Author: Braxton Taylor

In 2004, brother and sister duo Rob and Brittany Bergquist started a small campaign to help a soldier deployed to Afghanistan. His wireless bill had ballooned to a whopping $8,000 as he tried to keep in touch with his wife and son. The Bergquists learned two valuable lessons. First, they were good at fundraising. Second, Americans want to help their service members and veterans.“I was getting ready for school one morning, and I heard the story of this guy. He was from Natick, Massachusetts, and that was a couple towns over from where I grew up,” Rob Bergquist told Military.com.…

The USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier lost another F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet on Tuesday — the third since it deployed to the Middle East — this time amid a landing incident that caused the jet to go overboard, defense officials confirmed to Military.comThe incident comes just more than a week after the Truman lost an F/A-18 jet and a connected tow tractor when the pair fell overboard while being towed around the carrier’s hangar deck.Officials said the most recent incident was caused by a failure in some part of the arresting equipment used to bring the jet to…

Dear Dr. Emma, I am the wife of a veteran. I watched him sacrifice for and serve our country. As the current president takes a wrecking ball to the VA and to our Constitution, I am angry all the time. I am angry that he is disrespecting our military and veterans. I am angry that he doesn’t care if he follows the basic laws of our country. I am angry seeing our allies being disrespected because I know that they served alongside my husband. How do I deal with my anger when nothing feels like it is getting better? — WTAFDear WTAF,I…

President Donald Trump’s surprise decision to base a squadron of F-15EX fighter jets at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Michigan will strain the Air Force’s already overburdened F-15 training pipeline—potentially forcing the service to reevaluate its training standards or divert operational aircraft to training roles. The new jets heading to Michigan will replace the base’s A-10 Warthogs. But converting those A-10 pilots to fly the F-15EX will require training beyond what F-15C/D pilots need—a requirement the Air Force had not planned for.The service’s lack of F-15 training capacity was raised by Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., who said that Seymour Johnson Air…

The Department of Veterans Affairs office that handles benefits for widows, widowers and dependents of deceased veterans will shift from the VA’s benefits administration to the secretary’s office in a move officials say will streamline the claims and payment process for eligible survivors.The department announced Monday that the Office of Survivors Assistance, or OSA, will return to the office of VA Secretary Doug Collins, where a staff of five will oversee the program and provide guidance to Collins on the program’s policies and priorities.As part of the changes, the VA also will create a survivor outreach team based in Philadelphia…

A private, state-linked Chinese space company, accused by U.S. officials of helping Yemen’s Houthi rebels by providing satellite imagery used to target U.S. and international vessels in the Red Sea, illustrates the complexity of today’s great power competition. But a look at what public records tell us about the company is even more illuminating.Chang Guang Satellite Technology is emblematic of the new breed of Chinese space company: nimble, innovative, and at least nominally private—yet with close ties to China’s party-state and military. The firm was established in 2014 as a joint venture of the Jilin provincial government and the Changchun Institute…

Firing Veterans Crisis Line employees would trigger notifications to Congress under a bill being introduced by a Democratic senator aiming to give those employees more protections against being terminated.The bill comes after the Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledged in a letter to senators last month that 24 support employees at the suicide helpline were “erroneously” told they were being let go during mass Trump administration firings at the beginning of the year. The VA sent the letter on the mistaken termination notices after accusing Democrats of fearmongering about crisis line employees being fired.Under the bill being introduced Wednesday by Sen.…

Cheryl Mason, an attorney who once served as the chief executive officer of the Board of Veterans’ Appeals and now works as a senior adviser to Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, has been nominated as the department’s next inspector general.The nomination, announced late Tuesday, comes amid an ongoing lawsuit over the firings in January by President Donald Trump of more than a dozen inspectors general across the federal government, including Michael Missal, who had served as the VA’s top watchdog since 2016.Mason has worked on and off for the VA since 1990, gaining increasing responsibility across nearly three decades, including…

Less than 48 hours after public land advocates celebrated the absence of land sales in the House budget proposal, the Natural Resources Committee amended the legislation to include it.The amendment wasn’t introduced until the very end of a marathon markup day in which committee members jockeyed to finalize their portion of the budget reconciliation package. Around 11:30 p.m. last night, Reps. Mark Amodei of Nevada and Celeste Maloy of Utah proposed adding a requirement to sell tens of thousands–potentially hundreds of thousands–of acres in their respective states.In their presentations to the committee, Amodei and Maloy characterized the sales as generating…

On Monday morning, 89-year-old Robert Markel was fatally attacked by a black bear near his home in Jerome, Florida.Markel’s daughter called authorities around 7:15 a.m. to report that she couldn’t find her father after witnessing a bear killing his dog. Rangers arrived at the area shortly after and found Markel’s body a couple of hundred yards away from the dog.“We do know it was a bear attack. We don’t know if it was the same bear or multiple bears,” said George Reynaud, spokesperson for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).According to a press release, the FWC set multiple…