The Reunion Board Is Open, and It's Free Forever

Two things this issue. One is an announcement and one is an observation, and the observation is better.

The Reunion Board

It's open. It's free. It will always be free.

If your unit is looking for people, or you are looking for people from your unit, send it and we will run it. No charge, no account, no "premium listing," no newsletter you have to join first. If we ever put a price on this specific thing, you have my full permission to say so loudly and in public.

There is no catch and there is no clever business model underneath it. Some things should just work.

VA had puppies in the building

Genuinely, this happened. "Puppies with a purpose visit VA's Central Office" appeared in VA News this month, and I want to note for the record that it outperformed, in my personal estimation, roughly everything else published about the department that week.

I have no analysis. I have no angle. Somebody brought future service dogs to a federal office building and it was the correct decision. I am at peace with it.

(For the actual, serious reporting on service dogs — the legal difference between a service animal and an emotional support animal, what VA's benefit covers, and why the online "registries" are not a real thing — that's Moose's desk, and he writes those ones straight. It matters more than you'd think for people who actually depend on a working dog getting through a doorway.)

The fishing tournament

Also in VA News this month: Tomah VA ran a fishing tournament that brought together veterans and their community.

Here is why that one stuck with me.

There is an entire industry — conferences, platforms, apps, initiatives with three-word names and a logo — dedicated to solving veteran isolation. Enormous budgets. Many slide decks. And then a VA medical center in Wisconsin put some people in boats.

I am not being cute. I think the boats work better. The thing that reliably gets people out of the house is an actual event, at an actual time, with actual people who will notice if you don't show up. It does not scale, it does not have a growth metric, and it is roughly a hundred percent of what has ever worked.

If your local VA, post, or chapter does something like this, that is the one to show up to. Not the webinar.

Field Stripped returns next issue

The two-rating system: is it accurate and is it any good, scored separately, because they are different arguments and pretending otherwise is how you end up with people insisting a bad film is good because the uniforms were right.

Send suggestions. I will read all of them and review approximately one.