The Top 10 Military.com News Stories of 2024

Sometimes, the hints of an important story linger, eating at the journalists who know there's an issue that should be covered. There's a sense of failure that dissipates only when the details are unearthed and an article is published. With the ensuing public awareness comes the chance to do what's most important in our profession -- potentially drive change for the people afflicted.

That's what we saw with several of the stories that made this year's Top 10 list, a mix of deep long-term investigations into abuse at military base child care facilities and alarming indications of cancer in the missileer community, along with critical stories about abuse of power by a top general and hints at the roots of the ongoing crash problems for the Osprey aircraft.

Some of these stories took years to build. Others came together in less than a week. All of them represent the newsroom's commitment to serving as watchdogs for the broader community and making sure we highlight the things that trouble the men and women who put on a U.S. military uniform or have put on that uniform in the past and their families.

Here's an unranked list of the Top 10 stories written by Military.com this year:

Unsupervised: Military Child Care Centers Slow to Report Abuse with Little Oversight

In November 2022, Military.com reporter Konstantin Toropin was tipped off to a potential string of child abuse issues at the Navy Child Care Center at China Lake, California. In January 2024, Steve Beynon worked with Toropin to write a story about abuse at a child care facility at the Army's Carlisle Barracks. That same month, the newsroom saw local news reports in Hawaii of abuse accusations at a facility in Pearl Harbor.

The data points all pointed to a larger, systemic issue with the way that child care facilities are managed by the military, providing much needed support for military families but with officials engaged in dangerously little oversight. Beynon, Toropin and reporter Rachel Nostrant teamed up and spent months digging into the paucity of rules, including a glaring lack of requirements to adequately notify families of problems.

When their investigation was ready to be published, the Army and the Pentagon both declined to comment. Within hours of the article being posted to our website, the Pentagon reached out to inform us that an Inspector General investigation had been requested to look into the details of our reporting. Congress would both demand action to combat the problem and work toward legislation that would require changes.

They Stood Sentry over America's Nuclear Missile Arsenal. Many Worry It Gave Them Cancer.

When a presentation by a Space Force Guardian that collected anecdotal indications of cancer in the missileer community leaked, Tom Novelly reported on the immediate controversy. But he then took the next step and began to dig. His two-part investigation into the exposure risks faced by those who keep America's nuclear arsenal operational pointed to decades of potential health consequences to come.

The Air Force continues to study the problem, and the eventual conclusions about the health fallout will take years to come into focus, but Novelly's reporting provided not only a snapshot of the community but also articulated the fear and concern that has accumulated as missileers await answers.

Canceled Appointments, Unexplained Mixups -- Veterans Facing Challenges Getting VA Mental Health Care

Difficulty obtaining medical appointments might initially appear to be more nuisance than catastrophic issue, but for veterans who have made the at-times difficult decision to seek mental health aid, the appointments can literally save lives. However, a number of veterans described to Military.com reporter Patricia Kime (with additional reporting by Drew Lawrence) experiencing unexplained cancellations and delays leaving them without aid for months at a time.

The reporting showed a system under considerable strain -- lacking adequate mental health providers to cover a community that has been encouraged to overcome past stigma about care. That lack of doctors isn't unique to the Department of Veterans Affairs, as America as a whole faces a shortage, but it has left the agency struggling to fulfill its promise to veterans.

Army General Pressured Assessment Panel to Help Career of 'Ineffective' Officer

The Army put in place a carefully constructed process meant to ensure that officers are granted command only if they pass a screening. It's meant to prevent favoritism and provide every eligible officer the chance to prove they should be given the responsibility of command, a critical check to create confidence in the promotion system.

But Beynon was tipped off that one four-star Army general had pushed to circumvent the process, helping a favored underling to receive command opportunities despite multiple assessments deeming that subordinate unfit.

That abuse of his position has come with consequences for the general: After Military.com's reporting, the Army opened an investigation into his actions, and he was removed from his position late in 2024, the first firing of a four-star in years.

