Because so many veterans already are isolated or on the brink of isolation, that dramatically heightens the importance of interactions with the sprawling and often bureaucratic VA network.
Prioritizing an effective electronic health records system is central to protecting veterans and ensuring they receive the care they have earned.
The advent of a new medical records-keeping system for veterans might sound like a minor, logistical turn of the screw. Far from it. It will change lives and it could save many.
Congress instructed the Department of Defense to assess the risks to its pharmaceutical supply chain. But the department’s choice of vendors —Valisure Laboratories— has raised eyebrows in the legal and public health communities.
The next Navy secretary should create a group of upwardly mobile Navy, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine captains and Marine Corps colonels to experiment with new concepts of naval strategy and operations. The increasing tensions with China demand it.
It’s now almost impossible to imagine a time in Air Force Special Operations without the CV-22 Osprey. The Osprey has been at the forefront of the toughest missions since its first combat deployment in 2009.
Americans face a pivotal choice at the ballot box that will shape the future of our nation’s veterans.
Military readiness is much more than the effective training of forces for deployment. As one community in central Missouri demonstrates, it includes ensuring that military-connected children have an excellent public school experience, giving their parents peace of mind that a career in the military doesn’t have to mean sacrificing a child’s education.
The VA’s Office of Patient Advocacy is a huge and complex system that can be difficult for veterans to navigate. It is tough for staff to respond to each and every veteran. Hence the need for more advocates.
The data will offer a new and much-needed lens for high schoolers and their parents on what a career in the military could mean – financially and in potential career skills and upward workforce mobility.
Beyond the visible wounds, the impact of two decades of war is greatest on the brain.
While the United States should not be in the business of fighting the Houthi movement in Yemen, U.S. joint forces can step up their operations and inflict significant defeats on the group to force them to cease attacks on merchant trade.
The lowering of educational standards for Navy recruits adds fuel to a national effort that would provide state-level educators with Defense Department data that could help address the recruiting crisis.
Schools and communities lack the data from the armed forces to demonstrate to their students that upon graduation they are well prepared to succeed in the military.
Government bureaucracies don’t move fast until they get hit in the face by overwhelming evidence and public pressure from those actively suffering or injured by a health condition or occupational threat. Today, we are witnessing something similar play out with the Departments of Defense, Veteran’s Affairs and Health and Human Services in relation to brain injuries, a signature injury the last two decades of persistent conflict.
The mental health of America’s youth is in crisis, and it stands to reason that military-connected youth are facing the same crisis, if not worse due to the added stressors faced by military families.
A far-reaching study by Navy researchers has found that exposure to munitions blast waves from combat and training may be causing brain injuries the aggregation of which is resulting serious and often deadly ailments such as depression, PTSD and suicide.
The U.S. military takes into consideration the quality of local public schools as it decides whether to maintain military commands and offices where they are or move them elsewhere. This provides communities with another big reason to focus on improving schools, because the economic impact of any single military installation can be enormous.
The Arctic is the next frontier for U.S. military operations, where the physical environment poses a major threat to achieving strategic dominance, managing assets and ensuring freedom of the seas.
Members of Congress should focus on all forms of brain injuries sustained by service members, but especially on what are known as mild traumatic brains injuries.
The U.S. is lagging dangerously behind peer and near-peer competitors in the education of uniformed and civilian Department of Defense (DoD) workforce and our ability to identify and promote talent.
The ask is that on Nov. 13, every adult American should contact a veteran or service member and ask how they are doing, let them know they are cherished and, if necessary, steer them toward assistance when they might otherwise slip through the cracks.
An old Chinese proverb sagely advises that it is easy to get a thousand prescriptions but hard to get a single remedy. While this may be analogous to the pharmacy behemoths, it is flat-out-false when it comes to independent pharmacies that take the time to offer the care others do not.
It’s time to scrap the U.S. armed forces. If you just spewed your Cheerios across the breakfast table, I should clarify. I’m not suggesting we abandon the military, beat our swords into ploughshares and become pacifists. But it’s time to overhaul how the nation organizes the military services by unifying the service departments into one warfighting component — the United States Defense Forces.
