Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) has introduced a new bill to extend from two years to five years the time during which a veteran with no service-related disability can obtain VA health care. The chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee in a Jan. 25 statement said that two years is “insufficient time for symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental illnesses to appear.” He called five years “a larger, more appropriate window in which to address these problems.”
The 13th Fighter Squadron from Misawa Air Base, Japan, deployed its new F-35A fighters to a major exercise for the first time, sending them to Pacific Air Forces’ premier air combat training event: Red Flag-Alaska.