Flaw in Osprey Gears Was Known a Decade Prior to Deadly Japan Crash, Internal Report Shows

Problems with the Osprey program have persisted for years (reporting on mechanical issues with the program were featured prominently in last year's Top 10 story by Military.com), but military leaders have never publicly identified what might be behind persistent clutch issues that have caused the services to repeatedly ground the aircraft.

Toropin and Novelly managed to review an internal report that for the first time identified a potential culprit -- faulty parts from a subcontractor that had gone ignored for years. During that time, the military services have tended to blame pilots, as Lawrence also reported, placing enormous guilt and pain on the families of Osprey crews despite clear evidence of mechanical failures.

Anguish, Uncertainty: 66 Families Wait to Bury Loved Ones Amid Suspension of Horse-Drawn Funeral Services at Arlington

Lawrence has spent years reporting on conditions for the horses that help carry former service members to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. But after the services were halted in 2023 due to alarming conditions for the horses, a list of families waiting for the opportunity for horse-drawn funerals began to grow. Lawrence had spoken to several of those families.

That's why it came as a surprise when, during a call with a top Arlington official, the Army insisted that no families were waiting for the opportunity to conduct a ceremony that would include the horses. Lawrence pushed the Army, which subsequently reviewed its records and admitted it had been wrong. In fact, 66 families were waiting. The portrait painted by Lawrence based on interviews with a number of those families should help make sure they aren't overlooked in the future as the Army begins to map out a plan to bring the horses back.

Toxic Exposure Screenings: Vets Report Spotty Follow-Up on Questionnaire Meant to Boost Health Care and Benefits

When the PACT Act was passed by Congress after extensive pressure by veterans groups in 2022, one of its central features was a screening that would be given to all veterans seeking care to see whether they faced high risk for exposure-related illness. It was billed as an important step in identifying the scale of the exposure problem.

This year, Rebecca Kheel asked, are the screenings working? Based on interviews with veterans and data she reviewed, the picture is muddy. Many of the veterans who spoke to Military.com described it as more of a box-checking exercise, but the full picture of its impact will take years to materialize. It was classic watchdog work, looking to see whether the government is living up to a past promise.

Kings of Campus: How Some Army Instructors Use Their Clout to Prey on College Cadets

Army ROTC instructors have enormous authority over cadets on college campuses as they can shape careers and hold control over a program that provides the financial basis to support students' education. With that power, inevitably, come abuses. Beynon found that there was clear evidence of coercive behavior by instructors to solicit sex from cadets, as well as sexual assault and substantial underreporting of incidents.

There's also a glaring hole in the system: Cadets aren't considered soldiers, and therefore most of the resources designed to help support assault and harassment victims are unavailable to them, all highlighted in this investigation.

Denied Care, Deaths in Japan Result from Lack of Emergency Medical Services for American Personnel

A lack of medical care typically has impacts that are difficult to measure, even if its consequences are clear. Kime found an example driven by deeply problematic local policy in Japan where the outcome is unambiguous -- four deaths and two dozen members of the military community turned away from emergency care at local hospitals.

To compound the problem, U.S. bases in Japan can't provide some of the critical trauma care for military families that might make up for the local law permitting doctors to turn away those in need.

The Army Bet $11M on The Rock and UFL Ginning Up Enlistments. It May Have Actually Hurt Recruiting Efforts.

What do you do if you're the Army and having a hard time recruiting new soldiers? One senior leader decided to forge ahead with an $11 million bet on a little-known football league despite repeated warnings from underlings that it was likely a bad bet.

The Army's ultimate conclusion about the investment? Not a single recruit was brought in, and the diversion of funds may have cost the service dozens of recruits it would have otherwise gained.

It did have one very clear win: Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff who pushed through the deal, according to documents reviewed by Military.com, got a chance to meet Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, one of the football league's owners.

Related: The Top 10 Military.com News Stories of 2023