For a Gold Star spouse, life after loss isn’t just learning how to live without the person they loved. It’s about figuring out how to carry the life they planned together, even when one half of that future is suddenly gone.
When U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton was killed in Iraq, his wife, Mia Gonzalez-Swinton, didn’t just lose her husband—she lost the future they had spent years imagining together.
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North Korea displays ballistic missiles during a military parade. Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), North Korea has recently completed construction of a new two-story uranium enrichment facility at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center. A second site at Yongbyon, the Kangson enrichment facility, has recently had an expanded annex brought online. The director general of the IAEA described the findings as “serious concern.
USS Princeton (CG 59) transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Photo: U.S. Navy / DoD
An Iranian commercial container ship has been attacked near Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz early on Sunday morning. The attack killed one crew member and injured four others. Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted the governor of Qeshm Island said that an “enemy, terrorist, [has attacked] the Islamic Republic of Iran”. He added that he had not yet found out whether the attack had been carried out with a rocket or not.
An Iranian ballistic missile strike on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan has depleted an estimated $120 million worth of surface-to-air interceptors from U.S. Army MIM-104 Patriot long range air defence systems, after over 30 interceptors were fired to intercept the attack. The strike nevertheless appears to have penetrated the defences around the air base, according to reporting subsequently cited by Reuters, with eight U.S. F-15E fighters and at least one A-10 attack jet damaged.
The French defence sector has accelerated development of the Rafale F5 following the effective collapse of the Franco-German Future Combat Air System (FCAS) next generation fighter program that had been intended to provide a peer competitor to the U.S. F-35. The decision is set to make the Rafale F5 considerably more important to French air power than originally envisaged, with the aircraft now expected to provide a high-end combat capability well into the 2030s.
The Russian Armed Forces has significantly intensified strikes on Odessa, as Russian ground forces move towards the key Ukrainian port city. “The Palma, Raben-Ukraine, and Odessa-22 logistics centres were hit in the city of Odessa. These centres held cargoes meant for the Ukrainian army,” the Russian Defence Ministry reported, adding that Russian forces struck a drone production facility and a Ukrainian missile depot in the city.
The last of the Air Force’s longest-deployed airplanes finally retired earlier this month, as the last in-service EC-130H Compass Call electronic warfare plane took its final flight over Arizona. For its final on-duty sortie, it shared the sky with the modern jet that is replacing it.
An EC-130 Compass Call from the 55th Electronic Combat Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, flew side by side with an EA-37B that will replace it at the 55th Electronic Combat Group on a “fini flight” for the older plane.
A F-22 pilot had to think quickly and work out a plan to save his plane when a tribute flight went wrong. After losing a landing wheel, Capt. Michael Cloninger of the 90th Fighter Squadron had to find a way to safely land the jet.
His successful belly landing of the F-22 earned him the Air Force’s top flight safety award. This week, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach presented him with the 2025 Koren Kolligian Jr. Trophy.
The award is named for Air Force 1st Lt. Koren Kolligian Jr., who vanished in 1955 off the coast of California while flying a T-33.
When we think of deployments these days, we think of long separations and physical distance. We don’t think of a total lack of communication. Between video calls, internet messages, texts, emails, and care packages, communication can pretty much stay constant using the myriad technologies available to us.
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But as we all know, that was not the case in decades past. Military spouses at one time got nothing: no forms of communication at all.
On September 11, 2001, two planes flew into the Twin Towers, one crashed in a Pennsylvania field, and another struck the Pentagon. In Lower Manhattan, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum operates and maintains the site where the towers fell. While the National Park Service established and operates the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Penn., the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial has remained separate under the Pentagon Memorial Fund.
Also Read: How the last survivor of 9/11 made it out alive after the Twin Towers fell
On Sept.