Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hands the U.S. Africa Command guidon to Gen. Michael Langley during a change of command ceremony in Stuttgart, Germany, Aug. 9, 2022.
Pentagon installs Langley as AFRICOM leader in ‘historic moment’

Michael Langley’s promotion to lead AFRICOM represents a momentous occasion for the Marine Corps, as he is the first Black four-star general in the service’s 246-year history.

Sailors prepare to launch an F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet from the flight deck of aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan in the Arabian Sea, August 2021. One of the biggest risk factors for tinnitus is exposure to loud noises, such as weapons firing, working near loud engines, and combat operations
New study on tinnitus adds heft to findings on scourge of US vets

A meta-analysis published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association Neurology says that 14% of all adults have the condition, which causes ringing, buzzing or roaring noises inside their heads that only they can hear.

To help diagnose mild traumatic brain injury, soldiers have their short-term memory and basic problem solving abilities tested in Baumholder, Germany, before deploying to Iraq in 2008. A 2020 study found that both traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder were associated with increased Parkinson's disease risk. Now an Israeli study has found that patients with PTSD were at a higher risk of Parkinson's compared to patients without PTSD.
Israeli study showing higher Parkinson’s disease risk in PTSD patients bolsters research on US veterans

A new study published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that there is a “robust” association between PTSD and Parkinson’s risk in men, particularly among elderly male patients.  

A U.S. Army paratrooper from the 173rd Brigade Support Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade, hits the water during a jump onto Lake Constance, Germany, Friday, July 29, 2022. More than 70 paratroopers from the brigade participated along with 75 German paratroopers from the 26th (Saarland) Airborne Brigade.
Sky Soldiers splash down in exhilarating lake jump

Jump into the lake that lies between Germany, Switzerland and Austria, after an invitation from the German 26th (Saarland) Airborne Brigade.

British artist Emma Talbott's piece made of acrylic on silk "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" reflects on French impressionist Paul Gauguin's painting of the same title. Implicitly critiquing Gauguin’s self-exile to French- colonized Tahiti, where his painting is set, Talbot covers her painting with texts that question what nature is and how or whether it's possible to ethically “return” to it.
Renowned Venice art expo becomes dreamy experience in 2022

The grand visual festival known as the Venice Art Biennale borrowed its theme this year, the Milk of Dreams, from the title of a children’s book by surrealist painter Leonora Carrington.

A female service member carries a counterpart during the movement-under-fire portion of the Combat Fitness Test at Marine Corps Base Camp Geiger, N.C., in 2013. Researchers concluded that lower fitness levels at the start of basic training and women's greater likelihood of reporting injuries were likely factors in the higher injury rates of female personnel.
Reduced initial fitness, more frequent reporting seen as factors in US servicewomen’s higher injury risk

The reason U.S. servicewomen seem to be injured more than their male counterparts may be lower fitness levels at the start of basic training, combined with less reluctance to report their injuries and seek care, according to a new study.

Somali Danab brigade commandos and other first responders rush to evacuate passengers from a Jubba Airlines aircraft that crash-landed July 18, 2022, at Mogadishu International Airport in Somalia. Three U.S. soldiers helped care for injured passengers from the flight, which had 36 people.
Plane crash in Somalia turns US troops providing medical training into on-scene caregivers

A trio of American soldiers teamed up with Somali counterparts they were training to become first responders at a fiery plane crash at the airport in the country’s capital.

Ristorante San Lorenzo in Sirmione on Lake Garda's south shore is open seven days a week serving a variety of well-prepared dishes under a canopy of lime trees and fairy lights.
Sirmione’s San Lorenzo never lets diners down

The food is good, but the service will keep you coming back to Sirmione’s San Lorenzo

Air Force Reserve officer Bari Wald and her Marine husband keep their lost son's inked footprints in a frame on the fireplace mantel next to an urn wrapped in white containing his ashes. Weighing less than 13 ounces when he was born by induced labor because of severe fetal anomalies, he is never forgotten, Wald said.
Military women say DOD reproductive health care far from ‘seamless’ in post-Roe era 

Many military women who told their stories to Stars and Stripes spoke of having to get their care without military support, even in cases when intended, longed-for pregnancies went terribly wrong. And they said that far from feeling cared for, they felt abandoned by the military at their most vulnerable moments.

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.