Military

U.S. Senator Kay Hagan says she'll fight to protect North Carolina's military institutions from recently-announced defense cuts. But Hagan told WUNC the Pentagon's plans include certain funding increases as well.

Kay Hagan: The increase will be in areas of cyber-security, special operations forces, and areas like that. And that's gonna be where the increases in the budget are actually going. And in North Carolina, in Fayetteville at Fort Bragg, USASOC is headquartered there, and that's where all our special operations forces are administered from.

About 58 hundred soldiers from Fort Bragg will be deployed to Afghanistan this spring. They're headed to the southern part of the country to work with NATO and Afghan troops. Captain Allie Scott says the paratroopers are part of a transition plan to gradually hand over that part of Afghanistan to local authorities.

Veterans in need of health care in eastern North Carolina will soon have a bigger facility. An expansion of the Veterans Administration clinic in Greenville gets underway with a ground breaking ceremony Thursday morning. Peter Tillman works for the Durham VA Medical Center. He says the expansion will allow the Greenville clinic to offer more services.

President Barack Obama made his first trip as commander in chief to Fort Bragg yesterday. He was there to thank all American troops for their service in Iraq.

President Obama spoke in a sunlit airplane hangar before about 3-thousand troops and their families. He told them their service was selfless and historic, and would be remembered.

President Barack Obama: "You served a cause greater than yourselves. You helped forge a just and lasting peace with Iraq and among all nations. I could not be prouder of you. And America could not be prouder of you."

Service members, politicians and consumer advocates gathered in a round table meeting at the North Carolina National Guard headquarters today to discuss financial protections and hardships facing members of the military. Hundreds of service members struggling with debt have their security clearances revoked every year, making them ineligible for certain promotions and deployments. U.S. Representative Brad Miller says there are laws to help protect members of the military from predatory lending practices, but not enough people know about them.

Communities all over North Carolina will gather today to honor the country's military veterans. Raleigh will play host to an Air Force band performance as well as the annual Veterans Day parade. In Johnston County, high school students are producing a video presentation for local veterans. District spokeswoman Terri Sessoms says ROTC students will also perform an armed exhibition drill.