March 13th recognizes National K9 Veterans Day and the dedicated K9 units who've served since World War II. ​

A lot of things changed after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. We rationed oil, leather, and rubber. The military draft men into service. Women rolled up their sleeves and built war supplies.
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AGSM, Inc. Tampa Bay also hosted a Christmas Cookie and Treats Table at the Fisher House at Lake Nona, Orlando VA Medical Health Care System. Volunteering at this Fisher House is part of the AGSM, Inc. Dept of FL-PR's vision and mission to serve at all seven of the Fisher Houses in the great state of Florida. All this would not be possible without the vision of the Fisher House founders, Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher.   Many thanks to Fisher House community partners, Operation Patriot Support, and the Fisher House Foundation. 
In February, at the Veterans Council of Hillsborough County, FL., Inc., the Tampa Bay Chapter served cupcakes and kisses, Hershey Kisses, to the veterans in attendance. Needless to say, it was a sweet, sweet event for those who enjoyed the cupcakes and the kisses....the chocolate ones, that is!

Social Security imposter scams continue to be widespread across the United States. Scammers use
tactics to deceive you into providing sensitive information or money. If you receive a suspicious letter,
text, email, or call, do not respond.

SSA will NEVER:
 Text or email images of an employee’s official government identification.
 Suspend your Social Security number.
 Threaten you with arrest or other legal action unless you immediately pay a fine or fee.
 Require payment by retail gift card, wire transfer, internet currency, or cash by mail.
 Promise a benefit increase or other assistance in exchange for payment.
 Mail or email “official” letters or reports containing your personal information.

SSA will only send text messages in limited situations, including:
 When you have subscribed to receive updates and notifications by text.
 As part of our enhanced security when accessing your personal my Social Security account.


If you owe money to SSA, they will mail you a letter with payment options and appeal rights. Social
Security employees do contact the public by telephone for business purposes. Ordinarily, the agency
calls people who have recently applied for a Social Security benefit, are already receiving payments and
require an update to their record or have requested a phone call from the agency. If there is a problem
with a person's Social Security number or record, Social Security will typically mail a letter.

We encourage you to report suspected Social Security imposter scams — and other Social Security fraud
— to the OIG’s website at oig.ssa.gov/report. You can find more information about scams at
www.ssa.gov/scam. Please share this information with your friends, family, and colleagues to help
spread awareness about Social Security imposter scams.

COLUMBIA FALLS, Maine and WASHINGTON D.C. – Feb. 4, 2025 – Today, Wreaths Across America (WAA) and American Gold Star Mothers, Inc. (AGSM), announce a recommittal to the formal partnership the two nonprofits established in 2016.
 
An updated memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed by both organizations’ leadership on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, the day before the annual escort to Arlington kicked off in Maine. The agreement outlines several key areas, such as collaborative volunteer efforts and fundraising in communities across the country; a weekly interview segment for AGSM on Wreaths Across America Radio; and naming Wreaths Across America Radio an exclusive media partner for AGSM’s annual convention each June; among the re-establishment of collaboration in the existing partnership.
 
Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Columbia Falls, Maine, WAA’s yearlong mission is to Remember the fallen, Honor those who serve and Teach the next generation the value of freedom. AGSM was established in 1928 and chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1984 with the core purpose of supporting families of fallen and wounded soldiers, teaching lessons of patriotism and inspiring respect for the country.
 
“Over the years, I’ve learned so much from our nation’s Gold Star families and am grateful for AGSM’s support of the mission all these years,” said Karen Worcester, executive director of WAA. “Both organizations have evolved and grown over the last eight years, so the recommittal of our partnership is both timely and important as our combined efforts will no doubt help to shape and inform the next generation of patriots.”
 
“Wreaths Across America’s mission perfectly aligns with AGSM’s mission. We are proud to partner with their army of volunteers across the country,” said Patti Elliott, National President, American Gold Star Mothers, Inc., and mother of SPC Daniel “Lucas” Elliott, KIA Basra, Iraq, 7/15/2011. “What started as one man’s generous gesture to honor heroes at Arlington has become a nationwide movement to ensure all our servicemembers are remembered and to educate all about the sacrifices our brave men and women are making every day.”
 
Follow the impactful stories of service and sacrifice as shared by Gold Star families by tuning in to Wreaths Across America Radio, available on the iHeart Radio app, TuneIn, and the Audacy app, or listen at www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/radio. Wreaths Across America Radio regularly features Gold Star mothers. You can catch up on past interviews or listen anytime on the Wreaths Radio SoundCloud page.
 
National Wreaths Across America Day will be held this year on Saturday, December 13, 2025. This free event is open to all, and the organization encourages community members to participate by volunteering locally or sponsoring a wreath for an American hero.
 
# # #
About Wreaths Across America
Wreaths Across America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, which was begun by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992. The organization’s yearling mission – Remember, Honor, Teach – is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December in communities in all 50 states and beyond. 
 
For more information or to sponsor a wreath, please visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org.
 
About the American Gold Star Mothers, Inc.
American Gold Star Mothers, Inc. (AGSM) is an organization of mothers who lost a son or daughter in service to the country. AGSM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, established in 1928 and chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1984. As a Veterans Service Organization, AGSM supports veterans and their families through a broad range of activities and programs. Members also participate in patriotic events. To accomplish its widespread mission, members are active in chapters across the United States. 
 
