The bill appropriates $174 million to the Department of Veterans Affairs secretary for 2021 through 2025. It mandates that the department provide health care to all veterans for one year after they transition from active duty.

As the U.S. marks National Purple Heart Day on Friday, Stars and Stripes looks at the life and career of retired Army Col. Richard "Dick" Williams, 97, who was wounded during the Korean War Battle of Chipyong-ni in 1951.

“Veterans Laughing Together” brings together Purple Heart recipients to share stories of how they were wounded and what happened next. It’s the first such nonfiction program for the 3-year-old comedy site.

The grave of George W. Hardy, a private in the 9th Regiment of the Alabama Calvary of the Confederate States Army, was recently vandalized with the word "LOSER."

Nearly eight decades after he was killed in the attack at Pearl Harbor that launched the U.S. into World War II, a Missouri man has been laid to rest next to his parents.

A 30-year Army veteran who was the longest continuously serving Ranger in Vietnam and one of the war’s most decorated enlisted soldiers has died.

Currently, the Department of Veterans Affairs provides dental treatment only to veterans whose dental issues are related to their military service.

The measure would approve benefits for Vietnam War veterans suffering form bladder cancer, hypothyroidism, hypertension and Parkinson’s-like symptoms – conditions thought to be caused by exposure to the chemical herbicide Agent Orange.

The Wounded Veterans Recreation Act amends the current eligibility standards for national park passes and would grant the passes to millions more U.S. veterans.

“The Department of Veterans Affairs continues to deny these illnesses are related and continue to deny benefits,” Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., said Thursday.

About 1,300 VA patients have received hydroxychloroquine. The department did not say how many of those patients recovered from the virus nor how many died.

A veteran battling opioid withdrawal and suicidal thoughts begged to stay at the Washington veterans hospital one night in early 2019. Instead, a doctor had the veteran escorted out by police and said the patient could “go shoot [themself]. I do not care.” Six days later, the veteran died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Only two U.S. presidents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery: William Howard Taft, who died in 1930, and John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963.

Planners of the upcoming 75th anniversary of the end of World War II are seeking a “modified quarantine” and travel bubble for World War II veterans, dignitaries, warbird pilots and crew and media arriving in Hawaii from the mainland or other countries.

Bill White, believed to be the oldest living Marine veteran, served on active duty for 30 years and has been retired from the military for 55 years.

The Toxic Exposure in the American Military Act of 2020, or TEAM Act, fundamentally reforms and improves how veterans exposed to toxic substances receive health care and benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The family of a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who got a nine-year prison sentence in Russia for assaulting two police officers say the sentence is unjust and politically motivated.

The Department of Veterans Affairs hit a bleak milestone Tuesday when it reported the coronavirus has killed more than 2,000 of its patients.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow said Tuesday it had no information on the whereabouts of an American convicted in June of espionage, despite reports that he is being transferred to a prison colony in central Russia.

Wilford Brimley, a Utah blacksmith and horse trainer who made a career transition to movies and commercials, often stealing scenes as gruff and homespun characters in films such as “Tender Mercies,” “The Natural” and “Cocoon,” died Aug. 1 in a Utah hospital. He was 85.

A Marine veteran has raised more than $5,000 to help a translator who saved U.S. troops in Afghanistan come to America.

Veteran suicides outpace fatalities in Afghanistan. Last year, 6,143 veterans killed themselves, according to VA data, while 22 service members died in Afghanistan.

Phillip Blanks credits his military training and time as a football player with helping him save a boy from a fire.

Marine Corps veteran Kelly ”Murph” Murphy credits his military training for preparing him for “pretty much anything” — including participation in a new reality TV show that debuts Wednesday.

Only a few hours had passed since President Donald Trump pardoned 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and the men of 1st Platoon were still trying to make sense of how it was even possible.

Marvin Strombo, a United States Marine who as a young man on war-torn islands of the Pacific saw humanity at its worst and journeyed to Japan at age 93 to display it at its best, died Tuesday night.

Irene Triplett's father, who'd served as a private in the Confederate Army before defecting to the Union, was on his second marriage when she was born in 1930. He was just a few weeks away from turning 84.

Volunteers put up a dozen American flags Thursday at the York County Veterans Memorial Park in downtown York to commemorate Purple Heart Day. Friday morning, four of them were gone.

Charles Berton “Bert” Mulligan was part of the U.S. Marine Corps Third Division that took part in the 36-day battle to take the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army in 1945. “I don’t feel like I’m 100 years old in my mind, but my body tells me otherwise,” Mulligan joked.

Items and medals belonging to Fielding Wesley Featherston III were returned to his family, more than 50 years after his plane went down in Laos, during a ceremony in Veterans Park in Mentor on Wednesday morning.

President Donald Trump welcomed a Marine veteran to the White House as he completed his 300-mile walk to the nation's capital to raise awareness about the problem of veteran suicide.

Two female veterans who experienced sexual harassment and assault in the military called on House leaders to take steps to protect service members after the disappearance and killing of Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen at Fort Hood, Texas.

