Hyundai Capital America reached a settlement with service members who alleged in a federal case that the company illegally repossessed their cars while they were actively serving. The United States argued that the retrieval of service members’ property without a court order violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, according to court documents. The SCRA is a federal law that specifically prohibits an auto finance or leasing company from seizing an active service member’s motor vehicle without a court order. The service member only has to have made one payment on the vehicle in question bef ..read more

Veterans Affairs officials on Friday unveiled a new $4 million grant program designed to help new veterans and their spouses find post-military jobs. The program, announced on Military Spouse Appreciation Day, stems from legislation passed by Congress in 2021 and will offer grants up to $500,000 to organizations “that provide employment-based resources and tools for transitioning service members and spouses.” Those services may include resume writing assistance, interview training, employment placement services, and related help. “These grants will help our nation’s service members and their s ..read more

Sometimes, life can be stressful, and sometimes, to manage one’s mental health, one might need a little puppy love. That’s what Warrior Canine Connection, a Maryland-based nonprofit that trains service dogs to provide recovery care for veterans and military families, highlighted Wednesday during a live “puppy cam” event with officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Health and Human Services. About half a dozen six-week-old puppies scurried around the HHS lobby on their little paws while Dr. Shereef Elnahal, the under secretary of health for the Department of Vete ..read more

By the summer of 1965, just months after the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade landed at Da Nang, the intensity of the Vietnam War was surging. Ramping up, too, were the rules of engagement. President Lyndon B. Johnson was reportedly quoted as saying American pilots could not bomb an outhouse without his approval. Frustrated pilots found themselves “flying into heavily defended areas on predictable flight paths that exposed them to great risk while yielding often token results,” Stuart I. Rochester wrote in “The Battle Behind Bars.” It was in this environment that then-Capt. Harlan Page Chapman ..read more

A key Republican lawmaker accused Veterans Affairs leaders of knowingly misusing nearly $11 million in incentive pay awards to benefit senior department officials instead of retaining in-demand staff following the release of a critical report by a federal watchdog on Thursday. The controversy stems from erroneous bonuses doled out to senior executives last summer and fall as part of the $117 million Critical Skill Incentive Payments program authorized by Congress. Money from that fund has been given to more than 13,000 staffers with high-demand skills in an effort to keep them in VA hospitals ..read more

By the summer of 1965, just months after the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade landed at Da Nang, the intensity of the Vietnam War was surging. Ramping up, too, were the rules of engagement. President Lyndon B. Johnson was reportedly quoted as saying American pilots could not bomb an outhouse without his approval. Frustrated pilots found themselves “flying into heavily defended areas on predictable flight paths that exposed them to great risk while yielding often token results,” Stuart I. Rochester wrote in “The Battle Behind Bars.” It was in this environment that then-Capt. Harlan Page Chapman ..read more

JERUSALEM — The first aid ship bound for an American-built floating pier to be installed in Gaza departed early Thursday. But it’s unclear when the corridor will be up and running, and humanitarian groups say there are still major obstacles to getting food to starving Palestinians in the war-ravaged enclave. Cyprus announced the ship’s departure even though the U.S. military has not yet installed the pier and questions remain as to how the aid will be distributed. Even when the route is up and running, it won’t be able to handle as much aid as Gaza’s two main land crossings, which ar ..read more

A former soldier was convicted on May 6 of the 2001 murder of a 19-year-old pregnant soldier after the conclusion of an investigation spanning 22 years and two continents. Shannon Wilkerson was convicted Monday by a federal jury in Pensacola, Florida, for the murder of Amanda Gonzales, according to a Justice Department press release. Wilkerson managed to evade justice for over two decades after Gonzales’ body was found in her barracks in Hanau, Germany, on November 5, 2001. Advancements in DNA technology, as well as an inability to account for Wilkerson’s whereabouts between when Gonzales was ..read more

An Army AH-64 Apache mishap on Tuesday at Fort Riley, Kansas, sent two troops to the hospital, an official from the Army’s 1st Infantry Division confirmed, marking the latest such incident to necessitate medical care for soldiers. “They are in stable condition,” Lt. Col. Jefferson Grimes, the division spokesperson, told Military Times in a statement Wednesday. Investigators are looking into the cause of the incident, which occurred at the base’s training area when the helicopter, assigned to the 1st Infantry Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade, experienced a mishap during a gunnery training exe ..read more

The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that the country was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S., Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday. The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, according to the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The focus of U.S. concern was the larger explosives and how they could be used in a dense urban setting like Rafah where more than 1 million civilians are sheltering afte ..read more