Happy Friday. As you have no doubt noticed from recent editions of The Pentagon Rundown, the past several weeks have produced a tidal wave of news.
To ensure we stay focused on what matters most to our readers, we’d like to hear from you. We need your help filtering out the background noise and finding the stories that matter most to service members, military families, and veterans.
When federal agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs announce they are cutting employees, it’s our job to put into human terms what those decisions mean — not just for those impacted by policy changes, but for those who rely on the organizations where these things are happening. People are not numbers and our stories need to go beyond figures and data points to relay the human cost of what we cover.
We don’t care about politics, palace intrigue, or inside baseball. But when advocates fear that an executive order might prevent troops from getting the care they need for routine medical conditions, we have an obligation to draw attention to it so others don’t suffer in silence.
Amid all the uncertainty swirling around, you deserve to know if troops will have access to reproductive care; if Defense Department schools, where military families send their kids, are banning library books; and whether the military services are actually putting people first.
In order to write about all that, we need your insight. What stories should we be pursuing? What are the consequences of recent decisions by senior civilian and military leaders? What questions should we be asking those in leadership positions?
To be clear, we also want to know about the good things that troops, families, and veterans continue to do. And we need your help staying abreast of the latest cultural trends within the military and veteran community. (Are Chuck Norris jokes still a thing? Asking for a friend.)
Please feel free to email me directly at [email protected] about what you feel we need to write about. I can’t promise that I will write a story based on every email, but I am more than happy to listen — that’s how I learn.
Thank you.
Jeff Schogol