Quil Lawrence
Quil Lawrence is a New York-based correspondent for NPR News, covering veterans' issues nationwide. He won a Robert F. Kennedy Award for his coverage of American veterans and a Gracie Award for coverage of female combat veterans. In 2019 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America honored Quil with its IAVA Salutes Award for Leadership in Journalism.
Lawrence started his career in radio by interviewing con men in Tangier, Morocco. He then moved to Bogota, Colombia, and covered Latin America for NPR, the BBC, and The LA Times.
In the Spring of 2000, a Pew Fellowship sponsored his first trips to Iraq — that reporting experience eventually built the foundation for his first book, Invisible Nation: How the Kurds' Quest for Statehood is Shaping Iraq and the Middle East (Bloomsbury, 2009).
Lawrence has reported from throughout the Arab world and from Sudan, Cuba, Pakistan, Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. He covered Iraq and Afghanistan for twelve years, serving as NPR's Bureau Chief in Baghdad and Kabul. He covered the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the second battle of Fallujah in 2004, as well as politics, culture, and war in both countries.
In 2012, Lawrence returned to the U.S. to cover the millions of men and women who have served at war, both recently and in past generations. NPR is possibly unique among major news organizations in dedicating a full-time correspondent to veterans and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
A native of Maine, Lawrence studied history at Brandeis University, with concentrations in the Middle East and Latin America. He is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Arabic.
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Congress told the VA to expand its caregiver program to include pre-Sept. 11 vets, but the VA has failed to meet a deadline in the law. -
The VA motto, which is taken from Lincoln's second inaugural speech, addresses veterans with the male pronoun. Some veterans want to change the wording to include women. -
Veterans who were kicked out of the military often get no VA health care or benefits — even if combat trauma caused their misbehavior. Connecticut has passed a law to change that. -
For the midterm elections, many candidates in both parties were military veterans, and they relied heavily on their biographies in seeking votes. The results were mixed.
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Robert Wilkie is President Trump's second VA secretary; his first was fired after clashing with political appointees. Wilkie insists he's put an end to infighting at the department. -
Nearly a week after Hurricane Michael devastated parts of the Florida panhandle, residents are still trying to patch together their lives, without electricity or potable water. With cell phone service down it's even hard for people to let their loved-ones know they're safe.
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Army Maj. D.J. Skelton was grievously wounded in Iraq, yet managed to return to active duty and command a platoon in Afghanistan. He taught the Pentagon the continuing worth of wounded troops. -
The VA is now set to spend $10 billion over the next 10 years adopting the Pentagon's system for electronic health records, but it's not clear who is in charge of the effort.
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During the many years U.S. troops have been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, locals have served as interpreters and other capacities at considerable risk to themselves and their families. Many have been allowed to immigrate to the U.S., but the Trump administration has greatly reduced those numbers.
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President Trump swore in the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert Wilkie. The VA has been without a chief executive for four months since the president fired Secretary David Shulkin.
