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The War Horse
I Stare at the Empty Chair Next to Me. He Isn’t Coming. We Still Wait for Him.
I sit staring at the empty chair next to me. We know whose chair it is. He isn’t coming.His name was Sam. He’d grown up in the country, the child of a military family, and he was obsessed with computers. We affectionately called him “our…
PACT Act Update: VA Signs Up 280,000 New Veterans, But Some Are Still Left Out
The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs has signed up more than 280,000 new veterans and completed roughly 900,000 new toxic exposure claims under the expansion of the PACT Act, a Biden administration move that sped up the implementation of…
After Years of Nomadic Military Life, Permanence Can Be Frightening
This time, I don’t wrap the picture frames, vases, and other delicate souvenirs in bubble wrap, or place them in Tetris-like defensive positions inside a large brown box.I don’t need to; the boxes aren’t going far.After years of going where…
‘Invisible’–More Women Veterans Are Dying of Suicide and VA Still Lacks Resources, Advocates Say
Active-duty service members and veterans thinking of harming themselves can get free crisis care. Contact the Military Crisis Line at 988, then press 1, or access online chat by texting 838255.When she joined the Navy in 2001, Jennifer…
‘Welcome Home’–For Years His Family Waited for His Return. Now, He Waits for His Daughter.
My wife and I sit in a large auditorium in El Paso, Texas, waiting in anticipation, along with other families, for our daughter’s return from deployment. Upbeat music fills the air and the feeling in the assembled crowd is of a group of…
‘Consequences of War’–Veterans Incarcerated at Higher Rates and Face Longer Sentences
Late in the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, Brockton Hunter, a defense attorney in Minnesota, was having drinks with a friend from law school. Hunter had served in the Army before becoming a lawyer; his friend had been in the CIA. The…
I Learned That Loss Could Bridge the Divide That Separates Us
There is no doubt in my mind that military pilots have egos stretching to the stratosphere. I found out early in my military career that fighter pilots, as a group, are a bunch of assholes. I learned to tolerate most of them, but none…
Finding Empowerment in Choice, Asking for Help, and the Journey to Build a Family
I shared my big news with friends while visiting them out of town over Mother’s Day weekend. I planned to begin in vitro fertilization with a donor to freeze embryos later that year.The couple, a fellow Navy veteran and their spouse, had…
Most Veterans Who Support Extremism Had Negative Military Experiences, Study Finds
In interviews, nearly three-quarters of veterans who said they supported an extremist group or ideology reported experiencing a traumatic or otherwise negative event during their military service, according to a study released today by the…
The First Battle of Fallujah: ‘We Hurt Ourselves in So Many Ways’
“I remember the trees,” retired Lt. Col. Philip Treglia said about the day in April 2004 when he returned to his command post in Fallujah, Iraq, to find it had been attacked by insurgents armed with RPGs.“The trees all around were cut in…