Tricare Prime beneficiaries who see a primary care manager at a military hospital or clinic may be able to get a virtual appointment for urgent care if their local military treatment facility is booked, Tricare officials announced Thursday.

Patients can contact the Military Health System Nurse Advice line online or by phone at 1-800-TRICARE (874-2273). A nurse will assess whether they can get a virtual appointment that day or the following.

“This is part of the Defense Health Agency’s effort to improve health care access,” said Army Lt. Col. Ryan Shubat, chief of the Defense Health Agency’s primary care and mental health health care optimization, in the announcement.

The service is offered in the United States for eligible beneficiaries aged 12 and older, but not overseas or in U.S. territories.

Providers can address common urgent care issues, officials said, such as sinus congestion and infections; coughs; allergies; sore or hoarse throat; rashes; acne; muscle and joint pain; and headaches.

The nurse will ask about a patient’s symptoms, and decide whether the symptoms can be treated virtually. If it works for the patient, the nurse will set up the virtual appointment with a health care provider. Appointments are available from 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Providers can write prescriptions and send them directly to the patient’s pharmacy.

All virtual urgent care providers meet high standards for patient care, officials said. Each provider has credentials and privileges at a Defense Health Agency military hospital or clinic.

The visit is recorded in the patient’s electronic health record.

In a Nov. 19 release, the VA made clear its opposition to federal funding for green energy programs in general and charging stations in particular, although the Trump administration in August was forced under court order to release up to $5 billion approved by Congress for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, or NEVI, program to build a nationwide network of charging stations along major highways.

“In Joe Biden’s VA, the department was distracted by woke social-justice programs and green-energy boondoggles, but those days are long gone,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a VA release. “VA exists to serve veterans, and we’re making sure all of our resources go toward that noble purpose.”

The VA has yet to decide how all of the $77 million will be redirected, but Collins said that three projects have already been targeted, beginning with $10 million for upgrading VA’s Friendship House residence in Oklahoma City; $21.3 million for the MRI ward at the Providence, Rhode Island VA Medical Center; and $13.8 million to upgrade the radiation oncology unit at the G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VAMC in Jackson, Mississippi.

The move to scrap the charging stations brought the VA more in line with President Donald Trump’s long-held claims that green energy programs are a wasteful concessions to climate change alarmists. He has consistently maintained that clean energy sources, such as solar and wind, cost more and don’t work as well as fossil fuel options.

Shortly after taking office last January, Trump issued an executive order — “Unleashing American Energy” — rejecting what he called former President Joe Biden’s “preposterous” emphasis on electric vehicles and calling for the elimination of regulations favoring electric vehicles over gas-powered trucks and cars.

Despite Trump’s stance, all branches of the military maintain long-standing clean energy programs, including the Army’s plan to field a fleet of non-tactical, all-electric vehicles by 2035 and efforts to put solar-powered charging stations on bases.

In a February 2023 release by the Fort Hood Army base in Texas, Kristina Manning, then-Real Property Planning Division chief at the Fort Hood Directorate of Public Works, noted, “Like many things, Fort Hood is on the cutting edge for the Army on the fielding of EV and charging stations.

“Providing charging stations for personal use supports our People First stance and contributes to the quality of life for our soldiers and families by having charging options available for EV owners,” Manning said. “These charging stations are free because they are solar and do not use any electricity from the grid.”

In the ongoing battle over climate change initiatives, Trump used the world stage in September to double down on his views that environmentalists have it all wrong.

“This climate change. It’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion,” Trump said in an address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. “All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong. They were made by stupid people that have cost their countries fortunes and given those same countries no chance for success. If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.”

But at a White House Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump insisted that he was not opposed to electric vehicles, but rather “insane” mandates for the public to buy them.

“I like electric cars, I like all cars,” Trump said, adding that the public should have the option to buy gas-powered vehicles.

Still, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in August begrudgingly said that federal funding would resume for the NEVI program initiated by the Biden administration.

“If Congress is requiring the federal government to support charging stations, let’s cut the waste and do it right,” Duffy said in a release.

Duffy claimed that the Biden administration failed to deliver EV chargers as promised, but “Our revised NEVI guidance slashes red tape and makes it easier for states to efficiently build out this infrastructure.”

“While I don’t agree with subsidizing green energy, we will respect Congress’ will and make sure this program uses federal resources efficiently,” he said.

