|
June 26, 2025 |  |
Ready To Serve ★ Proud To Have Served |
|
| |
 | Vincent Solomeno III, the Deputy Commissioner of Veterans Affairs, speaks during the Veterans Health Fair and Luncheon at the County Prep High School in Jersey City, NJ on June 24, 2025. |
|
|
Bringing Veterans Home |
Vincent Solomeno III
Deputy Commissioner of Veterans Affairs | Since the first of the year, the State of New Jersey has permanently housed over 700 at-risk and homeless Veterans through a whole of government effort involving state and federal agencies.
The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs is proud to be one component of this ongoing work that includes partnerships with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the state’s lead homelessness prevention agency, the Department of Community Affairs.
Our objective is to effectively end veteran homelessness by enhancing existing systems, creating rapid access to housing, and ensuring homelessness becomes rare, brief, and non-recurring.
The Bringing Veterans Home initiative is a principal line of effort in New Jersey’s goal of achieving functional zero by July 1, 2026. Our desired end state is reducing the wait time, or the “flash to bang,” as we say in the Army, to less than 30 days for a Veteran to go from homelessness to housing.
Bringing Veterans Home is supported by a surge in the number of available housing vouchers, regional street outreach teams, and case management services that enable Veterans to access state and federal benefits that they have earned through their military service. This is only one part of a larger solution.
Bringing Veterans Home is coordinating with federal, state, and local housing programs across New Jersey to ensure a seamless support system that includes rapid placement for immediate needs, rental assistance, and comprehensive support services that help Veterans maintain their housing long-term. This is how we have housed over 700 at-risk and homeless Veterans since the start of 2025. By leveraging these resources together, we can match each Veteran with the most appropriate housing solution for their situation.
There is more work to do. Success depends upon readers like you sharing information and resources to service providers, families, and those who may be experiencing homelessness.
If you know a Veteran who is at risk of homelessness or currently homeless, I encourage you to visit bvh.dca.nj.gov or call the State of New Jersey’s Vet2Vet Helpline at 1-866-838-7654. Staffed by trained veteran peer support specialists, Vet2Vet stands ready 24 hours a day, seven days a week to connect those that we serve to Bringing Veterans Home and other vital programs.
|
|
|
As always, thank you for staying connected to DMAVA.
We invite you to share ideas, events and feedback. Please email our team at outreach@dmava.nj.gov.
Vincent Solomeno III, Deputy
Commissioner of Veterans Affairs |
|
| |
| |
|
DMAVA Calendar |
DMAVA is sponsoring or will participate in the events below. A DMAVA Veterans Service Officer will be present at many of these events. Please check details to confirm. | |
|
| |
We add new events to our calendar on a daily basis so please bookmark and check back often. |
| View Full Calendar |
|
|
|
 | Immediate Response 25
Brig. Gen. Chris McKinney, Deputy Director for Partnering, Security Cooperation, and Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, U.S. European Command, and Brig. Gen. L. Mike LaPoint, Deputy Adjutant General of New Jersey, speak on the purpose of Immediate Response 25 and the benefits of integrating the State Partnership Program in Bize, Albania, June 9, 2025.
More than 100 Soldiers of the New Jersey Army National Guard joined the Albanian Armed Forces in participation of the United States’ largest annual U.S. Army security cooperation exercise in Europe May 24 - June 11, 2025.
While in Albania, the Citizen-Soldiers of the 104th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 44th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and Observer Coach/Trainer Operations Group, not only fulfilled their own military readiness training requirements, they strengthened NATO interoperability and enhanced a nearly 25-year relationship within the State Partnership Program.
Watch Video | View Images |
|
 | 108th AMXS practices how they play in Red Flag-AlaskaStaff Sgt. Samuel Earick | NASIC | June 21, 2025
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska - Exercise Red Flag-Alaska 25-2 provides Airmen an opportunity to work with joint and coalition partners, simulating what serving in a deployed environment may look like within the Indo-Pacific region.
The exercise is based out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and Eielson Air Force Base, both in Alaska, and presents U.S. military and allied forces simulated combat scenarios in which they can work together and improve tactics and interoperability.
During the two execution weeks, the main focus is for pilots to get in the air and work with the Air Force’s allies, but the unsung heroes of the exercise, the ones who ensure aircraft are operational and ready to fly, are the maintenance Airmen.
