Steve Walsh
As a military reporter, Steve Walsh delivers stories and features for TV, radio and the web.
Before coming to KPBS, Steve worked as a journalist in Northwest Indiana and Chicago. He hosted a daily public affairs show on Lakeshore Public Radio and was an original host and producer for the storytelling project Vocalo.org at WBEZ in Chicago. He has been a reporter on Back At Base, a collaboration between NPR and seven public radio stations that looks at veterans and the military.
He is a graduate of Indiana State University. He spent a large portion of his career as a print reporter for the Times of Northwest Indiana and the Post-Tribune in Gary, Indiana. At the Post-Tribune, he was embedded in Iraq twice. He was also an investigative reporter and covered the Indiana Statehouse during the term of three governors.
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U.S. special forces make up only 2% of the military. Congress is questioning whether the U.S. special forces can continue to fight the bulk of America's battles.
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There's been an alarming rise in the suicide rate among younger veterans. But elderly veterans commit suicide at a rate higher than the non-veteran population. The VA wants to find out how to stop it.
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Active-duty troops deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border are barred from direct contact with migrants. Instead, they're stringing concertina wire and camping out just miles from their regular bases.
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VA says 115 vets with other-than-honorable discharges received mental health care last year under a new program. Veterans advocates say it's a tiny fraction of such vets who need help.
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All the armed services are confronting a challenging environment for adding numbers to their ranks. The U.S. is near full employment and fewer young people physically qualify.
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California is the latest state to begin legal recreational sale of marijuana. That presents a challenge to the thousands of active duty military — and their families.
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The Marines' signature military skill, amphibious landing, is rehearsed but has not been used under fire since the Korean War. The corps is working to keep it relevant in a changing world of warfare.
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Everything fell apart for Shaun Tullar after his brother died in Afghanistan. He became homeless and eventually went to prison. A VA-run recovery program is helping him and others after their release.
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How did a monument to the USS Maine, which sank in Havana Harbor in 1898, come to rest in Indiana? The answer tells a lot about the power and influence of veterans, years after war.
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During the war, young men often tried to join the National Guard to avoid being sent overseas. But that war changed the nature of the guard — paving the way for today's deployments abroad.