According to the most recent census data, there are 2.45 million veteran-owned businesses in the U.S. Veteran entrepreneurs contribute to the economy through their businesses and their willingness to hire veterans.
There are a number of funding resources available to veterans in order to get their business off the ground, or expand an existing business.
• The Office of Veterans Business Development, through the Small Business Administration (SBA) supports new and existing veteran entrepreneurs and military spouses. The program offers a variety of training and financial services. The SBA Veterans Advantage Guaranteed Loans program offers loans of $150,000 or less with no guaranty fee. Larger loans carry a low guarantee fee. SBA Express Loans have no upfront borrower fee for eligible veterans and military spouses on loans up to $35,000. Leveraging Information and Networks to Access Capital matches businesses with SBA-approved non-profit lenders. The 7(a) Loan Program is the SBA’s most common loan program, and includes financial help for businesses with special requirements.
• The Department of Veteran Affairs is a great starting point when looking for financing, and has created the Veteran Entrepreneur Portal (VEP), which can help you quickly identify financing resources for your business.
• The Military Reservist Economic Injury Disaster Loan provide funds to eligible small businesses to meet necessary operating expenses that it could have met, but is unable to meet, because an owner/essential employee was “called-up” to active duty.
• The USDA Veteran and Minority Farmer Grant, run by the Department of Agriculture, aims to bring traditionally underserved people into farming through training and technical and financial assistance.
• The VetFran(R) program is designed to help veterans start their own business. While these aren’t traditional business loans for veterans, the program offers financial incentive for veterans to launch a franchise.
In addition to lending resources, don’t discount the value of networking resources. Who better to share advice than those who have walked the path before you?
• American Corporate Partners links veteran entrepreneurs with successful businesspeople for training and mentorship.
• National Veteran-Owned Business Association presents you with a great networking opportunity and the chance to learn much more about running a business.
• SCORE Foundation Veteran Fast Launch Initiative offers advertising, marketing and business mentoring, all at no cost.

• Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families provides entrepreneurial training. Their Entrepreneurial Bootcamp for Veterans program is free for post-9/11 veterans.
• Veterans Business Resource Center provides business consulting and mentoring.
• Veterans Business Services can assist in obtaining capital for your business.

By Debbie Gregory.

Due to a potential gap in the capability of ground forces and infantry to penetrate body armor using existing ammunition, the U.S. Army is looking for an Interim Combat Service Rifle (ICSR) to address this need.

The competition for a new 7.62mm Interim Service Combat Rifle will result in up to eight contracts, procuring seven types of weapons from each gunmaker for evaluating and testing.

At the end of the testing, the Army “may award a single follow-on Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) based contract for the production of up to 50,000 weapons,” according to a solicitation on FedBizOpps.gov.

The service’s present plan is to evaluate the submissions against a three main factors, which are, in order of importance, the features of the “bid sample” itself, the production capability of the vendor or vendors, and the price.

The Interim Combat Service Rifle should have either 16-inch or 20-inch barrels, a collapsible buttstock, an extended forward rail and weigh less than 12 pounds unloaded and without an optic.

There is definitely a need for this sort of weapon. For years, critics have complained that insurgents and terrorists with Soviet-era weapons had better range and terminal ballistics than their American counterparts armed mainly with 5.56mm weapons.

Multiple proposals may be submitted by the same organization; however, each proposal must consist of the weapons, proposal, and System Safety Assessment Report. All proposals are due by 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Wednesday, September 6, 2017.

On June 9, Strategic Threat Management (STM) were awarded the Small Employer of the Year for companies with 200 employees or less from the California Department of Disabled American Veterans (DAV).

The award recognizes their support of veterans in the local community through providing outreach and hiring of veterans. Currently, 30% of employees at Strategic Threat Management are veterans.

“We were honored to be in attendance with real American heroes,” says owner Larry Treat. “Veterans bring a whole different mindset and work ethic to the job. They have been through formal training, they are team players, leadership is instilled in them and you can spot a veteran a mile away.”

Treat himself is a Marine Corps Veteran and feels honored to hire other veterans when he can and provide as much outreach as possible on veteran events, fundraisers and hand out informational packets.

Since forming Strategic Threat Management, Treat says they been involved in numerous events such as the Stand Down on the Delta, held numerous fundraisers and countless donations to organizations.

“We are honored that the local veteran community has accepted us so we feel honored to go to great lengths to ensure we can hire veterans whenever possible,” said Treat.

Strategic Threat Management provides both armed and unarmed security services for both private and public entities and is located out of Antioch, CA.

The U.S. Army is shopping around for its next armored dump truck.

The U.S Army has plans to purchase 683 M917A3 armored dump trucks. To that end, the service branch is inviting industry to compete for chance to build these new armored dump trucks.

The new M917A3 requires a max payload of 27 tons on primary and secondary roads. The crew cab and underbody armor protection should be capable of being changed out separately based on the mission without affecting performance.

According to the May 26 solicitation, the Army intends to award a Single-Source Award, Firm-Fixed Price, Seven-year Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity commercial contract for the dump truck.

The solicitation states: “The Army requires units with dependable and deployable M917A3s that have reduced operations and support costs and increased operational effectiveness and readiness over existing systems. This is critical to support the Joint Forces as they conduct more operations in areas of the world with austere infrastructures and little or no host nation support. The M917A3 will be capable of supporting mobility, counter mobility, survivability and sustainment operations.”

The Contract Data Requirements packet is 121 pages and is available for downloading at govtribe.com. Responses are due July 25

The last time the Army purchased new dump trucks was in 17 years ago when it awarded a $400 million contract to Freightliner LLC to build almost 3,400 M917A2s, as well as M915A3 line haul tractors and M916A3 light equipment transporters.

By Debbie Gregory.

Army Colonel Anthony Roper, along with his wife and others, has been accused of participating in what federal prosecutors are calling a bribery and kickback scheme. They allegedly conspired to seek and accept bribes in order to rig more than $20 million in Army contracts to individuals and companies.

It is alleged that the activities go back to 2008, lasting close to a decade.

Colonel Roper was stationed at Fort Gordon near Augusta, Georgia.  Oversight of the Army’s efforts to build and modernize its information and communications networks was part of Colonel Roper’s duties.

Charged with bribery, obstruction and making false statements, the 55-year-old Roper could face a maximum sentence of eighty-five years and a fine of $1.75 million if convicted.

His wife, Audra Roper, was also charged with conspiracy, false statements and obstruction and could face a maximum sentence of twenty-five years  and a $750,000 fine.

Mrs. Roper operated Quadar Group, which prosecutors allege was a shell company that was used to funnel bribes to her husband, Colonel Roper.   Prosecutors allege that Quadar Group was one of a number of shell companies used to defraud the government.

Dwayne Oswald Fulton, 58, is charged with conspiracy and obstruction.   Mr. Fulton was an officer for a large defense contracting company.  His firm is not identified in the court records.

The indictment also alleges that in trying to hide the schemes, the three accused attempted to obstruct an official investigation looking into their conduct.

Fort Gordon has not commented on these allegations.  According to court records filed this week, attorneys representing the defendants are not listed.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.