Nancy Montgomery

Nancy is an Italy-based reporter for Stars and Stripes who writes about military health, legal and social issues. An upstate New York native who served three years in the U.S. Army before graduating from the University of Arizona, she previously worked at The Anchorage Daily News and The Seattle Times. Over her nearly 40-year journalism career she’s won several regional and national awards for her stories and was part of a newsroom-wide team at the Anchorage Daily News that was awarded the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

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montgomery.nancy@stripes.com

Army Col. Charles Bergman, second from right, was one of the first on the scene June 3, 2022, at a catastrophic train derailment near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, that killed five people and injured more than 40. He spent 90 minutes helping rescue survivors and credited his Army training for equipping him to take charge of the situation. Here he poses with other rescuers.

US Army officer who witnessed horrific German train derailment recalls helping at ‘scariest scene’ of his life

Army Col. Charles Bergman happened upon one of Germany’s worst train crashes in years on Friday. He and others stopped traffic, called rescuers, helped people out of the creek, checked airways and wounds, laid injured people near the side of the road and tried to calm hysterical victims.

U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment arrive at Aviano Air Base, Italy, Monday, May 23, 2022 from a deployment to Latvia. During the deployment, the paratroopers conducted multiple training exercises with NATO allies.

Battalion from Army’s 173rd Airborne back in Italy after Latvia deployment

Veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder are slated to participate in a national pilot program to train service dogs, as part of a law passed by Congress last year.

Veterans with PTSD given chance to train service dogs in program at 5 US locations

The entrance to Venice's Jewish ghetto is through a small alley off a street of shops and restaurants. This is the view looking out to the street.

Medieval hell and haven: Venice’s former ghetto still exalts Jewish culture

Soldiers with the New York National Guard patrol near the U.S. Supreme Court, Washington, D.C., Jan. 16, 2021. A draft Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade was recently leaked, not long after the Army and Air Force issued guidance that would prevent commanders from denying leave to service members seeking an abortion.

New rules prevent Army and Air Force commanders from denying leave to obtain an abortion

The Army and Air Force have removed a significant hurdle service women face in obtaining abortions, adopting new guidance just as the U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to overturn the landmark ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide.

Meri Mion of Vicenza, who was 13 on the day 77 years ago when U.S. soldiers arrived in the city, liberated it from the Germans and then took her birthday cake, cried when the cake was replaced by U.S. Army Garrison Italy at a ceremony, April 28, 2022.

After 77 years, the US Army replaces a woman’s birthday cake while commemorating a victory in Italy

U.S. tankers and infantry soldiers helped liberate Vicenza, Italy, 77 years ago, braving German sniper fire on the city's Corso San Felice Fortunato, or street of lucky fortune. Then they liberated a teenager's birthday cake.

An Army medic assigned to 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, swabs a soldier for COVID-19 at Hohenfels Training Area, Germany, Aug. 20, 2020. Long before vaccines were available, the 173rd Airborne Brigade deployed thousands of paratroopers for a six-week exercise in Germany without suffering a single case by testing all participants before deploying, during the exercise and a third time before redeploying.

COVID-19 outbreak infected a quarter of a battalion following leadership lapses, report finds

A major lapse in precautions led to a COVID-19 outbreak last year that ravaged a Joint Base Lewis-McChord Army battalion and demonstrated how the illness could rapidly degrade readiness, according to a recent report in the military’s monthly medical journal.

U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade practice acquiring a target with an FIM-92 Stinger during an air defense exercise alongside soldiers with the Croatian Air Defense Regiment. The training was part of Exercise Shield 22 at Kamenjak near Medulin, Croatia on April 8, 2022.

Paratroopers fire Stingers in a first for 173rd Airborne Brigade

Soldiers with the U.S. Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade are fresh off an exercise in Croatia, during which they were treated to a new thrill.

Refugees walk across the Ukrainian-Polish border at Medyka, Poland, in early March 2022. The commander of the U.S. Army garrison in Italy took to social media to warn DOD-affiliated Americans there to think twice about hosting Ukrainian refugees, citing legal issues and risks.

US Army community in Italy cautioned about obstacles to taking in Ukrainian refugees

The commander of the US Army garrison in Italy has warned Americans to think twice before offering Ukrainian refugees a place to stay.

Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges shakes the hand of a Ukrainian soldier in Yavoriv, Ukraine, Nov. 5, 2016. Hodges, who is retired, was the commander of U.S. Army Europe and recently signed a open letter with others calling for a limited no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Retired top commanders in Europe join others calling for humanitarian no-fly zone in Ukraine

Two former top U.S. commanders in Europe signed an open letter arguing for a limited no-fly zone in Ukraine, despite a vow by President Joe Biden and NATO not to implement one.

Soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade participate in exercise Steel Blizzard, near Usseaux, Italy, in February 2022. During the Italian army-hosted multinational mountain and Arctic warfare training event, paratroopers learn different methods of operating in mountainous and arctic conditions.

Grueling winter warfare exercise in Italian mountains provides chill thrill for US Army paratroopers

Scores of battalion scouts, the most physically fit of an already fit brigade, spent weeks under the tutelage of Italian Alpine, the Italian army's specialist mountain infantry famed for their winter warfare skills.

Soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade's 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment board a C-130 plane at Aviano Air Base, Italy, Feb. 24, 2022. Unit members departed for Latvia on Wednesday and Thursday in support of a NATO mission to reassure allies concerned about Russian aggression following the Kremlins invasion of Ukraine.

173rd Airborne Brigade battalion heads to Latvia as Ukraine comes under Russian attack

Paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade are deploying to Latvia as part of the NATO response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

One of the six thermal pools at Hotel Mioni Pezzato in Abano Terme, Italy features a circular current. The building in the background contains saunas, steam rooms, and an ice-filled room called "Polaris."

Get acquainted with the waters of Italian resort town Abano Terme and free your inner hedonist

The spa town is awash in warm mineral waters from the Euganean Hills funneled into hundreds of hotel spas and baths, many of them old and grand, with a focus on wellness and a path toward gluttony and sloth.

U.S. Army judge Col. Charles Pritchard ruled in January 2022, in response to defense motions, that military juries in sexual assault cases must reach a unanimous guilty verdict in order to convict.

Army judge again rejects prospect of court-martial conviction in sex assault case without a unanimous verdict

An Army judge has ruled in a second case that a unanimous guilty verdict is required to convict a soldier facing a court-martial for alleged sexual assault, putting the trial on hold while the determination is reviewed.

A whole roasted sea bass, priced by the gram, was the highlight of a recent dinner at Osteria Ai Promessi Sposi in Venice, Italy. Fresh, firm, slightly sweet, it was served with potatoes.

Local tip while shopping in Venice leads to Osteria ai Promessi Sposi

Osteria ai Promessi Sposi, or tavern of the betrothed, located in the Cannaregio district in an alley about a fifth of a mile from the Ponte di Rialto, is a terrific choice.

A man waving a Confederate flag and others watch rioters storm the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. More than 100 of the 700 people accused so far of taking part in the assault on the Capitol served in the military, according to START, a national consortium for the study of terrorism.

Researchers find fourfold annual increase in number of Americans with military ties added to extremist list

From 1990 through November 2021, at least 458 people affiliated with the military committed criminal acts that were motivated by political, economic, social, or religious goals, according to a study.

Former judge advocates and legal analysts varied in their opinions of an Army judge's recent ruling that a court-martial case would require all jurors to agree in order for the defendant to be found guilty. The ruling is being appealed and is likely to be reversed, some analysts said.

Ruling requiring unanimous verdict at military sexual assault trial unlikely to survive appeal, analysts say

An Army judge’s novel ruling to require a unanimous guilty verdict in an upcoming court-martial has drawn an array of characterizations by military law experts: totally wrong, partially right, rogue and brave among them.

The depiction of the Porto family of Vicenza, in two portraits painted by Paolo Veronese in the 1500s, was considered revolutionary. The pair have been separated for centuries, held by two different museums a continent apart. An art exhibition in Vicenza hopes to reunite them.

Luminaries’ masterworks shine in exhibit that chronicles Vicenza’s Renaissance rise from obscurity

Vicenza’s Renaissance treasures have proved to be equally enduring and glamorous. Many of them can now be viewed in all their dazzling brilliance in one location — and for much less than the cost of a precious stone.

Staff Sgt. Dena Levari, 27th Special Operations Medical Operations Squadron NCOIC of immunizations, vaccinates 2nd Lt. Jose Valadez, 27th Special Operations Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, with Gardasil at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., May 29, 2012. The vaccine protects against four types of HPV.Military doctors say a new vaccine mandate for active-duty troops would prevent most cervical cancer in women and stop the upward trend in male throat cancer.

Health professionals urge US military to require vaccination against cancer-causing virus

Even amid resistance to the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate, military doctors and public health officers are urging all active-duty troops up to age 26 to be inoculated against HPV if they haven’t already taken the vaccine.

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Nancy Montgomery

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