Faced with a mounting backlog of nearly 6,000 pending veterans’ claims, US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims Chief Judge William Greene Jr. has recalled two of its retired judges to help trim the caseload. The number of pending cases has more than doubled in the past two years, with each of the court’s seven current judges handling more than 300 new cases each month when they used to hear less than 200 per month. Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chair Larry Craig (R-Idaho) in a statement welcomed the additional judicial help to reduce the backlog “and give all veterans a timely decision.” He noted that more retired judges may be recalled if the caseload is not sufficiently trimmed in three months.
A recent seven-day exercise sent Air Force F-22s—along with other USAF aircraft—to austere, challenging environments across Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Agile Reaper, taking place for the second time after its inaugural edition last year, featured 800 Airmen and 29 aircraft across five different locations from April 10-16, training…