Potentially thousands of veterans are affected, but many questions remain about the policy that the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs must work through.

Bad discharges cost service members years of benefits for home loans, educational benefits and medical care, and it’s not clear whether the government will try to find a way to compensate for those costs or how it might set benefits from this point forward.

Here’s a look at how the policy has changed, how veterans can apply for the pardons and what questions still need to be answered:

Who is affected?

In December 2013, Congress removed a provision from the Uniform Code of Military Justice that had criminalized sodomy between two consenting adults. The provision, under Article 125, had been in place since 1951 and resulted in the convictions and discharges of an estimated 2,000 service members, said Rachel Branaman, a spokeswoman for the Modern Military Association of America, an advocacy organization of LGBTQ+ service members, military spouses, veterans, their families and allies.

The total numbers affected — including service members who may have been targeted due to sexual orientation but discharged for other issues — could be much higher, she said. While the act was no longer criminalized in the UCMJ after 2013, service members who had been prosecuted under Article 125 before then and discharged were still facing the repercussions of having those military convictions on their records.

How do service members apply for a pardon?

Service members who were discharged due to an Article 125 violation prior to 2013 can apply for the pardon. The Pentagon launched a webpage on Wednesday with links to apply and instructions on how to pursue each case.

Not everyone will qualify under Biden’s proclamation. Exceptions include if the consensual act occurred during an adulterous relationship with the spouse of another service member or where a power imbalance put into question whether the act was consensual, such as between a recruiter and a potential recruit.

The Pentagon’s portal has the guidelines for who qualifies and an application for a pardon, which affected veterans will need to submit to the military branch they served in.

Will there be benefits?

While Biden’s proclamation technically pardoned all people covered by its terms, former service members still have to have their records verified by the military branch they served in to get proof from the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney that they were pardoned.

That’s important because it will allow the affected veteran’s record to be corrected in paperwork used to apply for loans, credit, employment or positions of trust.

The pardon doesn’t mean the conviction will be removed from the person’s record — both the conviction and pardon will show. A further step to have the record expunged would need to be pursued in the courts.

The affected veteran also will then need to apply separately to their military branch to correct military records, including an upgrade or correction of a discharge.

Branaman said that while this was a positive step, it puts the burden on the veterans to work to remove a conviction that they should not have faced, adding that the administration needs to find a way to streamline the process.

The convictions have had potentially life-altering repercussions, as those former service members did not have access to Veterans Affairs benefits. including a pathway to home loans, which could have cost them the ability to create generational wealth or attend school, Branaman said.

On a call with reporters Tuesday, two Biden senior administration officials could not answer whether the pardons could result in back pay or restitution for those affected.

“We don’t know what will be retroactive,” Branaman said.

The pardon impacts veterans who were charged under a previous version of a law in the military’s Uniformed Code of Military Justice that criminalized sodomy, including between two consenting individuals.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court struck down anti-sodomy laws nationwide in a 2003 ruling, the 63-year-old regulation stayed on the books in the UCMJ until Congress amended the law in 2013 to remove consensual sexual acts.

“Some of these patriotic Americans were subject to court-martial, and have carried the burden of this great injustice for decades,” Biden said in a statement. “I am committed to maintaining the finest fighting force in the world. That means making sure that every member of our military is safe and respected — so they can focus on their mission.

“This is about dignity, decency, and ensuring the culture of our Armed Forces reflect the values that make us an exceptional nation.”

Veterans will be able to apply for the pardon if they fall under the eligibility criteria, a senior administration official said. If they are approved for the pardon, they can use the certificate of pardon provided to begin the process of fixing their discharge papers.

Another senior administration official said the Biden administration estimates that thousands of veterans were convicted of consensual conduct under military law, making them eligible for the pardon.

“We are going to take steps to try to make it as easy as possible for individuals to apply for [their paperwork to be correct],” the first senior administration official said. “When the Department of Justice sends the certificate of pardon to those who are eligible, they’ll be including material identifying specifically how they can apply for the change in their character discharge, along with the form for them to do so.”

Some veterans, however, have additional charges on their military record related to sexual identity — conduct unbecoming, for example — that fall outside the scope of the now-defunct portion of the anti-sodomy law. The second senior administration official said the proclamation from Biden does acknowledge that fact, but the pardon does not cover those with other charges tacked on due to their sexual orientation.