For more information, please visit www.americangoldstarmothers.org. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Press contact:

Rachael Wilson, WAA
(207) 230-4599
[email protected]


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The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery is a gravesite and national shrine for unknown soldiers from World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Established originally by legislation, the body of an unidentified American soldier from World War I was buried in 1921. This was in accordance with an international movement to recognize those who gave their lives and identities, and perhaps were still
missing, on the battlefields of World War I, which saw combat and violence rise to levels never before imaginable. Each crypt also represents those unidentified or still missing from the from the wars they memorialize.

Specially selected and trained Sentinels, often referred to as Tomb Guards, protect the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier each day. They carry on the tradition of Americans who guarded the Unknowns in the past, including the posting of civilian guards in 1925, military guards in 1926, and 24-hour military guards, who have performed the duty perpetually since 1937.

WASHINGTON — Today the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) expanded the Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM) — the nation’s largest digital platform dedicated to the memory of Veterans and service members — to allow Veterans to tell their own story before they pass away. The new “Your Story, Your Legacy” feature will allow Veterans who have been approved for VA’s pre-need eligibility determination for burial in a VA national cemetery to log in to a secure website where they can privately submit images, autobiographies, military and life milestones, and historical documents.

One of the biggest challenges to any nonprofit organization is keeping their members motivated and engaged. All our members are here for the same purpose, furthering our mission of keeping our child’s memory alive through service to others. But what that looks like may differ from person to person. 

We all have those members we know will show up for every meeting and every event and some of us have members we have never met in person. It’s really difficult for our members who are in states where there aren’t organized chapters or leadership to feel connected and like they’re making a difference. 

Kyle didn’t realize how seriously he had been affected until he came home.
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“I had to do all that Christmas shopping,” the U.S. Army combat Veteran remembers. “Something that seemed so innocent — being in a crowded mall — that was a tough circumstance to be under,” Kyle says.

Jim had a similar experience when he returned from Operation Restore Hope, a humanitarian mission in Somalia. After he was injured, he left the Marine Corps, but the emotional scars didn’t leave him.

“Christmastime, he would just sit in the room away from everybody or walk into a different room if a large crowd came in,” recalls his wife, Terri, a Navy Veteran.

Although Kyle and Jim didn’t share the same combat experience or diagnosis, they both found themselves feeling on edge around the holidays. That’s not unusual. While stress responses can be triggered anywhere, anytime, for many Veterans, the places, the music and noises, increased social interaction, and familiar smells that come with major holidays are particularly difficult. Crowds of people — whether strangers at a holiday parade or loved ones at a party — can add to the pressure.

At the same time, the absence of traditional holiday festivities — whether the result of homelessness, loss of a loved one, isolation, or any number of conditions — can also trigger unhealthy responses such as anxiety, depression, or problems with drugs or alcohol. No matter when they fall on the calendar, holidays can be reminders of happier times, before relationships were difficult or transitioning from military service meant returning to a familiar setting as a different person.

Jim had issues with anger, sleep, and hypervigilance for years, and when his marriage ended, it became too much for him to bear. “It all crashed at one time,” he says. “That's when I started getting real treatment from my posttraumatic stress disorder.”

Kyle had sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) from a grenade blast during his deployment in Afghanistan, affecting both his mental and physical health. When he got home, he says, “I scanned every room I would go into. I sat with my back against a wall. I never, never let anyone come up from behind on me, anything like that.”

For Hal, a Marine Corps Veteran who served in Vietnam, the year-end holidays marked an annual pattern of unhealthy behaviors. “Every winter, starting in like September, I would start down into depression, and I would bottom out about Christmastime,” he says. Hal survived major depression and a suicide attempt before he found himself in treatment more than 20 years after leaving the Marines.

“They said, ‘You need to go to the PTSD program,’” Hal remembers. “And so I did this 90-day inpatient program. I’ve learned how to deal with my depression, and I’ve learned how to deal with my rage and my anger.”

Hal found solace in support groups and group therapy, starting with Narcotics Anonymous, which helped him stop using drugs. He eventually found the mental health resources he needed through VA.

“Getting involved in the VA put me back in touch with other combat Vets,” Hal says. “That’s a huge part of normalizing who I was and realizing that I wasn’t alone in this process.”

Kyle, too, finds comfort in forging connections with other Veterans. “I think you get a little bitter, knowing that you had seen things that 99.9% of the population hadn’t seen,” he says. “So for me, it was 31 other guys that I knew that could relate, but a lot of us were having a hard time adjusting. We were trained well for war, but we weren’t really trained to come home.”

In addition to finding a kinship with his fellow Veterans, Kyle learned strategies at VA that helped him cope with the light sensitivity, irritability, memory lapses, and debilitating headaches that came with his TBI.

“I can sit with my back to the door if it comes down to it. I don’t scan every room. I don’t get as irritated with the general public as much. I can handle questions, about my service — about what it was like over there,” Kyle says. “And I’ve definitely noticed it’s a lot easier now to handle that. And you have your bad days, but I know how to cope a lot better nowadays because of the treatment that I sought and that I received from the VA.”

For Jim, therapy at VA has quelled his anger, improved his marriage to Terri, and allowed him to enjoy life more. “He’s out more in public, a lot more,” Terri says. “Prior to that, he didn’t really like to go anywhere — he tried to avoid crowds. And now, like at Christmas, he is actually in the crowd with everybody opening presents, talking to people. So, it has helped out a lot.”

If you need help getting through the holidays, or anytime, connect with local resources for Veterans. Veterans in crisis and their families and friends may also contact the Veterans Crisis Line, which connects them with qualified, caring VA responders. Veterans and their loved ones can Dial 988 and Press 1, chat online, or send a text message to 838255 to receive confidential support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
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“We owe it to our brothers and sisters that didn’t come home to make sure that we take care of ourselves,” says Kyle.