WASHINGTON - There's a new dress code for Veterans Day this year.

Officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs are encouraging all former servicemembers to dust off their medals and wear them next month as a show of pride and patriotism.

"You don't have to put them on only if you're in a parade," said VA Secretary Jim Nicholson. "Wear them when you go play golf. Wear them when you go to the store. Let America know that you took that oath and served."

Indianapolis, Oct. 19 - The American Legion, the world's largest military veterans service organization - http://www.legion.org - announced today they have selected Military.com, the world's largest military affinity destination on the web and network site of Monster Worldwide, to better assist veterans in their job search. Under the agreement, Military.com will serve as the exclusive online job search provider for the American Legion and will help connect Legion members transitioning from military service into civilian life with relevant job search tools.

Leveraging the expertise of its parent company, Monster Worldwide, Military.com will power the http://legion.monster.com Website to provide American Legion members with job postings, job search agents, resume builder and access to the Veteran Career Network. The Veteran Career Network is a community of nearly 350,000 Military.com members who offer to assist other veterans in their job search and transition to civilian life.

The first-ever North Coast Stand Down ends today as the veterans who slept overnight at the Ferndale fairgrounds will be shuttled back to their homes, or for some, the streets they call home.

The Stand Down took place Saturday and Sunday, and brought in approximately 140 veterans through a shuttle service that ran as far north as Crescent City and as far south as Laytonville. Most of the veterans who came were from the Vietnam era, although some were from as early as World War II or as recent as the current war in Iraq.

"The turnout far exceeded our expectations; there were triple what we expected," said coordinator Kim Hall. "Next year we will make it bigger, we will do it even better than before."

PHILADELPHIA - PRNewswire - The ongoing battle over the truth of alleged war crimes and atrocities committed by Americans in the Vietnam War moves to a Philadelphia courtroom this week.

An action filed in Philadelphia's Common Pleas Court today by a group of highly decorated veterans and POWs may finally hold Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and his allies accountable for the allegations they have propagated over the past 35 years.

The suit was filed on behalf of Carlton A. Sherwood, a Pulitzer Prize- winning reporter, and the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation (VVLF), an organization of highly decorated Vietnam Veterans and POWs created to educate the public about the Vietnam War and the men and women who sacrificed to serve their country. The suit was filed against Kenneth J. Campbell and Jon Bjornson, two associates and aides of Kerry's during the 2004 presidential campaign, both of whom are Vietnam Veterans and longtime anti-war activists.

BROCKTON, Mass. - Gray-haired Patrick Barnes still wears a crew cut and sits ramrod straight in his chair. Before clamping his cell phone shut, he says "Semper Fi" to a buddy instead of "bye."

Barnes, a 58-year-old Marine veteran of Vietnam who earned a Purple Heart for wounds suffered during the 1968 Tet Offensive, is still military through and through. And he knows that in war, things happen "Boom!" - just like that - and triggers are pulled in split-second decisions.

That's why Barnes and fellow Vietnam veterans are starting a legal defense fund for Americans charged with war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

JACKSON'S GAP, Ala. - Army Pfc. Joshua Stein grew up in the water, swimming, diving and spearfishing at his native island of Saipan in the Pacific Ocean. Now, however, Stein is learning to water ski without his legs, which were blown off when a roadside bomb hit the Bradley fighting vehicle he was driving.

With help, Stein straps his scarred body into a cradle fitted on a single, wide ski. Then, he grasps the tow rope with a right arm covered with skin grafts and rises out of the water, grinning and giving a thumbs-up with his mangled left arm, as the boat roars away.

It's a single moment in time that Mike Cini never will be able to forget: 9:15 a.m., Aug. 24, 1971.

He was in his second year serving in Vietnam, in the town of Hoi An, located halfway down the country's eastern coast. The squad he oversaw was called on to meet a helicopter dropping off mail and supplies.

Cini and six men carefully made their way to the helicopter and retraced their steps on the way back.

"And that's when I stepped on it," Cini said.

It was a land mine that blew off Cini's left leg. He was helicoptered out of the area, six months shy of completing his tour of duty. He spent roughly a year in and out of hospitals around the world before returning to the Quad-Cities and his fiancee, Ann.

As more than one in six Iraq veterans return with mental health disorders, today's National Depression Screening Day includes an online screening tool specifically for military personnel and family members.

Separate screening questionnaires for civilians also are at http://www.mentalhealthscreening.org. They're the only ones available to Miami Valley residents, who don't have one of the more than 10,000 U.S. locations nearby.

Proponents for strengthening Montgomery GI Bill benefits for the National Guard and Reserve say the critical issue is fairness. Reserve rates, frozen for years, need to be raised. Reserve benefits need to be made as portable as MGIB for active forces, their wartime deployment partners.

Not so, said a senior Defense official. The critical issue is how best to manage finite resources. There is no reason to raise Reserve GI Bill benefits as long as enough personnel join and re-enlist with reserve components.

The arguments were as blunt as that during an unusual Sept. 27 joint hearing of the House armed services subcommittee on military personnel and the veterans’ affairs subcommittee on economic opportunity. The two panels share oversight responsibility for MGIB programs.

St. Cloud, Minn. - Jesse McClure dropped out of St. Cloud State University after two unproductive semesters in 1998. He joined the Marines and ended up serving combat time in Iraq. Now he's back at St. Cloud State, less than four semesters away from graduating with a degree in biomedical science.

"I'm now actually doing much better. I'm getting all A's except for one B," McClure said.

The Marines taught McClure about the world and himself and infused him with the focus he needed to stick it out in school. But when he started looking for schools that help veterans, he found Minnesota was behind many other states like Texas, California and Wisconsin.