Those veterans with additional charges on their record would need to go through a separate process through the Justice Department, they added.

Biden’s pardon for LGBTQ+ veterans comes after the Pentagon in September 2023 announced a “proactive review” of LGBTQ+ veterans who received less-than-honorable discharges based on sexual orientation through the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

According to the Defense Department, more than 32,000 troops were separated from the military under its “homosexual conduct” policy between 1980 and 2011. Of those, roughly 14,000 LGBTQ+ troops were issued less-than-honorable discharges from the armed forces.

Despite the review, the Pentagon has faced its share of legal challenges from LGBTQ+ veterans.

Last Thursday, a district judge denied a motion by the Pentagon to dismiss a class action lawsuit from LGBTQ+ veterans over discharge papers unnecessarily identifying their sexual orientation as grounds for separation — and the responsibility for records’ correction being put on the veterans.

The judge in their decision noted LGBTQ+ veterans are “forced to bear the burden” to alter their discharge papers to protect their privacy and not immediately out their sexual orientation. The judge did not agree with the Pentagon’s argument that the review currently taking place within the Defense Department should be grounds to dismiss the case.

We the Veterans kicked off its Vet the Vote campaign in February with the goal of hiring 100,000 poll workers. Ellen Gustafson, the group’s co-founder, said Thursday the group would likely hit that target, making veterans and service members a significant fraction of the overall number of volunteers needed to work the polls in November.

“We will get to 100,000, easily, of poll workers that we have personally recruited,” Gustafson said. “A little over a million across the country are needed for the national presidential election. So, we know we’re going to be 10% of that, and we think we can go higher.”

To reach the goal, the group is traveling state-to-state, hosting events with secretaries of state to teach people about the election process and relay the importance of getting involved in the voting process. Group members have recently traveled to Nevada, Arizona and South Carolina, and they’re planning more events across the country this summer.

Many jurisdictions start training poll workers in August for the presidential election and cease recruiting by September or early October, said Dan Vallone, director of Vet the Vote.

“A lot of states have concluded their primaries and have been gearing up for the election, which is why we’re really trying to make a big push on recruiting, as the need increases dramatically,” Vallone said. “Our big push and most intensive cycle starts in June and continues to mid-September.”

Widespread misinformation about the American voting process first prompted We the Veterans to recruit veterans and military families to work the polls in 2022. According to the group, their idea was to harness the social credibility and standing that veterans and military families hold and ask them to serve as trusted messengers about elections.

Experts are already tracking rampant misinformation about the upcoming presidential election, including domestic campaigns, as well as efforts by Russia and China to encourage Americans to question the validity and integrity of their voting process.

To further push against the idea that elections are “rigged,” We the Veterans is bringing together leaders of various veterans groups next week to discuss methods for using their positions of trust to renew Americans’ faith in democracy, Gustafson said. The event, held at Mount Vernon on June 13, aims to fight against the notion that the country is deeply divided.

“There’s an undercurrent of Americans working together all the time without regard to their political allegiance,” Gustafson said. “We’ll showcase how our community works together across many different backgrounds to accomplish things… and how other Americans can follow our lead and get in the game, not just sit on the sidelines behind a screen.”

This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com.

On June 19, 1865, troops came to Galveston two-and-a-half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the historic document that freed slaves in states that had seceded during the Civil War. It was by no means a total abolition of slavery, which didn’t come until 1865 with the ratification of the 13th Amendment, but the Emancipation Proclamation added “moral force” to the Union’s cause for the war, historians say.

And in some ways, it did deliver liberation.

“Formerly enslaved people immediately sought to reunify families, establish schools, run for political office, push radical legislation and even sue slaveholders for compensation” in the post-emancipation period, according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth an official government holiday in 1979, decades after communities had been celebrating the day in their own circles. It wasn’t until 2021, nearly 156 years later President Biden signed a bill into law to establish the holiday federally after an overwhelming 415-to-14 House vote and unanimous passage through the Senate, the Washington Post reported at the time.

“To me, making Juneteenth a federal holiday wasn’t just a symbolic gesture,” said Biden in remarks last year. “It was a statement of fact for this country to acknowledge the original sin of slavery.”

In Washington, D.C., government offices will be closed on Wednesday, June 19, and most federal employees with have the day off, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

This year, the holiday falls in the middle of the work week, and unless agencies or the President declare any additional days off, it’s not guaranteed employees will be granted more leave before or after to create a long weekend.

