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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Veterans of the war in Afghanistan, religious groups and diplomats are still fighting to evacuate Afghans who helped the U.S. during the war.
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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 before they expire.
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A RAND Corporation survey found that Americans who served in the military support extremist views at rates lower than nonveterans. -
Some military veterans, known as Task Force Butler, are tracking and infiltrating domestic extremist groups, hoping to trigger prosecutions before the groups can cause more violence toward minorities.
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The U.S. invasion of Iraq 20 years ago gripped the entire nation. Today it is far from the minds of most Americans, though not for the veterans who served there.
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The invasion of Iraq 20 years ago gripped the attention of the entire country. Today it is far from the minds of most Americans in part because relatively few have a family member who served there.
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A prosthetics clinic that once served mostly American military veterans is now helping Ukrainian amputees get state of the art prostheses.
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Tens of thousands of Afghans came to the U.S. after the 2021 Taliban takeover, but they don't have legal status. A bipartisan bill in Congress to grant that status has been blocked.
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The National Museum of the American Indian holds a dedication ceremony Friday for a memorial honoring Native veterans.
