Roughly 80% of mental health appointments made in the Veterans Affairs’ Community Care Program are scheduled within the department’s 30-day wait-time standard, but VA schedulers still struggle to meet the seven-day requirement for making these appointments, the VA Office of Inspector General has found.

The VA’s watchdog evaluated mental health referrals for community care at 133 VA medical systems and found that just five met the seven-day metric for scheduling the appointments.

But the inspectors also found that despite those delays, 80% of the referrals received appointments within 30 days.

Of those that didn’t meet the requirement, the average wait time for an appointment was 56 days.

In the report released Monday, OIG inspectors said the scheduling issues contributed to the delays in care, with staff often relying on telephone calls and postal mail to communicate with veterans.

Other roadblocks to timely referrals included providers not being available for the types of appointments veterans wanted and issues reaching providers, according to the report.

Delays in mental health consults are a problem because veterans who need the care may pose a risk to themselves and others without treatment, said Larry Reinkemeyer, assistant inspector general for audits and evaluation.

“Process improvements are needed to enable VA to meet its scheduling and appointment timeliness standards for mental health consults. Veterans who receive community care services for mental health consults represent a vulnerable group,” Reinkemeyer wrote in the report.

For the analysis, the OIG reviewed community care consults for mental health services from Oct. 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2025. More than 825,000 veterans received mental health treatment during that period, either directly from the VA — with more than 1 million consults to VA facilities — or 198,000 referrals for community care.

The analysts found that when an appointment did not meet the 30-day metric, scheduling delays consumed much of that window.

Community care is the VA’s program for veterans to receive medical services in the private sector with the cost covered by the VA.

By law, the VA must refer veterans to community care if the wait time for a primary or mental health care appointment at a VA facility is more than 20 days or the drive time is longer than 30 minutes.

Also by law, appointments must occur within 30 days to ensure patients have access to care.

The VA is in the process of reorganizing the management and structure of its medical arm, the Veterans Health Administration, to include reducing the number of regional offices and streamlining the leadership framework.

The reforms also will create a “Community Care Hub” designed to improve services to veterans by improving access to care, tracking payments and standardizing the referral/consult process.

The VA OIG made recommendations to improve the scheduling process, including: adjusting contracts for the companies that manage community care to ensure they can deliver timely care; evaluate its referral system to ensure that it follows best practices; improve its system for identifying available providers to ensure they can provide the care veterans want; and determine whether community care contractors can meet demand for in-person and tele health appointments.

In their response, VA officials said they have addressed several of the recommendations already and expect its new Community Care Network contracts to improve performance.

VA officials also said they were engaging with providers, its contractors and others to identify gaps and address them. They also noted that they are reviewing best practices for reaching patients and working with facilities to ensure that their schedulers are able to communicate with veterans and providers.

“The [Veterans Health Administration] greatly values the OIG’s assistance in ensuring that all stakeholders are unified in supporting VHA’s vision of providing all Veterans with access to the highest quality care,” wrote John Bartrum, the department’s former Under Secretary for Health.

The VA wants to remind veterans that same-day emergency mental health services are available at VA medical facilities as well as private emergency rooms at not cost to veterans — even if they aren’t enrolled in VA healthcare.

The number of veterans who have received care under the Emergent Suicide Crisis Benefit, provided under the Compact Act, has grew from 10,023 in fiscal 2023 to 15,218 in fiscal 2025, VA Press Secretary Quinn Slaven told Military Times on Wednesday.

It also helped 9,434 veterans in the first half of fiscal 2026.

“In FY25, VA covered a record-high $109,934,325 in acute suicide crisis care,” Slaven said. “VA employs several efforts to educate Veterans and non-VA emergency department staff about the availability of [Emergent Suicide Crisis Benefit]. Importantly, once crisis stabilization care has been provided, VA will work with all relevant parties to ensure eligible Veterans don’t get stuck with a bill.”

The 4.2% jobless rate for all veterans was up a tick from the 4.1% recorded in June, while the rate for post-9/11 veterans dropped from 4.8% in June to 4.7% in July. The unemployment rate for women veterans, meanwhile, went up from 3.6% in June to 3.8% in July.

The BLS report also included revised figures on the number of jobs added in June and May, which showed major downward trends. The initial May numbers showed that 129,000 jobs had been added, but that number was revised downward to 63,000. June’s initial job growth number was 57,000, but that number was revised to 20,000.

In addition, the BLS report stated, “Among the unemployed, the number of people on temporary layoff increased by 153,000 to 921,000 in July,” and the “number of permanent job losers changed little at 1.7 million.”

Friday’s BLS report came out the day after President Donald Trump declared at a Las Vegas rally that the U.S. economy was “the greatest in the history of the world,” although archived BLS reports show that the U.S. economy has added a total of 542,000 jobs over the 19 months of Trump’s second term, while nearly 2.7 million jobs were added in the last 19 months of the Biden administration.

In response to Friday’s report, White House aides put out not-to-worry statements noting job growth in construction and manufacturing.

White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a released statement that the “Trump industrial resurgence is on schedule.”

“Manufacturing (which added 5,000 jobs in July) and factory construction jobs grew again in July even as government payrolls continued to significantly shrink,” Desai said. “Unemployment claims are at record lows.”

On Fox Business News, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said that the end of the FIFA World Cup was a factor in the number of jobs lost. He described it as a “sort of rebound from all the employment we got from the World Cup, because the World Cup was ending.”

Hassett’s comments contrasted with the analysis of other economists who have focused on the eventual long-term impact of artificial intelligence and the uncertainty over whether the chokehold on oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz can be lifted.

“It’s a bleak (BLS) report,” Heather Long, chief economist for the Navy Federal Credit Union, said in a phone interview with Military Times. The report shows that “a lot of people are leaving the labor force,” and “there’s no doubt that the job market has flatlined in President Trump’s second term.”

“It’s just not a dynamic jobs market,” she added. “Tariffs and the war in Iran have caused companies to cut back” on hiring. To sidestep hiring slowdowns due to the impact of AI, “young people are looking again at trade schools.”

The BLS report also highlighted one of the great counter-intuitives of American economics: people losing their jobs can be good news for the stock markets, Long said.

By midday Friday, the Dow Industrial Average was up 50 points, possibly indicating that investors were betting on the gloomy jobs report making it unlikely that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates in September.

The trial, known as the Psilocybin Intervention for Veterans Overcoming Treatment-Resistant Depression,” or PIVOT, study aims to include at least 240 veterans, all of whom have difficult-to-treat major depressive disorder and some who also have PTSD.

The study will take place at five VA medical centers through June 2031 and will assess patients’ levels of depression before and after treatment, side effects and overall response among participants.

“Far too many veterans are living with mental health conditions that don’t respond to available treatments,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a statement. “Under President [Donald] Trump, VA is pursuing all avenues to evaluate new treatments and offer meaningful relief for those who have worn the uniform. This clinical trial reflects another step toward this goal.”

Last month, researchers with Ohio State University’s Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education published the findings of a small, 12-person study on the safety of using psilocybin to treat severe PTSD in veterans.

After receiving eight hours of psychotherapy and two doses of synthetic psilocybin and integrative therapy, nine participants, or 75%, no longer met the clinical criteria for having PTSD.

According to the research, published July 30 in Communications Medicine, participants showed no serious adverse effects, including suicidal ideation or behavior. Non-serious side effects included headache, anxiety and dizziness.

“For a population with severe treatment-resistant PTSD, these results are striking,” said Stacey Armstrong, associate director and senior researcher at the center.

The PIVOT study will involve veterans with major depressive disorder who have not responded to current treatments, including those with or without a diagnosis of PTSD. In the double-blind, randomized trial, veterans will receive one dose of psilocybin or a placebo, along with therapeutic support. They will receive a second dose one month later, also with support, and will be evaluated two to four weeks following each session.

They also will receive follow-up six months after their participation.

VA officials said for the study, they will use pharmaceutical-grade drugs and treat veterans in a “safe, controlled, clinical setting.”

The five VA facilities that are slated to host the research include: the Birmingham VA Health Care System and Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center, Alabama; the VA Portland Health Care System, Oregon; Cpl. Michael Crescenz VA Medical Center, Philadelphia; and VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle.

Trump signed an executive order in April directing the Food and Drug Administration to accelerate the review of some psychedelic therapies to treat mental health conditions. The order also required the FDA, the Department of Health and Human Services and the VA to collaborate on psychedelic research.

As a result of the order, HHS and the VA signed an agreement last month to increase coordination on research, including increasing clinical trial participation, training therapists, nurses and doctors to administer psychedelic medications if they are approved and collecting data and evidence to support patients, physicians and federal regulators.

According to the VA, its staff is involved in 20 current clinical trials focused on psychedelic treatments for mental health conditions, including MDMA and LSD.

Nearly 5 million veterans have used magic mushrooms, LSD or MDMA, study finds

Studies sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies have shown that 87% of veteran participants in a study on the use of MDMA — the chemical compound known recreationally as Ecstasy or Molly — had significant improvement in PTSD symptoms four months after receiving treatments, and 71% no longer met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD at the end of the studies.

The advancement of MDMA as a treatment met a setback in 2024, however, when the Food and Drug Administration rejected an application to approve it as a PTSD treatment, requesting more research on its safety and efficacy.

VA officials said in a release on the PIVOT study Wednesday that they strongly discourage self-medication, and veterans should not “replace other mental health treatment options with psychedelics or any other unprescribed substances.”

“Proven, evidence-based treatments are currently available at VA facilities to treat Veterans with mental health conditions,” they wrote.

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 the talus bone in his right ankle and broke his back. He was medically evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

That fall eventually cost him his leg and his career — the latter more than a decade earlier than he had hoped, and five critical years short of his qualifying for a full military pension.

“I wasn’t planning to leave the Army,” he said. “The injuries made that decision for me, and that was it. The retirement I’d spent almost 15 years working towards was gone.”

Service members qualify for full pensions after two decades of service, but only 17% reach the necessary 20-year mark of eligibility, a 2011 Defense Department report found. An estimated 54,000 veterans sustain career-ending combat injuries before reaching that threshold.

Consequently, medically retired veterans lose part of their retirement pay because they also receive disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Last fall, those reductions averaged roughly $1,650 a month, or nearly $20,000 a year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The Major Richard Star Act would change that. The bill — named after an Army major who was medically retired after being injured in combat — has backing from nearly 80 senators, more than 330 House members, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“It is unacceptable that tens of thousands of combat-injured veterans are denied the full military benefits they earned,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), one of the bill’s lead sponsors, who characterized the offset as “one of the deepest injustices in our present veterans’ disability system.”

Some lawmakers support the bill’s premise, but worry about the cost: $78 billion over a decade, according to the CBO.

Sen. Mike Crapo, an Idaho Republican, is one of them. In a statement provided to The War Horse, a spokesperson for Crapo said, “We owe combat-injured veterans nothing less than our full support when they return from their military service.”

But his office also said Crapo is concerned about the bill’s overall price tag and “remains willing to work with his colleagues to address cost-related concerns.”

The cost previously prompted Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., to block the legislation, arguing the long-term financial impact required greater scrutiny.

