Rebecca Burgess

Jan 21, 2025 | iwf.org | Julianna Frandle |Rebecca Burgess

Security Everyone loves the party game/icebreaker “two truths and a lie.” Can you identify which of the following is NOT true about veterans and their financial status? A. Military veterans are typically more successful than their civilian peers B. Homelessness among veterans has radically increased over the last decade C. Veterans don’t experience poverty at higher rates than civilians Let’s take these statements one at a time: A. TRUTH! The great news is that, in part due to their need to...

Sep 5, 2024 | iwf.org | Julianna Frandle |Rebecca Burgess

Politics Hardly after the Harris campaign announced Governor Tim Walz as Kamala Harris’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election, the scrutinizing began of his military service narrative. Everything has been probed, from Walz’s actual rank (sergeant major versus command sergeant major); the timing of his withdrawal/retirement from the National Guard shortly before his battalion was scheduled for an active-duty Iraq deployment; the nature of his service (“garrison duty” in Italy in...

May 19, 2024 | iwf.org | McKenzie Holmes |Rebecca Burgess

Not so very long ago, in 2018, the Department of Veterans Affairs was celebrating a record-high financial bonanza of $230 billion in federal funding. Today, even as the population of veterans is diminishing, VA budgetary resources have increased by $100 billion, to more than $338 billion.

Feb 22, 2024 | iwf.org | Julianna Rylko |Rebecca Burgess

Security Any phenomenon manifesting in a large, complex, multipart institution whose dynamics are downwind of society at large is bound to have not just one cause, but many. Current institutional case in point: the U.S. Armed Forces and the military recruitment crisis. For the two-plus years that the military’s branches (outside of the U.S. Marines) have faced a significant (Navy) to severe (Army) shortage of incoming recruits, analysts have invoked many now familiar arguments for the causes...

Jan 30, 2024 | iwf.org | Julianna Rylko |Rebecca Burgess

Security Everyone loves the party game/icebreaker “two truths and a lie.” Can you identify which of the following is NOT true about veterans and their financial status? A. Military veterans are typically more successful than their civilian peers B. Homelessness among veterans has radically increased over the last decade C. Veterans don’t experience poverty at higher rates than civilians Let’s take these statements one at a time: A. TRUTH! The great news is that, in part due to their need to...