March 23, 2023

#VAFail: Arizona veterans face long wait times at VA and unpaid bills from community care

In 2014, the Phoenix Veterans Affairs hospital was exposed for manipulating and hiding veterans’ medical appointment wait times. Thousands of veterans were found on secret wait lists that covered up the extended weeks and months veterans were waiting for care. Veterans were even dying while waiting on those secret lists.  Nine years later, veterans in… Read more »

March 22, 2023

Iraq War Air Force veteran: 20 years later, thousands still in harm’s way in Iraq

“The Iraq War has cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars,” Air Force veteran Ian Robinson says, “and we’re still paying.” In a new video reflecting on the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War, Ian says he “saw firsthand the death and destruction the Iraq War caused.” Even 20 years after the war began,… Read more »

March 21, 2023

Q&A with CVA Policy Director Tyler Koteskey: A look back at the War in Iraq 20 years later

In 2003, the third-generation iPod debuted, Pirates of the Caribbean hit the big screen, the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted LeBron James, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California.   The Iraq War also started that year.   20 years later, American troops are still being deployed to Iraq.   To recognize the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War,… Read more »

March 21, 2023

Army combat medic: Tragedies of war follow our troops home

The war in Iraq took the lives of 4,500 American troops, and it’s taken even more here at home. “Suicide has killed more Global War on Terror veterans than combat,” Army combat medic Brian Fay said in a new video. “As a medic, I saw the worst of war. And that tragedy and loss doesn’t… Read more »

March 20, 2023

Those who served in Iraq deserve to see the end of the war. I know, I was there.

March 18th 2003, I arrived home from a late-night bartending shift in Queens. At work, I had been watching news reports of the bombing of the Hussein family compound, marking the start of the Iraq War. At home, a message was waiting on my answering machine: “Specialist Byrnes, report to the Manhattan Armory by 0900… Read more »

March 20, 2023

Iraq War vet says new military recruits ‘fighting the same battles as their parents’

A full generation of warfighters have seen combat since the start of the Iraq War in 2003.  In a new video, U.S. Army and Navy Jason Beardsley points out that new military recruits are taking up arms to fight “the same battles as their parents or grandparents.”   “The sacrifices have been noble and brave,” Jason… Read more »

March 16, 2023

My VA Story: Wheelchair-bound Montana veteran wants to fix the VA so younger vets don’t face the same fate

Ed Moeglein chose to make the military his life out of a sense of duty to country. “We were in that kind of a community,” Ed says of why he chose to enlist. “Both my father and father-in-law were World War II veterans. Growing up all my friends’ dads were World War II or Korean… Read more »