The cost question Congress hasn’t resolved

When it was introduced in 2023, the Major Richard Star Act applied only to those who were medically retired due to combat injuries and was estimated to cost about $10 billion to $13 billion over 10 years. Eligibility was later extended to an additional 255,000 medically retired veterans regardless of how they became injured, inflating costs nearly sevenfold over the same period.

In an effort to help it finally pass, lawmakers in June included the Major Richard Star Act as part of the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act (TCAVA), a legislative package with more than 60 veteran-related measures. The version in that bill would again limit the benefits to only those 54,000 injured in combat, according to advocates and legislative language reviewed by The War Horse.

Candace Wheeler, senior director of government and legislative affairs at the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, said advocates ultimately focused on combat-injured retirees because broader proposals would “balloon the cost” and be harder to move through Congress. But after TCAVA failed to get a floor vote in July, its chances of passing this fiscal year are dwindling, leaving some confused about the status of the standalone bill.

According to congressional staff in Sen. Blumenthal’s office, lawmakers intended the amended Major Richard Star Act to extend eligibility to just 1,124 additional combat-wounded veterans, but the bill’s legislative language was interpreted by the DoD Office of the Actuary as applying to roughly 255,000 medically retired veterans, an estimate the Congressional Budget Office used in scoring the bill, accounting for the additional $68 billion.

However, Disabled American Veterans opposes the larger bill because of its funding mechanism, which would reduce future disability claims for some conditions, including tinnitus and sleep apnea. The group said the proposal asks one group of veterans to finance benefits for another and could set a precedent for future reductions in benefits.

“We would be 100% supportive without the poison pill,” said Todd Hunter, DAV’s deputy national communications director.

Currently, there are two similar bills before Congress: The original targeting combat-injured veterans only, and the expanded version that would apply to a broader group of medically retired veterans.

A career cut short five years before retirement

As lawmakers debate the cost, combat-injured veterans say they earned both their military retirement pay and disability benefits.

After serving eight years as a Marine and spending a few years as a civilian, Fisher joined the Army. He deployed repeatedly throughout Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Panama, and elsewhere. Then, on Oct. 19, 2009, while serving as an infantryman with Task Force 16, 155th Brigade Combat Team, in Balad, Iraq, rotor wash from a nearby U.S. helicopter knocked him from a ladder during overwatch operations, ending his career.

For four years, Fisher lived with chronic pain, heavy medications, and repeated efforts to save his right leg. Eventually, he chose to have it amputated below the knee.

“The pain was unbearable,” he said. “The surgeries didn’t work, and I was exhausted from daily medications that I didn’t want to be taking, and after all that, my right ankle was dead.”

Two days after surgery, Fisher was back on his feet. Nine weeks later, he was fitted with a prosthesis and walking.

“I have more legs than I have shoes,” said Fisher, who now owns 11 prosthetic legs.

Within months, he was running. Eight months after surgery, he returned to service as a volunteer firefighter. Later, he became Fort Hood’s first amputee civilian police officer, a job that allowed him to work alongside soldiers and train others for duties he once performed himself.

But because he served in that role as a civilian employee after medical retirement, the work did not count toward the 20 years of military service required for a full military pension.

The retirement they wanted but never received

Fisher wanted so badly to stay in the military that when the war with Iran began earlier this year, he called the recruiter’s office to ask whether the Army was taking retirees. He wanted to serve as a military police officer again, this time on active duty.

When Fisher left the Army in 2014, he had earned a military retirement worth $2,166 a month. He has never received it. The Army assigned him a 40% disability rating during his discharge process, which made him eligible for about $2,700 a month in disability compensation.

Under a federal policy known as the VA Waiver, Fisher’s disability compensation reduces his military retirement pay dollar for dollar. Since his disability pay exceeds the value of his retirement benefit, his retirement check is wiped out. But if both benefits were paid, Fisher’s monthly military-related income would be nearly $4,900.

“My retirement pay was earned through my years of service,” Fisher said. “My VA disability compensation is because I lost my leg serving my country. Those are two completely different things, and I don’t think one should cancel out the other.”

Fisher also earns a salary from his full-time job as a logistics manager for an appliance company. But he said the offset still affects his long-term financial stability. With the extra money, he would have more flexibility.

“I’d pay off debt, save some money, and I could enjoy my family a lot more,” he said.

Naomi Mathis understands the strain.

During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the former Air Force staff sergeant’s convoy came under attack amid what she described as “total chaos.” Mathis witnessed the aftermath of multiple combat incidents, including the death of a fellow service member. After returning home, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The condition led to a 100% disability rating from the VA. She was medically retired after serving 7.5 years, far short of her goal of serving at least 20 years and eventually becoming a chief master sergeant.

Like Fisher, Mathis said the loss was not simply financial. It was the loss of a career she intended to finish.

“My career was cut short,” she said. “I was not given the opportunity to serve out those 20 or 30 years. But I would have.”

Mathis qualifies for a special combat-injury compensation fund that partially supplements the offset. Even with that assistance, the shortfall still stings: nearly $800 a month less than if she received her full retirement and disability pay.

With three young children at home, Mathis said financial pressure forced her back into the workforce before she had fully recovered.

“I couldn’t pay rent or feed my kids. I needed a job immediately,” she said. “I wasn’t able to heal.”

Mathis now serves as DAV’s deputy national legislative director. She said she remains grateful for the life she built after military service, but still believes the country’s promise to injured service members should not end when their careers are cut short.

“I signed my name on the dotted line, and I wasn’t just under the impression — I was told — that the military would be there for me when I put up my boots,” Mathis said. “Well, they put my boots up for me.”

Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., has proposed barring the VA from collecting voluntary or involuntary separation pay from veterans who are approved to receive disability compensation.

The bill also would allow veterans who later qualify for military retirement pay to remit the net amount they received instead of the gross amount so they don’t end up paying more than they actually received after taxes.

Gallego, a former Marine and Iraq War veteran, and Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla, introduced a similar bill in the House when Gallego served in that chamber, but the legislation never made it out of committee.

The senator said the legislation is needed because the money is paid out for separate reasons: disability payments are akin to workman’s compensation and separation pay reflects “time served” — an incentive tool used by the Defense Department to manage force strength and design.

“It is ridiculous to claw back money from a veteran who has put life and limb on the line, just because later in life they qualify for disability benefits,” Gallego said in a statement to Military Times.

From 2013 to 2023, the VA recouped $2.44 billion in separation pay and bonuses from 112,834 veterans under a law that the department cites as prohibiting it from paying disability compensation to those who received the pay unless the money is paid back.

The VA has been required to recover the money since the 1940s, and the Defense Department is required to inform transitioning service members of the potential for recoupment. Sometimes, however, veterans are surprised when letters announcing the recoupment arrive, sometimes decades after they left military service.

In one case, an Air Force officer received $30,000 in separation pay in 1990 and received a letter in 2024 telling him his entire disability compensation check would be withheld until the money was recouped.

The situation placed the veteran at risk for losing his living quarters and vehicle, he told Military.com at the time.

“I fail to comprehend how or why they intend to cut me off for several months without even negotiating a lesser but [survivable] monthly contribution. I also fail to understand why it took 34 years for VA to come up with this [scheme]. Why now?” retired Air Force Maj. Raymond Thomas, 75, told the publication.

By law, veterans’ monthly disability compensation can be withheld if they received readjustment pay, non-disability severance pay, disability severance pay, special separation benefits or involuntary or voluntary separation pay.

According to the VA, the recoupment effort hit a peak in 2018 with 17,066 veterans paying more than $396 million.

The Restore Veterans Compensation Act would also change the recoupment rate for retired military veterans who are required to make payments to 25% of their paychecks rather than the current 40% — an alteration that would lessen the financial impact of the recoupment.

When Gallego and Bilirakis introduced their bill in 2022, it drew the support of Disabled American Veterans who said the practice of withholding VA disability compensation because a service member received a separation benefit “must end.”

Sen. James Risch, R-Id. introduced a separate bill Wednesday that would limit the amount that veterans paid each month to the VA for recoupment.

Risch’s Veterans Earned Benefits Access Act would allow the VA to collect the separation pay but limit it to no more than 25% of their monthly disability compensation checks. Currently, the VA can withhold the entire amount of checks until the veteran pays back the government.

“My [bill] ensures that veterans can receive the disability benefits they need while repaying their separation pay,” Risch said in a release.

In a review of 9.9 million veterans in the VA medical system from 2000 to 2024, researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs and elsewhere found that 14,419 patients had received an ALS diagnosis.

In the group with ALS, 46% were Army veterans – nearly the same percentage of soldiers in the entire patient cohort.

Using the rate of ALS diagnoses among Army veterans as the baseline and adjusting for sex, race, and ethnicity, researchers found that Air Force veterans had a 29% higher rate, former Coast Guard members had a 26% higher rate and Navy veterans had a 15% higher rate. Marines had the lowest rate, at 22% below that of Army veterans.

Overall, officers had a 64% higher rate than enlisted personnel, while women officers had a 72% higher rate. Differences among branches were more apparent in men ages 61 and younger and less evident among men older than 75.

“Our study looked at the rates of ALS among people in different branches of the U.S. military and found ALS rates varied considerably by branch and rank, with larger differences among younger veterans,” said study author Marc Weisskopf at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in a release.

ALS is a rare disease diagnosed in roughly 5,000 Americans each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A fatal illness most famously associated with baseball legend Lou Gehrig and British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, it is a progressive disease that affects the motor neurons, causing them to lose connectivity and die off.

There are two types of ALS: sporadic, meaning occurring without a known cause in the general population, and familial, likely the result of an inherited genetic mutation, according to the ALS Association.

While military personnel are diagnosed with ALS at nearly twice the rate of civilians, the cause has not been scientifically proven. The VA presumes the condition to be service-connected given the heightened occurrence in the veteran population.

Researchers have theorized that exposure to hazardous environments and substances, including burn pits, jet fuel, exhaust, heavy metals, dioxins and other toxic materials, may contribute, but no direct connection has been proven.

“Our findings suggest that officers and those serving in the Air Force, Navy or Coast Guard may have been exposed to military environments that increase risk of ALS,” said Weisskopf. “Future research should aim to identify these exposures.”

In the civilian population, some occupations such as airline pilots, truck drivers, metal workers and those who work with pesticides and other toxic substances are associated with increased ALS risk, according to a 2022 Columbia University study.

The authors noted that the likelihood of developing ALS is low, even in the U.S. military. Of the 9.9 million veteran records reviewed, less than 0.2% of patients were diagnosed with ALS, according to the study.

“It is … important to note that ALS is rare and the overall risk remains small, so even statistically significant increases associated with branch and rank represent only modest increases in risk among military personnel,” Weisskopf said.

VA staff evacuated an unknown number of patients to local hospitals and are caring for 27 patients at area shelters, according to the facility’s Facebook page. The medical center, which lies less than a third of a mile from the fire perimeter as of Monday, will remain closed, “with future operations to be determined.”

