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Military, Vets Depend on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Its Future Is Uncertain.
At first glance, the home mortgage advertisements, sent to some 10,000 customers in May 2016, looked as if they came from the Department of Veterans Affairs: a blue seal with the words “Veterans Administration” above a prominent “VA,” references to “Form VA-1000,” a phone number to call labeled “Dept. Phone.”
They Were Worried About the Color of Our Bras. We Were Busy Spearheading Change.
“Lt. Van, see Maj. Shire after class,” directed the instructor. Uh-oh, I thought. It’s never good to be singled out, especially when you’re a student at a military school like Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. As the Navy equivalent to an Air Force captain, I...
A Poncho, a Bayonet, and a 1943 C Ration Chocolate Against a Fort Lewis Snowstorm
On the third day of a weeklong field exercise at Fort Lewis, our company XO drove me back to the garrison for an appointment to fit me for a temporary dental prosthesis. Afterward, he picked me up and we headed back out to where we were supposed to catch up with Delta Company. He drove muddy roads through thick forest for nearly an hour until I was sure that he had no idea where we were, much less where our company was.
Vet Center Changes ‘a Stab in the Back’ as Delays, Counselor Shortages Grow
Blaine Bart knew he needed help. The edges formed by active duty wouldn’t round out. During his time in the Army, from 1999 to 2006, he was wounded in the second battle of Fallujah and “blown up countless times”—twice by grenades and once by a shotgun, he says.
This Story Is More Than a Revelation of Why I Hated Christmas
For the longest time, I didn’t look forward to the holidays the way a dad of three ought to. I once thought it was because I was raised on little extravagance, especially with respect to Christmas and gifts in general. But after an evening in which I became violent—an...
Short Changed: No Justice at Fort Hood for Another Woman Soldier and a Commander Who Tried to Help
This article is part of Short Changed, a series looking at the noncombat deaths of women going back to 9/11. A couple of months after Spc. Vanessa Guillén disappeared on April 22, 2020, former Army Pfc. Krysta Alaniz protested the seeming lack of action on the military’s part. With her chocolate-brown eyes, sleek dark hair, and heart-shaped face, Alaniz could have passed for Guillén’s sister, and she seemed to have felt that connection as she held a sign at the protest.
In the Shadow of Iwo Jima We Found Camaraderie and Peace With Grandsons of the Enemy
I landed on Iwo Jima for the first time in 1998. I was a young Marine sergeant serving as an infantry squad leader during a six-month deployment to Okinawa, Japan. Most who make the pilgrimage to the tiny island stay only a few hours. I was lucky enough to spend three days and two nights—not once but twice in visits that bookended my career.
Embracing a Former Enemy at Pearl Harbor, It Was Official. The War Was Over.
During the first week of December 1991, my wife, Lin, and I met our friend Richard Fiske for dinner at the Chart House in Honolulu, Hawaii, as we had done on many occasions. I’d been stationed at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, for three years in the late 1960s. After I retired from the federal government, Lin and I moved to Oahu, where we lived aboard our sailboat in Ala Wai Harbor. By the 80s, Lin worked at what was then Banana Republic Travel & Safari, and she first met Mr. Fiske there.
Short Changed: Military Comes with Unique Risks for Domestic Violence, Can Silence Survivors
This article is part of Short Changed, a series looking at the noncombat deaths of women going back to 9/11. On the night of Aug. 5, Meredith Barney and her daughter, Saria Hildabrand, eagerly planned Barney’s trip from her home in Utah up to Alaska at the end of the month to celebrate Barney’s 40th birthday.
Clandestine Combat, Quesadilla Bribes, and Operation Jiujitsu Underground
“It is on the ship—assume you have it. We will find and beat this thing down.”. The alarming words from our skipper about Covid-19 aboard the USS Ronald Reagan caused a cascade of restrictions for our standard operating procedures while on deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. “Snyder, you know...
Short Changed: Military Women’s Deaths by Suicide Linked to Sexual Trauma
This article is part of Short Changed, a series looking at the noncombat deaths of women going back to 9/11. As of Jan. 17, veterans thinking about hurting themselves can get free crisis care, including inpatient, for up to 90 days at Veterans Affairs. They do not need to be enrolled in VA care. For immediate help, dial 988, then press 1.
He Spent Years Learning Other People’s Secret Pains. I Spent Years Hiding Mine.
My husband’s phone rang on our way to get ice cream, and my heart sank just as the baby in my belly kicked. I rubbed and patted the bump, soothing away her restlessness and my immediate need for butter pecan. “So, she woke up with his fingers inside her?”...
The Shoulders I Stood on Were Gone. How Little I Knew of the Journey Before Me.
A Delta Force unit zipped over the barren desert. Two Black Hawks contained assault forces. Four Little Birds carried riders and artillery. It was a perfect blue sky in Taji, Iraq. The operators stalked a high-profile target. All went according to plan until it didn’t. The date was Nov....
We Did Not Fight. This Was Our War, if You Could Call It That.
It is March of 2023. I am in a cafe watching the Iraq War’s early stages play out in short clips on a television mounted on the wall in front of me. Marines barge through doors in Fallujah, unsure if it is violent death or an empty room awaiting them on the other side; soldiers patrol nameless streets in thinly armored Humvees that become engulfed in dust and smoke from an IED; sailors launch aircraft off of flight decks; airmen deliver shock and awe.
Veterans Who Are Food Insecure Are Less Likely to Seek Help Than Civilians
About eight years ago, Carl Davis stared at his bills and decided which ones not to pay. Without the financial jigsaw, he couldn’t afford food for his family. Davis, who has a 100% disability rating from Veterans Affairs for service-related injuries to his wrist and lower back, relies on his VA compensation for income.
The Things We Borrowed–I Didn’t Set out to Be in Nonprofit Black Market Supply With Whiskey as Currency
I steered the jeep off the dusty, rutted main road and rattled down a well-worn track until I beheld a bizarre juxtaposition of images: the silhouette of a thousand-year-old Hindu temple cheek by jowl with something resembling a porcupine dozing on a glass box—an air traffic control tower bristling with radio antennae.
We Forever Carry With Us the Good, Bad, and Ugly of Our Service and What We Learned From It
“Sean, can you go assist that gentleman outside? He was in the Marines too, so I figured you’d have something to bond over.”. I rolled my eyes. This was my first job post-college, and I didn’t like advertising my service in the civilian world. I also bristled at being told to do business with someone simply because they had a military background like me.
Troops Weigh Leaving Service Over Lack of Care for Kids With Autism Under Tricare
For months, Rachele Adkins shelved suspicions that her second son, Benji, may be autistic. His hazel eyes drifted away from people, and in photos, he didn’t smile. At 20 months old, he still wasn’t speaking. Every child develops differently, she’d tell herself. But in the fall of 2020, a developmental pediatrician at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center confirmed her suspicion, she says. On the drive home, she felt relief—comfort in finally having an answer.
US Military Pledges Principled, Responsible Approach to Artificial Intelligence
This past May, at a London summit hosted by the UK’s Royal Aeronautical Society, the U.S. Air Force’s chief of AI test and operations brought up an unnerving scenario. He told the audience about a simulation involving an AI-enabled drone tasked with identifying and destroying targets. A human operator retained the final authority over whether to ultimately destroy any one target.
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