Scott Davidson has always liked a challenge. This year, the 46-year-old ultramarathoner ran 100 continuous miles through his home state of Nevada, racing over roads and trails through the wind and darkness. He did it on two prosthetic devices. Davidson was born with severe birth defects, including deformities of his lower limbs and jaw that […]
Healthcare
Posted inReflections
In Afghanistan, I Put the Mission Ahead of Everything — Even a Lump in My Breast
I was lying on my rack in a crowded tent in Afghanistan, watching an old episode of Project Runway on my computer. I rested my hands on my chest and felt something unfamiliar through my shirt: a lump in my left breast that had seemingly appeared overnight. It was hard, immobile, and painless. As a […]
Posted inNewsroom
The Pentagon Wants to ‘Optimize’ Service Members. Will Testosterone Make Them Better Warfighters?
Pete Hegseth leaned in toward the camera. Since the early days of his tenure as secretary of defense, the former Fox News host had been posting clips on social media for the public. But this time, with an amber glow illuminating the American flag in the background, he spoke directly to those under his command […]
Posted inReflections
War Taught Me to Read a Room. My PTSD Service Dog Does It Better
Being a Marine and later an international aid and human rights worker taught me how to read a room. Vietnam. Beirut. Somalia. Bosnia. Rwanda. Iraq. Afghanistan. Survival depended on noticing what other people missed. The shift in a crowd’s weight, the change in a voice, the silence that arrives before violence does. I came to […]
Posted inNewsroom
They Survived an Iran War Drone Attack. Six Months Later, They’re Struggling to Get Care
The soldier wakes at 6 a.m. after getting only three or four hours of sleep. He showers, shaves, and puts on his uniform by 7 a.m., even as his head pounds from a traumatic brain injury. Sometimes, while walking to a mandatory daily roll call, the piece of shrapnel still lodged in his back catches […]
Posted inNewsroom
Their Military Careers Were Cut Short in Combat. Now They’re Fighting Congress for Their Full Benefits
The fall lasted only seconds, but the consequences would span a lifetime. Under the cover of darkness in Balad, Iraq, Army Sgt. Will Fisher was moving into position for an overnight mission. He fell roughly 40 feet and landed on his feet while wearing about 100 pounds of gear. The force of the fall crushed […]
Posted inReflections
Everybody Wanted to Visit the Wounded Soldier. I Wanted to Be Left Alone
It was only a month after the roadside bombing. I was still in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, in June 2006, undergoing successive rounds of surgery. Rods protruded from my limbs, keeping the broken bones of my right forearm and left thigh immobile until the doctors could complete a series of bone grafts and insert […]
Posted inNewsroom
Shrapnel, Broken Bones, and Head Trauma: New Records Show How U.S. Troops Were Wounded in Iran War
The United States recorded at least 17 life-threatening casualties during the first phase of the war with Iran, according to newly obtained Defense Department records that provide the most detailed accounting yet of troops wounded in the conflict. More than 400 casualties were recorded between Feb. 28 and April 8, with Army personnel accounting for […]
Posted inNewsroom
Trump Promised Redemption for Troops Who Refused Covid Shots. A Year Later, Many Are Still Waiting
When the COVID-19 vaccine was released in 2020, Daniel Pendergast was intrigued. “I honestly thought it sounded kind of ingenious at first,” he said. But then he learned there was a very small chance of heart inflammation that could occur after vaccination in healthy men like himself: around eight cases per million, according to the […]
Posted inNewsroom
Veterans With Gulf War Illness Were Finally Seeing Progress. Then Congress Cut Funding
It’s easy for Ron Brown to remember when his health problems first began. It was early March 1991, and Brown’s Army unit was in Khamisiyah, where Iraqi forces had been storing chemical weapons in a bunker and an excavated area known as “the pit.” As U.S. forces demolished the bunker and the weapons in the […]
Posted inNewsroom
Hiring, Overtime, and AI: VA Is Processing Veterans’ Disability Claims Faster Than Ever
Not too many Vietnam veterans are using ChatGPT. “I may be a little more technical than other 80-year-olds,” said Chip, a Marine Corps Vietnam vet and former software developer who used artificial intelligence last year for help filing a disability claim with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Chip plugged his symptoms for Agent Orange-related cancer […]
Posted inNewsroom
‘Got to Get Fixed:’ Billing Delays, Coverage Issues Still Plague Tricare Patients and Providers
Nearly every day for months, Lorelei Evans, a major in the U.S. Army Reserve, received a call or text from a doctor’s office trying to collect on some of her family’s $86,000 in unpaid medical bills. Almost weekly, she said, a bill showed up in the mail at her home in San Antonio, Texas. Some […]