Unable to work on real cars, Vietnam veteran Larry Bradley rediscovered a passion from his childhood — working on models. The walls of the workshop are lined with hundreds of model cars Bradley has painstakingly constructed and painted over the years.

Daniel Smith is a member of an almost vanished demographic: The child of someone once considered a piece of property instead of a human being.

The 75th anniversary of the end of World War II is approaching next month and Medal of Honor recipient Hershel "Woody" Williams remembers where he was when he got the news the conflict was over.

The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs pushed Thursday to enact measures that would boost the representation of women and minority veterans at the Department of Veterans Affairs, all of which the department supported – except one.

Bart “Doc” Fabian received his second Silver Star more than five decades after he earned it in a fierce battle at an enemy base camp in Vietnam during which he saved the lives of 10 other soldiers.

Military Veterans Advocacy's chairman said the goal of the lawsuit is to force the government to address toxic exposure of troops in the Pacific.

Lawmakers and Department of Veterans Affairs officials clashed Thursday over the end to a decades-old practice allowing veterans service representatives to review decisions about benefits for accuracy before they’re finalized.

Reta Mays, a former staff member at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center was charged with seven counts of second-degree murder, as well as assault with the intent to commit murder.

Veterans Mike Spotswood and Doug Bradley took to the airwaves with their radio show "Cup of Joe Radio," as a way to support veterans.

The House Veterans Affairs Committee on Thursday passed the Honoring All Veterans Act, which would change the VA's motto. It would read, "To fulfill President Lincoln's promise to care for those 'who shall have borne the battle' and for their families, caregivers, and survivors."

Former Syracuse football walk-on and World War II veteran Mike Chemotti has died at 106 years old. Chemotti enlisted in the Army in 1942 and served in northern Africa and Italy.

The remains were recovered in 2017 and identified last year as Army 2nd Lt. Lowell S. Twedt, the Nevada Army National Guard said Friday.

Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said during a hearing on the matter that the epidemic exposed a “critical shortage of oversight” at state veterans homes.

Many military veterans soon will have a new option for seeking medical care, thanks to a recent agreement between Mayo Clinic Health System and the Veterans Administration.

Karen Pence and Pamela Powers, the acting deputy secretary of veterans affairs, toured the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center and a local business.

Garrett Foster, who was shot to death during a downtown Austin protest Saturday night, was remembered as a man dedicated to exercising his Second Amendment rights, stamping out racial injustice and caring for his wife-to-be, family and friends say.

Former Indiana Gov. Joe Kernan, a Vietnam prisoner of war who entered politics and was thrust into the state's top office when his predecessor suffered a deadly stroke, died Wednesday at age 74.

A new documentary film on Netflix follows U.S. Army Master Sgt. Brian Eisch, who retired out of Fort Drum and moved to Lacona, N.Y., in 2011 to start a new life with his sons, Isaac and Joey, after a combat injury led to his leg being amputated.

Veterans are at high risk for suffering from substance abuse disorders and mental health issues at the same time, and they often struggle to find help, according to a Rand Corp.report released Wednesday. Wounded Warrior Project asked Rand to do the study.

More people will be allowed to attend funerals at Arlington National Cemetery starting Monday as the site moves to the next step of its phased reopening.

The USS Indianapolis was sunk by Japanese torpedoes on July 30, 1945. Of nearly 900 men who went into the Philippine Sea, just 316 survived before being rescued nearly five days later.

When Mike Hastie approached the federal officers, he told them that as an Army medic, he too took an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution. But when he got back from Vietnam, he realized that American troops were “committing atrocities every day.”

A video taken by Portland Tribune reporter Zane Sparling that captures Christopher David's moment of resistance has, as of early Monday, been viewed nearly 9 million times.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie made stops at the Hampton VA Medical Center and community-based clinics in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach as a part of a national tour.

Around noon Monday, more than a hundred people yelled birthday wishes to the Navy veteran John E. Hatcher, who just turned 99. People in antique cars, fire engines and police cars waved flags, homemade signs and red, white and blue balloons. Asked how he’s feeling, Hatcher said, “Good! One-hundred percent good!”

The Veteran Treatment Court Coordination Act of 2019, cosponsored by 98 Democrats and 37 Republicans, directs the Department of Justice to establish a program that provides grants and technical assistance to state, local and tribal governments to develop and maintain veteran treatment courts.

Reta Mays, 46, a veteran of the Iraq War, pleaded guilty last week to seven counts of second-degree murder and one count of assault with the intent to commit an eighth murder. But if families of the victims hoped Mays' plea would bring them certainty, that remains elusive.

A U.S. Navy veteran has pleaded guilty to federal charges of bringing a rifle and a handgun to a Florida veterans clinic.

The 2005 obituary for William F. Ault of Canton, Ohio, noted he was one of the few who survived one of the deadliest losses of life in U.S. Naval history.

That individual has been transported to a hospital for treatment and was confirmed to have COVID-19 after experiencing COVID-like symptoms, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services confirmed to MassLive.