More than 60,000 people have been evacuated from the area as a result of three fires collectively known as the Spokane Complex Fire. More than 8,000 acres had burned as of Monday, with 0% containment, according to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.

Mann-Grandstaff is closest to the Old Trails Fire, which began Saturday and was fueled by high winds.

“We are grateful for the support received. Spokane VA extends our sincere condolences to all victims, including local VA staff members who, like so many, have lost so much,” VA officials wrote on the hospital’s Facebook page.

According to the post, Spokane-area VA outpatient clinics and business operation centers are also closed. The hospital provides administration and services for local VA clinics, including records, pharmacy management and specialty care.

Mann-Grandstaff is a 46-bed facility with more than 1,400 full-time positions, including its clinics.

This is a developing story. It will be updated as more information becomes available.

“Desert Shield and Desert Storm, to a certain degree, has been a victim of its own success,” Scott Stump, President and CEO of the National Desert Storm War Memorial Association and Marine Corps Reserve veteran, told reporters last Thursday.

Stump, a veteran of the campaign, began what he dubbed “his life’s work” back in 2010, during the 20th anniversary of the successful military campaign.

“I decided that something needed to be done,” Stump said. “That this was too important. I had been to a number of veteran events put on by veteran service organizations that would remember past events and recognize past veterans and those who have fallen. They would skip right over this like it never happened, and I felt like that wasn’t right. I put myself in the shoes of those Gold Star family members. How would I feel if my loved one’s service was just basically overlooked? I felt like that was wrong, and that something had to be done.”

Now, the culmination of his 16-year battle with contracts, commissions, review agencies and countless authorization hurdles is finally coming to fruition.

With the Lincoln Memorial looming off in the distance and an expansive greenspace in the foreground, both Stump and Skip Graffam, lead design partner and lead landscape architect, emphasized the prime location of the Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial — 23rd and Constitution Avenue — during a recent hard hat tour with Military Times and other members of the press.

“During a commission meeting, I stated we want something that is visible, but also ‘visit-able,’ and that’s what we’ve achieved here because the National Park Service has estimated that we conservatively are going to be receiving anywhere in the neighborhood of five to 6 million annual visitors. We didn’t want to have something that people drove by and glanced at. We wanted people to come in and experience this memorial, and I believe we have hit the mark on that.”

“The parade route for the victory parade of Desert Storm was down Constitution Avenue,” Graffam added, “which was the last parade since World War II took place right there. So again, that’s why the site was so critical to the veterans.”

Noting that memorials along Constitution Avenue form a “kind of charm bracelet,” Graffam told reporters that he hopes the memorial “is going to further encourage that kind of connection” with the National Mall.

The memorial itself, while still under construction, is slated to be open to the public on Oct. 24, 2026.

Noting that veterans from the association went over “every inch of belt buckle, machine gun sight and chin strap” for accuracy, the design itself conjures up the impression of a sandstorm and mirrors the famous “Left Hook” maneuver where Lt. Gen. John Yeosock sent the XVIII Airborne Corps deep inside Iraq to block the Iraqi forces’ northern escape. The spiral pattern, Graffam notes, is meant to portray the “kinetic movement” of the campaign.

The memorial’s stone — mined in Brazil — gives off the appearance of barchan dunes found specifically in the Kuwaiti desert.

“It’s kind of flat light here, but you would see it sparkle when it rains,” Graffam told Military Times. “It’ll actually get really kind of a dark tan, and then it dries out. In the afternoon, one of the reasons why we oriented the description wall there, [is that] you get the afternoon sunlight and [it] turns it gold. It’s really cool. …It’s really interesting to see it react to life. I threw a bucket of water on it, you’d be like, ‘wait, that’s not the same thing.’”

Replete with a dune-scape “oasis” and carved, built-in stone seats, both Graffam and Stump urge visitors to take in the memorial at all times of day — but especially at night when the memorial’s stone is lit up.

At the center of the memorial, a large, burnished “unity” shield replete with the Al-Arfaj, Kuwait’s national flower, commemorates the shared effort of the coalition, with the names of the 36 other nations who were involved in the fight. Water will flow over the shield and down into waterways to further add to the experience.

“We hope it’s a memorial that’s designed for not only the veterans, but also something that, you know, 50 to 100 years in the future, [is] for people [who] may not know much about it, are interested in learning more and feel that this is a place that was important enough to remember,” Graffam concluded.

But as America celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it is easy to forget that independence was not guaranteed. As they shivered at Valley Forge in the winter of 1778, George Washington and his troops would have scoffed at the notion that victory would come on a silver platter.

For the American Revolution to succeed, the colonists had to create an army. Whether the Continental Army was defeated on the battlefield — as it frequently was — mattered less. As long as the United Colonies could keep an army in the field, Britain would be forced to continue what seemed like a forever war.

“American Revolutionary War” is a computer wargame that depicts the battles of the American Revolution, or what the British call the War of American Independence.

With 148 scenarios, from small engagements like Hubbardton and Kettle Creek, to larger battles such as Princeton, Brandywine and Saratoga, American Revolutionary War is part of publisher Wargame Design Studio’s Musket & Pike series. These games depict warfare from the 15th through the 18th Centuries, an era where polearms were gradually replaced by gunpowder weapons, such as muskets.

By the 1770s, the pike had been replaced by the bayonet, and the primitive arquebus by more reliable flintlock muskets including Britain’s “Brown Bess.”

With a 114-page user manual, American Revolutionary War is not exactly casual entertainment. It is a highly detailed simulation not just of 18th Century European-style warfare — but also how difficult it was to conduct armies’ European-style warfare in the 18th Century North American wilderness.

The game depicts battles at the grand tactical scale, with battalions and companies of infantry, as well as batteries of artillery and the occasional horse soldier (cavalry was much rarer than the later Napoleonic and American Civil Wars). The American have Continental regulars and local militia, while the Crown fields a polyglot force of British regulars, German mercenaries, Loyalist troops and Native American allies.

These units maneuver across a 2-D hex-grid map of eastern North America in its pre-industrial glory. The terrain is studded with forests, fields, marshes and streams.

Units are rated for how many troops or guns they have, and their weaponry (musket, 3-pounder artillery, etc.). Most important is a quality rating from A to F, which affects combat proficiency and movement. The British regulars tend to be quality As and Bs, while the Continentals tend to be Cs and Ds, and the American militias Fs.

Players alternate taking their turns, with each turn representing about 15 minutes of real time. Each player conducts movement and fire combat, followed by a melee phase to resolve assaults. Combat inflicts casualties as well as “fatigue,” which saps morale and effectiveness until units break or rout.

Western battlefield tactics in the 18th and 19th Centuries centered on assuming the right formation in an era when troops fought shoulder to shoulder. Column formation was used to expedite movement, though at the cost of firepower and presenting a juicy target. When engaging in a firefight, infantry would assume line formation, standing in two or three ranks.

Units in line that move through rough terrain, or obstructions, such as walls, run the risk of becoming “disordered,” with movement and fire penalties. On the other hand, a densely packed column can take heavy casualties from enemy troops deployed in line. Dispersing troops into open order makes them less vulnerable to enemy fire, but penalizes them in melee.

One myth is that the conflict “was fought by the British in a strictly linear fashion, while the Americans were primarily in skirmish,” Mike Cox, designer of American Revolutionary War, told Military Times. Both sides were capable of assuming a variety of formations, though this presented challenges for under-trained Continentals.

“The Americans often tried to fight linearly, too,” added Cox. “It just didn’t often work out well.”

Particularly useful are the detachments of light infantry.

“Learning to master your light troops is extremely important,” Cox said. “When to deploy as skirmishers to delay or scout, or recall and use them to effectively melee to push back the enemy and take and hold ground.”

Command and control has always been the glue that binds armies, but especially so in the pre-radio era, when commanders personally led their troops.

American Revolutionary War features historical commanders, rated from A (George Washington) to F, that form chains of command in each army. Leaders can rally broken troops and provide morale bonuses, though they can also be felled by enemy fire.

“Keeping units in range of their leader and their leader in range of the next higher echelon makes an army work well,” Cox explained. American commanders will need to stay close to their militia: “Keeping them in command and preventing their disruption and breakdown is an art.”

One fascination of playing historical wargames is seeing how they model the little things. For example, the British Army’s Scottish Highlanders are given a bonus during melee combat “to reflect their impact on the minds of American troops, and their reputation for relishing close combat,” the game manual notes.

But ultimately, the question comes down to: How accurately does the game depict the battles that determined the fate of the American Revolution? And, how well does it capture the essences of a professional army versus a more amateur — but also more inspired — citizen army?

American Revolutionary War fares well on both questions.

The unit quality, morale and command systems model the capabilities of both sides, including how the Continental Army improved over time due to combat experience, as well as the tutelage of European instructors like Baron von Steuben.

“British forces are often outnumbered,” said Cox. “They need to learn to stretch their lines or get outflanked. They will usually have some high-quality troops and have the advantage of picking the point of attack.”

“The Americans usually have a high number of units. However, quality and strength can vary wildly. The Americans need to know when to give ground and when to hit hard.”

Perhaps what is most striking is the theater of war.

WDS has published almost 120 historical wargames that cover gigantic battles, such as Waterloo, Gettysburg, Kursk and the Battle of the Bulge. In these games, the maps are packed with masses of troops.

In American Revolutionary War, the maps are often big, while the armies are small. One can begin to appreciate how British soldiers and colonial settlers must have felt about fighting in a vast, untamed land.

As Americans mark the Declaration of Independence, this is a reminder of how far our nation has come.

Researchers at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System and Stanford University School of Medicine in California looked at VA disability benefits and Social Security Disability payments to veterans across 14 years.

They found that the average yearly payment rose from $17,286 in 2010 to $24,057 in 2024, while the percentage of U.S. veterans receiving compensation rose from 9% in 2010 to 22% in 2024.

The increases are likely attributable to a number of causes, the authors said. They noted the high rate of deployments and increased possibility of serious service-connected illness and injury for post 9/11 veterans, improved medical care that resulted in increased survivorship of combat injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan and VA policies that have made more veterans eligible and made it easier to receive benefits.

Over the same time period, meanwhile, annual Social Security Disability Insurance payments to veterans remained steady, averaging around $19,550. Veterans may be eligible for SSDI payments if they have a condition that affects their ability to work.

According to the study published Thursday in JAMA Network Open, college educated, married and younger veterans were more likely to receive VA compensation while older veterans with non-service-connected disabilities were more likely to receive SSDI.

The authors theorized that the challenges associated with filing VA claims — “administrative hurdles,” as they described them — and the draw of VA education benefits may favor those who can navigate the system.

The increase in the percentage of veterans receiving VA disability benefits as well as the rise in amounts paid comes at a time when the population of U.S. veterans is declining: In 2010, the country had 22 million veterans; by 2024, that figure had declined to 15.8 million.

The researchers described their study as “descriptive” and drew few conclusions.

“These findings can inform policy discussions about optimal fiscal payments and program structures needed to achieve and streamline federal programmatic goals, while underscoring the need to reduce growing disability burden among veterans and to ensure ease of benefits navigation,” they wrote.

The authors did not respond to a request for an interview by publication.

