WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama called the treatment decades ago of returning Vietnam War veterans a "national shame" on Monday and promised as commander-in-chief not to send U.S. troops back into harm's way without a clear mission and strategy. Obama did not mention rising tensions with Iran and Syria or other potential threats in his remarks to veterans and military families on a hot, sunny Memorial Day, focusing instead on the legacy of Vietnam and his own efforts to wind down the Iraq and Afghanistan wars started by his predecessor, George W. Bush. ...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Kate Carpenter and her husband waited for two years before sensing the time was right to look to buy a home in the suburbs of New York. "This is the first time homes are at an affordable point," said the freelance writer, 35. She hopes to move her two young daughters out of their rented New York City apartment soon, taking advantage of record low mortgage rates and signs the slump is over. Six years after the housing market began its slide, dragging the U.S. ...
COOPERSTOWN, New York (Reuters) - When Saul Bosquez, a 27-year-old U.S. Army veteran who lost part of his left leg in Iraq, stepped up to the plate during a softball game this Memorial Day weekend, he knew he needed a big hit. Bosquez, who plays with the Wounded Warrior Amputee Softball Team and wears a prosthetic leg below his left knee, said the hot weather on Sunday in Cooperstown - home to the Baseball Hall of Fame - was making it harder than usual for him to run the bases. Luckily, the ball soared over the outfielders' heads, and Bosquez made it safely to third. ...
SANTA FE, New Mexico (Reuters) - Firefighters in New Mexico were working on Monday to protect several Depression-era landmarks from a blaze burning through the rugged high country of the Gila National Forest, fire officials said. The so-called Whitewater-Baldy Complex fire, which destroyed a dozen privately owned cabins at the height of its rampage last week, has burned 122,388 acres of timber since it was ignited by lightning on May 16, fire officials said. "We did not increase the acreage because the fire burned on the interior yesterday. ...
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Golden Gate Bridge was a larger than life engineering project undertaken against dangerous odds and it opened 75 years ago on Sunday against vehement protest, at the cost of 11 lives. One of the most astonishing and admired man-made wonders of the world, gracing millions of postcards, featured in countless films, the bridge was not at first welcomed with open arms. Ferry operators and environmentalists opposed it, and many engineers doubted such a daring leap over a treacherous Pacific Ocean strait could be built. ...