Volunteers clean historic gravestones at Poplar Grove National Cemetery, which is part of Petersburg National Battlefield, in Virginia. (American Battlefield Trust)
The American Battlefield Trust will host its annual Park Day cleanup Saturday at more than 100 battlefields and military historical sites across the nation.
The event, now in its 30th year, deploys an army of volunteers — veterans service organizations, churches and individuals — to clean battlefield and historical military sites, according to the trust.
Locations span Brier Creek Revolutionary War battlefield, in Georgia; Vicksburg National Military Park, Miss.; Gettysburg National Military Park, Pa.; Battle of Lexington State Historic Site, Mo.; Minute Man National Historic Park, in Massachusetts; and Pearl Harbor National Memorial, in Hawaii.
Organizers said the tradition of service fills a pressing need to make repairs at some of the nation’s smaller but significant military historical sites, which rely on volunteer support.
“Each year, thousands of history enthusiasts, community-minded citizens, families, Boy and Girl Scouts, ROTC units and more come together in an effort to help keep our nation’s heritage not only preserved, but pristine,” according to the foundation.
For a complete list of sites scheduled for cleanup, visit https://www.battlefields.org/parkday
Volunteers repair a wooden fence in 2024 at the Manassas National Battlefield Park, in Virginia, during Park Day. The nationwide event sends volunteers to clean up and make repairs at battlefields and military historic sites. (Melissa A. Winn/American Battlefield Trust)
Enrollment in the Department of Veterans Affairs caregiver support program has nearly doubled to close to 98,000 between fiscal years 2021 and 2025, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.
The expansion is largely due to a change in eligibility rules that qualifies more caregivers for services and benefits, according to the GAO report.
The caregiver support program offers mental health counseling, respite and other services to individuals who often provide around-the-clock care for veterans with serious injuries, according to the GAO report.
The majority of participants in the caregiver support program in fiscal year 2025 were women between 50 and 80 years old, according to the VA.
They most often were the spouse or partner of a veteran who required significant assistance to continue to live at home.
In fiscal 2021, the first full year of expanded eligibility, the VA received $874.5 million for the program — approximately double the $437.9 million appropriated in fiscal year 2019, according to the VA.
The VA requested $3.3 billion in fiscal 2026 and $3.6 billion for fiscal 2027 to support anticipated enrollment growth, according to the report.
A new government-sponsored life insurance program open to all service-connected veterans has enrolled close to 80,000 members since it launched in January 2023, the VA reported.
VALife was designed in part for veterans with injuries and illnesses from military service who might have difficulty obtaining coverage in the commercial market, said Tim Sirhal, principal deputy undersecretary for benefits at the Veterans Benefits Administration.
Sirhal testified last week at a House VA subcommittee hearing about the early success of the program, which enrolled more than 30,000 veterans in its first year.
Veterans must have a service-connected disability rating to be eligible, even if the rating is 0%, according to the VA.
But the vast majority of veterans insured through VALife have a disability rating of 70% or more, Sirhal said.
It takes, on average, about 11 minutes to fill out the application and confirm coverage online, Sirhal said.
Full coverage takes effect after two years of premiums are paid, according to the VA. If the veteran dies within that period, beneficiaries receive premiums paid plus interest, according to the VA.
“The VALife program has been a tremendous success,” Sirhal said. “Each applicant can elect up to $40,000 in coverage at any time up until age 80.”
Veterans 81 and older can still apply, but eligibility rules differ, according to the VA.
A national organization that advocates for families grieving the loss of a veteran to suicide are pressing Congress to establish a “green star service flag” for recognizing next of kin.
Green Star Families of America is supporting House legislation to establish a flag that will serve as a national symbol for families.
The Sgt. Walter F. Hartnett IV Green Star Veterans Service Act, led by Rep. Robert Bresnahan, R-Pa., and Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., would direct the VA to “design and designate a flag as the Green Star Service Flag to identify the next of kin of covered veterans,” according to the bill.
The bill is pending review before the House Judiciary Committee.
Hartnett, of Pennsylvania, was an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and received numerous awards, including the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, according to his family.
He was medically discharged in 2012, after 13 years of service, according to his family.
He died in 2025 at the age of 47, leaving behind a wife and four children. A GoFundMe page was created to help his family with basic expenses.
“Every day, we lose an estimated 22 veterans to suicide — men and women who gave of themselves entirely for our freedom, and who bore wounds civilians cannot fathom. Yet, their families receive no federal recognition for such excruciating loss,” Dean said.
The Sgt. Walter F. Hartnett IV Green Star Veterans Service Act, which was introduced in the House, would establish a "Green Star Service Flag" as a national symbol for families who've lost a veteran to suicide. Hartnett, shown in this screenshot, was a 47-year-old Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and died in 2025. (Hartnett family)
About half a million post-9/11 veterans, with an average age of 33 years at the time of the study, had high blood pressure, according to a new analysis published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
The study used electronic health data from the Veterans Health Administration to examine the medical history of more than a million post-9/11 veterans.
Researchers looked at blood pressure measurements, medical diagnoses, and prescription orders. They identified individuals who had high blood pressure, undiagnosed high blood pressure, and untreated high blood pressure, according to the study.
Approximately 45% of the veterans studied met the study’s clinical definition of high blood pressure, according to the study’s findings.
Researchers found that men were more likely to have high blood pressure compared with women and were also significantly more likely to have risk factors such as being a current or past smoker, alcohol or drug use, obesity and diabetes.