Semaglutide is approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat Type 2 diabetes and chronic weight management, but not alcohol use disorder.

VA researchers are studying whether the GLP-1 receptor agonist may affect parts of the brain involved in reward, potentially offering a new treatment option for veterans with moderate or severe alcohol use disorder if proven safe and effective.

The department cautioned veterans not to self-medicate or replace evidence-based alcohol use disorder treatments with GLP-1 medications without first consulting a health care provider.

The study, known as the Cessation or Reduction of Alcohol Consumption in Veterans (CRAVE) trial, will enroll more than 600 veterans ages 18 to 80 at 18 VA medical centers nationwide.

Participants with moderate or severe alcohol use disorder will receive weekly injections of either semaglutide or a placebo for 24 weeks, followed by a safety evaluation. Researchers will measure changes in alcohol consumption, overall health and quality of life.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have increasingly studied whether GLP-1 medications, originally developed for diabetes and later approved for obesity, could also help treat substance use disorders.

VA cited an analysis published in March that found patients taking GLP-1 medications experienced lower rates of alcohol use disorder and other substance use disorders than similar patients taking other diabetes medications.

The department said larger, controlled clinical trials are needed to determine whether semaglutide is safe and effective for treating alcohol use disorder.

In an official statement, VA Secretary Doug Collins said, “By exploring emerging treatment options like the use of a GLP-1 for AUD, we aim to expand the tools available to help Veterans take control of their health and recovery.”

Recruitment began July 28. Veterans interested in participating can contact their local VA medical center or search for the trial on ClinicalTrials.gov.

Think of it as “using AI to navigate your next mission,” Easterly said in a June 29 podcast of the Army’s Transition Assistance Program. Troops can feed information from the DD-214, the record of military service, into AI — minus the Social Security number and other identifiers — and give it prompts to decipher what jobs might be suitable, how much those jobs pay and what the chances might be for getting hired, he added.

In the process, transitioning soldiers should ditch the mindset that AI is a job-killing obstacle to overcome and instead think of it as a tool “that can support your transition,” said Easterly, director of the Plans, Analysis and Integration Office at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

About 200,000 service members — 100,000 from the Army alone — leave the military each year, and this year they are entering a jobs market in flux, with the long-term effects of AI anybody’s guess. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 57,000 jobs were created in June, about half of what Wall Street analysts had expected in the current low-hire, low fire jobs market.

The impact of AI, which some have compared to the vast societal changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution, hasn’t yet produced the job apocalypse feared by many, but in May U.S employers cut 97,006 jobs, an increase of 16% over the 83,387 jobs cut in April, according to a report from the global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The report showed that “AI is now the leading reason companies give for cutting jobs and the primary industry citing it is technology,” Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer for the Challenger firm, said in the report. “The open question isn’t whether AI changes the workforce, but how fast.”

The AI issue will become all too real in a few days for Navy Lt. Cmdr. Alvin Carr, 34, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, when he leaves the military at the end of July after 13 years in the sea service, mostly in human resources.

“I think I definitely saw that AI was a tool that was being widely adopted” by employers in their recruiting and screening efforts, Carr said in a phone interview with Military Times, but “I don’t think I had the awareness of the impact of AI on the job market that I have now.”

“I heard it’s going to be a tough,” Carr added, noting that he was still confident that “I shouldn’t have to struggle too much,” given his degree from Annapolis and the masters in business administration he earned during his time in service.

Carr is one of the transitioning service members who has sought the help of career “coaches” at the Wounded Warrior Project, where Lesly Marmolejos is a career transition manager for WWP’s Warriors to Work program.

Her first task in meeting with newcomers to the program is to disabuse them of what they think they already know about AI.

“If you tell me you’re an expert in AI, I know you’re lying,” Marmolejos said in a phone interview with Military Times.

As a “coach,” Marmolejos said one of the first things she tells transitioning troops is that there’s “not any type of certification you can get in AI. Well, there is, but it would be irrelevant in a month.”

Despite all the emphasis on being tech proficient, “I still very much believe that the human side of the hiring process is very important,” she said. “The feedback that I’m getting is that while we have to learn how to use AI as part of the employment process, we still matter. If you talk to a [jobs] recruiter, they’ll say the same thing.”

Networking is still a major component of the job search, Marmolejos added, and “we still encourage [service members] to go to job fairs. Who you know matters, and who can give you a referral still matters. I don’t think [AI is] the big bad wolf everyone’s making it out to be.”

In a separate phone interview with Military Times, Jacob Mousseau, a former Army sergeant and a coaching colleague of Marmolejos at WWP, said, “New people need to get over their fear” of AI and stop doomscrolling on how AI is going to make humans in the workforce obsolete.

Mousseau echoed Marmolejos in stressing the importance of networking, calling it “critical this year more than ever.”

He has developed his own five-step strategy for assisting transitioning service members in their job search, beginning with career exploration by using AI to turn “an assessment into a personalized roadmap — realistic pathways, salary ranges, target organizations, a 30-day plan to explore before committing.“

“I use it to build deep, individualized guides for warriors,” Mousseau added, “and I teach them to run a lighter version themselves so they can keep exploring on their own.”

Another perspective was offered by Ben Dufay, a veteran of both the Army and Navy who now is director of career preparation and training at the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University.

“We’re transitioning into an environment where even people in the environment don’t know what’s going on,” Dufay said of the impact of AI on employers as well as job seekers. “Everybody knows somebody who’s been laid off. Employers don’t know what they want out of AI. It is disrupting stuff. ... Transition has always been something of a guessing game. That hasn’t changed.”

AI’s impact has only added to the traditional list of questions transitioning service members have, he noted.

“I don’t know what AI is. How does it help me?” Dufay stated, citing common questions. “How can I use it to assist me? What’s going to get me into an interview? How do you continue to engage with it, leverage it?”

Transitioning service members will also be facing a jobs market where an employer will occasionally decide that going with AI for a certain task was the wrong move, as happened with the Ford Motor Co. last month.

In a June 29 press call, Charles Poon, Ford’s vice president of Vehicle Hardware Engineering, said that AI had botched the job of quality control.

Poon called for about 300-350 engineers to be hired to clean up the mess.

“Mistakenly, we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product,” Poon said.

Suicidal thoughts among U.S. veterans have risen nearly 50% in the past five years, but the frequency of suicide planning and attempts remained relatively stable, according to a new study based on a survey of 2,636 veterans.

Researchers from the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for PTSD and the Yale School of Medicine analyzed data from the 2025-26 National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study and found that 13.4% of veterans reported suicidal thoughts in the previous two weeks, compared with 9% in the 2019-2020 survey.

The analysis found that rates of suicide planning and attempts remained unchanged in the same time frame, but for certain groups — particularly younger veterans and women — rates were higher for thoughts, planning and attempts over the five years.

Ian Fischer, the study’s lead author and a clinical psychologist at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, said the research was needed to understand the changing veteran population and potential shifts in suicidal thoughts and behaviors that can drive suicide prevention efforts.

“The veteran population has become younger, and there have been increases in the proportion of women veterans and shifts in its racial and ethnic composition over the past five years, making it essential to monitor changes in suicidal thoughts and behaviors and identify the veterans who may benefit most from prevention and early intervention,” Fischer said Tuesday in a Yale press release.

More than 6,000 veterans have died each year by suicide since 2001. In 2024 — the most recent year for accurate nationwide data, 6,398 veterans died by suicide. Veterans ages 18 to 34 and those experiencing homelessness or health issues were at higher risk.

According to the VA, the suicide rates among veterans are 60% higher than the national average, with suicide the second leading cause of death among veterans under age 45.

The VA has invested millions in suicide prevention and teamed with community partners, providing grants and support to address suicide among former service members. It recently has focused on encouraging veterans to enroll in VA medical services, citing evidence that patients who receive health care at the VA have lower rates of suicide and suicide attempts.

The study, published July 20 in JAMA Network Open, showed that veterans who use the VA for primary health care were twice as likely to have received mental health treatment at some point in their lives. More than half of those who said they used VA health care services were actively enrolled in mental health care.

The survey also found that fewer than 37% of veterans who reported having suicidal thoughts in the previous two weeks were receiving mental health care.

“These findings suggest that the VA is playing an important role in connecting veterans at elevated suicide risk with mental healthcare,” said Brandon Nichter, a visiting scholar in Yale’s Department of Psychiatry and study coauthor, in a release.

“At the same time, many veterans with recent suicidal thoughts are still not engaged in treatment. Expanding outreach and reducing barriers to care across both VA and community health systems will be essential to reaching these individuals,” Nichter said.

According to the study, younger veterans remain at higher risk for suicide, possibly because post 9/11 veterans experienced of “elevated trauma exposure” during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Researchers noted that service-era comparisons are complicated by generational differences and “survivorship bias,” meaning older veterans may appear less likely to experience suicide behavior because younger veterans at highest risk are less likely to survive into old age.

According to the survey, woman veterans had higher odds of suicide planning and attempts, while VA national data shows that male veterans die by suicide at higher rates.

Risk factors for suicide attempts include major depression, alcohol use and adverse childhood experiences that preceded military service, according to the study, and risk factors for suicidal thoughts and planning included PTSD, major depressive disorder and adverse childhood experiences.

The authors cautioned that the study relied on self-reported data, and veterans may have been reluctant to disclose suicidal thoughts or attempts. Those surveyed also were a recruited group and did not include incarcerated or institutionalized veterans or other unique veteran subsets, meaning the sample was not fully representative of the U.S. veteran population.

Based on the survey results, researchers estimated that between 2.3 million and 2.4 million of the nation’s roughly 16 million veterans experienced suicidal thoughts within the study’s measured time frame. They also estimated that about 1.4 million veterans had planned suicide at some point and around 830,000 had attempted during their lifetimes.

The researchers said they hoped information contained in the study will be used for improving prevention efforts, intervention and treatment.

“Targeting key risk factors in vulnerable sub-populations may help mitigate suicide risk,” they wrote.

The COMPACT Act allows eligible veterans and certain former service members to receive Veterans Affairs-funded emergency suicide crisis care at VA and community hospitals, even if they aren’t enrolled in VA healthcare. New data obtained by Military Times show 49,341 veterans have used the benefit since 2023, but veteran advocates and suicide prevention professionals say many eligible veterans still don’t realize it exists until they experience a crisis.

In 2025, retired Navy Master Chief David Hull’s life unraveled after he lost his job during the government shutdown.

The transition from military service had been difficult, but he had rebuilt his life. Then when his paycheck disappeared, so did his ability to provide for his three children.

“I didn’t always consider taking my own life,” Hull said. “It wasn’t until I felt like I had no one and nowhere to go.”

“It’s easy to sink into feeling nothingness when you can’t see your value anymore or you become disconnected from your purpose,” he said.

After putting his children to bed one night, Hull searched online for combinations of pills that promised an easier way to end his life. As he poured medication into a single bottle, he accidentally knocked the empty container onto the floor.

His 6-year-old daughter picked it up.

“She looked up at me with her big brown eyes,” Hull recalled, his voice breaking. “It cracked me wide open.”

