Stars and Stripes Veterans News

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April 27, 2022 | View in browser

 

VA fires 6 employees for not following coronavirus rules The Department of Veterans Affairs has fired six employees for disobeying rules that the agency put into place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, VA Secretary Denis McDonough said Monday. Read more >

VA adds 9 respiratory cancers to list of illnesses caused by burn pits The cancers were added to the department’s presumptive list, which lowers the amount of evidence that veterans must provide to receive VA benefits. Read more >

With death of 99-year-old Wisconsin veteran, four Merrill’s Marauders remain Raleigh Nayes, 99, died Thursday in Chippewa Falls, Wis., just one day after the Army veteran had received the Congressional Gold Medal for his role in fighting with the famed Merrill’s Marauders in Burma during World War II. Read more >   White House nominates Army National Guard general to lead VA board of appeals The Biden administration nominated Jaime Areizaga-Soto, a brigadier general with the Army National Guard, to lead the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. Areizaga-Soto, who grew up in Puerto Rico, would be the first Hispanic to hold the post if confirmed. Read more >   VA secretary signs new master plan for LA homelessness project, vows action after delays Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough on Friday signed an updated plan for a long-delayed housing development in Los Angeles that’s intended to help solve the veteran homelessness crisis. Read more >

Group wants to honor Doolittle Raiders with SC museum The Doolittle Raiders, who went on a daring bombing raid over Tokyo just months after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into World War II, started their training in Columbia, S.C. The American Heritage Foundation wants to build a museum to honor the raiders. Read more >   Russia releases Marine veteran Trevor Reed as part of prisoner exchange Russia and the United States have carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange, trading a Marine veteran jailed by Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America, both countries announced Wednesday. Read more >   Formerly homeless Navy veteran receives $80K to expand healthy food delivery Dion Dawson’s early life may have been filled with poverty, hardship and bouts with homelessness, but his last two years have been nothing short of meteoric. Read more >   ‘Worth a lifetime of PTSD’: Cradling a Ukrainian infant, an Idaho Marine veteran finds meaning in his pain On March 22, Idaho Marine veteran Jared Malone came to Ukraine to raise money for Victory Christian Church and help rent a building in Lviv that could house refugees. He spent nearly a month in Ukraine, flying back to the U.S. on April 16. Read more >   ‘Instead of committing suicide I went to Leeds’: Massachusetts lawmaker rallies veterans to speak on saving Northampton VA hospital With tearful eyes and solemn voices, veterans rallied during a town hall on Wednesday to painstakingly reflect on the physical and emotional trauma they endured fighting for their country. The majority of the veterans came to one solidary conclusion: They wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for the services provided at Northampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Read more >   Johnnie Jones, World War II veteran and Army’s first Black warrant officer, dies Johnnie Jones was born Nov. 30, 1919, in Laurel Hill, La., and raised on Rosemound Plantation by his parents, who farmed 73 acres of land but insisted that their son get an education. He graduated from Southern University and then was drafted in 1942. He became the Army's first African American warrant officer. Read more >

 

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