By Debbie Gregory.

Sean C. Page is going to prison. The 45-year-old man from Frisco, Texas was convicted of using his father’s identity to land lucrative federal government contracts under a set-aside program for disabled veterans.

Page, who has never served in the military, was sentenced to serve six year in federal prison for theft of government property and two counts of aggravated identity theft. He was convicted by a jury in February.

He used his father’s name and Social Security number to cash in on his veteran disability status, according to prosecutors.

Dalton Page was unaware of his son’s illegal activities. The combat veteran served in the U.S. Army for 17 years, and was awarded two Bronze Stars during his service in Vietnam, and received a disability rating of 100 percent upon discharge.

Page scammed the federal contracting program out of about $1.2 million with 14 contracts from 2009 to 2013 using two companies he formed, according to officials.

He created 12G Resources Group and Premier Building Maintenance to provide general services such as cleaning and landscape work for veteran-owned facilities, the indictment said.

The programs are for the benefit of service disabled veteran businesses.

“Those who steal and attempt to steal monies from these programs will be vigorously prosecuted,” said U.S. Attorney John M. Bales of the Eastern District of Texas.

Dalton Page said, “Sean is my son, but those programs are set aside for GIs such as myself. I am very disappointed in him getting those contracts like that. The contracts were put in my name. He had me backed in a corner.”

Page continued to do federal contract work after his October 2014 arraignment in violation of a federal judge’s order, court records show. He earned $35,175 from a landscaping and snow removal job with the Veterans Medical Center of Salt Lake City while he was out on bond.

By Debbie Gregory.

UnitedHealthcare is in good company as Health Net Federal Services and WellPoint Military Care have joined in on the protest of the awarding of the military contract to manage the Tricare health program.

The contract, called T-2017 and awarded in July, is worth up to $58 billion and oversees private health services for nearly 9.4 million military family members, retirees and active duty personnel.

Health Net Federal Services, which now manages the Tricare North Region and was awarded the contract to manage Tricare’s West region, filed a protest over the Defense Department’s decision to give the East region contract to Humana Government Business.

The Defense Department and the Defense Health Agency said in 2014 that they would shift Tricare from a three-region system—North, South and West—to two coverage areas.

The brand new East region is a consolidation of the North and South regions

The West region contract has a maximum value of $18 billion over six years, while the six-year East region contract is potentially worth $41 billion.

WellPoint Military Care, a division of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, was created to vie for the lucrative contract.

UnitedHealth Military & Veterans, which manages the Tricare West contract, was the first to file protests over the awards. It was not selected to manage either of the new consolidated regions.

A Pentagon spokesman said the protest will not affect health care services for Tricare beneficiaries, adding that the current contracts will remain in place until all protests are resolved.

The Defense Health Agency has 30 days to respond to the protests. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is expected to rule on the bid protest by November 9, 2016.

By Debbie Gregory.

The Supreme Court came down on the side of veteran business owners by finding that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) failed to comply with a law aimed at increasing the number of federal contracts awarded to veteran owned small businesses.

The justices sided with Kingdomware Technologies Inc., a service disabled veteran-owned contractor based in Maryland that said it should have been considered to provide services for a VA medical center.

The issue before the Court was whether a federal law which provides that, as long as certain conditions are met, the Department of Veterans Affairs “shall award” contracts to small businesses owned by veterans applies every time the department awards contracts.  The federal government had argued that the rule left some room for discretion, but on June 16^th, the Court rejected that argument.  “Shall,” the Court emphasized, was meant as a command, not an option.

The case dates back to 2012, when the VA awarded a contract for an emergency notification system that would send information to its employees, to a company that was not owned by a veteran. Kingdomware, which is owned by a U.S. Army veteran who was permanently disabled from an injury that he suffered while serving in 1991’s Operation Desert Storm, challenged the award. Kingdomware provides web, software, and technology solutions to enterprise problems.

Federal law requires the agency to use a bidding process if two or more disabled veteran-owned companies can offer service at a fair and reasonable price. But the VA argued the “rule of two” does not apply when it buys goods and services from vendors that already have contracts with the agency under a system called the Federal Supply Schedule.

Justice Clarence Thomas said the rule applies to all contract determinations.

