News
Suicides Among Military Participants (Past and Present) Continued to Rise in 2022
At the end of October, the Department of Defense issued its Annual Report on Suicide in the Military for the 2022 calendar year. Since 2011 there has been a continued increase in the number of active duty deaths with the vast majority of those deaths (93.1%) seen...
Military Branches Report Big Recruiting Shortfalls
The US military ended Fiscal Year 2023 on September 30 with nearly every branch reporting large lapses in their recruiting efforts. Missing Soldiers and Sailors Navy: 7,450 missing enlisted sailors Army: 11,000 missing enlisted soldiers Air Force: 2,777 missing...
GI Rights Boot Camp
Lenore Yarger, GI Rights Counselor In the fall of 2000, Steve and I offered to volunteer with Quaker House as counselors on the GI Rights Hotline. We traveled to Fayetteville for a half-day “counselor boot camp” led by Alex Doty of CCCO. He gave us a brief overview of...
Can You Find a Way to Extend Quaker House to Your Community?
Every time I talk about the work and mission of Quaker House, I focus on the meaning of “say yes to the troops, no to the war” in 2023. It means we have a responsibility to every person suffering because of our nation’s military-industrial complex. It means providing...
An Age-Old Problem with a Digital Accomplice
Sexual assault in the military is a deeply troubling issue that has garnered lots of attention over the past 15 years or so, with a focus on prevention. Specific programs like SHARP (Sexual Harassment/ Assault Response and Prevention) were developed to address rising...
Holding The Line: Fall 2023 Newsletter Highlights
The Holding the Line section is going to be a way for us to share brief information about the new and the ongoing challenges faced by military participants and their families. We plan to begin doing short blurbs once or twice a month online and will include highlights...
If You Build It, They Will Call Steve Woolford, GI Rights Counselor: Fall 2022 Newsletter
Times change, and with it, military regulations. For example, the addition of the Space Force to the armed forces required an overhaul of all the Air Force regulations, which now refer to “members” rather than “airmen,” in order to include the “guardians” of the Space...
Seeking How to Put Action to Witness: Fall 2022 Newsletter
A highlight of my first months at Quaker House has been visiting communities in Florida, South Carolina, Vermont, New York, Virginia, and across North Carolina. Two topics came up with every visit: reactions to the conflict in Ukraine and how can we be effective...
Complications of Dobbs Decision on Active-duty Service People
The complications caused by the recent Dobbs decision by the United States Supreme Court continue to grow as jurisdictions and entities across the country try to work out the implications. While the basic landscape faced by members of the military hasn’t changed at...