Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) cut to the chase with VA Secretary James Nicholson at a Thursday Capitol Hill hearing when he declared that the VA has put at risk for identity theft about 10 percent of the American population. And, Sanders pointed out that the loss of personal data on active and reserve military personnel places them and their families in physical jeopardy.
Retired Col. Carlyle "Smitty" Harris, known for introducing the "tap code" by which American POWs in North Vietnam could surreptitiously communicate with one another, died July 6. Harris was brutalized by the North Vietnamese over almost eight years of captivity.