AMVETS, the national veterans group organizing the ride, said the Defense Department has ignored its application to use the Pentagon parking lot as a staging area.

A lawsuit involving more than 229,000 veterans with hearing problems that they claim are linked to faulty earplugs issued by the military begins its first trial Monday in a Florida federal courtroom.

The Army credits then-1st Lt. Ralph Puckett with leading his soldiers across an open field under intense fire, braving enemy fire repeatedly to check on his soldiers after he was wounded, and directing artillery strikes near his own position during the Korean War.

The Department of Veterans Affairs asked Congress on Wednesday to hold off making major changes to the agency’s process of handling military toxic exposure until it finishes an internal review this fall.

The records are key to unlocking veterans’ benefits such as health care, burials, home loans and even COVID-19 vaccinations.

After being missing for eight years, Pfc. Vincent Joseph Chavez's Purple Heart was returned to his family.

Anyone who ever believed standing over a 5-foot putt was pressure should picture Jesse Williamson and Nick Kimmel cherishing every swing as they struggle daily with the physical and mental scars of war.

Military veterans who served during the Cold War would be able to get a specialized license plate for their cars under a bill which passed both houses of the Alabama Legislature this month.

Jerry Dunham is able to recall the events of April 18, 1945 — the events that led to a Silver Star — quite well, and he can share other stories, too. Not bad for a man who turns 99 years old this Saturday, May 8.

A contingent of Democrats and Republicans is working to reform how the Department of Veterans Affairs handles claims of military toxic exposure, taking advantage of what the lawmakers call a historic opportunity to make comprehensive change.

Lawmakers are trying again to change the Department of Veterans Affairs motto to include female veterans after efforts were hindered under President Donald Trump.

The number of North Georgia veterans who had not gotten a response from the Atlanta VA Health Care System more than 30 days after applying for such help ballooned from about 6,700 last September to more than 18,000 in early May, according to an internal VA document.

The federal government agreed to a 10th settlement for suspicious deaths at a West Virginia veterans hospital where a former nursing assistant admitted to intentionally giving seven patients unprescribed insulin injections.

Alejandra Juarez, who left for Mexico in 2018 while facing a deportation order, has received permission to return to the United States. The Department of Homeland Security on Monday granted her humanitarian parole, a temporary form of admission to the country.

President Joe Biden intends to nominate Donald Remy for the No. 2 position in the Department of Veterans Affairs, the White House announced Friday.

Navy Fireman 1st Class Harold E. Bates Bates, 27, was among 429 crewmen of the battleship USS Oklahoma who died when the ship capsized after sustaining torpedo attacks from Japanese aircraft.

A 'Green Alert' system to mobilize the public to help find a missing veteran would help deal with an epidemic of suicides among returning servicemen and women, according to U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan and Rep. Chris Pappas, both D-N.H.

On the way out the door of his parents' house on his way to his fraternity's Homecoming Day tailgate, Marine Veteran Kindall Johnson shouted a goodbye to his mother, Kathy Davis: "Love ya, Ma!" He would never return.

Nathaniel Hashem, a member of the Junior ROTC at Methuen High School, has been given command of flag replacement day — an annual event during which volunteers fan out across the city to replace old, tattered flags at the graves of military veterans in advance of Memorial Day ceremonies the following week.

More than two dozen veterans, military, and toxic exposure organizations have stepped up to show their support for veterans of the Gulf War, said Anthony Hardie, national chair and director of Veterans for Common Sense and a Gulf War veteran who suffers from a variety of ailments linked to his service in Operation Desert Storm.

The remains of an Alabama soldier who has been missing since 1950, when his unit was attacked during the Korean War, have been identified and will be buried in Georgia, the Pentagon said Friday.

The Ensuring Survivor Benefits During COVID-19 Act of 2021, could help thousands of family members gain access to VA benefits.

World War II veteran Louis Moore, 98, is now sharing his love story as widely as he can at a time when the country is grappling with a rise in anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic.