Salvador “Sal” Perce hasn't been able to work at the SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital-Janesville since the conravirus pandemic began. But Perce, who served with the Army in the Pacific during World War II, and turned 100 Monday, can't wait to get back to work.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie said the agency’s telehealth services at Walmarts will expand in parts of the country with limited access to the agency’s hospitals, calling the move the “wave of the future.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs is one step closer to securing its largest budget in history at more than $250 billion, continuing a trend of the government’s second-largest agency expanding rapidly in size to support a growing and aging veterans population.

House lawmakers blasted the Department of Veterans Affairs on Wednesday after officials estimated it would take years to fix the way the VA handles allegations of sexual harassment among its workforce.

It took 67 years, but Korean War veteran Donald L. Roy received the Bronze Star medal last week that he was awarded decades ago for service as an Army medic.

Although precise estimates vary, the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs said about 30 residents received the drug.

Howard Berry, 64, had sought unsuccessfully for the medal to recognize his son for wounds he received during the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, that left 13 dead and 33 wounded.

OBITUARY

King Dixon, a longtime fixture of University of South Carolina athletics who served 22 years in the Marine Corps, died Monday night from complications caused by pancreatic cancer.

A law passed by Congress in 1992 prohibits the Department of Veteran Affairs from performing abortions or counseling women about them.

A 62-year-old man who had been missing for a month was found dead in a stairwell on the campus of the Bedford Veterans Hospital wearing the same clothes as when he went unaccounted for, according to the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office.

The Philadelphia-area nursing home for veterans that dosed at least 30 people with an experimental course of hydroxychloroquine jeopardized the welfare of residents through critical lapses in infection control that spanned months, according to new findings released by state regulators.

Ed Sanders dropped out of Jackson High School his junior year in 1952 and joined the U.S. Air Force to become a pilot during the Korean War. This year – at 87 years old – he finally received his diploma.

For two years in a row, legislation to expand veterans courts throughout greater Minnesota has stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Sporting a big grin, Army and Air Force veteran Emmett “Bud” Barnes said he didn’t understand why there was so much “hullabaloo” about his birthday Wednesday. After all, he’s only 102 years old.

There were 5,039 cases of the virus among VA patients Tuesday, according to department data. The first time that the department reported more than 5,000 active cases was in mid-April.

A man with a shotgun was killed by police as he tried to enter a Milwaukee veterans hospital, according to Department of Veterans Affairs officials.

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced Thursday that it will allow five for-profit schools to accept new GI Bill students, after warning to the schools in March that they could lose eligibility after targeting veterans with misleading tactics. Veterans advocates are claiming the move is illegal.

Thomas Handwork was a Marine guard at the U.S. embassy in El Salvador on June 19, 1985 when he was killed as guerillas sprayed crowds at two outdoor cafes with gunfire.

Reflecting nationwide trends, Department of Veterans Affairs facilities have seen clusters of new coronavirus cases in Arizona, Texas and Florida, which now rank at the top of the list with the most active cases across the VA system.

The Texas Supreme Court has declined to hear the case of retired Army Capt. Le Roy Torres, who sued the state of Texas because he said he was forced out of his job with the state highway patrol after returning from a deployment to Iraq with injuries caused by burn pit exposure.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a proposal from two Maine lawmakers to give families of fallen military service members free access to national parks.

Mare Island Naval Cemetery is the West Coast’s oldest military cemetery, in which nearly 1,000 are interred, including three Medal of Honor recipients and the daughter of Francis Scott Key.

On July 29, almost 60 years ago, Cmdr. Charles T. Frohne Jr. was piloting a plane in a training mission off the coast of North Florida. It touched down on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga and was caught by a wire on the carrier, as planned. But then the tailhook of the plane failed, coming apart.

A project honoring America’s combat-wounded veterans is seeking nominees for an expenses-paid trip next year to the Purple Heart museum and other historic sites in upstate New York.

Legislation that expands grants available to certain disabled veterans to modify their homes to meet their physical needs passed through Congress on Monday and will now land on President Donald Trump’s desk for his signing into law.

Geb Galle, a veteran of the Pearl Harbor attack whose second ship was sunk off the waters of Guadalcanal, who fought in nearly every major engagement in the Pacific in World War II, turned 99 years old Monday. Family and friends came up with a surprise for his birthday that made him tear up.

As dawn's faint light broke over Alexandria, Minn., one morning last month, the sound of "Taps" from a lone bugler echoed amid granite monoliths engraved with more than 7,000 names of veterans.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed its first victim at the nation’s largest military retirement home — a woman who worked at the Veterans Home of California in Yountville for more than a decade.

Since early this year, the city of Grand Island, Nebraska, has held the title to the cemetery. If state Sen. Dan Quick and local veterans supporters have their way, the land will become a state cemetery.

Dennis Reddy Jr. celebrated his 90th birthday Monday with family and friends pulling off a major birthday surprise at what he was told would be a small family gathering. "I didn't expect this, and I don't deserve it, but I think it's for everybody you know, any veteran at age 90 I feel, certainly not just for me," he said.