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 […]
Policy
Posted inNewsroom
Hegseth Ordered a New Study of Women in Combat. Critics Say It’s Built to Reach One Conclusion
Two months before Pete Hegseth appeared in front of Congress to testify in his confirmation to be secretary of defense, he sat across from the podcaster Shawn Ryan, talking about the Pentagon’s 2015 decision to open ground combat roles to women. “It hasn’t made us more effective. It hasn’t made us more lethal,” Hegseth said. […]
Posted inReflections
My Father Was a Decorated Black Soldier With a Secret: Me
There was no celebration when my mother learned she was pregnant—only a conversation. Three married adults sat in a room weighing what my existence might cost them: a rising soldier in the United States Army with a reputation to protect, a mother facing the weight of shame, and a husband willing to raise a child […]
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
‘Sounds Like a Mutiny.’ Secret Recording Exposes Claims of Toxic Leadership After a Marine’s Suicide
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. People who are not in the military can also call 988. “Who knows what was going on in Cpl. Mobley’s personal life?” The question […]
Posted inNewsroom
How Trump’s First 500 Days Has Reshaped Life for Troops and Veterans
It’s June 4, which marks the 500th day of President Donald Trump’s second term. Here at The War Horse, we’ve tracked every twist and turn related to the military and veterans since the president returned to office through Operation Timeline, an interactive tool covering everything from the president’s first executive orders to the United States’ […]
Posted inReflections
I Love My Air Force Husband. My Feelings About the Government He Serves Are More Complicated
I had just put my car in reverse when a license plate frame caught my attention. It was covered in the American flag and read “God Bless America.” The image forced my car back into park. I sat in the lot trying to understand the power those three words held over me. I’ve always had […]
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 […]
Posted inReflections
Another Conflict Roils the Middle East. A Marine Warns the War Will Come Home
As an infantryman who carried a rifle through Fallujah, watching the news feels dizzying, almost unreal. I kicked in doors in the Middle East; I watched friends bleed. I know what war really looks like when the cameras leave and the speeches end. My daughter is almost 16 now, almost as old as I was […]
Posted inNewsroom
Drone Warfare Has Dramatically Changed the Battlefield. Is the US Medical Corps Ready?
On a serene Saturday afternoon, thousands of miles from conflict, soldiers with the California Air National Guard are scattered among stations, hunched over a buddy. Some apply tourniquets. Others practice life-saving skills, checking for breathing, tilting chins to clear airways, searching for blood loss and hidden wounds. This is how they learn to keep a […]
Posted inNewsroom
A War Zone, Minus the War: One Year Later, Has the Military Really Secured the US-Mexico Border?
On a warm, winter Sunday, the Playas de Tijuana in Mexico is filled with families picnicking. The beach here presses right up against the border wall with the United States. Music blares, teenagers film TikTok videos next to the 30-foot high fence, which is covered in painted murals on the Mexican side—butterflies, faces, human hands […]
Posted inReflections
Tuition, Training, Housing: How to Sell the Military as the Path of Least Resistance
When I reported for duty in 1985, neither the Nevada submarine nor I was ready to go to sea. The submarine was under construction in the shipyard, and I was an unqualified third-class petty officer. By the time I left the USS Nevada nearly six years later, I was a salty first-class petty officer who […]
