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The United States Army has announced new policies to expand soldiers' and their family's health. The 12-part directive expands previous policies such as allowing paid medical leave for pregnancies and pregnancy losses for soldiers and/or their spouses. It also creates new policies such as ones addressing soldiers and spouses going through fertilization treatment. (Dunn, 4/21)

The Army will now give both parents convalescent leave in the case of a miscarriage, stillbirth, or loss after birth. “The Army will be the only service so far to apply this convalescent leave to male soldiers, acknowledging emotional loss after this very significant life event,” Amy Kramer, the policy lead action officer, told reporters on Thursday. “So in addition to the convalescent leave provided to the female soldier that undergoes the actual miscarriage for physical healing and emotional healing, male soldiers, their spouses, will also be eligible.” (Britzky, 4/21)

At least five U.S. sailors who served on the same aircraft carrier in Virginia have died by suicide in the last year, including three who died within a week earlier this month, military officials said Thursday. The string of suicides among USS George Washington sailors may indicate a larger mental health problem, according to experts, and it comes less than three years after a similar cluster of suicides on another Navy vessel. (Chan, 4/21)

The fact that the carrier is in the shipyards -- and for far longer than originally planned -- has created a difficult environment, according to the sailors who spoke to Military.com. The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier has been undergoing a refueling and complex overhaul at Newport News since 2017. The massive maintenance period, which typically lasts four years, is usually done halfway through a carrier's 50-year life to refuel the nuclear reactor and see to repairs and upgrades. In 2019, the ship was scheduled to be done in 2021. By 2020, that had changed to 2022. Danny Hernandez, a spokesman for Newport News Shipbuilding, told Military.com in an email that "COVID-19 impacts and unplanned growth work resulted in delays to the schedule." (Toropin, 4/20)