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Sports
2:18 am
Thu August 30, 2012

Doing It To Win: Veterans Raise Bar At Paralympics

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Credit David Gilkey / NPR
U.S. rowers Rob Jones and Oksana Masters train at the Rivanna Reservoir in Charlottesville, Va. The pair will compete in adaptive rowing at the London Paralympics this week. Jones, a former U.S. Marine, lost both legs to an improvised land mine in southern Afghanistan.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Jones is one of many U.S. veterans heading to London to compete in the Paralympics. The games are changing as a new generation of wounded war vets from the U.S. and U.K. bring their particularly competitive spirit to London.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Masters was born with disfigured legs that were later amputated.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Jones sits on the dock at the Rivanna Reservoir before putting his boat in the water. The Paralympic movement began half a century ago when disabled vets from World War II started looking for a way to continue active lifestyles.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
The teammates use a specially adapted rowing shell that is rigged with attachments so they can row comfortably, and slip in and out of the boat on their own.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Brad Lewis coaches Jones and Masters from a chase boat.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
The athletes put on their prosthetic limbs after the training session.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Jones wipes sweat from his head after a morning workout with Masters. Organizers of the games say the new vets raise the caliber of the competition; veterans say Paralympic sports provide inspiration and therapy for young, catastrophically injured soldiers.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Rob Jones and Oksana Masters will compete in adaptive rowing at the London Olympics this week. Jones is a former U.S. Marine who lost both legs to an improvised land mine in southern Afghanistan.
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Originally published on Thu August 30, 2012 10:22 am

On a placid summer morning last month, before the Virginia heat could hit them, a former U.S. Marine and his partner lifted their rowing scull into the glassy water of the Rivanna River, near Charlottesville.

"First thing I do is take these legs off," said Rob Jones, who like his rowing partner, Oksana Masters, is a double, above-the-knee amputee. They're the U.S. team for mixed-doubles rowing at the 2012 London Paralympics, which started Wednesday.

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Around the Nation
9:20 am
Fri August 3, 2012

A New Generation Of Vets Faces Challenges At Home

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Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Homeless veterans, their families and volunteers stand in line for food at "Stand Down," an annual event hosted by the Veterans Village of San Diego. The VA estimates that about 67,000 vets are homeless.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Stand Down, a three-day event supporting 1,000 veterans, is hosted in a tent city on the grounds of San Diego High School. It's a one-stop shop to help homeless vets get a fresh start. It offers health care, addiction therapy, showers, clothes and even an open-air court with pro bono lawyers to clear up fines and misdemeanors.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Dr. Jon Nachison speaks during the 25th opening ceremony of the Stand Down event. While the population is mostly from the Vietnam era, newer, younger faces have started to trickle in as vets return from Afghanistan and Iraq.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Nachison, a Vietnam veteran, is the founder and director of Stand Down.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Veterans stand in the center of the grounds, surrounded by American flags.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Bob Korchnak, a former Navy battleship sailor, gets a shave and a haircut after traveling from Ohio to take part in Stand Down. Korchnak was arrested numerous times in San Diego for panhandling and came back to take advantage of the court program to deal with outstanding legal issues.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Jill Millard volunteers in honor of her son Gregory, who was killed in action while deployed with the Army in Iraq.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Carlos Laguna did two tours with the Marines in Iraq. He says post-traumatic stress led to heavy drinking after he finished serving, and he credits Veterans Village of San Diego for helping him get clean.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Homeless vets wait for their legal packets and their court-appointed attorneys before going before Judge Roger Crauel. Crauel has been holding court at Stand Down for several years.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Steve Binder, the County of San Diego deputy public defender, has been helping veterans with their legal troubles for more than 15 years. He helps run the court, where veterans can free themselves from a cycle of legal troubles.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
A legal courtroom in session.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Nathaniel Roberti came to Stand Down to enroll in the Veterans Village San Diego residential program, which helps get homeless vets off the streets. A judge gave him that option instead of prison.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Chris Stavran lives in the Veterans Village of San Diego residential program instead of serving prison time for child abuse. He attributes his heavy drug use to post-traumatic stress.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Homeless veterans, their families and volunteers line up for food at Stand Down, an annual event hosted by the Veterans Village of San Diego. The Veterans Administration estimates that 67,000 vets are homeless nationwide.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Joshua, 28, had trouble adjusting to civilian life in a tough economy after eight years in the Navy. He asked to not share his last name because of the stigma tied with being homeless.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Paul, a former sniper with the Marines, did two tours in Iraq and says it was hard to reconnect with the civilian world. He declined to give his full name.
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Originally published on Fri August 3, 2012 5:06 pm

