The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is processing claims at the fastest rate in its history, hoping to avoid a significant backlog as hundreds of thousands of veterans apply for health care and benefits under the landmark toxic exposure law Congress passed earlier this year. Read more»

The U.S. Senate could be on track to advance a bill as soon as Tuesday that would provide veterans exposed to toxic substances overseas with health care and benefits, after a weekend in which outraged veterans camped out on the steps of the Capitol. Read more»

The veterans will tell their stories: the individual, poignant bits that help people to understand and to care. They already tell the tales, stories with beginnings, middles, and endings, stories that will need to be sorted into something we can bear, that will help us heal. Stories told to friends’ parents, and to their own. To lovers, bosses, and acquaintances. Read more»

Numbers for breast cancer in military women have been high for years, but as veterans returned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, rumors began to swirl: The cancers are hitting young—and they’re extraordinarily aggressive. Read more»

In a bow to COVID-19 health concerns, the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services will be going online with the annual Memorial Day ceremony and related events at the state’s three military cemeteries. Read more»

As we get older, Memorial Day becomes a kids’ holiday and that’s when we realize the true cost of war. It's a price Mountain View High School knows too well. Read more»

A "precision airstrike" this week killed the Al-Shabaab leader who planned an a January attack on a U.S. training base in which three Americans died, including Dustin Harrison of Tucson, officials said. Read more»

The U.S. House voted Thursday to repeal the 2002 authorization for the use of military force that allowed the George W. Bush administration to wage war against Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq. Read more»

Ignoring the facts of Donald Trump's impeachment case would be a case of the U.S. Senate giving up on fight against corruption. In that case, they're all open to baseless allegations. Let me show them how. Read more»

Arizona lawmakers split along party lines Thursday as the House passed a nonbinding resolution calling on the president to end the use of U.S. military “to engage in hostilities in or against Iran or any part of its government or military.” Read more»

A Tucson man was among those killed in a weekend assault on a base in Africa — reportedly part of a terrorist response to the U.S. assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad on Friday. Read more»

John McCain ends his career honorably and bravely, but with hostility from the White House, marginal influence in the Republican-controlled Senate, and a public less receptive to the positions he has long embodied. Read more»

A U.S. Army Special Operations helicopter pilot who was born in Phoenix died Monday after a crash in Iraqi Kurdistan. Flags across Arizona will fly at half-staff on Wednesday in honor of CWO 3 Taylor J. Galvin, Gov. Doug Ducey ordered. Read more»

We've made it through the first year of the presidency of Donald Trump (let that name attached to that title sink in) without a nuclear war with North Korea. But there's next year. Read more»

TucsonSentinel.com will observe two minutes of silence at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11 in recognition of the sacrifices of those who have served the United States and our allies, their families, and those who paid the ultimate price in war. Read more»