News
VA Launches New Women Veterans Health Care Initiative
Sunday, August 26, 2012 | Category: Health Care - National
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) launched a Women Veterans Health Transformation Initiative to achieve health equity and improve the environment of care.
Female Generals: The Pentagon’s First Pair of Four-Star Women
Monday, August 13, 2012 | Category: Department of Defense - National
Wolfenbarger became the second female four-star general in the history of the U.S. military in June. She assumed her command just as the first female four-star in U.S. history, Army General Ann Dunwoody, prepared to leave hers.
Military Hazing Has Got to Stop
Friday, August 3, 2012 | Category: Hazing - National
Representative Judy Chu, California's 32d Congressional District, lost a nephew to suicide after a hazing incident. After another hazing that ended in suicide in 2011, she wrote an OP-ED with this conclusion: 'Our military doesn’t have to abuse its own to be strong. We want to have the most capable and most advanced armed forces in the world. But as long as the military allows the young people we send to war to be hazed by their fellow soldiers without consequence, we won’t. The military must make it clear that hazing is absolutely unacceptable and that perpetrators will be severely punished. We must protect those who protect us.'
Homeless Women Veterans Face Significant Barriers in Accessing VA-Sponsored Housing
Sunday, April 1, 2012 | Category: Housing/Experiencing Homelessness - National
VA has been making facility and culture changes to better serve women veterans. It is also challenged with expanding that effort to homeless-veteran programs. According to a 2011 GAO report, both VA and HUD have not collected data on this segment of the homeless population and consequently, cannot plan appropriately to meet their veteran housing needs.
Sexual Assault Permeates U.S. Armed Forces
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 | Category: Sexual Harassment/Assault/Trauma - National
Katie Couric's interviews Jessica, an Army Apache helicopter maintenance crew member, who was assaulted and raped while assigned in South Korea. Jessica shares how she tried to fit into her unit, was not believed when she reported the assault, and ultimately left the Army continuing to struggle with assault and rape and the military's complicity with the alleged crime.
The Feres Doctrine: What Soldiers Really Need Are Lawyers
Saturday, August 18, 2007 | Category: Military Justice - National
Jonathan Turley discusses how military servicemembers lost legal protections as a result of a 1950 Supreme Court ruling based on several cases that were collectively referred to as the Feres Doctrine. The doctrine was named after Army Lt. Rudolph Feres, whose claim stated he died in a New York barracks fire allegedly started by an unsafe heating system. The Supreme Court's interpretations of the Federal Tort Claims Act effectively bar servicemembers from filing torts claims, even though Congress exempted only “combat-related” injuries. Mr. Turley believes: "This doctrine has done more harm to military personnel and families than any court-made doctrine in the history of this country. Congress must amend the Federal Tort Claims Act to put an end to this disastrous doctrine." He notes that other prominent Supreme Court justices and lower court justices, liberals and conservatives, have denounced the continued use of "The Feres Doctrine."