Freshmen lawmakers Reps. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. have become media sensations in their respective parties, each gaining hundreds of thousands of social media followers during their first months in the House.

The ashes of Rev. Frank Brett, who died two years ago at 86, will be placed in the grave with his brother Rev. Robert Brett, who was killed during the 1968 battle of Khe Sanh, on Arlington National Cemetery's Chaplains Hill next week.

Virginia International Tattoo is an annual spectacle of pomp, circumstance and revelry produced by military bands and performers from around the world. This year’s theme salutes women in the military.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has announced that Army Cpl. Carlos E. Ferguson of Dawson, West Virginia, has been identified.

Remains belonging to a soldier from Tennessee who was killed in the Korean War have been identified nearly seven decades after he was declared missing in action.

“American heroes affected by Agent Orange deserve the peace of mind knowing that the federal government recognizes the existing link between their exposure and illness,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn.

Walter Gantz, now 94, was part of an advance party sweeping through Nazi Germany in the final days of World War II that stumbled upon a train — cattle cars abandoned by Nazi soldiers who learned that their hold on Europe was about to break.

Many of the schools that derived the most in GI Bill benefits graduated fewer than 30 percent of their students within eight years, including U-Md. University College, Strayer and DeVry.

Richard Stone, executive in charge of the Veterans Health Administration, said there have been more than 260 suicide attempts on VA property, 240 of which were interrupted and prevented.

Despite suffering from severe cramps that had rendered his legs almost useless, Micah Herndon said that he was committed to finishing Monday's race to honor three men killed by an IED blast in Afghanistan in 2010.

Jackie Huber spent 20 years in the Marine Corps and rose from the enlisted ranks to chief warrant officer. She said it wasn’t cool to be a Marine during most of her tenure, which was before the days military members were thanked for their service.

GALLERY

Retired Sgt. Daniel Cowart’s Distinguished Service Cross is one of a dozen Silver Star medals announced recently made eligible for an upgrade by the Army through a review process of post-9/11 valor awards that began in 2016.

Republican Sen. Kevin Braun described his revision to House Bill 2246 as a "friendly" amendment not likely to stoke controversy. Instead, it fueled a rare insurrection in the House.

Obituary

Retired Lt. Col. Richard “Dick” Cole was one of 80 members of the first U.S. strike against Japanese mainland targets in World War II, credited for bringing optimism of winning the war to the American people.

Paul Blizard moved to Vietnam with his wife in 2012 and currently his free time cycling around Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, searching for spots depicted in famous wartime images.

Norman Andrew "Andy" Whiddon Jr., who was arrested on a murder charge in the fatal shooting of 47-year-old James Edward Herrin this month, received a Purple Heart for the injury that forced his retirement after 17 years of military service.

Another employee would’ve been fired but retired before the VA could take action, according to Peter Scovill, spokesman for the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis.

The contingent was comprised of 13 from World War II, 60 from the Korean War and eight from the Vietnam War. The breakdown by branch: Army, 42; Navy, 13; Air Force, 22; and Marine Corps, four. Wartime duties ranged from land surveyor to infantry gunner to helicopter pilot. One veteran from World War II and one from Korea were prisoners of war.

Obituary

Youa True Joseph Vang, one of the last surviving Hmong heroes from the Vietnam War era and a prominent St. Paul leader, pastor and businessman, died Wednesday. He was 83.

On March 27, former Maj. Barbara Ellis was recognized along with 15 others by Gov. Tom Wolf and first lady Frances Wolf at a ceremony at the Governor’s Residence in Harrisburg for the Pennsylvania Commission for Women’s Female Veterans Day celebration.

The bill signed Wednesday requires Arizona's Health Services Department to develop a comprehensive yearly report on veteran suicides.

A 19-year-old Houston-area sailor who died in the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor has been identified.

James Elsner, who recently turned 100, flew a Curtis P-40 Warhawk while defending Attu after it was reclaimed from Japanese forces in 1943.

The bipartisan bill comes less than a week after Assembly Democrats blocked similar legislation proposed by Republicans. They had criticized the bill last week for coming up outside the state budget process.

“It is unacceptable that a situation should ever arise where our nation’s veterans are provided such substandard care that it resulted in a loss of limb, because of a mistake by the agency entrusted to take care of them,” wrote Special Counsel Henry Kerner.

From late 1968 until his death, John McDonald, a soldier fighting in Vietnam, and Karen Conboy Matz, a teen in California, exchanged letters. She was heartbroken by his death and wanted to attend his funeral in southern Georgia. But she was 16, she lived on the other side of the country and she had never met McDonald or his family.