JPMorgan Chase is donating an additional $8 million to Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families to support the institute’s national training and research programs over the next three years.

Many people across the country lost their jobs, saw an increase of food insecurity or struggled with isolation during the pandemic. But the crisis has been agonizing for veterans, many already grappling with the long-term effects of PTSD, depression or other invisible wounds.

Hearings this week

The House and Senate are making coordinated efforts to help veterans suffering from illnesses believed to be caused by toxic exposure during overseas deployments.

Obituary

Clayton Schenkelberg, who at age 103 was believed to be America’s oldest Pearl Harbor survivor, died April 14 at a senior care facility in San Diego.

The Veterans Restorative Justice Act would expand the veterans court program to the whole state, offering a second chance to veterans who qualify and who are willing to put in the work.

Amorette Hight kept silent for 20 years. She was told to "forget" what happened to her that fall day in 1997. Life threw its own set of curveballs to her husband Joshua Hight, who in 1997 served in the medevac unit at Fort Riley, Kansas. Both suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome.

He's only 31, but Nathan Solares has already tended the wounded and dying from two wars. The first war, in Afghanistan, helped to prepare him for the other, the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

ANALYSIS

Of the roughly 380 individuals federally charged in connection with the riot, at least 44 — mostly veterans — had military links, according to data compiled by The Washington Post.

Health experts say there could be instances in the U.S. where mask wearing becomes routine, as is the case in other countries, though not necessarily under a mandate. Travel, for instance.

The Semper Fi & America’s Fund began in 2003 at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California, where a group of Marine spouses began to organize welcome home activities for wounded Marines. Eighteen years later, the effort has grown into a national nonprofit that helps wounded Marines and soldiers and sailors from all branches of the military.

The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at Red Rock, which is operated by Oklahoma City-based Red Rock Behavioral Health Services and is part of the Cohen Veterans Network, opened its doors for in-person visits April 1 after a telehealth-only launch last year.

Sgt. Adam Hartswick and RJ Shirey, State College Area High School alums who graduated nine years apart, were brought together after two accidents and dozens of surgeries that left them both amputees.

DOD documents show the Pentagon knew troops were exposed to multiple toxins at a base in Uzbekistan known as K2, and that exposure to those toxins caused hundreds of cancer cases. But the VA has denied many of the sick veterans care and disability benefits.

A scathing independent report on last fall’s COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home that led to 36 deaths details systemic mismanagement from the top of the Illinois Veterans Affairs department down to the home’s leadership.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw said he’s participating in committee meetings and hearings again after undergoing emergency eye surgery in early April stemming from injuries he sustained when he lost an eye in Afghanistan.

Madelynn "Lee" Taylor, who went to court in 2014 to make sure she would be able to be buried with her wife, died at the age of 81.

James L. Jordan admitted that he fatally stabbed Ronald S. Sanchez Jr., a 16-year Army veteran who spent three tours in Iraq as a combat engineer. But Jordan has been found not guilty by reason of insanity.

The Veterans Crisis Line mishandled an interaction with a veteran who shot and killed a family member after the call ended, a federal watchdog reported Thursday.

Tammy Landeen is back home in Aroostook County this week, working out at the gym or hand-cycling outside — weather permitting — with an eye toward rejoining Team USA next winter on the World Cup parabobsled circuit.

Retired Sgt. Michael Verardo will celebrate what his friends and family call his 11th "Alive Day" on Saturday, and with Gov. Roy Cooper's signing of House Bill 138, others across North Carolina can reflect on what that means.

With a 40-pound weighted backpack slung over his shoulders, U.S. Army Sgt. Ben Linkous will walk 26.2-miles around Beaver County on Saturday. His "Mountain Man Memorial March" will support Gold Star Families and help preserve the legacies of fallen military heroes.

