As the end of the year draws near, we would like to thank you for your continued commitment and support!  

While none of us anticipated 2020, friends and partners like you continued to fill our scholars and the entire Fallen Patriots Team with hope for a brighter future.  

Veterans nonprofit Hire Heroes USA will join the Department of Defense’s Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) in a virtual ceremony Wednesday afternoon. Hire Heroes USA is one of 85 new partners to MSEP, bringing the total number to 500.

Borrowing from a well-known military concept, veteran leaders of The Mission Continues remained focused on our mission and improvised, adapted and overcame whatever 2020 threw at them. 

Throughout 2020, when military families experienced the financial strain created by the pandemic, the turned to Operation Homefront.

It has been a tough year for many of our fellow Americans due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and our military families have been particularly hard hit. Operation Homefront continues to be a source of relief for these families and to date, we have fulfilled over 1200

This Veterans Day, Starbucks is honoring those who have served with a free tall (12-ounce) hot brewed coffee for veterans, military service members and military spouses at participating U.S. Starbucks stores on Nov. 11. Starbucks is also donating 25 cents for every cup of hot brewed coffee sold nationwide on Nov. 11 to be divided evenly between Team Red, White & Blue and Headstrong to support the mental health and the wellbeing of military communities.

Veteran Derek Auguste was well versed in being a soldier in the U.S. Army. But being a student was an entirely different beast.

“My experience of higher education was difficult,” said Auguste, who enrolled at the University of Miami in his late 30s. “It just felt like it was so much effort and work and I was so anxious because I was afraid that I was going to fall behind and things of that nature. And that’s how I did college before I did this program.”

As we continue to cope with the effects of a global pandemic, we
have seen how the accompanying financial strains have taken a
tremendous toll on many of our fellow Americans. Sadly, many military
families have been particularly hard hit. As bills for the basics come due –
rent, mortgage, home and car repairs, utilities, groceries and more – our
veterans, service members and their families are struggling more and more
to make ends meet.

Soldiers are no strangers to boot camp, but those who participate in the Warrior-Scholar Project (WSP) trade drill sergeants and physical training for world-class researchers and an intensive introduction to education in science and technology. This summer, 17 active-duty service members and veterans completed a weeklong academic boot camp featuring scientists from Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which the Institute manages for NASA.