Stars and Stripes Veterans News

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September 1, 2021

 

Veterans ‘devastated, just gutted’ over allies left behind after US withdrawal Volunteers served as conduits between at-risk Afghans and the U.S. government during the evacuation. Some even flew to the Kabul airport to help. READ MORE

Veterans Crisis Line sees ‘significant increase’ in texts from veterans since Afghanistan evacuations Calls to the Veterans Crisis Line increased 7% and online chats increased by nearly 40% during the same time period, from Aug. 13 to 29. Department of Veterans Affairs officials attribute the increase to multiple factors, including the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan and the upcoming 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. READ MORE

Judge orders thousands of 3M earplug cases move closer to trials A federal judge in Florida has ordered thousands of veterans’ lawsuits against an earplug manufacturer to be scheduled for trials to alleviate a backlog of more than 250,000 cases. READ MORE   Retired military officers demand Austin, Milley resign over handling of Afghanistan withdrawal The conservative group Flag Officers 4 America orchestrated the letter signed by the officers that accuses Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, of failing to recommend “against this dangerous withdrawal in the strongest possible terms" that left 13 U.S. troops dead. READ MORE   US Army, Navy veterans aim for Paralympic archery gold in Tokyo A pair of US military veterans were among dozens of archers shooting thousands of arrows at the beginning round of Paralympic archery. READ MORE

George Vest, long-serving Foreign Service officer and Cold War diplomat, dies at 102 George Vest, a long-serving U.S. diplomat who helped lay the groundwork for the Helsinki Accords with the Soviet Union in the 1970s and later was the State Department’s chief of recruiting and training, died Aug. 24 at his home in Bethesda, Md. He was 102. READ MORE   Cost of VA hospital complex in Colorado tops $2 billion; becomes one of world’s most expensive health facilities Three years after the U.S. Veterans Affairs medical complex in Aurora, Colo., opened, costs to get the 11-building, 1.2 million-square-foot, 31-acre medical campus operating have grown by another $40 million — pushing the total tab to more than $2 billion and putting it among the costliest health care facilities in the world. READ MORE   Actor and US Army veteran Ed Asner, TV’s blustery Lou Grant, dies at 91 Built like the football lineman he once was, the balding Asner, a U.S. Army veteran, was a journeyman actor in films and TV when he was hired in 1970 to play Lou Grant on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." READ MORE   Bill Emerson, banjoist who founded Navy’s country-bluegrass ensemble, dies at 83 In 1973, Bill Emerson was recruited by the Navy to organize the Country Current. With a lineup that included drums and electric instruments such as pedal steel guitar, it was the first military band devoted to country and bluegrass music. Emerson's hitch lasted 20 years, and he retired with the rank of master chief petty officer. READ MORE   Veterans with PTSD could get service dogs from VA under new law The new law orders the Department of Veterans Affairs secretary to develop and launch a five-year pilot program that provides service dog training to benefit veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. READ MORE   Operation Babylift: A frantic Saigon rescue effort is echoed in Kabul’s chaos It was early April 1975 in Saigon, the final days of the South Vietnamese collapse in a ruinous war, and crying women were handing orphaned babies to 30-year-old Air Force flight nurse Regina Aune. The screaming babies, the anguish — it all came back to Aune watching the chaos unfold at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan. READ MORE

 

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