For release: April 11, 2013
News and Media Relations contacts: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu
and Jimmy Hart, 615-898-5131 or Jimmy.Hart@mtsu.edu
VA/Tennessee Valley
Healthcare contact: Chris Conklin, 615-225-4690 or Christopher.Conklin@va.gov
MURFREESBORO — More
than one in 10 military veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan is a woman.
And more than 57 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan women veterans
have received Veterans Affairs health care (almost 43 percent have not). Of the
57-plus percent, 89.8 percent have used VA health care more than once.
Middle Tennessee State University and the Department of
Veteran Affairs Tennessee Valley Healthcare System are partnering an event to
attract women veterans who may not know about health and educational benefits.
It will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, April 15, in the Keathley University Center
Theater on the MTSU campus.
The event will honor and recognize women veterans through a
documentary screening and informational session on VA health care and education
benefits.
“Women veterans are encouraged to attend April 15 at the KUC
to learn more about their VA benefits,” said Chris Conklin, a spokesman for the
Tennessee Valley Healthcare System.
“Veterans who
attend this event will have the opportunity to not only see what their
education benefits are, but how the they can take advantage of all the benefits
they have earned through their service, including health benefits,” Conklin
added. “Women veterans in particular also will have the chance to see what
services are available specifically for them in regards to health care at VA
Tennessee Valley Healthcare System.”
In addition to the previously mentioned data, Conklin said
nearly 51 percent of female veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who used VA care
during fiscal years 2002 to 2011 were born in or after 1970 compared to nearly
48 percent of the male Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
Sue Downes, who is featured in the documentary “Service:
When Women Come Marching Home,” will be the keynote speaker. The documentary
highlights the struggles and triumphs of returning home as a combat-wounded
woman veteran.
Downes, a driver and gunner while serving in Afghanistan,
had to have both legs amputated below the knee after her Humvee hit landmines
in 2005. She will take part in a question-and-answer session during the event
with other veterans in attendance.
Women veterans attending the event will see a free viewing
of the documentary and have the opportunity to talk to staff from the VA and
MTSU on how to maximize available education and health care benefits, plus
register for VA health care.
MTSU officials
are welcoming women veterans from throughout the Midstate and those who attend
community colleges in the area to provide information regarding educational
benefits and how they can apply these benefits.
Veteran
advisers from MTSU’s VetSuccess on Campus office will be at the program to
provide information.
The event is open
to the public and all women veterans and their families in Middle Tennessee.
For more information on the event, contact Kim Holden at 615-225-5535 or Cathy
Kirchner at 615-898-5814.
MTSU is the
only Tennessee university selected by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
for a “VetSuccess on Campus” program. It also has been named a
military-friendly institution for three years in a row by G.I. Jobs
magazine.
To learn more
about the MTSU VetSuccess on Campus program, call 615-898-2974.
For more
information about VA TVHS, visit http://www.tennesseevalley.va.gov/.
To learn more
about the documentary, visit http://servicethefilm.com.
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Media welcomed.
A printable campus map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTParkingMap12-13.
MTSU is committed to developing a
community devoted to learning, growth and service. We hold these values dear,
and there’s a simple phrase that conveys them: “I am True Blue.” Learn more at www.mtsu.edu/trueblue. For
MTSU news any time, visit www.MTSUNews.com.
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