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The War Horse
Adventure, Tenacity, and Merit Badges—How the Boy Scouts Prepared Me for Military Service
No two American institutions have had a more positive impact on my life than the Boy Scouts of America and the U.S. Navy. When I was in first grade at Hazeldale Elementary in Oregon I saw other students wearing their blue Cub Scout uniforms…
I Left My Platoon a Day Early. I Listened as the Viet Cong Killed My Replacement
My platoon was about 100 miles from Pleiku City, searching for the Viet Cong within South Vietnam’s Central Highlands. The mountainous elevation offered little protection from the humid air that left us staggering as if intoxicated.I was…
Protected: This Company is Spending Millions to Profit Off Veterans’ Benefits. Why Won’t Lawmakers…
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My Black Roommate Opened My Eyes to an Air Force I Didn’t Know Existed
High school graduation kicked off my summer in 1970. I lived in a semirural small Midwestern town in Michigan. I couldn’t afford college; classmates were turning to factory work, which held no interest for me. The specter of the draft was…
Lessons Learned from Madame le General—Doctor, Pilot, Hero
She was the woman in the floppy jungle hat, standing in front of a Hiller 360 helicopter—young, with a confident smile, dressed in khaki coveralls.Her photo immediately caught my eye the first day I walked into a warehouse in the San…
The Hidden Costs of Caregiving: Meet the Kids Taking Care of Wounded Veterans More than 2 million…
It was horrifying every time it happened, every time Kylie Briest’s father choked on his food and started to turn blue, every time her mom, Jenny, sprang out of her own dinner chair to attempt the Heimlich maneuver on her husband.Kylie lost…
Sewing Under Duress: Dad’s Military Moves Forced Me to Serve Five Tours of Home Economics
My dad parked my mom, brothers, and me in Edmond, Oklahoma, while he flew U-10s in psychological warfare missions out of Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Vietnam. We sent letters back and forth and quickly figured out the stories our dad liked best…
A Marine Wonders: When Taps Finally Plays, What Will My Family Remember About My Service?
We stood in a gaggle checking over our dress blues to make sure we looked presentable, typical for Marines waiting for something to begin. Suddenly a car with a lone occupant pulled in and parked, the driver composing herself for a few…
Misadventures on a Nuclear Submarine: A Swollen Knee, a Gush of Water, and a Man Overboard
When you’re serving on a Navy submarine with dozens of torpedoes and nuclear-tipped missiles, the best days are the boring ones. Boring on a submarine is good. Boring means everything is working like it should and everyone is doing what…
What Do Firings of DOD and VA Inspectors General Mean for Military Whistleblowers? Chaos, confusion,…
Three weeks after President Donald Trump’s extraordinary purge of inspectors general across the federal government, a document arrived in Navy Lt. Cmdr. Shannon Bencs’ email inbox.It was the day before Valentine’s Day, but what was detailed…
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