The Department of Veterans Affairs will host public ceremonies throughout the United States for the first time in two years since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III issued the approval Saturday in accordance with Directive-Type Memorandum 19-011. That policy allows service academy graduates to pursue employment in professional sports immediately following graduation.

The nine bases are all in former Confederate states and were named during the 1910s and 1940s amid the South’s Jim Crow era.

Almost four decades after the original, and after sitting on the shelf for two years due to the pandemic, "Top Gun: Maverick" is flying full throttle into a new world.