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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A long political campaign for veterans hurt by toxic exposures resulted in the largest expansion of VA care in decades. Advocates are urging veterans to access retroactive benefits.
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As most Korean War vets are well into their 90s, they still struggle with America's perceptions of what has been called "the Forgotten War."
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Twelve years after repeal of the ban on gay and lesbian troops serving openly, no one in the military or Veterans Administration knows how many vets are still without the benefits they're owed.
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Veterans rated VA hospitals higher than private facilities for things like patient satisfaction, hospital cleanliness and communication with nurses and doctors.
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A RAND Corporation survey found that Americans who served in the military support extremist views at rates lower than nonveterans.
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Veterans funding could be affected by the two high-stakes showdowns in Washington right now: budget talks and the possible default on America's debt.
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Veterans funding is at the heart of two high-stakes showdowns in Washington: budget talks and the impending default on America's debt. If the US defaults, the VA could could be short of cash.
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Jurors believed that Carroll's allegation of sexual abuse in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s was more likely true than not. They awarded her $5 million in total damages.
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The Navy has renamed the USS Chancellorsville, a name honoring a Confederate victory, to the USS Robert Smalls, after an enslaved man who escaped the South by stealing a Confederate steamship.
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Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to a 34-count felony indictment today in a Manhattan courthouse, which was barricaded and surrounded by law enforcement and onlookers.