Today’s Top Stories

The legislation would reform military justice by empowering independent and experienced senior military attorneys to make prosecution decisions, rather than commanders, as is the current process. This common-sense reform to modernize the military criminal justice system is not only vital, but is also consistent with American Bar Association standards, which state the “prosecution function should be performed by a public prosecutor who is a lawyer.” | Air Force Times >>

Parker had come back from his tour in 2003 to start a new job as a biophysicist on the faculty at Harvard. At 6-foot-5, with a shaved head and a booming drawl, he’d never exactly blended in on campus. But he’d avoided talking about military stuff. And he’d worked obsessively to establish his scientific credentials as an expert on heart muscle cells. | NPR >>

The Department of Veterans Affairs publicly announced on Wednesday that is formally removed three senior officials from the Phoenix VA Health Care System in the continuing wait-time scandal. | Healthcare IT News >>

Iraq and Afghanistan

A source at the city’s main hospital, who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity, said civilians were living in fear – both of being murdered by the extremists and because of bombing by the U.S.-led coalition. | NBC News >>

Unidentified militants seized 47 passengers traveling on a highway in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province on Wednesday, officials said, the latest in a series of kidnappings fueling concerns that the government is losing control of major routes. | Wall Street Journal >>

Iraq’s elite counterterrorism forces pushed deeper into Islamic State-held Fallujah on Wednesday, more than two weeks after the operation to retake the city from the militant group began, a senior military official said. | The Washington Post >>
Military Affairs

The U.S. military will have two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea this month ahead of a NATO summit in Warsaw, as Washington seeks to balance Russia’s military activities and accelerate its fight against Islamic State militants. | Reuters >>

The Air Force’s Thunderbirds returned to flying Tuesday following a crash last week in Colorado, but their participation in several future air shows is either in question or canceled, Air Force officials said. | The Washington Post >>

Marine Lt. Gen. Glenn Walters has been nominated to serve as the next assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Tuesday. | Marine Corps Times >>
#VetsRising

Corbin is a veteran Marine trying to fit back into the regular world. Jeffers is former Army, disabled by a traumatic brain injury in Iraq. They are among veterans finding solace by farming, by working in the dirt alongside other veterans. | The Dallas Morning News >>

Deep in the forest covered hills of southern West Virginia, where the Big Coal River traverses through the heart of Appalachia, times are tough. While the region, once driven by a thriving coal mining industry, is reeling from poverty and widespread unemployment, Farmer Veteran Coalition member Joshua Nelson is busy creating solutions to put a little buzz back into the economy. | Coal Valley News >>

Every day, 22 U.S. veterans, active ones and retired ones, commit suicide. Most people Jordan Rudzinski speaks with about the issue have no idea about the tragedy of veterans taking their own lives. | The News-Gazette >>