Browsing Category
The War Horse
Aging Veterans Are in Crisis. This New Program Aims to Help With Housing.
On a recent morning, four veterans who served in the 1960s and 1970s gathered at tables at the Jon W. Paulson Veterans Community in a common room that smelled of strong coffee. Eric Hill, an Army veteran with thinning gray hair, spent…
My Yia Yia and I Both Endured War. This Is How We Carry It.
Every family has their secrets. Some big, some small. One of ours was that Yia Yia was a bit crazy. And where to begin: One could point to her sudden and animated outbursts of anger in awkward places. Her decades of pill popping that made…
US Territories Have High Rates of US Military Service, but Battle for Veterans’ Benefits
Before Alex Ortiz’s wife gave birth to their son, she left the couple’s Caribbean home and traveled some 1,600 miles to Rhode Island, where she had family, to deliver the baby. Ortiz had grown up in Puerto Rico before he joined the Army,…
The USSR Called Operation Atrina a Triumph. We Knew It Was a Failure.
In spring 1987, the Soviet Union launched Operation Atrina, scrambling five Victor III-class submarines from their Kola base that raced toward U.S. Naval installations along the Atlantic coast. The USSR claimed its submarines were…
US Military Can’t Sustain Arctic Operations, ‘Let Alone Dominate,’ Experts Say
Missile launchers illuminated under the glowing green fingers of the northern lights, white-and-gray camo with fur-lined hoods, Green Berets perched two to a snowmobile—these were the scenes from Arctic Edge in 2022, a biannual joint…
It Took a Lifetime to Learn My Father’s War Story—and How It Shaped Us Both
This is Part II of a two-part story. Read Part I. My mother had told me that Dad handled payroll for his ship, the USS Hughes, and its sister ship, the USS Hammann. I imagined that he had somehow sailed through the Battle of Midway…
No One Ever Connected the Dots of Our Boating Life and the Nightmare of My Father’s War
Editors note: This is Part I of a Two Part Story. I wanted nothing more than to be on a boat with my dad, motoring around the dazzling blue waters off the coast of Massachusetts while he taught me how to work the gears, set an anchor,…
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,”…
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…
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…
Play Hard. Get Dirty. Use Good Saop.