While on a mission as a gunner to pick up Marines in Afghanistan, Kirstie Ennis' helicopter crashed. She suffered damage to her jaw and enough to her left leg to need an amputation. Now she will try to climb Mount Everest with a prosthetic leg.

The legislation would require the Veterans Administration to cover treatment of any health conditions caused by PFAS chemical exposure, and will make veterans and their families eligible for VA disability benefits.

The Wednesday evening event will be held on the campus of Southern Illinois University-Carbondale at the Student Recreation Center Alumni Lounge.

A former employee accused of attacking two employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Cheyenne has been identified as 23-year-old Benjamin Delany.

The department is working toward a June 6 deadline to implement a new community care program for VA patients that was mandated by Congress under the VA Mission Act, a major reform bill.

A community-based nonprofit, Mental Health America of Wisconsin, will start the nation's first peer-run respite home specifically for veterans using a startup grant of $307,000 from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Judge Cristina Jaramillo reset the sentencing of Steven Deskin, 31, to December upon his successful completion of the Veterans Affairs’ STAR program. Deskin pleaded guilty in January to homicide by vehicle for the crash that took the life of Ramon Rosas, 34, on Dec. 29, 2017.

Mike Blea, a Vietnam veteran who started getting VA disability payments in 1969 for visual impairment, was sentenced Wednesday and ordered to pay the VA $1,273,180 in restitution.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation last week to create the Economic Opportunity and Transition Administration at the VA and add a new senior official to lead it. It would include programs such as the GI Bill,

A former employee with a baseball bat has attacked two employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Cheyenne.

The measure, which passed unanimously in the House of Representatives last month after previously clearing the Senate, recognized the 1996 GOP presidential nominee for military service that included two Purple Hearts and two awards of the Bronze Star Medal with Valor.

Tom Vilardo was drafted in June 1943 and trained with an anti-aircraft unit in Texas and Florida for about two years. The battalion never served in that capacity during wartime, however; it was sent to the Philippines as infantry replacements.

A World War II veteran celebrated his 101st birthday Sunday, surrounded by family and friends at the VA Medical Center. Art Haug, who has been at the VA for about five years, spent the afternoon smiling for pictures, eating birthday cake and reading birthday cards.

World War II veteran Peter Decareau linked arms with his two sons, rose to his feet, and recited the pledge of allegiance ahead of his graduation ceremony at the Roby Administration Building Thursday.

Hundreds of airmen will line the main entrance of an Air Force base in Texas to salute as the family of the last of the 80 Doolittle Tokyo Raiders arrives for his memorial service.

Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie recommended the Justice Department not contest a federal court ruling that could extend benefits to Vietnam veterans who served on ships offshore during the war, he announced Tuesday.

President Donald Trump treated four World War II veterans to an Oval Office meeting Thursday, fulfilling a birthday wish for 95-year-old Allen Jones and giving three other veterans age 100 and older a day to remember.

A homeless military veteran was sentenced to five years' probation Friday after admitting last month that he conspired with a couple to scam the public out of $400,000 in donations by concocting a feel-good story about him helping a motorist in distress.

Volunteers ushered four World War II veterans, 20 Korean War vets, six Korean and Vietnam vets, and 87 Vietnam veterans from the flag-topped U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery to the various war memorials for the veterans Tuesday.

For some veterans, the hardest part about combat is enduring normality at home after war. For Kyle Kelly, a former Army combat engineer from "the sticks" of Northeast Texas, the Stateside adjustment was eased by surfing.

More than 2 million veterans sought and received help for mental health issues through the VA in 2017, and vets say the organization is stretched thin. That is where organizations like The Fallen Outdoors and other groups come into play.

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It’s been four decades since the last personnel from the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command departed the island. To celebrate the anniversary, servicemembers who served at Ching Chuan Kang Air Base are planning their first reunion.

The no-cost sightseeing trip to Washington, D.C., was organized by the Rhode Island Fire Chiefs Honor Flight Hub; it was the organization's first all-female honor flight and was held in honor of Cpl. Holly Charette, the first Rhode Island female military member killed after 9/11.

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Edward Luckey, 88, of San Antonio, Texas, celebrated the 62nd anniversary of his landing in a wheat field with family and friends and reflected on his 22-year career in the Air Force.

The eatery in Lake Wales, Fla., is a project of American Legion Post 71. World War II veterans eat at no charge, veterans get a 10 percent discount, and all proceeds go toward services for veterans, including assistance with rent, electricity, food, clothing and more.

Fifty years will have passed this Saturday since Gary Detrick was killed by enemy fire in Vietnam. He was 20 years old. Those that remember him have kept him in their memories.

The VA is currently made up of three administrations: the National Cemetery Administration, the Veterans Health Administration and the Veterans Benefits Administration.

