Dressed in the same flight suit he wore in World War II, 100-year-old Ted Giannone stepped into a bright yellow Fairchild PT-26 trainer plane, becoming the 500th rider of Mesa-based nonprofit Grounded No More - founded in 2016 to take veterans on “honor flights” free of charge. Read more»

"Who will Arizona voters support: Mark Kelly - whose life reflects the values by which he and the late Sen. John McCain lived their lives - or a Silicon Valley-financed newcomer to politics like Blake Masters?" — Michael G. Mathis, Rear Admiral, USN (ret) Read more»

"Can you imagine what would happen if the overseer of Arizona's election just threw out your vote? Our country, democracy would be rocked to its core. And yet, that's exactly what election denier and conspiracy theorist Mark Finchem is saying he would do." — Michael G. Mathis, Rear Admiral, USN (ret) Read more»

Even though a separate Navy review found that 34 people, including five admirals, contributed to or directly led to the loss of the USS Bonhomme Richard, Ryan Mays is the only person to have faced a court-martial. Read more»

The U.S. Navy has ordered another $423 million in new ship radar systems from Raytheon Missiles & Defense, headquartered in Tucson, company officials said. The contract could include up to $3.16 billion in radars for new ships over the next five years. Read more»

Seven members of the Navy – five nurses, a respiratory technician and a doctor – have joined Valleywise Health Medical Center to support overburdened frontline health care workers, per a request from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Read more»

Although Kim Cota-Robles is not the first woman to serve as a public address announcer for a North American professional hockey team, she is believed to be the only Latina full-time PA announcer in the sport’s pro history. Read more»

Saturday’s football game between Air Force and Navy will be the 54th between the two teams – and their first meeting on 9/11, leaving one Arizona-born Navy player with “goosebumps just thinking about it.” Read more»

While much of the attention to education benefits for service members focuses on veterans, most of the military’s 1.3 million active-duty personnel are also eligible for tuition assistance, but restrictions mean many service members have to wait for college until they leave the military. Read more»

The Brandon Act, named in memory of Brandon Caserta, a Navy veteran who died by suicide, would provide service members confidential access to mental health care without fear of rebuke or retaliation. Read more»

Five transgender veterans in Arizona speak on what it meant to serve in the military and witness the shifts in how their identities are viewed by the commander in chief, with the effects ranging from loss of status and benefits to traumatic experiences while in service, including sexual assault. Read more»

Kelly and McSally wielded the usual disdain of political opponents, accusing one another of misleading Arizonans while outlining their own familiar campaign stances in a debate that offered few surprises. Read more»

The U.S. Navy combat ship named for the former congresswoman from Tucson has been deployed in the Western Pacific, sailing off the coast of Malaysia as a show of force in a region seeing increased Chinese pressure. Read more»

In dismissing the commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the Navy once again punished the messenger, a frontline leader brave enough to tell the unvarnished truth to superiors about a threat to his sailors. Read more» 1

They were once 1,512. Now they are but two. Donald Stratton, who was among the 337 survivors of the attack on the USS Arizona, died Saturday, leaving just Lou Conter and Ken Potts still alive of the crew on the U.S. Navy battleship on Dec. 7, 1941. Read more»