirectly) hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of Americans in myriad support roles. The entertainment industry makes up a huge segment of the labor market, and not just for high-end creative jobs, but also for blue collar jobs in food preparation, set work, transportation, distribution, and so on.

It’s hard to feel sympathy for the writers, actors and directors at the top end of the scale. They’re cushioned from the effects of this strike, and they can afford to wait it out. But I feel a great deal of sympathy for the vast majority of folks in the middle – the writers making an average income of $60,000 a year who probably need to have a second job in order to support a family in Los Angeles. And also for the publicists, agents, construction workers, truck drivers, caterers, office staff, and others who are the collateral casualties of this strike. They didn’t vote for this strike and they don’t get to decide when it ends. But this strike affects them too. I hope for their sake, and that of the California economy, that this thing is resolved soon.

He may have never read a Zogby Poll or Field Poll.
He has been deployed for most of this primary season.
His family cares more about his homecoming than the ’08 election.
Thanks to AFN, he has not seen a single campaign ad.
When he hears “chad,” he thinks of the next country he might be deployed.
He’s done more electioneering in Iraq than in America.
For him and his squad, precinct walking is a combat operation.

He is an American soldier, serving in harm’s way. And today, he is depending on you, the voter, to nominate a candidate who you believe can lead America’s sons and daughters in uniform.

He has his duty; we have ours. If you’re registered to vote in a Tsunami Tuesday state, he needs your support today.

VOTE!