For example, in past years, the President has issued an executive order excusing workers from duty on the day before or day after Christmas.

In any case, department heads do have the authority to grant administrative leave to employees at their discretion. More recently, the Department of Agriculture gave its employees four hours of free leave for Public Service Recognition Week.

An amendment included in the House Armed Services Committee’s draft of the annual defense authorization bill would mandate the creation of a new pilot program allowing some Air Force and Space Force members to grow beards.

The idea has been discussed by service officials in the past, but not acted upon in recent years. Navy officials recently completed a study on whether beards would interfere with service members’ gas mask seals, but has yet to publicly release those results.

Language unanimously adopted for the authorization bill on Wednesday would require the Air Force to conduct the pilot to test similar job-related complications of facial hair, and also to gauge “the effect of beard growth on discipline, morale and unity within the ranks.”

The pilot program — proposed by Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas — would also look at “whether allowing members to grow beards improves inclusivity, including for members with conditions like pseudofolliculitis barbae or those who wish to grow beards for religious purposes.”

Air Force policy currently bans beards for all airmen except those who have five-year medical waivers for pseudofolliculitis barbae — chronic razor bumps — or religious waivers.

Military.com reported last month that shaving waivers for medical conditions in the Air Force and Space Force have nearly doubled since 2021. Service officials would have six months after the passage of the authorization bill to launch the pilot program. Some have suggested the Air Force study those who already have shaving waivers rather than finding an entirely new pool of participants.

Committee members also included a provision in the authorization bill draft to force a congressional briefing on the Navy study, so lawmakers can better understand the impact of such a policy change.

Before either provision becomes law, however, members of Congress will have to pass the authorization bill. That process is expected to take several more months as both House and Senate negotiators work through differences in their respective proposals.

The Military Spouse Career Accelerator Pilot will for the first time provide early-career opportunities “for those younger spouses who might need to put their foot in the door and start the process of having employment and a career,” Patricia Barron, deputy undersecretary of defense for military community and family policy, told reporters Monday. That’s in addition to the program’s current “career-ready” fellowships for spouses with more education and experience to prepare them for the positions.

In an earlier announcement, defense officials said the newly added entry-level fellowships could target specific career fields such as taxes or insurance.

The fellowship program, now in its second year of a three-year test period, has been a “rousing success,” Barron said.

Spouses of U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force troops across the active duty, reserve and National Guard can apply for a 12-week position at 250 public- and private-sector employers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes program pairs applicants with fellowships as they become available, at employers like Equinix, a company that operates data centers, and Frog Street, an early childhood education curriculum company.

The number of fellowships available depends on what employers decide to offer; the Defense Department pays fellows’ salaries through the Chamber. Applications are accepted throughout the year.

The program’s goal is to land fellows in permanent positions with their employers at the end of the 12-week run.

More than 400 spouses were placed in fellowships in 2023, the program’s first year. About 83% of the “career-ready” fellows have received offers for permanent jobs, Barron said, “which is unheard of.” Salaries for those jobs averaged about $60,000, defense officials said.

Lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee’s military quality-of-life panel have recommended that the program be made permanent.

“It’s been a great program. To be able to sustain it throughout the years would be phenomenal,” Barron said. “We’re getting an awful lot of really good feedback from the military spouses that are involved.”

The unemployment rate for military spouses has stubbornly hovered around 21% for the past decade, according to various surveys.

The problem is exacerbated by the frequent moves military service requires, as well as state licensing rules for many professions and other bureaucratic hurdles.

A number of advocates have asked for the Labor Department to officially track their unemployment rate, as it does for veterans.

“We do have a great relationship with the Department of Labor and have connected with them on various things. The tracking of unemployment for military spouses is something that we’ve both talked about,” Barron said. “I think it’s a little bit harder to track military spouse unemployment, because it’s not a protected group, so sometimes it’s hard to find the information you need.”

“However, we’ve got new tools available to us now, through AI, through some of the analytics that a company like Google might provide,” she said. “I’m not saying that’s what we’re doing, but what I’m saying is that we have new tools we can look at to help us get after that number.”

Online resources in May

For years, military officials have worked to tackle the policy issues that keep the spouse unemployment rate from budging. They’ve also tried to open new opportunities to help military husbands and wives navigate the modern job market.

