Erik Slavin

2 weeks ago | stripes.com | Matthew Burke |Erik Slavin

Retired Navy Capt. Mike McGrath, a Vietnam veteran who spent six years in captivity, seen here at his Colorado home on May 14, 2025. McGrath researched a spike in the number of veterans getting prisoner of war benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. He contends that the rise is a result of VA acceptance of claims from impostors, but the agency says its accounting system may create multiple tallies for a person who served during more than one wartime period.

2 months ago | stripes.com | John Vandiver |Erik Slavin

STUTTGART, Germany — A search and rescue operation has been launched for four U.S. Army soldiers missing on a training range in Lithuania, service officials said Wednesday. The U.S. Army and Lithuanian authorities are searching at a military site near the city of Pabradė, U.S. Army Europe and Africa said in statement. The city is about 6 miles from the border with Belarus. All of the soldiers are from 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, a rotational unit deployed to NATO’s eastern flank.

Feb 26, 2025 | stripes.com | John Vandiver |Erik Slavin

Petty Officer 1st Class Kepono Gowan, a special operations independent duty Navy corpsman with 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, launches an RQ-20 Puma aerial drone during Operation Baltic Sentry in southern Finland on Feb. 24, 2025. (Brian Bolin Jr./U.S. Marine Corps) STUTTGART, Germany — A contingent of U.S. Marines has deployed to coastal Finland to assist a NATO operation aimed at tracking down potential saboteurs in the Baltic Sea.

Dec 5, 2024 | stripes.com | Jennifer H. Svan |Erik Slavin

An Air Force fire truck is lined up with others in front of a cordon at Bruchwiesenstrasse and Brauereistrasse in Landstuhl, Germany, following an early morning industrial fire on Dec. 5, 2024. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes) LANDSTUHL, Germany — Smoke hung over Landstuhl on Thursday as firefighters battled an early morning blaze at a laundry facility on Bruchwiesenstrasse, about a half-mile from the town’s train station.

Jul 3, 2024 | stripes.com | Erik Slavin

(Alexander Riedel/Stars and Stripes) KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz lowered its alert status Wednesday, days after bases around Europe began taking additional security precautions.