DOWN BY THE RIVER:  Get ready for August's National Leadership & Education Conference with The Veteran’s Editor Sean Venables’ in-depth look at what to see and do in and around the Hyatt Regency at Jacksonville, Florida’s scenic downtown Riverfront, with a rundown on the U.S.S. Orleck museum, the Veterans Memorial Wall, nearby restaurants, a look at the Conference’s special guests—and more.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY: Former U.S. GAO Senior Analyst and Coast Guard Veteran Michael Gorin offers a step-by-step guide for veterans to protect themselves from predatory online fraudsters and scammers with a few simple steps designed to ward off phony “exclusive deals,” debt-consolidation schemes, romance scams, and more.

VETERAN FIRST, HIPPIE SECOND: VVA Veteran contributor Doug Bradley’s special “Speak Out!” tribute to the late singer-songwriter Country Joe McDonald, who served in the U.S. Navy in the early 1960s and was a veterans advocate throughout his famed rock music career, including a new look at his famed antiwar song, “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag.”

THE NEIGHBORHOODS WE ROAMED: Michael Gorin’s “Speak Out!” is an homage to five men he knew growing up in the 1950s in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens, New York, who served in the Vietnam War, two of whom did not come home—men, he remembers, who "were young, full of promise, and above all, answered the call."