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First lady Michelle Obama announced Wednesday the launch of a nationwide philanthropic effort to raise millions of dollars to help military families receive the support they need. Under the Philanthropy-Joining Forces Impact Pledge, more than 30 organizations are promising to raise $102 million for military families to help with things such as improving schools on military bases and helping families transition when a service member returns home. This is in addition to $62 million in commitments that exist. "Right now we are in a pivotal moment for our military families and our country," Obama said at an event at the...

PHOENIX -- A grieving Maricopa, Ariz. mother claimed her son was one of 40 veterans who died while waiting for medical services from the Phoenix Veterans Association. Carl Mclaughlin, 38, hung himself from a four-post canopy bed in his father's bedroom in December. "Everyday I think, 'How did this happen? How am I supposed to go on without him,'" said Terry Mclaughlin, Carl's mother. She said her son served the country proudly and for eight years as an Army scout and left the military life several years ago. She believes her son suffered from PTSD and other mental illnesses, but...

Written to his mom while he was flying P-40s in Italy. She found it in the chest of his belongings when it was returned to her after his death.

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Special agents are investigating the deaths of three people at Fort Hood, according to fort officials. The bodies of one man and two children were found Tuesday morning around 7:15 at an on-post home. Officials are calling the deceased military dependents. The U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Command is looking into what happened, but does not believe there is a further threat to the community.

WASHINGTON—The mother of a victim in the 2012 Benghazi, Libya, terrorist attack blasted former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an interview with WORLD, saying a recent article in The New York Times is only trying to protect Clinton’s 2016 presidential aspirations. “They’re just covering up for Hillary,” Pat Smith, mother of slain foreign-service officer Sean Smith, told me by phone. “Hillary killed my son. … As far as I can tell from all my sources, she was responsible—directly.” Lawmakers, media outlets, and analysts have all criticized a front-page story in Saturday’s edition of The New York Times, in which...

We don't spend much time examining the underpinnings on which our lives rest. We remember the cops and firefighters and EMTs when we need them -- and when we need them, we really need them -- but otherwise, we've got things to do, or think about doing, or get out of doing. We may volunteer to do some work for our church or political party or civic club. Or maybe not. We may vote, or not. We sit in classrooms listening to another lecture. Or maybe even giving one. We take the kids to school on the way to work....

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World War II Veterans denied access to their memorial is appalling. But, Catholic priests denied the opportunity to celebrate Mass, even as volunteers, leaves me speechless. Read below from the general counsel of the Archdiocese for Military Services as he explains priests that defy the governments orders may even face arrest. "If the government shutdown continues through the weekend, there will be no Catholic priest to celebrate Mass this Sunday in the chapels at some U.S. military installations where non-active-duty priests serve as government contractors." "Military personnel enjoy, like all Americans, the First Amendment guarantee of the 'Free Exercise' of...

Charles Woods is the father of Tyrone Woods, one of the Navy SEALS who disobeyed orders and heroically rushed to the rescue of the Benghazi mission personnel and was abandoned without support. Under Bush, the media turned Cindy Sheehan into an icon. But none of the Benghazi family members can get airtime outside of FOX to discuss the sense of pain and abandonment that they feel. When asked about Obama, Charles Woods, father of Ty Woods who was killed in Benghazi, said: It’s a little late for that. I wish he had taken the time the night of September 11,...

'I believe someone on their side definitely made a deal with somebody on our side' More than two years after President Obama reassured the father of a member of SEAL Team 6 that the government would look into the death of his son, the father is still waiting for a response, and his suspicions are growing. On Aug. 9, 2011, Taliban forces were waiting for a Chinook helicopter carrying members of the elite unit SEAL Team 6 to approach its landing site. The helicopter was attacked from three sides in a coordinated ambush.

The father of one of the 25 Navy SEALs killed in August 2011 when their Chinook helicopter was shot down by the Taliban in Afghanistan, told talk-host Michael Savage he believes the U.S. government sent his son and his colleagues to their deaths. After Vice President Joe Biden revealed that SEAL Team 6 carried out the operation that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011, Strange said the members of his son’s team gave startling indications to their families they were about to meet their demise. Charles Strange, the father of slain SEAL Michael Strange, told Savage Wednesday night that...