Read Full Story |
|
|
Join Our Team |
100% Free College Tuition
Bonuses | GI Bill
Student Loan Repayment |
|
| | |  |
American Legion Annual ConventionBrig. Gen. Yvonne L. Mays, The Adjutant General of New Jersey and Vincent Solomeno III, Deputy Commissioner of Veterans Affairs spoke at the The American Legion Department of New Jersey Convention in Wildwood, NJ on June 12, 2025.
Together, DMAVA and the American Legion support New Jersey heroes and strengthen America every day. View Images |
|
 |
Disabled American Veterans ConventionEdna Long, Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Department Commander, received a New Jersey Commendation Medal from Vincent Solomeno III, Deputy Commissioner of Veteran Affairs, during the DAV Convention at the Wildwood Convention Center on June 16, 2026.
In conjunction with Women Veterans Appreciation Day in New Jersey, DMAVA held a State Medal Ceremony for Women Veterans at the convention.
The DAV mission is to provide support to all veterans in America, whether that be connecting them with employment, advocating for them, or giving them access to the full range of benefits they deserve. View Images |
|
 | Veterans Health Fair and Luncheon
Michelle Rangel (right), DMAVA Veteran Service Officer for Hudson County, speaks with a Veteran during the Veterans Health Fair and Luncheon at the County Prep High School in Jersey City, NJ on June 24, 2025.
The event was held to help local Veterans get connected with services as well as provide health screenings and a meal.
View Images |
|
 | Get Connected to Resources & Services |
The New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs has partnered with Unite Us to connect individuals and families to a wide variety of services and resources.
Unite Us is a coordinated care referral network of health and social service providers. Unite Us can connect our New Jersey military and veteran community to resources to obtain benefits, food assistance, housing, education, transportation, behavioral health services, peer support and more. |
| Learn More / Request Assistance |
|
 |
Veteran Homelessness | The mission of Bringing Veterans Home (BVH) is to effectively end veteran homelessness in New Jersey by enhancing existing systems, creating rapid access to housing, and ensuring homelessness becomes rare, brief and non-recurring.
BVH creates a clear path to stable housing for veterans experiencing homelessness through a coordinated network of services and support. |
| Learn More / Refer a Veteran |
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
National Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey
Sergeant First Class Andrew Walker, Curator of the National Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey, gives a lesson on the history of military weapons to the American Legion Jersey Boys State at the National Guard Armory in Lawrenceville, NJ on June 18, 2025.
View Images |
| | | | |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Share your story with “VLM for Living Veterans”VA News | May 14, 2025
“VLM for Living Veterans” allows Veterans to share their life stories today.
Made possible by the Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM), the new online feature is free and it enables Veterans to securely share their photos, autobiographies, military and life milestone achievements, and historical documents about their lives.
All you need to do is sign up for and be approved for a pre-need eligibility determination with VA. Pre-need eligibility is a way to find out if you’re eligible to be buried in a VA national cemetery ahead of time.
VA will keep your personal content secure until you pass and are approved for a burial or memorial benefit. Following approval, your content will become public and appear on your VLM personal page.
Read Full Story |
|
|
|
|
|
| | | |
| |
|
 | JBMDL Welcomes New CommanderRochelle Naus | JBMDL | June 17, 2025
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. - Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, welcomed a new installation commander during a Change of Command ceremony on June 17, 2025.
U.S. Air Force Col. Michael D. Stefanovic assumed command of both JB MDL and the 87th Air Base Wing, succeeding Col. Anthony L. Smith. The ceremony brought together service members, civilian employees, local officials and community partners to recognize Smith’s service and mark the formal transfer of leadership.
Read Full Story |
|
 | Williamstown High School
Earlier this month, students from the Williamstown High School Air Force Junior ROTC visited the 177th Fighter Wing for a base tour.
Students received a 177th mission brief, met with one of our fighter pilots to see an F-16C Fighting Falcon up close, learned about Aircrew Flight Equipment, and experienced "flying" an F-16 simulator.
The students were accompanied by retired Air Force Maj. Ivan Cartagena, the Williamstown High School Air Force Junior ROTC instructor and former member of the 177th.
Thank you for visiting, it was a pleasure to have you! |
| |
|
| |
|
 |
44th IBCT
On June 15, 2017, the 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team was officially reflagged as the 44th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, reviving the historic name and insignia of the 44th Division, which served in the New Jersey National Guard from 1924 to 1946.