Hull left his children with a neighbor and drove to Garrett Regional Medical Center, a community hospital in Oakland, Maryland.

He wasn’t enrolled in VA healthcare. He didn’t have health insurance. Until that night, he had never heard of the COMPACT Act or that eligible veterans could receive VA-funded emergency suicide crisis care at a community hospital.

“I just needed someone to help clear my head and get me straight again,” Hull said. “I was circling the drain. On the precipice of having no home, no food, no money and no job with a promise of a better tomorrow. Nothing.”

About 40 minutes after arriving, Hull was evaluated by an emergency physician, who assured him he would be taken care of. A hospital social worker then explained that the Department of Veterans Affairs would cover the cost of his emergency treatment and follow-up care.

“I was shocked to find out that I could be seen for free after they identified me as a veteran,” Hull said.

In 2020, Congress signed the COMPACT Act Emergent Suicide Crisis Benefit into law to remove financial and administrative barriers to emergency suicide crisis care. Three years later, it was implemented by the VA, but many eligible veterans remain unaware of the benefit until they need it, veteran advocates and suicide prevention professionals told Military Times.

A lifeline beyond VA’s doors

The Emergency Suicide Crisis Benefit was established under the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act, or COMPACT Act. Coverage includes emergency evaluation, treatment, inpatient or crisis residential care when clinically appropriate, and up to 90 days of outpatient follow-up care.

According to data provided by VA, nearly 50,000 veterans have received the Emergency Suicide Crisis Benefit since fiscal 2023, including just over 10,000 in fiscal 2023. 14,666 receieved the benefit in fiscal 2024; 15,218 in fiscal 2025; and 9,434 during the first half of fiscal 2026.

“The number of Veterans receiving the COMPACT Act’s Emergent Suicide Crisis Benefit has grown steadily since its inception in FY23,” VA Press Secretary Quinn Slaven said.

VA spent a record of nearly $110 million on acute suicide crisis care during fiscal 2025.

Slaven said VA reviews eligible cases to ensure veterans receive the benefit, educates veterans and community emergency department staff about its availability and works with providers so eligible veterans do not receive unexpected medical bills after crisis care.

According to VA, 72% of veterans who have used the benefit have since enrolled in VA healthcare.

Misconceptions persist

Despite growing use of the benefit, the Disabled American Veterans, or DAV, organization says many eligible veterans still misunderstand who qualifies for emergency suicide crisis care.

“DAV believes awareness of the safety net created by the COMPACT Act remains lower than it should be,” Jon Retzer, DAV’s national legislative director, said.

Retzer said DAV service officers routinely meet veterans who believe they must already be enrolled in VA healthcare, have a service-connected disability rating or seek treatment at a VA medical center before the benefit applies.

“Many veterans remain uncertain whether an emergency room visit will generate medical debt or whether VA will ultimately cover the care,” Retzer said. “That uncertainty can discourage veterans from seeking treatment during a crisis when immediate intervention is critical.”

Retzer urged veterans experiencing a suicidal crisis to seek emergency care first and allow VA to determine eligibility afterward.

Army Reserve Prevention Integrator David Arthur said those same misconceptions continue to surface in his work, particularly among older veterans.

He said distance from a VA medical center can create uncertainty because many rural veterans live an hour or more away, while nearby outpatient clinics do not provide emergency services.

“When they are in a crisis, in my experience with suicidal soldiers and vets, they are not even thinking about that,” Arthur said. “But those thoughts are huge barriers, especially the cost.”

“I want every vet to know they can go to any ER or hospital,” Arthur continued.

Returning to care

Hull completed the full 90 days of follow-up care available through the benefit before enrolling in VA healthcare.

“I don’t know if I could have afforded the treatment I received after that night without the VA,” Hull said. “And I don’t know that I’d be enrolled with the VA now without the care I experienced.”

“I wish so many of my brothers and sisters knew that this was an option,” Hull said. “It doesn’t matter if you have insurance. It doesn’t matter if you’re a patient in the VA system. None of that matters. There are no strings attached. No barriers to being seen. This is a gift that every veteran needs to know they’re eligible for.”

“I’ve been acting for 39 years and made many movies and TV shows,” he says. “I have a deep connection to all of them, but I certainly don’t have one I talk about 25 years later like this one.”

Based on the 1992 bestselling nonfiction book by Stephen Ambrose, the monumental miniseries tracked the service of soldiers in Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division from Normandy to Berchtesgaden in World War II. The show’s gritty authenticity and immersive storytelling made it an instant hit with critics and viewers alike.

Premiering on Sept. 9, 2001, “Band of Brothers was created by director Steven Spielberg and actor Tom Hanks, who were both involved in the 1998 film “Saving Private Ryan.” Two days after the first episode aired, the United States was rocked by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The series served as rallying point for a grieving country by showing how Americans responded to a similar challenge decades earlier.

“I remember 9/11 and ‘Band of Brothers’ very vividly,” says historian Adam Coste of the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, which is sponsoring a “Band of Brothers” 25th Anniversary Symposium July 31 and Aug. 1. “Those seminal moments confirmed for me the path I was going to take into the military, where I served 11 years as an Army officer. Watching the series at the time influenced me and my generation of veterans because it emphasized brotherhood over combat.”

“Band of Brothers” also set the bar higher for films and series depicting the bloody reality of war and is now considered the gold standard for all such productions. The actors portrayed real citizen soldiers from across the United States who signed up as paratroopers in the “Screaming Eagles” division to fight fascism. The series shows these young men as determined and ordinary individuals who strove to do their duty with bravery.

“‘Band of Brothers’ was never about celebrity, it was about legacy,” says McCall, who portrayed PFC Joseph Liebgott. “It was a legacy about a particular company of men. Somehow, we managed to follow in their footsteps and tell their stories. We knew what was on the line and what we had to do.”

James Madio, who played T-4 Frank J. Perconte, realized early what they were doing was special. The entire group of actors had to participate in a grueling 10-day “basic training” before filming started so they could get a sense of what soldiers in Easy Company experienced.

“We were up every morning at 5:30 to do PT,” he recalls. “We wore dog tags and marched to the set singing each day. We went through weapons training and learned the manual of arms. We went on long marches with heavy backpacks and bivouacked outdoors. It was an incredible experience and all the actors bonded together during it.”

Since Perconte was still alive when the series went into production, Madio was able to query his “soldier” about his wartime service and get insight into his character. He also developed a close personal relationship with the elderly Army veteran that endured long after filming was completed. Perconte asked Madio to accompany him to Europe on a tour of the battle sites of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment during World War II.

“The friendship was number one for me,” Madio says. “I wanted his trust and I wanted his friendship. I looked up to him and that generation.”

Tim Matthews didn’t have the opportunity to meet his character, Alex M. Penkala Jr. The Army private was killed in action Jan. 10, 1945, in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge. The actor-turned-acting-teacher admits to not having much dialog but points out the death of his soldier — as well as others in episode 7 — had a important impact on the show.

“The series is very much a wider story about a whole company,” Matthews says. “This episode shows how the morale of the company is affected when they are killed, which was done very effectively. In a real way, it demonstrates the emotional connection these men had to each other.”

For these actors, being in “Band of Brothers” was a pivotal moment in their careers. Knowing what was at stake, they banded together as a group in much the same way as the soldiers in Easy Company during World War II. They forged lasting relationships with others in the cast that remain intact today.

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t have some form of communication with one of the other actors,” Madio says. “We have reunions and we talk to each other all the time. We are all brothers and friends.”

All three actors plan to attend the 25th Anniversary Symposium in New Orleans. Their goal is to renew their bonds while honoring the real men who helped liberate Europe from fascism more than 80 years ago. They also look forward to engaging with fans of the miniseries — especially new viewers who weren’t even born when it first aired 25 years ago.

“I’m stopped today by 16-year-olds in the airport who recognize me,” McCall says. “We’re speaking to the generation we need to speak to now. They need to realize what these men did for us.”

The “Band of Brothers” 25th Anniversary Symposium will be shown live online Friday and Saturday, July 31 and Aug. 1. The public can watch free by registering here.

In a report released Tuesday, Government Accountability Office analysts said that although the VA outlays for the Community Care Program have risen from $9.5 billion in 2020 to $25 billion in 2025, the amount of improper payments have been reduced each year, from 78% of the total in 2020 to 2.4% in 2025.

The GAO said improper payments occur when the VA reimburses contractors that manage community care for outdated claims, incorrect reimbursement rates or payment amounts or bills that exceed authorized care.

Sometimes, the improper payments may be related to fraud, the GAO added, noting that as recently as February 2026, a home health care company submitted fraudulent claims for community care for $100,000 in services that were never provided. In another case, a provider agreed to pay $3.7 million to resolve charges that it fraudulently billed the VA for services that were not medically necessary.

The VA has worked to reduce improper payments and fraud risks, the GAO noted, by developing and implementing processes for identifying problems and assessing the root causes of improper payments.

The department developed and implemented corrective actions to address the issues, the analysts said.

The VA has not, however, conducted a fraud-risk assessment that identifies inherent risks, assesses the likelihood of fraud and determines its risk tolerance. GAO auditors recommended the VA create a fraud-risk framework and implement it.

“While VA has taken steps to identify and assess fraud risks, these efforts do not meet the key elements of a fraud risk assessment and have not resulted in a comprehensive fraud risk assessment for the program, leaving it vulnerable to fraud,” the report stated.

VA officials told the GAO that they were able to reduce improper payments in Community Care because they addressed the “broader system and policy issues,” such as payment processing errors and eligibility problems that followed the development of the nationwide program established in 2018 by the Mission Act.

VA officials said they would further address any issues that may contribute to improper payments in the next round of contracts for Community Care, which are expected to be awarded this year.

VA officials concurred with the GAO’s recommendation to create a fraud-risk framework, saying the department would establish oversight during its ongoing reorganization of the Veterans Health Administration, with the effort to be completed by March 2028.

The GAO also looked at improper payments by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to companies that manage Medicare Advantage plans. Analysts found that in 2025, CMS paid roughly $23.7 billion in improper payments, up from $16.3 billion in 2020.

The department will transition from the current Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics, or ANAM, to an “improved capability” through a phased implementation effective immediately, according to a June 9 Pentagon memorandum.

A Pentagon official told Military Times that the effort will replace legacy tools with a next-generation, enterprise-wide capability that can detect cognitive changes early.

The new capability will provide timely, actionable data that can allow commanders to make informed operational decisions, while empowering medical providers to analyze cognitive trends for rapid clinical follow up and the department to sustain the overall readiness of the U.S. military, the official said.

“While ANAM provided an early foundation for cognitive baseline collection, the operational requirements, and technological landscape have advanced significantly,” the memo reads.

“The Department’s sustained research investments, combined with emerging clinical insights and the evolution of neurocognitive and neurobiological assessment capabilities, now support a transition from ANAM to a more modern, scalable, and operationally aligned solution,” the memo continues.

The memo first circulated on the unofficial Air Force Facebook page Air Force amn/nco/snco last week. A Pentagon official confirmed its authenticity to Military Times on Wednesday.

