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‘Ace’ pilots awarded the Congressional Gold Medal
At a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, the U.S. Congress honored surviving “ace” military pilots, some from the Puget Sound area, with the Congressional Gold Medal.
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JBLM retains combat brigades but loses 4 smaller units
The Army on Thursday confirmed it’s cutting 1,250 positions for active-duty soldiers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord over the next two years. It’ll get there by cutting three explosive-ordnance-disposal...
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VA whistle-blower exposes problems at Federal Way center
An investigation has vindicated a former VA employee in Federal Way who quit after feeling ostracized for reporting that an administrator got away with falsifying records and a subordinate failed to...
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Army re-christens Stryker Brigade at Lewis-McChord
What looks like a simple name change for a Stryker Brigade at Joint Base Lewis-McChord means much more for thousands of military families who passed through the South Sound during the Afghanistan and...
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Seattle VA office lost records; veterans told benefits ending
An inspection by the government showed that dozens of military veterans incorrectly received letters indicating they’d lose unemployment benefits after an overworked VA staff in Seattle lost track of...
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JBLM helicopter pilots may soon help fly unmanned drones
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — Daniel Fernandez used to have a fast and dangerous mission on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan as an Army scout helicopter pilot. He’d fly over a target in his Kiowa...
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JBLM transgender soldier anxiously awaits Army reforms
Soldier is ‘not-so-patiently’ waiting for a new Pentagon policy on transgender members of the military.
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Military doctor fights to clear name after questionable drug testing
A single positive drug test sent Army Maj. Eric Smith, a doctor, to military prison in a case rife with questions about fairness and the accuracy of drug tests. Now, with his conviction set aside, he’s...
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Army panel backs doctor trying to clear name after discredited drug test
A panel of senior Army officers has recommended against an attempt to further punish a doctor who spent seven months in Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s jail for a drug-use conviction based on the results of...
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Vastly different sentences for two JBLM soldiers convicted of deadly crimes
The disparities in outcomes for two soldiers show the differences in what can happen when the Army and Pierce County carry out their informal agreement to decide which agency should prosecute soldiers...
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VA Puget Sound to get $22M for hospital network
An overhaul of the Department of Veterans Affairs passed by Congress last summer will deliver $22 million to hospitals in the Puget Sound region to help the network catch up with its rapidly expanding...
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As PTSD cases surge, Army overhauling mental health services
After years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army is overhauling its mental health services.
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In this fact-challenged era, will public access to federal date be the next...
Trump’s election, like no other, has set off alarm bells for those who want to keep public information public. Fearing that federal data could soon be rendered inaccessible, librarians, scientists and...
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Federal ban keeps pot off-limits to military in Washington
TACOMA — As Washington prepares to open its first retail marijuana stores in the next few months, tens of thousands of military service members have been warned not to shop in any of them. They face...
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Errors in patient labeling, delays in testing at VA’s American Lake lab reported
Last February medical lab technicians at the VA’s American Lake hospital in Pierce County flagged a compromised batch of blood samples as frozen and thawed one too many times. The blood came from 18...
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Lapses plague security forces at local VA facilities
The agitated radio call came into Department of Veterans Affairs police Officer Tim Plourd from a colleague who was being assaulted by a patient in the VA’s Seattle hospital. The transmission was...
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Iraq nominee wins praise, but al-Maliki digs in
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister-designate, Haider al-Abadi, seems to have the backing of nearly every major political alliance in the country, but there’s no guarantee he’ll be able to take office as...
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Iraqi Shiites, Sunnis complain U.S. ignoring their plight
BAGHDAD — As U.S. warplanes tilt the battlefield against Islamic extremists in Kurdish-controlled territories, Iraqis in the rest of the country are growing resentful that the United States is not...
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Iraq’s Shiite militias confront extremists and frighten Sunnis
BAGHDAD — Hatem Abu Hazal lives between two frightening forces in northeast Iraq. On one side, he fears Sunni militants from the Islamic State who have been trying to seize territory near his home in...
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Lewis-McChord helicopter unit shifting focus to Pacific Rim
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD — Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s combat aviation brigade is about to turn its attention from the imposing peaks of Afghanistan to the “vastness of the Pacific.” Its helicopter...
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