After 1946, the maneuver elements of the New Jersey National Guard primarily served under the colors of the 50th Armored Division, the 50th Brigade, and later the 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team - until the return to the flag blue and golden orange of the 44th. |
|
| |
|
 | New Jersey Fallen Heroes Memorial
| In Honor of all those from New Jersey who gave their lives in the fight against terrorism during Operation Enduring Freedom & Iraqi Freedom. In humble gratitude, we remember their sacrifice. |
Memorial Inscription "But on the battlefield their feet stood fast, and in an instant at the height of their fortune, they passed away from the scene, not of their fear, but of their glory." ~ Pericles
| | NJ Fallen Heroes Memorial |
|
|
|
 |
Clark's Battery Monument at Gettysburg. |
|
| June 27, 1862 |
The First New Jersey Brigade, composed of the First, Second, Third and Fourth New Jersey Infantry Regiments, fought its first major engagement of the Civil War at Gaines Mill, Virginia, arriving on the field in late afternoon to reinforce hard pressed Union forces. Of the 2,300 men the brigade brought to the battle, 1,072 were killed, wounded or captured. The captured included most of the men of the Fourth New Jersey, surrounded as the units to their left and right withdrew. |
June 28, 1778 | The Battle of Monmouth Court House, fought west of Freehold between George Washington’s Continental Army and Sir Henry Clinton’s British army, which was withdrawing from Philadelphia to New York, ended in a tactical draw, but was an American moral victory, as the Continentals stood up to the best of the British and held the field at the end of the day.
| June 28, 1861 | The First, Second and Third New Jersey Infantry Regiments, the first units of the First New Jersey Brigade, left Trenton for Washington by train. |
June 30, 1888 | “New Jersey Day,” was held at Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania. Governor Robert Stockton Green led an official delegation which formally dedicated most of the monuments erected on the field by the state to honor the New Jersey soldiers who fought and died there on July 1, 2 and 3, 1863. " |
|
July 2, 1863 |
At Gettysburg, the Newark boys of New Jersey’s Artillery Battery B, deployed near the Peach Orchard, fired 1,342 rounds, more than any other Union battery in the Civil War fired in a single day—and Battery B’s day started at 2:00 p.m. As the Union Third Army Corps retreated, Battery B successfully disengaged from advancing Rebels and managed to withdraw all six of its guns to Cemetery Ridge.
New Jersey's Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Eleventh regiments were also involved in heavy action that day, from Plum Run through the Wheatfield to the north of the Peach Orchard, with the Eleventh staging an epic fighting withdrawal from the Emmitsburg Road to Cemetery Ridge.
| July 3, 1863 |
The men of the Twelfth New Jersey regiment, firing “buck and ball” ammunition (one round ball and three buckshot) in their obsolete smoothbore muskets, helped wreck Pickett’s Charge on Cemetery Ridge. Some of the New Jerseyans took their paper cartridges apart and loaded as many as twenty buckshot pellets in their muskets. As the Rebels closed on the federal line, the Jerseymen rose up from behind the stone wall they were using for cover and delivered a crushing volley into the Twenty-sixth North Carolina, devastating that regiment and capturing its flag, which hung in Trenton until returned to North Carolina in the early twentieth century. |
July 9, 1892 | A five-hundred-pound shell fired from the United States ordnance testing range at Sandy Hook accidentally hit the schooner Henry R. Tilton and sank it. |
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
We Are Hiring!At the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs we take our work in support of Veterans, Servicemembers and their families very seriously. Whether supporting our Veterans with nursing care, transitional housing, or assisting them in navigating access to their Veteran benefits, the Department provides valuable services and can offer rewarding career opportunities to members of the public.
We also have opportunities in facilities management and program management. In addition, we have job openings for members of our military to serve in AGR and Federal Technician roles.
Subscribe to DMAVA Jobs Bulletin to stay updated on job openings.
|
| Vacancies |
|
|
|
|
We hope you enjoy receiving our newsletter and find it both educational and engaging. If you have questions about our department, our programs or your benefits, please visit our website at nj.gov/military to get contact information. |
| Contact DMAVA |
|
Please email us at outreach@dmava.nj.gov with feedback and comments regarding the newsletter. If you would like to contribute with an item of interest to our subscribers, please email us your proposal.
Visit the DMAVA archives to view previous editions of our newsletter. |
|
|
|  |
nj.gov/military NJ Department of Military & Veterans Affairs 101 Eggerts Crossing Road
Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
Privacy Notice
Disclaimer: The appearance of any non-DMAVA information or hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement of the products or services on the part of the New Jersey Department of Military & Veterans Affairs. |
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