The rise of ANAM

ANAM is a computerized test that takes around 20 to 30 minutes with a combination of reaction and memorization activities to evaluate a service member’s neurocognitive baseline and can evaluate for traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs.

The tool was first developed in 1984, and it was mandated by Congress in 2008 for all Defense Department personnel as a pre-deployment baseline testing and post-injury assessment. At the time, the number of TBIs in the military grew substantially following deployments to the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

TBI is the disruption of brain function or structure caused by an external force, like a blow to the head or shockwave from a blast, that can cause brain bleeds or swelling. Symptoms can range from dizziness and trouble sleeping to memory loss or seizures.

While most cases are mild and allow service members affected to return to duty rather quickly, the more severe cases can last years or be permanent.

More than 500,000 service members sustained a TBI from 2000 to 2025, according to government data, from day-to-day activities, military deployment or training. The majority of TBI cases suffered by service members are classified as mild, or concussion, and they can return to full duty within 10 to 14 days of sustaining the injury.

Service officials have considered TBI to be the “signature injury” of modern warfare as it was seen widely in post-9/11 conflicts due to an increase in the use of explosive devices.

More recently, in the Iran war, nearly 500 service members have been injured, with the majority of injuries being TBIs.

A new approach

The June memo, signed by Under Secretary of War for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata, says that the DoD is granting a one-year exception to the previous policy to allow for the phased implementation to replace ANAM as the Pentagon’s cognitive monitoring tool.

When indicated, the new tool will incrementally replace ANAM for cognitive baselining, periodic monitoring, pre-deployment screening, clinical evaluations and post-deployment assessment, per the memo.

“The Department’s commitment to brain health is unwavering and enduring,” Tata wrote in the memo. “This modernization ensures that our cognitive monitoring enterprise reflects evolving science, operational needs, and our responsibility to protect those who defend our great nation.”

During the phased implementation, ANAM will continue to be used to meet the department’s cognitive monitoring requirements until the new capability is tested across the military.

Firstly, the rollout will prioritize deployed service members, followed by those preparing to deploy, the Pentagon official said, and will reach all remaining service members eventually. The memo also states that high-risk civilian personnel will be included in the early implementation.

TBI interventions

The change continues the broader efforts across the DoD to strengthen early identification and management of brain-health impacts for the total force. Services have been fielding new capabilities to assess TBI on the battlefield.

The Defense Health Agency’s Warfighter Readiness, Performance and Brain Health team hosted a medical training camp recently to evaluate TBI assessment technology prototypes being developed for use, according to a mid-July release.

Last week, the Army announced that a handheld blood-testing device, called i-STAT Alinity — which can detect TBI in 15 minutes — is being fielded to units under the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command because of the disproportionately high rates of TBIs in air defense.

The move to update the Defense Department’s cognitive monitoring program comes as funding for medical research into TBI has dropped significantly in the last three fiscal years.

In fiscal 2024, TBI under the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs was allocated $175 million, which dropped completely the following fiscal year to zero.

Funding jumped to $40.5 million in fiscal 2026, still a 23% decrease from fiscal 2024, with fiscal 2027’s budget request maintaining that amount.

The legislation seeks to end a decades-old offset that forces many combat-injured medically retired veterans to forfeit a portion of their retirement pay for every dollar they receive in VA disability compensation. Supporters have long argued the policy amounts to penalizing service members for injuries sustained in combat, calling it a “Wounded Veteran Tax.”

Then Congress introduced a revised version of the legislation in March 2025.

When the Congressional Budget Office evaluated H.R. 2102, the current version of the Major Richard Star Act, its new cost estimate projected the bill would increase direct spending to $78.1 billion over 10 years, roughly $68 billion more than CBO’s estimate for the bill’s 2023 predecessor.

The revised estimate transformed the conversation surrounding one of Congress’ most broadly supported veterans bills and prompted a question that still remains unresolved:

What changed between the 2023 and 2025 versions of the Richard Star Act to increase the projected cost so dramatically?

The answer isn’t simply a larger number. It lies at the intersection of legislative drafting, statutory interpretation, DoD actuarial data and congressional budget scoring, where even subtle changes can reshape both the projected cost of legislation and its political future.

Two provisions with a $65 billion price tag

CBO’s explanation points to two provisions it concluded were added to H.R. 2102 that were not included in H.R. 1282.

The first would make Chapter 61 military retirees with fewer than 20 years of service eligible for Concurrent Retired and Disability Pay (CRDP), a benefit generally limited under current law to military retirees who completed at least 20 years of service. CBO estimated that provision alone would increase direct spending by approximately $63 billion over the 2026–2036 period.

The second provision would remove an existing cap on CRDP payments for Chapter 61 retirees with at least 20 years of service, adding another estimated $2 billion.

Together, CBO concluded those two provisions accounted for roughly $65 billion of the increase between the previous and current versions of the legislation.

For years, supporters understood the Richard Star Act as legislation intended to restore concurrent receipt for approximately 54,000 combat-injured Chapter 61 retirees whose military retired pay is reduced because they also receive VA disability compensation.

Its estimated cost, roughly $10 billion over a decade, was substantial but comparatively modest within the context of major veterans legislation. Then the revised estimate changed the conversation.

A different understanding of the revisions

Congressional staffers in Sen. Blumenthal’s office involved in developing both H.R. 1282 and H.R. 2102 understood the revisions differently than CBO ultimately interpreted them, explaining that the legislative revisions were intended to address a narrow gap affecting approximately 1,124 combat-injured Chapter 61 retirees who remained excluded under previous versions of the bill. Under that understanding, the intended affected population would increase from roughly 54,000 to about 56,000 veterans.

CBO reached a different conclusion.

Its estimate states that approximately 255,000 Chapter 61 retirees with fewer than 20 years of service would become eligible for concurrent receipt under H.R. 2102. That broader interpretation accounts for nearly the entire increase between the previous estimate and the March 2025 score.

CBO has reaffirmed its estimate, explaining that it evaluated the statutory changes contained in H.R. 2102 using population data provided by the Department of Defense’s Office of the Actuary, which identified the class of retirees CBO concluded would become newly eligible under the legislation.

The result is a striking disconnect between Congress’ stated intent and CBO’s interpretation of the revised bill. Military Times also asked the Department of Defense about its role in providing information used during CBO’s analysis. DoD did not respond by publication.

The stakes

For the combat-injured retirees who have spent years advocating for the Richard Star Act, the legislation has never been about budget estimates. It has been about restoring military retired pay they argue they earned through their service and sacrifice. But in Congress, budget scores influence legislative prospects.

CBO has explained how it arrived at its estimate. What remains unclear is why congressional offices involved in drafting the revisions believed the legislation would affect roughly 56,000 combat-injured retirees while CBO concluded the revised language would extend eligibility to a much broader population.

That difference transformed a bill long understood to carry a price tag of about $10 billion into legislation projected to cost $78.1 billion over a decade, fundamentally altering its prospects in Congress.

Before her death in 2024, in an interview with Wounded Warrior Project, Tonya Star, widow of Maj. Richard Star, reflected on what passage of the legislation would mean to the veterans and families it was designed to help:

“It’s not just a rubber stamp; this will affect their day-to-day life and help them provide for their families… This would be their win.”

The line at the Wendy’s drive-thru barely moved as Hailey Richards sat behind the wheel during her lunch break, staring into the rear-view mirror beneath a pair of dark sunglasses. The driver behind her had pulled close enough that she found herself wondering whether they could tell she was crying.

“I just broke down,” Richards said.

In a few minutes, she would wipe away the tears, drive back to the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital where she worked as a nurse and finish caring for veterans.

At the time, she couldn’t explain why an ordinary Tuesday afternoon had become the moment everything surfaced. Looking back, she doesn’t think it was about that day at all.

Richards became a nurse because she wanted to care for veterans. She loved listening to stories about their coffee mugs no one dared wash because years of coffee had seasoned them just right. Albert, a Vietnam War veteran, actually got her to drink from his mug one morning after repeatedly assuring her the taste was like no other.

She listened to their sea stories, anecdotes about deployments, friendships and losses that still lingered decades after the uniforms came off.

More recently, the moments that stick in her memory look different.

She thinks about the veteran who apologized for asking again for pain medication that hadn’t arrived long after it should have. The patient left staring at the ceiling while a call light continued to flash. The conversation that ended before she wanted it to because another veteran couldn’t wait any longer.

None of those moments would make a government report. Taken together, Richards says, they have changed what it feels like to care for veterans inside the VA.

For many of the 9 million veterans enrolled in VA health care, those moments are largely invisible. Patients may notice a delayed medication, a longer wait for help or a hurried bedside conversation. What they don’t see are the decisions nurses say happen behind the scenes when there isn’t enough time to do everything they believe their patients need.

Richards’ experience is unfolding against a backdrop of persistent staffing challenges across the Veterans Health Administration.

In its fiscal 2025 workforce assessment, the VA Office of Inspector General found that all 139 VA medical centers reported at least one severe occupational staffing shortage. Nearly four in five facilities identified nursing among those shortages, and facilities collectively reported 4,434 severe occupational staffing shortages across clinical and nonclinical occupations, a 50% increase from the previous year.

VA hospitals are finding it harder to fill jobs, watchdog says

The report does not measure nurse vacancy rates. Instead, it identifies occupations that VA medical centers designated as severe shortages under federal recruitment and retention criteria. Unlike vacancy reports, which estimate open positions, the Inspector General’s review reflects occupations facilities identified as difficult to recruit or retain.

The Inspector General’s review measures where facilities say staffing shortages are severe enough to interfere with their mission.

VA Press Secretary Quinn Slaven said the Inspector General’s report is subjective, identifying occupations that facilities feel are difficult to recruit and retain, rather than measuring department-wide nurse vacancy rates.

The report “is not a reliable indicator of staffing shortages,” Slaven said, arguing that nursing shortages are in line with historical averages.

A series of tradeoffs

Richards says the hardest part of working inside the VA isn’t the pace; it’s knowing that no matter how quickly she moves, there are moments when she cannot be everywhere veterans need her to be.

A medication is due in one room while another veteran presses the call light for help getting to the bathroom. A family member has questions about a discharge plan. Another patient needs wound care.

The work itself isn’t unusual. What changes, Richards says, is the constant calculation of what can wait.

“You prioritize the sickest patient first,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean everyone else stops needing you.”

Those are the moments she carries home.

“You replay your day,” Richards said. “You think about the things you couldn’t do, not because you didn’t want to, but because there wasn’t enough time.”

VA leader’s policies delaying care, destroying work force, report says

Richards is careful to separate those experiences from the quality of care veterans ultimately receive. She says nurses continue to work together, adjust priorities and step in for one another to make sure patients remain safe. But safety and the kind of care nurses aspire to provide are not always the same thing.

Moral distress

For decades, nursing ethicists have studied the consequences of caring for patients when clinicians believe they know the appropriate course of action but lack the time, staffing or resources to carry it out.

In 1984, philosopher and nursing scholar Andrew Jameton introduced the term moral distress to describe that experience. Since then, researchers have expanded the concept beyond individual ethical dilemmas to include the organizational conditions that repeatedly force clinicians to compromise the care they believe patients deserve.

