At the invitation of good friend and Army vet John Pinto (spouse of Advisory Board member Donna de Varona), I attended a luncheon yesterday at the New York Athletic Club. The featured speaker was the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm Gary Roughead. Naturally, we were surrounded by Navy men and women! The Admiral, the highest ranking officer in the U.S. Navy and a member of the Joint Chiefs delivered an upbeat talk and took questions on the current state of our Navy, including plans and challenges. Knowledgeable, experienced, committed and passionate, the Admiral was thoughtful and his talk was fascinating. What an impressive individual! We’re very fortunate to have him in our military leadership.

Before the talk, we had a chance to chat and I mentioned a recent meeting we had with the Commandant of the Marine Corps. He said  he communicates all the time with General Conway. They have an ironclad rule which they established at the beginning of their relationship: “No surprises!” No matter where each of them are, if something develops that even remotely sounds like a surprise, they pick up the phone and call the other immediately. In this age of instant media, these are the kind of rules that our leaders have to adopt to avoid confusion. It works for the Chief and the Commandant.

Veterans Advantage Founder Scott Higgins Meets with the Navy's Chief of Naval Operations Roughead

I hope you’ve been enjoying The Pacific, the riveting 10-part HBO miniseries – I love it! The series has put me in “World War II History” mode. I was excited to see a $20 discount on a Three DVD box set in HD – the Ultimate World War II DVD collection, thanks to another partnership we have with the History Channel Online. Oh, and by the way, your $20 Veterans Advantage discount is already combined with a pre-existing $40 discount because it’s currently on sale.

I received great news in the mail last week from one of our key charitable partners, Operation Gratitude, and its receipt of a $50,000 grant from Pepsi. As part of the “Pepsi Refresh Project,” the soft drink giant is making cash donations to “fund great ideas” and chose to fund postage costs for Operation Gratitude’s care package shipments to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to Op Gratitude’s Carolyn Blashek, she plans to ship a total of 50,000 Care Packages in April through June to the troops in the Gulf region, and Pepsi’s donation will be a needed helping hand in covering these shipping costs. Over the last two years, Veterans Advantage has been donating complimentary membership cards in these care packages, and we salute Carolyn and the team at Operation Gratitude for keeping the momentum going.

Click here for more on Veterans Advantage charitable activities, including its support of Operation Gratitude.

In this internet and email age, thank goodness there are those who still value the art of the physical “thank you” note. I was delighted to receive an extremely well-written one in my mailbox from this week’s TopVet Nicholas Pinchuk, CEO of Snap-on (NYSE: SNA).

A fellow Vietnam Veteran, Pinchuk warmly welcomed us to his offices in Wisconsin last month. We exchanged stories about our service and the many ways military service contributes to success in Corporate America. Former 1st Lieutenant Pinchuk is a shining example of success and achievement in American business.

As he told us in an exclusive TopVet interview:

“In Vietnam, you learned the lesson of being confident and collected under pressure. And what you saw more graphically than in any other situation is that in such a pressure environment, your team can get rattled, but they look to you, as their leader, for stability. …They will take their cues from you. They will be confident or concerned, depending on how you react to the situation.”

In Vietnam, Pinchuk led with confidence and by example. Today, under his leadership, Snap-on greatly values these traits in their business. Check out “Snap-on salutes our Veterans,” a special video profiling a career Navy Veteran-turned successful Snap-on franchisee. Here are the lessons learned from military service successfully playing out in the civilian world of work. Snap-on is a proud supporter of the Wounded Warrior Project, an important partner of Veterans Advantage, too.

So, here’s to Nicholas Pinchuk! We honor him for his service and salute him for his achievements and continued leadership in business.

Snap-on CEO Nicholas Pinchuk receives his TopVet Award
from Veterans Advantage Founder Scott Higgins (l. to r.)

We are pleased to announce a new benefit upgrade for Veterans Advantage members. Greyhound honors your service with an increase to 20% Everyday Savings discount (up from our previous discount of 15%). The new 20% off is available every day of the year (no blackouts!) for an unlimited number of trips, and includes your family members. Just show your active Veterans Advantage card at literally thousands of Greyhound locations across America.

If you’ve never traveled by bus before, now is a good time. The buses are new and comfortable. And there’s no advance purchase required.

Greyhound has been recognizing Veterans Advantage membership cards for discounted travel since 2004, and we thank them for going with a deeper discount in honor of those who served and their families.

Love to travel? More information on Veterans Advantage travel discounts here.

We were delighted to learn that President Obama is giving $250,000 of his Nobel Peace Prize award to Fisher House. As part of his pledge to donate all of the $1.4 million award, it’s also noteworthy that Fisher House received the largest donation among a group of leading charitable organizations, which included the Clinton-Bush Haiti Relief Fund. This further demonstrates that Fisher House is among the best in American philanthropy.

We are proud of Fisher House, and have been longtime supporters of them as well. Their public/private partnerships are making a significant impact on the lives of the critically wounded and their families.

“The program is now becoming part of the American consciousness,” Chief Executive Ken Fisher told Veterans Advantage in an exclusive interview, our current VetFamily honoree. “It’s slowly but surely starting to gain a lot of momentum.”

Just two days before the announcement, I visited Ken’s offices to present our VetFamily Award to him. I was joined by Roy Asfar, our Vice President of Marketing, and producer of Ken’s VetFamily award designation, as well as Veterans Advantage board members Peter Eldredge and Gerry Byrne. Gerry is also on the Board of Fisher House.

(l. to r. ) Peter Eldredge, Ken Fisher, Scott Higgins, Gerry Byrne

As part of our ongoing coverage to bring you up-to-date on combinable discounts (for instance, check out recent news on Dell computer discounts, pet care, Continental Airlines, and Car Rentals), we’re proud to update you on another benefit partner combining discounts and benefits only for Veterans Advantage members.

Omaha Steaks, a leader in the premium foods business since 1917 and actually one of the first companies to launch an e-commerce site in the 1990s, is combining a special 5% discount on retail and sale prices online, by phone or at its retail stores for card-carrying Veterans Advantage members.

When active members log into Members Only, they get access to a special discount link for immediate online discounts, which will be shown at checkout, as well as instructions on how to get the discount offline.

Only two months until outdoor grilling season. Are you ready?