A group that represents Public Health Service officers who have assisted during natural disasters, in overseas fights against Ebola and recently on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic is seeking recognition on a veterans memorial at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian, arguing its members were unfairly left out.

Gary Frank put his life on the line in the Middle East during Operation Desert Storm, and he risked his safety again during a shootout in the streets of Akron.

Thanks to a new law, 78 nurses, aides and other employees will be hired at the three state-run veterans homes in New Jersey where residents and families say short-staffing contributed to dire conditions and high death counts throughout the pandemic.

In a “first Colors” ceremony on Friday, the U.S. flag was raised over the new National World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C's Pershing Park.

The combat pilot earned 15 medals over a 24-year military career, which ended in 1963. He flew over 50 aircraft models, including fighters, helicopters, patrol bombers and sea planes; fought in two wars; and saw action in nine major naval engagements.

In the rush to win World War II, the locations of many graves were forgotten. An Army review board in charge of tracking down the bodies of fallen troops declared Jacob Cruz "non-recoverable" in 1949.

Essay

It was October 2005 when I first flew into Kabul aboard a Pakistani International Airlines flight. Mud homes pocked the desert landscape. Afghanistan looked quiet and serene — almost safe. That sense of security crumbled away moments after landing.

President Joe Biden's announced last week that all remaining U.S. troops will leave Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021. Many of those who deployed out of San Diego and other veterans of the Afghanistan conflict met Biden's announcement with mixed emotions.

The North Carolina General Assembly unanimously passed legislation, House Bill 138/Senate Bill 132, to declare April 24 North Carolina's Wounded Heroes Day, which will forever mark Afghanistan war veteran Army Sgt. Mike Verardo's Alive Day — the day of the injuries that nearly killed him.

Under the leadership of retired U.S. Navy vice admiral Michael Franken, the process of recovering and identifying the remains of missing U.S. military personnel was reorganized under the DPAA, a U.S. Defense Department agency formed in 2015 through the merger of other agencies.

Lt. Donald H. Steffen of Hamilton, Ohio, was the pilot of a C-47 that flew paratroopers to Normandy the night of the landing. He successfully carried a "stick" of about 15 soldiers from the Third Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry of the 101st Airborne Division to their Drop Zone D behind Omaha Beach.

The fundraiser met the $5,000 goal on Tuesday, and then the goal increased to a $25,000.

More than 800,000 people served in Afghanistan in the U.S. military, and many of them are reflecting anew on what the war achieved and the meaning of their individual parts in it.

A hearse carrying the body of Wallace Anderson Taylor is bound for the Arch L. Heady Resthaven Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky, where he will be buried with full military honors at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

Andre Shelby, 54, of Jeffersonville, Ind., will compete against 15-20 other archers in a qualification tournament next month that will see three selected to travel to Japan with the U.S. Paralympic team.

"Colonel" Wallace Anderson Taylor loved John Wayne movies, packed a .45 Colt revolver as an enlisted man, owned a restaurant in Miami and toured the country with a "Colonel Taylor's Fly By Night" carnival concession stand.

"While nobody's really traveling, we can get all this learning done, we can attend all these webinars and videos with different cruise lines and the different suppliers around the world, and then, when people are ready to start traveling, we will have learned a lot" Von Schlichten said.

The relocation of the flag last summer from over the White House to a less visible spot on the South Lawn had infuriated some veterans groups and lawmakers.

President Joe Biden is proposing an $8.5 billion boost for the Department of Veterans Affairs under his 2022 budget plan released Friday.

White Ribbon campaign

The pledge was part of the White Ribbon campaign, a worldwide movement that asks men and boys to help end gender-based violence and promote gender equity.

When questioned about the budget increase Thursday, Denis McDonough cited the cost of the VA Mission Act, a bipartisan measure approved in 2018 to expand veterans’ access to private doctors.

Houston Congressman Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL who lost an eye in Afghanistan, underwent emergency surgery on Friday for a detached retina, leaving him blind for at least a month. Prospects for recovering his vision remain uncertain.