This month, job seekers can learn from a lineup of speakers and breakout sessions on a range of spouse employment topics as part of a free, virtual career symposium and hiring fairs May 14-30. Participants can register to view the recorded events like “Finding and Mastering Remote Employment” and “Know Your Worth: How to Negotiate Your Perfect Fit,” and to participate in upcoming sessions, at Military OneSource.

A series of webinars, one-on-one resume reviews and mock interviews from Tuesday to Thursday will prepare spouses for next week’s hiring fair.

That fair, scheduled for May 29-30 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time, will connect spouses to hiring managers and representatives from more than 700 employers who have committed to recruiting, hiring, retaining and promoting military spouses through DOD’s Military Spouse Employment Partnership.

The five-year-old project — which allows family members to update online memorials of deceased veterans — has grown to include nearly 10 million veterans interred in VA-run cemeteries, Department of Defense sites and thousands of private cemeteries.

VA Undersecretary for Memorial Affairs Matt Quinn said he has been pleased with the progress in recent years but has also heard from veterans who want to prepare their own tributes to better capture their memories of military life.

“By the end of the year, we expect to have that live,” he said. “Then the veteran … can go and fill out the information on their service, what they want their family or others to be aware of. And upon the veteran’s passing, that page will go live.”

Veterans would not be able to have the pages displayed while they are still alive, but would be able to view it themselves to ensure the information there will be accurate when made public, officials said.

Quinn did not provide any estimates on how many veterans may be interested in the service. Of the nearly 17 million veterans in America today, nearly half are 65 or older.

News of the expansion comes just days ahead of Memorial Day celebrations at VA cemeteries and memorial sites across the country. Quinn said the weekend is the busiest for the National Cemetery Administration each year, although volunteer and crowd numbers still appear slightly lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic forced partial closures of the sites for two years.

“We’re not all the way back yet, but we’re getting close,” he said. “I’d say 75% to 90% of attendees are back in some fashion.”

VA Secretary Denis McDonough is scheduled to speak at the New York Veterans Cemetery Finger Lakes in Waterloo, New York, on May 27. The town, dubbed the “birthplace of Memorial Day,” first marked the holiday in 1866.

VA Chief of Staff Kimberly Jackson is scheduled to speak during ceremonies at Wood National Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on May 27. VA Deputy Secretary Tanya Bradsher is scheduled to speak at Baltimore National Cemetery in Maryland on May 30 as part of the extended holiday celebrations.

Information on events at all VA sites and the online veterans memorial project is available through the National Cemetery Administration website.

Already, individual towns and cities had been holding vigils and remembrances for lost family members that fought in the war. According to History.com, some formerly enslaved South Carolinians held one of the first “Memorial Day” celebrations barely a month after the Confederacy surrendered to Union forces in 1865.

A more a concerted effort was led by Gen. John A. Logan, the leader of an organization for northern Civil War veterans, to establish a nationwide day of respect for the fallen. Originally dubbed “Decoration Day,” it was an opportunity to adorn the graves of those who were buried in disparate churchyards and towns across the young country. May 30 was the original chosen date because that was when most flowers would be in bloom for the purpose of decorating graves.

It wasn’t until 1971, however, that Memorial Day became an official federal holiday, and legislation ensured it would be celebrated on the last Monday of May to give workers a long weekend.

Today, Memorial Day honors honors all the men and women who sacrificed their lives in military service for their country. Since Nov. 11, 2001, more than 7,000 U.S. service members and 8,000 contractors have died in conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and associated battles, according to Brown University’s Watson Institute.

Memorial Day is one of two major federal holidays that honor the contributions of service members — the other being Veterans Day in November.

In Washington, D.C., Memorial Day will be observed with an annual parade at 2 p.m. beginning on Constitution Avenue. At Arlington National Cemetery, a wreath laying ceremony will be observed on the 26th at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, alongside opportunities to lay flowers at the base of other headstones around the cemetery, where some 400,000 veterans and their family members are buried.

There are dozens of national cemeteries around the country at which remembrance ceremonies will also be taking place. To find one near you, check out this schedule of events maintained by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

This year, Memorial Day is on Monday, May 27. On this day, and the other 11 federal holidays recognized by the government, all non-essential government employees are off work, and most government offices are closed.

The next federal holiday will be Juneteenth, celebrated on Wednesday, June 19. This is one of the newer federal holidays that was presidentially designated in 2021 — and the first new holiday approved since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.