A federal appeals court had said the VA did not have to follow the rule of two if it otherwise met the goal of awarding between 7 percent and 12 percent of all contracts to companies owned by disabled veterans. But Thomas said meeting annual benchmarks does not allow the VA to ignore a mandatory contracting rule

Veteran-owned small businesses see the ruling as a victory that gives them more opportunities to compete for contracts from the VA which, they would say, is exactly what Congress intended.

Boeing Co was awarded a $3.2 billion contract modification to a previously awarded contract for Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) tailkits, according to the Pentagon.

The contract for the tailkits, which use GPS to boost accuracy for conventional bombs, was raised from an initial $1.75 billion contract awarded on Oct. 30, 2014, due to warfighter demand and to replenish depleted inventories, the Pentagon said in a statement.

The JDAM tailkit converts existing unguided free-fall bombs into accurate, adverse weather “smart” munitions. With the addition of a new tail section that contains an inertial navigational system and a global positioning system guidance control unit, JDAM improves the accuracy of unguided, general purpose bombs in any weather condition.

Once released from the aircraft, the JDAM autonomously navigates to the designated target coordinates. Target coordinates can be loaded into the aircraft before takeoff, manually altered by the aircrew before weapon release, or automatically entered through target designation with onboard aircraft sensors.

With a range of more than 15 nautical miles, JDAM can defeat high-value targets in any weather, day or night, with minimal risk to air crews. This system works fine even in bad weather, because the JDAM gets all its information from satellite signals, which aren’t blocked by cloud cover or obstacles. The bomb doesn’t have to see anything at all to find its way to the target.

New variants such as Laser JDAM and JDAM Extended Range allow warfighters to prosecute moving targets and deploy the weapon from greater distances, capabilities that come with little to no development risk since they are based on proven technology.

The JDAM played a major role in the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and it will certainly play a significant role in any U.S. bombing campaigns in the near future. While the newest smart bombs aren’t 100 percent accurate, they are such an improvement over their predecessors.

More than 260,000 JDAM kits have been built at Boeing’s production facility in St. Charles, MO.

JDAM is a joint U.S. Air Force and Department of Navy program.

By Tina M Kapral | Senior Director of  Education and Training
Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University

In July of 2007,  Dr. J. Michael Haynie held the first Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) class of seventeen students. These individuals were from across the U.S., from different service branches and ages, but all had the dream of owning their own businesses. The business ideas ranged from construction firms to non-profit organizations helping other veterans. The EBV residency phase was and still is intense — long days of classes, taught from a very practical standpoint, and late nights working on venture pitches to present at the end of the week. This was a purposeful approach.  Servicemembers know what to expect in “bootcamp” and that is exactly what they received, classes delivered on opportunity recognition, marketing, operations, supply chain, government contracts, legal and human resource management to name a few.  It was a great success; all seventeen students graduated at the end of week with pride and a new “mission” in life.

As it is often said, good news travels fast. As other schools heard of EBV and its success, many more schools wanted to have their own EBV programs.  This led Dr. Haynie to create the EBV consortium. First to join, Florida State University, then UCLA, Purdue, UCONN, Texas A&M, to today, where the EBV’s 10-university consortium also includes Cornell, LSU, Saint Joseph’s University, and University of Missouri, with the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University continuing to serve as the national hub. EBV has since helped Dr. Haynie launch other veteran and military family entrepreneurship training programs to include EBV-F, VWISE, Boots to Business, and Boots to Business Reboot

.

Dr. Haynie never envisioned EBV to grow to ten schools, nor did he anticipate the launch of the IVMF in 2011. Yet, through these programs and services dedicated to advancing the post-service lives of America’s servicemembers, veterans and their families, the Institute and current Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud are bringing Syracuse University’s commitment to veterans and their families full circle.

In 1940, “The University promised programs that would address individual needs of veterans, whether they wished to complete job training, their high school diploma, or an advanced degree.”  Post-World War II, Chancellor William Pearson Tolley recognized the role that higher education can play in advancing our nation’s returning veterans. He announced Syracuse University’s “uniform admissions program,” which ensured all military personnel admission to Syracuse upon return from war.” http://vets.syr.edu/about/role-impact.

History repeats itself, but this time in a positive, impactful way for our aspiring vetrepreneurs.