Eric Shinseki, retired four-star Army general and current Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, recently addressed the National Guard Joint Senior Leadership Conference, encouraging veterans nationwide to take advantage of the benefits made available to them through the VA. To view more of Shinseki’s comments, select the links below the video.

Eric Shinseki at JSLC Part 1 of 5
Eric Shinseki at JSLC Part 2 of 5
Eric Shinseki at JSLC Part 3 of 5
Eric Shinseki at JSLC Part 4 of 5
Eric Shinseki at JSLC Part 5 of 5

The SAME Weekly Digest is a brief compendium of the goings on at SAME headquarters during the past week. The digest is posted each Friday and provides a concise debriefing on the happenings of the week that was. To read past editions of the Weekly Digest, click here.

• The most recent iteration of SAME University was held this week, Nov. 17-19, in San Antonio, Texas. SAME University is a relatively new event that consolidates many of SAME’s most popular training and professional development courses into one three-day span, allowing attendees to accumulate Professional Development Hours in several different subject matter areas in one fell swoop. Check back next week for more coverage of this week’s event, and be sure to mark your calendars for upcoming SAME University events in Seoul, South Korea (Feb. 2-4, 2010) and Jacksonville, Fla. (April 6-9).
• The date is now set for the 2010 Engineer Cadet Dinner at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. Co-hosted annually with the Army Engineer Association, the dinner will be held April 15, 2010. This event is one of three cadet dinners held each year at military services academies nationwide. To check out the dates and for more information on the dinners, click here.
• The SAME LinkedIn group is teetering dangerously close to the 1,000-member milestone! If you have an active SAME membership and a profile on LinkedIn and aren’t yet a member of the group, SIGN UP NOW! Group members get regular news updates and participate in discussion on topics of interest to A/E/C professionals, and are also granted access to a regularly updated job board. And don’t forget to check out the other SAME social media resources, listed in the righthand column of this page.
• Weekly Digest will be taking next week off to observe Thanksgiving , so look for the next update Friday, Dec. 4, and have a safe and happy holiday!

Earlier this week, members of the Khost Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) held a monthly quality assurance training session for local engineers, contractors and foreman at the Civil Military Operations Center in Khost in eastern Afghanistan. This month’s session, the third held by the Khost PRT, concentrated on brick masonry, material storage and project administration. Also depicted is a visit made earlier this week by Khost PRT to assess progress in Spera, one of 12 districts within Khost Province.

Place your cursor over each thumbnail for individual photo captions, and select the thumbnail for high-resolution images. All photos taken by Staff Sgt. Stephen Otero.