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The War Horse
After Trump Assassination Attempt, Some Veterans Spread Misinformation. Others Pushed Back.
When the first shot rang out at the Trump rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania, Jondavid Longo recognized the sound. But his brain wouldn’t allow him to believe it. “I thought, ‘OK, this might be a firecracker, a balloon, or something,’” the Marine Corps veteran and mayor of Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, told The War Horse. “On the second shot, I realized exactly what it was.”
‘Another Kick in the Gut:’ Biden’s Pardons Still Fall Short for Many LGBTQ Veterans
Andrew Espinosa was in his office in Boulder, Colorado, when the first message popped up on the Air Force veteran’s phone: Andy, is this finally the resolution you’ve been working for?. President Biden had just announced he was “righting a historic wrong” by issuing pardons for gay veterans...
Reunited Friends, a Missing Medal, and a Wrong Righted More than 50 Years Later
In the fall of 2000, I received a phone call from an unrecognized number with an unfamiliar area code and decided to answer. “Is this Tigerman?” asked a voice on the line. I thought for a second before answering. “Is this LT?”. He knew he’d reached Tigerman, just as...
How a 4,000-Word Coast Guard Email Erupted Into a Reckoning of Military Sexual Assault
The profanity-laced email that landed in thousands of Coast Guard inboxes this past May wasn’t intended to foment a rebellion in the nation’s most under-the-radar branch of the military. It wasn’t meant to get cited in a congressional hearing. It was just sheer, scorching frustration. The 4,000-word...
We Talk a Lot As a Nation About Service Members and Veterans. What We Don’t Do Well Is Include Them.
Andrew waited long enough to be born a North Carolinian. After weeks in an Extended Stay America in Jacksonville, North Carolina, our family finally got a move-in date for our tiny base house—and the belongings we’d long been parted from moved back in with us. As the sky...
When It No Longer Scares You, You Have to Quit. Fear Makes You Pay Attention.
The C-130 bounced like a rollercoaster at a cheap traveling circus. I sat on the cargo netting bench seats surrounded by first-time jumpers and pretended to sleep. All I could think about—other than that one of these bastards was going to get me killed—was how the fuck I got here.
We Were at DefCon 2–One Step From Nuclear War–and I Was Checking My Work
Jan. 23, 1968, was an exciting day for me. I had no idea just how exciting it would turn out to be. I’d recently returned from three weeks of leave in the US and was finishing up an 18-month tour in the Philippines that included several assignments to exotic places up and down the archipelagic nation. At 21, I felt much more worldly and sophisticated than all my family and friends.
‘Righting an Historic Wrong’: President Biden to Pardon LGBTQ Veterans Convicted of Crimes Over Sexual Orientation
In a historic move to address a legacy of discrimination in the U.S. military, President Joe Biden on Wednesday will announce a plan to pardon thousands of LGBTQ veterans who were criminally charged and forced from the service because of their sexual orientation. The news comes less than a week...
The Army Made Her Plead Guilty or Face Prison for Being Gay. She’s Still Paying the Price.
In the darkness of early morning, Mona McGuire startled awake. A fist beat on the barracks door. Her heart accelerated into a full gallop, and then the yelling began. Detectives from the Army’s criminal investigation division had burst into her room. They stripped her bedding, handcuffed her, along with three other female soldiers, and drove them to headquarters for fingerprinting, a mug shot, and hours of questioning.
A Hero Lived Quietly Across the Street. Little Did I Know He Helped Save the World.
Enoch H. Kanaya was my sun-seeking neighbor who plucked red, ripe tomatoes off the vine in his sunny garden on our tree-lined streets in Chicago. He and his family—his wife, Carolyn, and their four daughters—moved into their modest brick home across the street from our family in the late 1960s.
Reuniting Dad With His Warship After 37 Years Was a Reminder That Life Is Fleeting
My dad’s Navy service was nothing special. His single enlistment spanned from the end of the Eisenhower administration through that of John F. Kennedy. But in that time the Navy changed his life. In 1958, Merlin Chetlain left East Dubuque, Illinois, and Midwest farm life. In the Navy, he...
Battling Bureaucracy After Burn Pits: Why Are Civilian Contractors Left Behind?
As an Army infantryman, Ernest Barrington was very familiar with the thick smoke and fumes that came off the burn pit at Joint Base Balad in Iraq. The toxic dust that wafted from the huge, open-air ditches where the military burned everything from tires and ordnance to medical waste and plastic would coat his skin and settle on the inside of his nose and under his eyelids.
I Volunteered for This Mission. I Could Take Photographs That Might Outlive Me.
I rode the third chopper in a daisy chain of five, each bird maybe 30 seconds behind the next. Clutching my M16 rifle in the left-side door gunner’s seat and surrounded by men cocooned in combat gear, I sat on a flak jacket in the vague hope that a slug coming up through the ship’s soft aluminum belly wouldn’t make me a eunuch.
‘Unclaimed’ No Longer: Volunteers Work to Provide Military Burials for Forgotten Veterans
Veterans who die alone, without connections to friends and family, have piled up on the shelves of county morgues and funeral homes for decades. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates about 21,000 veterans are awaiting burials, some dating back to the Civil War. A nonprofit group that works on behalf of these so-called unclaimed veterans believes that number falls short by tens of thousands.
VA Buried Their Brother as an ‘Unclaimed Veteran.’ Now They’re Working to Bring Him Home.
But on that morning this past March, sitting at her computer in the brick house that her father and brothers built in 1965, she Googled “Alvin Pugh” and “NYC.”. “Oh my God,” Patti said with astonishment, “Alvin is dead.”. The Department of Veterans Affairs had...
My Dad Should Have Lived a Long and Joyful Life. His Love Was Meant to Fill This World.
My dad knew two things. He wanted to serve this country, and he wouldn’t live until his 40th birthday. In 2006, his last prophecy came true. He was 36. “On behalf of the president …” were the last words I remember hearing two uniformed officers say before my ears felt like they heard an explosion. The words left me paralyzed. I felt my heart rate accelerating. My vision slowed and blurred. My mouth went dry.
Thousands of Afghan Allies Who Fled After US Withdrawal Trapped in Immigration Limbo
Three years have passed since President Joe Biden announced that the United States would pull all of its 2,500 troops out of Afghanistan, starting a chain reaction that ended in thousands of Afghans flooding Hamid Karzai International Airport, hoping to escape the resurging violent theocracy of Taliban rule. Tens of...
‘Come Hell or High Water’–Rangers Caught in Urgent Fight, Flight to Save One of Their Own
I looked out the door of the Huey helicopter into the orange, yellow, and purple fan rays of the sunset over Southeast Asia. The air was cool up here—about 70 degrees compared to the 112-degree heat just 2,000 feet below us. It was June 1970, more than a month...
He Served His Country. In Return, His Country Sent Him Into Exile
At 17, Rudi Richardson took a friend’s car for a joyride, crashed it into the side of a parked car, and landed himself in court. It was Southern California in the 1970s. Richardson’s probation officer told him he had a choice: The court could pursue the joyriding charge. Or Richardson could go into the Army.
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The War Horse is an award-winning nonprofit newsroom educating the public on military service, war, and its impact. Our team achieves this through journalism, public forums, and writing seminars that ensure those most affected by war have a prominent voice in the national conversation.
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