Steven Williams survived two deployments to Iraq. He saw the worst that war has to offer—bullets flying at him and bombs exploding around him. But it was a near-fatal car wreck last April that resulted in the amputation of his left leg.

Frank Woodruff Buckles, who celebrated his 109th birthday Feb. 1, has a million war stories. From two wars. To put it simply, he is living, breathing history.

Honor Flight Historic Triangle Virginia is seeking World War II and terminally ill veterans in the Richmond area interested in traveling to Washington on its April trip. Honor Flight Historic Triangle Virginia, based in Williamsburg, is a nonprofit organization that provides free bus trips to veterans to visit the World War II Memorial and other historic sites in Washington. The next trip is April 17.

When soldiers return home after active duty in a war zone, sometimes the war comes home with them. Some suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, reliving what they experienced in combat as they readjust to life at home. They are unable to function properly, unable to sleep, and quick to anger or self-medicate through alcohol or illicit drugs as their lives begin to spiral out of control.

The greenhouse at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem isn’t exactly an easy place to find. It’s a public business that has been around a long time, and it’s open all year long—but it’s tucked away in a quiet square that cars can enter only by passing through a building archway that divides a hospital corridor. That seclusion, however, seems fitting because the greenhouse is, on several levels, kind of an oasis.

RICHMOND, VA. - Decked out in reindeer antlers and a bright red Christmas sweater, George Wythe High School math teacher Bland Campbell sang along to “Jingle Bells” and “Deck the Halls” as her students made their way around McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center yesterday. The group of about two dozen Richmond students was on hand to deliver five boxes of items they’d collected for the hospital’s patients, and to sing a few Christmas carols along the way.

A song dedicated to soldiers and veterans is turning the third grade at Colonial Heights’ Tussing Elementary School into an Internet sensation. The response from around the world has surprised music teacher Michael Souders, who co-wrote the song “Thank You Soldiers” with his wife, Angela, and posted the video on multiple video-hosting Web sites, including YouTube.

Call it one of the ironies of suburban living. Richmond’s suburbs are populated largely, if not predominantly, by politically conservative people. “Property rights” is a mantra of conservatives. And yet, some of the most restrictive residential covenants can be found in suburbia, where homeowners associations often impose the sort of restrictions you might expect of a government-designated historic district.

War makes strange giant creatures out of the little routine men who inhabit the Earth.—WWII correspondent Ernie Pyle.

. . . Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg—or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s alloy forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can’t tell a vet just by looking.

Matt Victoriano won’t back down from a fight to protect his country. But Victoriano, a 29-year-old Marine Corps combat veteran from Arkansas, is standing up to a different kind of enemy than those he faced in Baghdad. He’s among a group of military veterans pushing for changes to U.S. energy policy to reduce the threat of climate change and dependence on foreign oil. He doesn’t think the American public understands the stakes.

A group of veterans is in Virginia on a nationwide bus tour to support reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

A Charlottesville woman who has spent much of the past seven years aiding American troops in combat situations hopes to help them when they return. Mary Ellen Wooten’s organization, From Us to You, has supplied troops in Afghanistan and Iraq with everything from Christmas dinners to microwaves and generators. Now she hopes to host a peer-networking retreat for veterans making the transition from military to civilian life.

Veterans attending Virginia colleges and universities will be eligible for additional benefits next month under the new federal Yellow Ribbon Program set up to aid those who served after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In Virginia, 56 schools are among 1,100 nationwide that have entered into agreements with the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve financial aid for veterans under the Post-9/11 GI Bill Program.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine yesterday ceremonially signed more than a dozen bills designed to assist Virginia’s military families and veterans. Legislation passed during the 2009 General Assembly session provides uniform treatment and expedited record-sharing in education for military children who transfer between school districts and states. Virginia has the most school-age children—76,352—of active military personnel in the nation.

Many military personnel become small-business owners instead of joining corporate America when they return to the civilian work force. The Small Business Administration wants to make sure they are prepared for that transition. The SBA, in cooperation with the Crater Small Business Development Center and New Visions, New Ventures, is holding a four-hour free seminar today at Fort Lee on franchising opportunities for veterans. The program starts at 10 a.m.