Ann Hamric, leading moral distress researcher, has argued that the problem is not simply exposure to difficult situations. It arises when institutional constraints prevent clinicians from acting in accordance with their professional judgment.

Repeated over time, she and other researchers have found, those experiences can leave a lasting psychological burden, sometimes referred to as “moral residue.”

More recently, nursing ethicist Cynda Rushton has described moral distress as a signal that something within the care environment is preventing clinicians from practicing in ways that align with their professional and ethical commitments.

Rather than viewing it as an individual failing, her work frames it as evidence of tension between the demands of the health care system and the standards clinicians strive to uphold.

Richards had never heard the term when she began questioning whether she was providing veterans the care they deserved. But she immediately recognized the experience it describes.

Richards still thinks about sobbing in that Wendy’s drive-thru. She recalls wishing someone would notice and offer her some kind of relief.

At the time, she couldn’t explain why she had broken down in the middle of an ordinary lunch break. Now she can.

Hailey says there was no single shift that convinced her something had changed. It happened gradually, one decision at a time.

She began replaying her days after she got home, wondering whether she had missed something, whether she could have spent another five minutes with a veteran who seemed anxious or answered one more question before leaving the room.

“I love taking care of veterans,” Richards said. “That’s what makes it so hard to deal with being short staffed, we know our veterans deserve better.”

In a surprising moment that followed more than an hour of heated debate over the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act on the House floor, Rep. Chris DeLuzio, D-Pa., offered a motion to return the bill to the House Veterans Affairs Committee for review.

The vote on DeLuzio’s proposal was to precede a final vote on the legislation, which has divided veterans groups, and the chamber rejected the effort in a 210-211 vote, with one of four Republicans who initially supported it, Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., changing her vote at the last minute.

But instead of proceeding with the final vote as planned, House leadership pulled the bill, with Johnson saying a decision on the measure now will be delayed for several weeks.

Punchbowl News reported that Johnson blamed “misinformation” over the bill for his reasons to hold the vote.

“Our Veterans Affairs Committee has done a great job engaging with veterans … There still remains, though, a lot of misinformation out there, so instead of putting the bill on the floor this afternoon, we’re gonna delay it just a bit. We’re gonna have several more weeks ahead of us before we get back here in September would be my guess when we process all this again,” Johnson told reporters.

The Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, H.R. 9237, encompasses more than 60 pieces of legislation, many of which have widespread support among veterans and advocates, such as the Major Richard Star Act, which would give retired, combat-injured veterans their full Veterans Affairs disability compensation and military retirement, and the Love Lives On Act, which would continue benefits for surviving spouses of the fallen if they remarry before age 55.

But the proposal for covering the cost — enacting a planned rule that would change the requirements for disability compensation for two conditions that commonly affect veterans, sleep apnea and tinnitus, has split the veterans community and lawmakers.

Supporters say the payment proposal is vital to getting the legislation made into law while critics argue that future benefits for veterans should not be used to pay for current needs.

At least 22 veterans organizations support the bill. During a press conference Tuesday, Mario Marquez, the executive director of government affairs for the American Legion, said the proposal represents the best way forward for getting top priorities accomplished.

“Leadership is about carefully evaluating the facts making difficult decisions and accepting responsibility for those actions and those decisions,” Marquez said. “Progress only happens when leaders are willing to tackle difficult issues and keep veterans at the center of the conversation.”

But other groups vociferously oppose it, with the VFW and Disabled American Veterans leading the charge. Their representatives joined Democrat lawmakers in a press conference Wednesday to push lawmakers to vote against the bill.

Past VFW National Legislative Service Director Pat Murray said as an amputee who lost his leg in Iraq and medically retired, he would receive increased compensation as a result of the bill. But, he added, he didn’t want to “get those benefits at the expense of others.”

“We support the provisions of the Major Richard Star Act and we want the full act passed because that is what veterans deserve,” Murray said.

Prior to the planned vote Thursday, lawmakers engaged in heated debate that pitted the chairman and ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee against one another. Chairman Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., said he had taken a lot of heat over the proposal but believed the bill helps “the greatest number of veterans.”

“This bill includes long-standing priorities for veterans, and importantly, it does so in a way that is paid for and capable of actually moving from here to the Senate and to the President’s desk,” Bost said. “At some point, we have to decide whether we’re going to keep talking about these promises or actually move a package that can become law.”

Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., the committee’s ranking member, has proposed pulling apart the legislation and voting separately on the provisions. Takano said that while he supports many of the legislation’s provisions, he disagrees with a proposal to raise VA home loan fees, several GI Bill initiatives, some health proposals and the payment structure.

“Let’s be crystal clear about what this bill does. It says to troops downrange right now who are in harm’s way that they have to have worse benefits than veterans have today to pay for benefits and care that other veterans have earned. That’s ridiculous,” Takano said.

VA officials confirmed to Military Times that they intend to follow through on the audiology portion of the proposed rule, which would mean that tinnitus, which currently receives a 10% disability rating, would be treated as a symptom of another condition, such as hearing loss or a traumatic brain injury, and would no longer get a standalone rating.

The officials did not address the sleep apnea portion of the rule, but a Politico reporter posted a message on X saying administration officials told her the VA has “made no move to withdraw the proposed sleep apnea rule and will be moving forward with the rule change that appeared on the regulatory agenda.”

Under the proposed rule, veterans with asymptomatic sleep apnea or a mild case controlled by treatment could receive a 0% disability rating.

Bost said that if the VA moves ahead with the 2022 proposed rule, without his legislation, the savings would return to the Treasury Department and not be allocated specifically to veterans.

The estimated savings of enacting the rule could be $57 billion over 10 years.

“New Mexicans who have been affected by these exposures deserve compensation and they deserve to get that compensation free from bad actors attempting to take advantage of them,” Lopez said in a release shortly after a major expansion and extension of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) was signed into law on July 4, 2025.

The measure finally included the New Mexico “Downwinders” from the Trinity blast and their surviving families who were excluded from coverage when RECA initially passed in 1990. Previously, it covered only specific counties in Nevada, Arizona and Utah, which had been exposed to fallout from the more than 900 atomic tests, including 100 above ground, at the Nevada test range between January 1951 and September 1992.

The government at the time claimed there was insufficient data on the impacts of the fallout from the Trinity test to include New Mexico in the coverage.

When the new RECA bill passed last year as part of President Donald Trump’s “one big beautiful” tax-cutting bill, it was the first time in 80 years since the Trinity blast that the government acknowledged New Mexicans were entitled to federal assistance.

At a virtual news conference Tuesday, two days before the 81^st anniversary of the Trinity blast, advocates for expanding and extending the current RECA Act, which is set to sunset in 2028, also warned again of the continuing attempts by scam artists to steal compensation from the victims.

Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., said the long-awaited compensation for the Downwinders had also “opened the door to rampant fraud,” and he urged those eligible for the $100,000 to guard against “bad actors in our community.”

Vasquez also called for the current RECA act to be extended for another 15 years past the 2028 deadline to ensure all victims are compensated.

He urged that the compensation be increased from $100,000 to $150,000.

Even before claims under the new RECA Act could be filed, scammers allegedly were at work last July at a booth at the Eastern Navajo Fair in Crown Point, New Mexico. The booth boasted of assistance in filing claims, according to Maggie Billman, a member of the Sawmill Warriors group advocating for radiation survivors of the Navajo nation.

Billman told Native News Online that she was alarmed by the supposedly official claims forms attendants at the booth were handing out. The forms asked for Social Security Numbers, phone numbers and the hospital where treatment was given.

“I looked at the woman and I said, ‘This is not RECA. Why don’t you give me your business card, and I’ll be in touch? I know a lot about this bill.’ That’s when they stopped talking to me, and I walked away,” Billman said.

Tina Cordova, a co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium advocacy group and a cancer survivor herself, was not surprised at Billman’s experience with the scammers. She added that she would continue to advocate for New Mexicans with illnesses that do not qualify for compensation under RECA.

“I think that it’s high time our government realizes that we are not going to stand for justice for some,” Cordova said. “We are in favor of justice for not just a few, but justice for the many, and we will continue to fight until we receive justice for all.”

Since RECA was enacted in 1990, the program has approved over 41,000 claims, totaling more than $2.6 billion to Downwinders, according to the Justice Department, which administers the program.

The virtual news conference came two days before the 81^st anniversary of the Trinity blast. In 1945, an eclectic group of scientists enrolled by physicist Robert Oppenheilmer to develop and detonate an atomic bomb gathered in the New Mexico desert to watch whether the thing they called “the gadget” would actually work and usher the world into the atomic age.

Hegseth mulls benefits fix for veterans exposed to radiation at A-bomb test site

The plutonium bomb of about 19-21 kilotons went off at what was then called 5:59 a.m. Mountain War Time with a blinding light visible over a 160-mile radius. It sent up a fiery mushroom cloud hotter than the core of the sun, according to numerous accounts of that morning by the participants and others.

New Mexicans were told nothing. They were not warned before nor after the blast. The public was not told of the Trinity blast until the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war with Japan.

In the interim, the U.S. Army put out a not-to-worry release attributing the colossal blast and fallout to an ammo dump explosion: “Explosion of an ammunition magazine on the Alamogordo Air Base reservation this morning, heard and seen for many miles, was reported today by William O. Eareckson, commanding officer of the air base. There was no loss of life or injuries of persons, Earekson said.”

The Trinity site is now part of the Army’s White Sands Missile Range, which planned no ceremonies nor open house events to mark the anniversary.

The site is opened to the public only once a year in October, and visitors are warned against picking up any of the strange so-called “Trinitite” green and red rocks that were formed when desert sand was sucked up into the mushroom cloud and heated to a glass-like substance before falling back to earth.

The Trinitite still contains tiny traces of radiation. It’s against the law for visitors to try to take the rocks home as souvenirs.

Years of bipartisan work on the Major Richard Star Act and dozens of other veterans bills could take a different path if it doesn’t get the votes needed on the senate floor this week.

Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., ranking member on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, told Military Times on Wednesday that Congress should abandon the omnibus package and instead advance the Major Richard Star Act and other bipartisan veterans bills individually rather than risk losing them over the funding dispute.

“If Congress cannot reach agreement on the funding mechanism, I think we can pursue each of these provisions individually,” Takano said. “I believe the Major Richard Star Act would pass in a heartbeat.”

The conflicted legislation includes the Major Richard Star Act, and the Love Lives On Act, along with expanded caregiver support, survivor benefits, community care improvements, education reforms and mental health initiatives affecting millions of veterans, military families, caregivers and survivors.

While many of those measures have broad bipartisan support, disagreement over how to pay for them has become an immovable fencepost blocking forward movement of the package.

Moran defends omnibus strategy

Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kan., defended the legislation, telling Military.com “It takes no benefit away from anyone who is receiving those benefits,” referring to veterans already receiving VA disability compensation for tinnitus or obstructive sleep apnea.

Moran said VA had already indicated it planned to update the disability rating criteria for those conditions and argued Congress should redirect the projected savings into veterans programs rather than allowing the money to return to the broader federal budget.

