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He Used a Position of Power, In a Time of War, to Get What He Wanted.
I am the worst person ever. I am THE WORST person ever. I AM the worst person EVER. I AM THE WORST PERSON EVER. i am the worst person ever. I lived with these thoughts for a long time, and my family lived with me living with these thoughts. They raced through my head as I took my girls to school, as I hugged my husband goodbye, as I sat not watching a movie during family movie night. Mostly they pushed me as I cleaned, cooked, worked, praised, gave, and gave, and then gave again. But it was the other times that kept the thoughts going.
Come Thanksgiving, I Will Think of His Sacrifice and the Human Cost of War
Family time eluded me for much of 2010. As my unit prepared to join the ever-growing number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Marine Corps kept us busy training in North Carolina and Arizona. When the Thanksgiving holiday rolled around, I was grateful to head home to Columbus, Ohio, to...
The Story Behind Operation Pineapple Express, a Daring Rescue Effort in Afghanistan
The abrupt departure of the final American troops from Afghanistan last year after two decades of war plunged Kabul into anguished chaos. Watching coverage of the withdrawal at home in Tampa, Florida, Scott Mann sank into furious disbelief. The former Green Beret had served multiple tours in the country, training...
Nobody Leaves War Emotionally Healthy. The Path to Recovery Is Unique to Each Person.
The U.S. military always takes care of its own when Thanksgiving rolls around, no matter what part of the world you’re in. In November 1968, that place was the fishing village of Rach Gia, where I spent the final five months of my year-long tour in Vietnam helping direct air strikes against the Viet Cong as an Air Force buck sergeant.
Climate Change Makes Things Harder for Unhoused Veterans
On a Friday afternoon in early September, the temperature stood at 94 degrees at Windsor Veterans Village just north of Santa Rosa, California—sweet relief from earlier in the week, when the mercury soared to 114 degrees. The sky looked hazy with smoke from the Mosquito Fire, which had already consumed tens of thousands of acres of forest in the eastern part of the state.
We All Have Stories. After All, We Didn’t Just Watch History, We Made It.
We all have stories. After all, we didn’t just watch history, we made it. We lost friends. We saw heroes. Some of us were heroes. We knew sacrifice and pain and sometimes we saw God at the strangest times. Many of us carry a heavy burden and all of...
War Horse Managing Editor Recognized by VA Secretary for Toxic Exposure Reporting
Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough thanked The War Horse’s managing editor Kelly Kennedy for her dogged reporting on the health problems caused by exposure to toxic burn pits during a speech at the National Press Club yesterday. “About this time 14 years ago, Kelly started the thankless and rigorous...
Veterans-Turned-Poll Workers Defend Democratic Elections Against Threats Foreign and Domestic
When Kate Germano—a retired Marine who served for 20 years, including as the commanding officer of a training battalion at Parris Island, South Carolina—returned home from her stint working as an elections judge in 2020, she looked at her husband and said, “That was the most meaningful thing I’ve done as an adult citizen.”
War Horse Sues Marine Corps for ‘Black Book’ Tracking Officer Misconduct
The War Horse News has sued the Navy and Marine Corps, alleging that they broke the law by denying requests for a database of public information about officer misconduct. On Friday, The War Horse filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that the Department of the Navy and the Marine Corps have repeatedly violated the Freedom of Information Act by withholding the records.
The Joy and Misery of Survival Took Root in My Soul. Neither Has Extinguished.
Even without my helmet and body armor, the district council chamber felt oppressive. The meager window units could not defeat the heat in southern Baghdad, at least not within the fading grandeur of this marble and columned space. I did my damnedest to stay awake, scribbling in a government-issue notebook while the local councilmen droned on in Arabic and our interpreter mumbled in English.
Congress Urges DoD, VA to Defend Troops and Veterans Against Extremists Who Want to Recruit Them
The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs recommends the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs work more actively to identify, prevent, and combat the problem of violent extremism among veterans and military members as they approach the end of their service, a report released to The War Horse states. The report,...
A Vision of a Russian Cultural Transformation Comes Full Circle and Shatters
On Oct. 28, 1991, I settled into an hours-long commercial flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Moscow. By year’s end, the iconic Soviet flag would fly over the Kremlin for the final time, silently signaling the collapse of the USSR after nearly seven decades. I didn’t know it yet, but...
Veterans and Reservists Make up More Than 28% of Candidates Who Question 2020 Election Results
More than a quarter of the candidates on the ballot in November who have publicly denied or raised questions or doubts about the legitimacy of the 2020 election have served or are serving in the military, an analysis by The War Horse has found. These include congressional candidates from a major political party as well as candidates for governor, secretary of state, and state attorney general—positions that oversee elections.
Two Guys to a Bag, One Bag at a Time. We Each Became Experts in a Macabre Parade.
Whenever I hear the thwack-thwack-thwack of a helicopter, I stop and look up. Nothing too unusual about that, except a shot of adrenaline unfailingly accompanies these sightings. The hair on my arms and neck stands up, and something I can’t quite describe rises in my chest and gut. The feeling is fleeting, and I’ve grown adept at hiding it after all these years. I tell whoever I happen to be with what kind of helicopter hovers in the sky above us, and it ends there—unless the bird is an old Huey or Chinook.
Feres Helps Military Avoid Accountability for Harm. New Ruling Could Be a Chance for Justice.
On the nine-hour drive from their home in California’s central valley to the Marine Corps’ Camp Pendleton, south of Los Angeles, Peter Vienna and his wife wondered what had happened to their son. They knew only that there had been a training accident. Their 22-year-old son, Christopher Gnem, was involved.
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