Nancy Montgomery

Nancy is an Italy-based reporter for Stars and Stripes who writes about military health, legal and social issues. An upstate New York native who served three years in the U.S. Army before graduating from the University of Arizona, she previously worked at The Anchorage Daily News and The Seattle Times. Over her nearly 40-year journalism career she’s won several regional and national awards for her stories and was part of a newsroom-wide team at the Anchorage Daily News that was awarded the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

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montgomery.nancy@stripes.com

Soldiers stand in formation during a ceremony in Kuwait in 2018. A study of more than 1,400 combat-deployed soldiers, published Jan. 24, 2023 in JAMA Psychiatry, found that reports of being bullied or hazed during a combat deployment were associated with a variety of consequent mental health conditions.

Hazing and bullying take mental toll on deployed soldiers, study finds

The survey of more than 1,400 soldiers, published Tuesday in JAMA Psychiatry, found that one in eight soldiers reported being bullied or hazed during their deployments.

Members of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion march in a parade which followed ceremony in honor of Jean D'Arc, at the market place where she was burned at the stake, in Rouen, France, May 27, 1945. Tyler Perry is reportedly producing and directing a movie about the “Six Triple Eight,” the only female African-American unit sent overseas in WWII.

Tyler Perry planning movie on historic Black female Army unit in WWII

Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, photographed by Matthew Brady, circa 1864. More than a century after his death, Grant is set for a posthumous appointment to General of the Armies of the United States, in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.

Ulysses S. Grant gets a promotion in 2023 defense bill

Capt. Claudia McDermott, left, commander, 357th Forward Resuscitative Surgical Detachment/emergency room registered nurse, is briefed on emergency room procedures by members of the Angolan Army medical staff during MEDREX Angola 23-1, held at the Hospital Militar Principal in Luanda, Angola, Nov. 8, 2022.

American military’s first medical mission to Angola in a decade bears fruit

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael Hardgrove and his wife, Mallory Hardgrove, at Caserma Ederle in Vicenza, Italy, told officials at a town hall meeting on Nov. 21, 2022, that they're concerned about their upcoming gas and electricity bills. Utility rates have skyrocketed in the country over the past year.

US personnel in Italy dreading ‘double whammy’ from energy costs, lack of spousal employment

Garrison officials suggested a variety of strategies to minimize energy costs in Italy, where prices have gone way up for service members at Navy bases in Naples and Sicily as well as Aviano Air Base and other installations.

A U.S. Army paratrooper from the 173rd Airborne Brigade low crawls during the week-long Expert Infantryman Badge, Expert Soldier Badge and Expert Field Medical Badge training at Caserma Del Din, Vicenza, Italy, Oct. 28, 2022.

US soldiers in Italy vie for coveted expert badges

More than 1,300 service members practice for weeks in Vicenza before taking grueling tests. Less than half pass them.

Workers in Dnipro, Ukraine at the headquarters of TAPS-Ukraine hold up photos of family members they've lost since the Russian invasions in 2014 and in February this year. Bonnie Carroll, president of the military survivors' resource TAPS, is on the left. She was in Ukraine during a 10-day visit.

Grieving Ukrainians find friend in American dedicated to helping people through tragedy

A former military officer and staffer in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations founded the TAPS program after her husband was killed in a 1992 plane crash in Alaska.

U.S. Airmen from the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing honor the daily estimated number of veterans who take their own lives, symbolized by 22 pairs of boots in recognition of Suicide Prevention Month Sept. 8, 2021, from an undisclosed location somewhere in Southwest Asia. Suicide Prevention Awareness Month stresses the importance of mental health and encourages individuals to seek help if they need it. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Karla Parra)

Study finds 37% greater veteran suicide rate than reported by VA

An exhaustive study four years in the making has found nearly a 40% higher rate of veteran suicides than that reported by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Ben Udall, a junior at Aviano, races toward the finish line at the first cross country event of the season in Italy. Udall smoked everyone else with a time of 18 minutes, 9 seconds.

Runners conquer pain, course at opener in Vicenza

Aviano athletes take first in both races as cross country season begins for DODEA-Europe schools south of Alps.

Sgt. Eva Perry, of the 207th Military Intelligence Brigade based in Vicenza, Italy, finishes first at the Installation Management Command Europe level, Army Ten-Miler qualifier event, June 25, 2022 at Grafenwoehr, Germany.

US soldiers based in Europe bringing serious skills to Army Ten-Miler

The two fastest Army women in Europe start their day at 6 a.m. with some speed workouts or maybe some tempo runs, a little CrossFit or a “relaxing” 10-mile run.

A car passes through a roundabout in Sant' Antonio, Italy, on Aug. 22, 2002, where an Italian teenager was killed a day earlier in an apparent crash involving a U.S. airman. Italian media reports citing prosecutors said the airman tested well over the blood alcohol limit for driving.

Airman suspected in Italy crash that killed boy was drunk, media reports say

The airman's blood alcohol content was 0.209% when tested after her car hit 15-year-old Giovanni Zanier on a bike path in the district of Sant' Antonio di Porcia, prosecutors told newspaper Il Gazzettino.

A car passes through a roundabout in the Italian town of Sant' Antonio where an Italian teenager was killed early Sunday, Aug. 21, 2022. An American airman assigned to Aviano Air Base was driving the car that left the road and struck the pedestrian walking in the bike lane, according to Italian media reports.

Aviano airman arrested after fatal crash in Italy

A 15-year-old Italian was killed in Porcia when a car struck him as he walked in a bike lane early Sunday morning.

Capt. Shelby Aleksick, a nurse with the 30th Medical Brigade, donates blood in January 2022 at Rhine Ordnance Barracks in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Service members, veterans and civilians once barred from donating blood because they lived in Europe decades ago during transmission of mad cow disease may now again give blood.

US military personnel barred from blood donation by ‘mad cow disease’ fears receive eligibility

Service members, veterans and others who were once barred from blood donation because they had lived in Europe decades ago at the height of transmission of “mad cow disease” are now eligible at military donor centers.

Spc. Harrison Turney worked with brigade commander Col. Michael Kloepper to devise a points system in which paratroopers can earn time off for exploration, education, professional development and physical training.

Point taken: US paratrooper in Italy cooks up incentives to get 173rd Airborne out and about

Sky Soldiers can earn points for weekend passes by taking advantage of an array of incentives designed to build teamwork and expand horizons.

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