Homeless veterans of the Vietnam War have been a face of American poverty for decades, and now some veterans of a younger generation are dealing with the same difficult issues.

"I had my apartment up until 2011," says Joshua, a 28-year-old Navy vet, who asked not to give his last name because of the stigma of being homeless. "[I] couldn't keep up with the rent; I did a little couch surfing and then ended up on the street for a while."

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Politics
5:39 am
Mon July 23, 2012

Obama, Romney Court Veterans In Key States

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Originally published on Tue July 24, 2012 1:52 pm

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Now, we're also following the presidential campaign this Monday morning. We have noted on this program how many Americans have not been directly touched by the wars of the past decade. But at the same time, millions have. Well over two million American troops have rotated through Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Afghanistan
1:53 am
Thu May 10, 2012

Afghan Goal: Toning Down The Radical Preachers

Credit Muhammed Muheisen / AP
The Afghan government wants Muslim preachers to tone down sermons that often criticize the presence of American troops and praise the Taliban. Here, an Afghan youth drags his sheep past a group of men praying at a mosque in Kabul in November 2011.
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Originally published on Thu May 10, 2012 3:48 am

The ministry that governs religious affairs in Afghanistan has announced what some are calling a "three strikes" policy.

It's a warning directed at Muslim clerics, or imams, accused of inciting violence in their Friday sermons. Imams across the country routinely condemn the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and speak in favor of the Taliban.

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Afghanistan
3:00 pm
Tue May 8, 2012

For Afghan Soldiers, A Battle For Respect

Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Manullah Ahmadzai, 27, lost the sight in his right eye while serving as a front-line soldier in the Afghan military. Ahmadzai is one of many soldiers who have been severely injured and say promised government benefits don't always arrive.
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Originally published on Wed May 9, 2012 6:07 pm

Last month, the Taliban carried out their largest coordinated attack across Afghanistan, including three sites inside the capital Kabul. It took an 18-hour gunfight to end the assault.

But even as they took cover, Kabul residents saw something new: their own soldiers taking the lead, with limited help from NATO. Television footage showed Afghan soldiers moving confidently into the building where the militants were holed up, avoiding reckless gunfire that might have endangered civilians in the crowded city.

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David Aquila ("Quil") Lawrence is an award-winning correspondent for NPR News, covering the millions of Americans who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as they transition to life back at home.

Previously, Lawrence served as NPR's Bureau Chief in Kabul. He joined NPR in 2009 as Baghdad Bureau Chief – capping off ten years of reporting in Iraq and all the bordering countries. That experience made the foundation for his first book Invisible Nation: How the Kurds' Quest for Statehood is Shaping Iraq and the Middle East, published in 2008.

Before coming to NPR, Lawrence was based in Jerusalem, as Middle East correspondent for The World, a BBC/PRI co-production. For the BBC he covered the fall of the Taliban in December 2001 and returned to Afghanistan periodically to report on development, the drug trade and insurgency.

Lawrence began his career as a freelancer for NPR and various newspapers while based in Bogota, Colombia, covering Latin America. Other reporting trips took him to Sudan, Morocco, Cuba, Pakistan and Iran.

A native of Maine, Lawrence studied history at Brandeis University, with concentrations in the Middle East and Latin America. He is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Arabic.