Comedian Jon Stewart became a fierce advocate for 9/11 responders who developed illnesses after working at the World Trade Center site. He recently turned his attention to veterans suffering from diseases caused by similar toxic exposure.

On both sides of the political aisle, lawmakers in Washington are ramping up efforts to expand care for veterans who became sick after breathing the toxic fumes from burn pits.

The military had been prioritizing the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for overseas locations because of its single-dose and not requiring the ultra-cold storage necessary during shipping as do some of the other coronavirus vaccines.

Obituary

Charles Henry Coolidge, Sr., the country's oldest Medal of Honor recipient, died peacefully on Tuesday at CHI Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga. He was 99.

After having its 2020 tour cut short in August due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's Wall That Heals will return to the road April 8 in New Bern, N.C.

For two years, a steady effort to find a photograph of a Georgia soldier killed in the Vietnam War failed to provide an image. But recently, a series of conversations between cousins and a former classmate ended the long search.

Dave Parramore, an Army veteran, said his trip raised about $23,000 in donations for Wounded Warrior Project, and he said another $10,000 grant could be coming to the nonprofit as part of the trip.

On Tuesday, Korean War veteran Victor M. Rosario and fellow Borinqueneer and World War II veteran Antonio Morales were honored by the city for their service. Congress passed legislation on Jan. 3 that designated April 13 as National Borinqueneers Day.

More than 3,000 veterans were surveyed between November 2019 and March 2020 — before COVID-19 had been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization — and again in November and December 2020 when the pandemic was in full swing.

World War II veteran Eddie Hill has seen plenty in his lifetime. As he plans to celebrate his 100th birthday on Tuesday, Hill wants to enjoy every day to the fullest by staying active and helping others as long as possible.

The twinkle in the eyes of Walter Sommers shone brightly Friday as the 100-year-old U.S. Army veteran sat outside Westminster Village with family and friends.

Elliott R. Corbett II, a 22-year-old U.S Army “bazooka man” and scion of Portland’s most-prominent political and commercial dynasty, disappeared in November 1944 during the Battle of Hurtgen Forest. It would be months before his family — and his girlfriend, Ellen “Sudie” Zinsser — knew whether he was dead or alive.

For more than 14 months during the Nazi invasion, Charles H. Coolidge Sr. served in Europe, starting with a treacherous boat ride from North Africa to Italy.

World War I veteran James Barry's discharge certificate was discovered as part of an ongoing project by the Veterans Services office in Beverly, Mass., to digitize thousands of Beverly-related military records. As of last week, the office had scanned 6,739 items.

Vietnam veteran Thomas Rockroads Jr.'s contribution to the Billings Gazette’s "Vietnam Voices" series turned up in a search by one of his old platoon members, Dennis Joanethis, a former private first class in the 173rd Airborne Brigade. The two reunited recently.

A U.S. Veterans Affairs police officer charged with murder in the shooting death of a Navy veteran earlier this year appeared in court Friday once again free on bond.

Decorated Vietnam veteran and retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North will bring a family military history to Sunday's closing 1 p.m. ceremony for the traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall at New Bern's Lawson Creek Park.

U.S. Army veteran Kevin Hughes and his wife, Kathy, are part of the first Cape Fear Habitat For Humanity Veterans Build home in Wilmington. The estimated closing date for their home is August.

Marine Corps veteran James "Cowboy" Johnson, 70, credits his military instincts for what sent him dashing toward a blazing building.

It is a day set aside nationally to recognize those who were held captive, forced into separation from everyone and everything they loved, and tortured and mistreated at the hands of the enemy.

The 88,675 square-foot clinic will provide primary care, mental health, female veterans care, physical therapy, dental and other services.

Douglas P. “Doug” Burtell, the last North Dakota National Guard World War II soldier known to be residing in North Dakota, died in Bowman, N.D., on April 3, just weeks shy of his 97th birthday.