President Joe Biden marked Veterans Day Thursday with a visit to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington. He spoke on what it means to be a veteran: “It’s an honor that only a small amount of Americans can claim and one that marks those able to claim it as brother and sisters. It’s a badge of courage that unites across all ages regardless of background because to be a veteran is to have endured and survived challenges most Americans will never know.” And First Lady Jill Biden called on the nation to help military families in a White House speech on Wednesday.
The Pentagon says there could be dozens of family members of U.S. troops still in Afghanistan, nearly three months after U.S. troops withdrew and the Taliban took over Kabul. The undersecretary of defense for policy issued a memo stating the Biden administration is currently putting together a database of relatives. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was set into motion by then-President Donald Trump. But the Biden administration extended the withdrawal deadline and has been widely criticized for how it handled the pullout. Critics focus on several major aspects: how Americans were left behind, how U.S. service members were killed, and why the evacuations were so chaotic.
And a new generation of service pups is here, after one special dog launched a movement to help veterans, and that special dog’s legacy lives on. Rick Yount founded Warrior Canine Connection, which has a unique approach. The group provides service dogs to veterans like Tim O’Boyle, who struggled with PTSD after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yount said, “It started for me about 26 years ago when I was gifted a golden retriever puppy by some good friends while I was working as a social worker.”
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