“If we don’t get out ahead of that business,” Moran said, “the reduction in spending … will not be used for veterans.”

Veterans of Foreign Wars National Commander Carol Whitmore has publicly rejected that approach. “When some suggest that veterans’ benefits are too expensive, let us be clear: This is the cost of war,” Whitmore said during a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees.

Whitmore has argued that disability compensation reflects the actual cost of military service and has opposed using projected savings from future disability rating changes to finance new veterans benefits. Moran, by contrast, argues those projected savings should remain dedicated to veterans programs instead of returning to the Treasury.

Takano says bipartisan bills should move on their own

For Takano, the funding dispute should not determine the fate of legislation that has spent years building bipartisan support.

At the center is the Major Richard Star Act, which would allow certain combat-injured medically retired service members to receive both military retired pay and VA disability compensation without the dollar-for-dollar deduction. Even with broad bipartisan support, Congress has repeatedly failed to advance the bill because lawmakers have been unable to agree on a funding offset.

“We don’t need to know the pay-for at the outset,” Takano said. “That could be subject to negotiations.”

Asked what alternatives Congress should consider, Takano pointed to unobligated Department of Defense funding and other federal budget offsets.

Two paths forward for veterans legislation

The funding dispute has morphed into a massive debate over legislative strategy. Moran argues the omnibus gives Congress its best opportunity to enact one of the largest veterans legislative packages in years while preserving projected savings for veterans programs. Takano agrees many of the same bills should become law but argues they should not remain tied to a financing plan that has divided lawmakers and veterans organizations.

If Congress cannot reach agreement on the omnibus, lawmakers may face a choice: continue negotiating a single package or begin advancing many of the same bipartisan bills one measure at a time.

For Takano, the question is not whether Congress should expand veterans’ benefits. It is whether one group of veterans should shoulder the cost of another’s gains.

“All veterans have sacrificed. We shouldn’t be asking one group of veterans to sacrifice for the other.”

Under the new memorandum of understanding, VA and HHS plan to increase clinical trial participation, train therapists, nurses and doctors to administer psychedelic medications if they receive federal approval and collect data and evidence to support patients, physicians and federal regulators in considering such treatments.

The agreement follows an executive order signed in April by President Donald Trump that directed the Food and Drug Administration to accelerate its review of several psychedelic treatments for mental illnesses.

The order largely addressed research for ibogaine, a hallucinogen derived from an African shrub, that some veterans have found helpful in ameliorating anxiety, PTSD and depression symptoms. It commits at least $50 million to increase research on ibogaine therapy.

Studies on PTSD in the general population have shown that a third may be resistant to traditional treatments, with up to 50% not responsive to psychological therapy and 40% untreatable with common medications.

An estimated 4.8 million American veterans have used psychedelic drugs, according to a study released last month by the think tank RAND.

Included in Monday’s message was the announcement that the VA signed an agreement with the Food and Drug Administration to increase collaboration to support the development of therapies for treating serious mental health conditions.

“President Trump opened up a world of possibility for treating veterans and others with mental health conditions, and VA is proud to be part of this important work,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a statement. “Today’s MOU ensures effective cooperation with HHS as we try to turn research into life-changing treatment.”

VA researchers are involved in more than 20 research trials on the use of psychedelics like MDMA and psilocybin for treating severe post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, substance abuse and other mental health conditions.

Studies also are underway in the Defense Department: a $4.9 million research study is ongoing at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on the effectiveness of MDMA — known commonly as Molly or Ecstasy — for the treatment of mild to moderate PTSD.

According to RAND, the most common hallucinogens used by veterans across their lifetimes were LSD, with 19.6% reporting its use, followed by psilocybin, or magic mushrooms at 18.6%, MDMA and mescaline, both at 7.7%.

Fewer than 2.9% reported using another type of hallucinogenic drug such as ibogaine, ketamine or ayahuasca.

The study also found that veterans were more likely to support the legal use of psilocybin mushrooms and LSD — 23% for mushrooms and 11% for LSD — but support for MDMA, at 9%, was about the same as the rest of the country.

Ron Adkins, an Army Reserve intelligence analyst and veterans advocate who deployed twice to Afghanistan, was on hand Monday for the MOU signing. He said the significance of the agreement lies in exploring new approaches to “the complexity of mental illness.”

“The cognitive space is a very complex environment. We are all very different people, so the treatments that might work very well for one person could be wholly ineffective for another,” Adkins said in an interview with Military Times. “I’m hoping we get better answers on what is effective for [veterans] trying to figure this out.”

U.S. veterans have traveled to Israel, Mexico and elsewhere in the past decade to receive psychedelic treatment for mental health disorders, often paying thousands of dollars out of pocket for the promise of relief.

Adkins said that should not happen.

“We need to continue to innovate as we as a nation does,” Adkins said.

In 2024, the FDA rejected a request that MDMA be approved for treating PTSD in adults, saying more research was needed to determine its safety and efficacy. The VA is conducting such a study in Providence, Rhode Island, with 80 veterans, comparing MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD and substance use with a placebo.

VA officials say while the department is studying treatments that use Schedule I drugs prohibited in the U.S. under federal law, veterans are discouraged from self-medicating with these substances or replacing their medical treatment with unprescribed substances.

“Proven, evidence-based treatments, are currently available at VA facilities to treat veterans with mental health conditions. Veterans should always consult their health care providers before making any treatment decisions,” officials said in a press release.

Born in Breslau, Germany (present day Wrocław, Poland), the Jewish-born Cohn and his family found refuge in the United States in 1938. Cohn was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943, just one month after his 18th birthday.

Sworn in as an American citizen during basic training, Cohn was originally assigned to the 87th Infantry Division before receiving orders as an infantry replacement and was sent to England, France and then all the way to the front line in Belgium.

While stationed near Bastogne, despite trying to distance himself from his native tongue, Army officials learned German was Cohn’s first language. He was subsequently plucked from the infantry ranks and sent to Le Vesinet near Paris. Unlike the Ritchie Boys — U.S. Army recruits who possessed German, Italian and Japanese language skills and immigrants who had fled Europe and Asia for the U.S. — who received a minimum of eight weeks of training, Cohn was slated for a two-week course which was then cut down even further.

“I had one week of training, and I became a full-fledged intelligence agent, well-trained,” quipped Cohn.

“The first night was the scariest night of my life,” Cohn recalled in a conversation with the Friends of the National WWII Memorial. “Not because we were bombarded or anything. Or shot at. It was all the rumors that were coming in.”

Speaking to an audience during a Nov. 13, 2024, conversation with historian and author Alex Kershaw, Cohn recalled, “I was given a rifle and a flashlight and told to go to a small dirt access road and make sure to not let any Germans come in. So, I get in the middle of road, and I stand there and a vehicle comes and I halt, and the driver asks, ‘What the heck you doing there?’ I say, ‘I’m making sure you’re not a German.’ He said, ‘if I was a German, you’d be dead.’

“I thought that was a good point. I go into a ditch in the road. The next vehicle comes. They don’t hear me. They go right by. I’m not doing my job. Now, what am I supposed to do? I’m up. I’m down. I don’t know what to do. Thank goodness around midnight they called me back in.”

For Cohn, the Bulge would hardly be his last time in combat. He saw action during the Rhineland campaign and was among the U.S. soldiers who met the Soviets at the river Elbe in Magdeburg, Germany.

Post-war, Cohn joined the Army Reserve and commissioned as a second lieutenant, deploying to Korea and Vietnam before retiring as a colonel in 1978.

Cohn’s celebration of life will take place on July 15 at the Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C.

The mission to China was expected to last through early September, with an investigative team working in Hunan province while field operations are conducted in Guangshi province bordering Vietnam, according to DPAA officials.

The presence of a new recovery team in China marked another milestone in the slow evolution of China’s cooperation on the MIA issue since agreeing in 2008 to give limited access to records of the People’s Liberation Army that might aid in searches.

Since the 2008 agreement, there have been about 10 searches in China, and in February 2024 China acknowledged for the first time that Chinese specialists were assisting in the site surveys.

“Over the years, committed to the humanitarian spirit, the Chinese side has provided assistance for the U.S. military to search for the remains of its missing personnel in China,” Zhang Xiaogang, a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman, said at a regular press briefing in February 2024.

Currently, there are believed to be about 678 unresolved cases of missing U.S. personnel in China from World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War and the Vietnam War. Over the years, DPAA officials have made repeated pledges to reduce the number of unresolved cases and get as many answers as possible to the families of the missing but those promises have now run up against the hard numbers in the defense budget.

At an annual briefing for the families last month, DPAA Director Kelly McKeague detailed the funding shortfalls in his remarks to the families and in a series of charts. DPAA’s budget of $185 million for Fiscal Year 2025 was reduced to $167 million in FY26, and was projected to come down again to $160 million in FY27.

The result would be that the 27 recovery and investigative teams that were in operation in Vietnam in FY2025 would be reduced to a total of seven in the projected FY2027 DPAA budget, McKeague said.

McKeague also told the families that DPAA effectively had a new boss. McKeague would remain as director but he would report directly to controversial retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness. Tata has called former President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader” and said he believed Obama was a Muslim.

In an interview with Military Times, McKeague pledged to work closely with Tata and said he had urged the families to press their representatives to support a bill proposed by Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., to boost the DPAA’s budget by $40 million.

The bill has been attached to the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act policy measure but there is no guarantee that the money will actually be appropriated.

Over the years, the recovery missions in China have had limited success, but McKeague pointed to what had been the unresolved case of Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Morton Sher, of Greenville, South Carolina.

Sher died at age 22 when his Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter was shot down on Aug. 20, 1943, and crashed in Hengyang City, Hunan province.

At the time of the crash, local villagers put up a makeshift headstone with Chinese markings at the site of the crash. Despite this, a postwar search proved unsuccessful and Sher was officially classified him as killed in action and unrecoverable.

At the time of the crash, Sher was flying for the Army Air Forces 76th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group, 14th Air Force, where many of the Flying Tiger veterans had gone after the volunteers disbanded.

According to the Defense Department, while flying in October 1942, engine trouble forced Sher to bring his aircraft down near a Chinese village, where the villagers greeted him with celebration and ordered up a feast, with Sher providing the entertainment. They later escorted him through nearby mountain villages back to his base.

Sher later recounted the experience in an Army newsletter that was picked up by the Associated Press: “I sang a few American songs for them and they were highly pleased. The banquet turned out to be one of the biggest surprises of the trip.”

In a letter home the day before he was shot down, Sher told his parents that he was turning down a chance to come home and take a job as an instructor. “I let another pilot take that instructing job, for I find things too exciting here to leave right now,” Sher said in the letter.

Sher’s remains were eventually identified on June 11, 2025.

In a statement, Air Force Col. Brett Waring, commander of the 476th Fighter Group at Moody AFB, said that “None of us knew Morton Sher. We didn’t know his name until recently, but as soon as we learned of his coming home, we leapt at the opportunity to honor him and support his family. The bond that we share never dies, and no one is left behind or ever forgotten.”