Veterans Today: Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today's News!

We encourage you to browse the list, so that you can take what you want, and keep what you need. 1. Mexico frees ex-Marine jailed for bringing in a gun. Jon Hammar, the Marine veteran from South Florida, detained for months in a Mexican border prison for bringing his great grandfather's shotgun into the country, was released Friday night, in what his mother called a "Christmas miracle." 2. Obama's Offer Holiday Wishes, Call for All to Remember Vets. During the weekly address from the White House, President Obama and his wife Michelle wished service members, veterans and their families a happy holiday season, and called on all Americans to remember those in harm's way. 3. Defense Secretary Leon E Panetta called four service members deployed to Afghanistan today to wish them happy holidays. Panetta expressed his gratitude, and that of the American people, to the service members and to their families for their service and sacrifice, according to a statement issued by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. 4. Sex assault reports at Air Force Academy continue to rise. Sex assault reports involving Air Force Academy cadets increased by about 50 percent over the previous academic year, accounting for the majority of reported assaults across the nation's three military academies, according to a Defense Department report issued Friday. 5. Obama takes heat on Hagel candidacy. President Barack Obama's consideration of Chuck Hagel to be the defense secretary, has set off an outcry of criticism that would force a second damaging White House retreat over a Cabinet pick. 6. Texas Department of Veterans Affairs to track deaths. The Department of Veterans Affairs in Texas will conduct a mortality study to track causes of death for veterans, putting together a model that could allow similar data to be gathered. 7. Bay of Pigs invasion veterans mark 50 years since their release. In the days before Christmas 50 years ago this weekend, 1,113 Bay of Pigs fighters captured by Fidel Castro's forces, and imprisoned for 20 months, were finally released to a heroes' welcome in Miami. 8. WWII veteran returns to Germany, where injury ended combat career. Fred Woelkers never thought he'd return. But there he was, 68 years and 13 days later, standing near the same spot where a Nazi bullet ended his fighting days on the front lines of World War II.