Vincent J. Rogers Jr., a New York airman whose remains were recently identified more than 75 years after he died in World War II will likely be reburied in a family plot in a rural upstate cemetery.

OPINION

They were captured. In some cases they were forced to march or to work. In other cases they were tortured.

A new law went into effect last week allowing for court-appointed volunteers to serve as guardians for disabled veterans in managing their finances.

The Postal Service said Saturday that the commemorative Forever stamp featuring Bush will be issued on his birthday, June 12. A first-day-of-issue ceremony will be held that day at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station.

Army First Lt. Deane Taylor was shot down from a helicopter and killed in Vietnam on Jan. 15, 1969. His widow, Hattie Ford, recently traveled to Vietnam to see where her husband died.

Doris Brock's husband, Kendall Brock, served 35 years with the 157th Air Refueling Wing of the National Guard at the former Pease Air Force Base before retiring. In 2015, he was diagnosed with stage 4 bladder and prostate cancer.

Dominic Esquibel, a disabled U.S. Marine Corps veteran, received a $250,000 settlement from the U.S. government after a national park park ranger allegedly used excessive force to arrest him over the use of a handicapped parking space.

Orlando “Bill” Marzola, 95, who served in Army artillery units in Europe and Korea, now faces the prospect of getting hearing aids.

The remains of 17 American veterans unclaimed for burial in Amarillo were sent off to their final resting place in San Antonio during a memorial service on Wednesday at the Texas Panhandle War Memorial.

A memorial coming to Washington will honor the roughly 141,000 veterans and 15,100 active duty service members who are Native Americans. The memorial, which will be outside the National Museum of the American Indian, is expected to open on Veterans Day in 2020.

Obituary

Danny Brumfield, a Marine Corps veteran of the war in Vietnam, an office assistant and security guard who had been homeless, unemployed and living on the streets since 1992, died Feb. 27 at an Alexandria, Virginia, hospital. He was 67.

The Navy Reserve seaman was aboard the battleship USS Colorado, moored about 3,200 yards from the shore of Tinian Island, on July 24, 1944, when it was hit by Japanese shore battery.

The names of each veteran were read aloud during the service, including 14 who served in the Army, five from the Air Force, four from the Navy and two who were Marines.

Park Day is an annual event held each spring that joins community members together to help preserve and restore national battlefields and historic sites.

Lucian James Siracusa ended up at the POW camp in Moosburg, Germany. When asked by reporters what his year in captivity was like, he was succinct: "Not good."

Two Congressmen recently reintroduced a bill that would let deported veterans who were honorably discharged return to the United States. The exceptions would be veterans convicted of voluntary manslaughter, murder, rape, sexual abuse of a minor, terrorism or child abuse.

The Irish Times reported that the two breached security in an effort to reach an aircraft they believed was used to transport U.S. troops. The men did not reach the aircraft and were detained by authorities.

Army veteran Chad Garcia has seen friends dying beside him in the maelstrom of combat. He's suffered concussions from rocket-propelled grenades and exploding roadside bombs. One of the hardest things he's had to live with was his mother's suicide in 2017. Now, someone has created a social media account under his mom's name.

Nearly 44 years after the last U.S. action of the Vietnam War, veterans of the era celebrated their service at exchanges around the globe, including at the home of the Navy’s 7th Fleet.

But on Monday, the Department of Veterans Affairs is closing the Billets for good. Volunteers of America officials said the VA gave no real reason for the decision.

Herbert Joseph Poindexter was a barber on the battleship USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941. This June, more than 77 years after he died, he will buried at the national cemetery in Jacksonville, his hometown.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, More than 72,000 veterans who committed suicide between 2005 and 2016. One was Luke Carreiro, who took his own life at Fort Bragg, N.C., in 2015.

About 30 local officers are walking in the name of Weymouth police Sgt. Michael Chesna in the Military Friends Foundation’s 2019 Tough Ruck on Sunday, April 14.

People who served in any branch of the armed forces or the reserves between Nov. 1, 1954, and May 15, 1975, are eligible to receive lapel pins, according to Allen Siegel, director of spiritual care services for the University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health.

When Brieux Dash, confined at the VA Medical Center after threatening suicide, left group therapy March 14 and refused to go to dinner, hospital workers left him alone in his room. Fifteen minutes later, he was dead.

On Female Veterans Day, March 27, 16 women were honored by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, first lady Frances Wolf and Maj. Gen. Tony Carrelli, Pennsylvania’s adjutant general and head of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed Monday that the Bloomington-based Central Illinois Continuum of Care effectively has ended homelessness among veterans in 11 counties.