Jesse Ventura’s lawsuit against “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle -- purportedly the deadliest-ever American servicemen -- can proceed with the war hero’s widow as a substitute defendant, a judge has ruled.

The son of Fusilier Lee Rigby arrived at his father's funeral today wearing a t-shirt that said: 'My Daddy, My Hero'. Jack, Rigby two, arrived at the funeral wearing a blue t shirt with 'My Daddy's A Fusilier. Lee Rigby' printed on the front. He was joined by hundreds of mourners at the service for the 25-year-old, who was hacked to death outside Woolwich barracks in east London on May 22. The service began with a hymn and a reading by Sean Sheer, one of Lee's fellow soldiers and a family friend, bringing laughter from mourners. He spoke about how...

All it takes is one crack for a stone wall to start crumbling. Nine months after the deadly 9/14 raid on Camp Bastion in Afghanistan, the families of two fallen Marines may finally get some answers. Real accountability, of course, is another story. A formal internal investigation into lax security at the base -- a British-run NATO compound that adjoins our Marines' Camp Leatherneck -- is now under way. A few members of Congress are putting pressure on the administration for the truth. And a couple of mainstream reporters are digging deeper. More, please. And faster. Camp Bastion belongs in...

A couple in Philadelphia has filed a class-action lawsuit against the National Security Agency and Verizon, claiming they and their phone records were targeted for surveillance because of their outspoken criticism of Barack Obama and the U.S. military. This is believed to be the first official lawsuit filed against the government and the company, since it was revealed that Verizon had been ordered to turn over phone metadata for all of its customers. The couple who filed the class-action suit are not just any disgruntled Verizon customers, however. They are Charles and Mary Ann Strange, the parents of a Navy...

NAVY SEAL TEAM VI FAMILIES TO REVEAL GOVERNMENT’S CULPABILITY IN DEATH OF THEIR SONS IN FATAL HELICOPTER CRASH IN AFGHANISTAN FOLLOWING SUCCESSFUL RAID ON BIN LADEN’S COMPOUND DATE: MAY 9, 2013 PLACE: NATIONAL PRESS CLUB (HOLEMAN LOUNGE) TIME: 9:30 AM-11:30 AM (Washington, D.C.). Three families of Navy SEAL Team 6 special forces servicemen, along with one family of an Army National Guardsman, will appear at a press conference on May 9, 2013, to disclose never before revealed information about how and why their sons along with 26 others died in a fatal helicopter crash in Afghanistan on August 6, 2011,...

Mother Of Slain Benghazi Victim Rips Hillary Clinton: "I Blame Her" Pat Smith's son Sean Smith, a State Department information officer, was one of four Americans killed during the attack. JAKE TAPPER: One woman still looking for answers is Pat Smith. Her son, State Department Information Officer Sean Smith was one of the four Americans killed. Pat, thanks so much for being here. I know this is not an easy time. How are you holding up? PAT SMITH, MOTHER OF SEAN SMITH, KILLED IN BENGHAZI: Terrible. I cry every night. I don't sleep at night. I need answers. TAPPER: What...

The military’s tuition assistance programs will resume soon, but no one knows when. Last week, Congress rolled back plans to halt all new enrollments to the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps tuition assistance programs, after veterans groups and military advocates protested the budget-saving moves. The measure, included in the new appropriations bill to fund government operations through October, was signed into law Tuesday by the president. But military officials said they still haven’t restarted the education benefit enrollments, because they are trying to decipher what the new budget bill requires and where additional cuts will come from. Pentagon spokesman...

The story of a good deed has spread like wildfire online since Sunday, when an anonymous do-gooder left a kind note and $40 on a woman’s windshield in a Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot. More on Shine: One Girl, 89 Random Acts of Kindness: Teenager's Amazing Homage to Late Great-Grandmother “I noticed the sticker on the back of your car,” the note read, referring to a “Half my Heart is in Afghanistan” bumper sticker. “Take your hero out to dinner when he comes home. Thank you both for serving. Him deployed and you for waiting.” It was signed “United States veteran”...