Military

A Navy SEAL was killed in 2014, an Air Force commando went missing over the ocean in 2019 and an Army Green Beret will likely lose an arm in 2023. Each experienced a rare but catastrophic accident after their parachutes unexpectedly deployed when hit by wind gusts, violently ripping them out aircraft doors and prompting lawsuits questioning the safety of their gear.

 Democrats in both chambers have been angling for several years to give military families more money to cover housing costs, and they are at it again — this time with some influential GOP support..

WASHINGTON – Two and a half years after the Department of Veterans Affairs began testing a new computer system at Spokane’s VA hospital, virtually no one in Congress is satisfied with the outcome, but Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate committees responsible for the effort have different ideas about how to fix it.

Nine soldiers were killed after two U.S. Army helicopters collided during a training mission near an Army base along the Kentucky-Tennessee state line Wednesday night, the Army said. 

The Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that would repeal decades-old authorizations for use of military force for the Iraq and Persian Gulf wars, legislation the White House has signaled it will back.

“Reach out and touch the veterans you know who need help. Most of them will not ask you.”

President Vladimir Putin of Russia said he would be able to position nuclear weapons in Belarus by the summer, a claim that analysts said was likely bluster but which underscored the Kremlin’s determination to use its vast nuclear arsenal to pressure the West to back down from its support of Ukraine.

It was a name synonymous with failure. More than 80 years ago, an Army base in Blackstone, Virginia, was named for George E. Pickett, the defeated Confederate general who led the disastrous “Pickett’s charge” at the Battle of Gettysburg. Now the base is the first of nine named for a Confederate set to be redesignated by the end of this year. On Friday, Fort Pickett will become Fort Barfoot, in honor of Col. Van Barfoot, a World War II hero and a Medal of Honor recipient.

As claims and lawsuits pile up against the government related to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune, the number of grievous health outcomes tied to exposure to those toxic chemicals at the Marine Corps base in North Carolina is also rising.

The American Legion displayed the flag in the banquet room for the past 20 years along with about 50 others, according to a spokesman for the Post Falls location.

WASHINGTON – Over the weekend, Ryan Crocker took an Uber to dinner at a Syrian restaurant in Baghdad.

 Following the crash of an unmanned military drone over the Black Sea, the U.S. military has released footage of the incident.

WASHINGTON – After officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs on Wednesday confirmed four deaths have been linked to a new computer system first deployed in Spokane, senators threatened consequences for the company being paid $10 billion for the system.

Using a knife to saw through yellow police tape, Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels opened a Sheriff’s Community Oriented Policing Effort (SCOPE) station Friday at Fairchild Air Force Base.

WASHINGTON – The No. 2 official at the Department of Veterans Affairs will step down on April 1, he told colleagues in an email on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON – A bill to give full military benefits to all veterans injured in combat will be the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s top legislative priority this year, the Montana Democrat who heads the VA panel and who sponsored the bill with an Idaho Republican said Tuesday.

As a private first class in the Marines, Thompson participated in five assault landings in the Pacific Theater during World War II, said his son, Jim Thompson. Like many of his generation, he didn't talk about the war with his children, but drips and drabs of information - and spontaneous bursts of emotion - would bubble out over the years.