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  • Custody proposal spurs legislation

    Tom Philpott Military Update

    Legal experts and military family advocates saw their advice ignored anew this year as the House again has passed a controversial bill from Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, aimed at protecting service members from losing custody of their children because of military deployments. Among the bill's critics this year is Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. The vote last week was 390-to-2 for legislation that the Senate is almost certain to kill, as senators again heed the legal warnings and shrug off, at least on this issue, some of the... Full story

  • Wife recounts husband's last day

    Tom Philpott Military Update

    Even as the war in Afghanistan is featured less often on evening newscasts or front pages of our newspapers, Americans still involved in the fight continue to die there, deepening the pool of Memorial Day remembrances with new heroes and fresh heartbreak. To glimpse what's still being sacrificed on Afghan soil, Courtney Knox, the 24-year-old widow of Army Sgt. JaBraun Knox, of Auburn, Ind., agreed to tell us about her husband and how he died May 18 at a forward operating base near Asadabad, Afghanistan. The first thing to... Full story

  • Wife recounts husband's last day

    Tom Philpott Military Update

    Even as the war in Afghanistan is featured less often on evening newscasts or front pages of our newspapers, Americans still involved in the fight continue to die there, deepening the pool of Memorial Day remembrances with new heroes and fresh heartbreak. To glimpse what's still being sacrificed on Afghan soil, Courtney Knox, the 24-year-old widow of Army Sgt. JaBraun Knox, of Auburn, Ind., agreed to tell us about her husband and how he died May 18 at a forward operating base near Asadabad, Afghanistan. The first thing to...

  • Panel declines TRICARE fee hikes

    Tom Philpott Military Update

    The House Armed Services Committee has voted to raise drug co-payments for TRICARE beneficiaries who have brand-name prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies or through the TRICARE mail order program. The committee also voted to help control Department of Defense drug costs by requiring beneficiaries who are eligible for TRICARE for Life, most of them elderly, to reorder all maintenance drugs through the TRICARE mail order plan for at least a year, after which they could opt out. The committee's defense bill also would cap... Full story

  • Panel declines TRICARE fee hikes

    Tom Philpott Military Update

    The House Armed Services Committee has voted to raise drug co-payments for TRICARE beneficiaries who have brand-name prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies or through the TRICARE mail order program. The committee also voted to help control Department of Defense drug costs by requiring beneficiaries who are eligible for TRICARE for Life, most of them elderly, to reorder all maintenance drugs through the TRICARE mail order plan for at least a year, after which they could opt out. The committee's defense bill also would cap... Full story

  • Bill first step to curbing abuses

    Tom Philpott Military Update

    President Obama's high-profile signing Friday of an executive order to protect Post-9/11 GI Bill users from predatory practices of for-profit schools is viewed by veterans' service organizations as a big step, but also a first step, toward curbing abuses within the U.S. education industry. Before grabbing his signing pen, the president warned an audience of soldiers and service families at Fort Stewart, Ga., of "bad actors out there" who aggressively market substandard education plans to veterans and service members who have...

  • Bill first step to curbing abuses

    Tom Philpott Military Update

    President Obama's high-profile signing Friday of an executive order to protect Post-9/11 GI Bill users from predatory practices of for-profit schools is viewed by veterans' service organizations as a big step, but also a first step, toward curbing abuses within the U.S. education industry. Before grabbing his signing pen, the president warned an audience of soldiers and service families at Fort Stewart, Ga., of "bad actors out there" who aggressively market substandard education plans to veterans and service members who have...

  • Payments to military may rise

    Tom Philpott Military Update

    So far, several hundred military members who lost homes to illegal foreclosure actions by big banks and mortgage servicers have received settlements of $116,785 apiece for economic loss and emotional distress. They also have been paid any equity lost plus interest. The number of hefty payments to military members and recently-separated veterans likely will swell to several thousand, predicts Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Department of Justice. Since last May, Perez and his division of...

  • Payments to military may rise

    Tom Philpott Military Update

    So far, several hundred military members who lost homes to illegal foreclosure actions by big banks and mortgage servicers have received settlements of $116,785 apiece for economic loss and emotional distress. They also have been paid any equity lost plus interest. The number of hefty payments to military members and recently-separated veterans likely will swell to several thousand, predicts Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Department of Justice. Since last May, Perez and his division of...

  • Study: Military marriages resilient

    Tom Philpott Military Update

    Despite enormous stress on military families from repeated wartime deployments and long periods living apart, service marriages are showing a level of resilience that social scientists can't yet explain. Military divorce rates have climbed only gradually in recent years and, according to a report in the Journal of Family Issues this month, have not exceeded the rate of broken marriages reported among civilian peers. Competitive wartime pay, extra allowances for being married in service and family support programs could be...

  • Study: Military marriages resilient

    Tom Philpott Military Update

    Despite enormous stress on military families from repeated wartime deployments and long periods living apart, service marriages are showing a level of resilience that social scientists can't yet explain. Military divorce rates have climbed only gradually in recent years and, according to a report in the Journal of Family Issues this month, have not exceeded the rate of broken marriages reported among civilian peers. Competitive wartime pay, extra allowances for being married in service and family support programs could be... Full story