On Jan. 20, 2025, President-elect Donald Trump will inherit a U.S. military plagued with force readiness, recruiting, and retention issues. A conglomerate of factors played into the breakdown of each issue.

In this episode of "Scripps News Investigates," we explore the battle for military benefits, ships and barges crashing into bridges and the market of counterfeit diet drugs.

Air Force continues review of Line of Duty determinations after ABC15 reports

According to an investigation by Scripps News, “In the last couple of years, hundreds of injured and sick Air National Guard members have filed claims for medical care and pay that get approved by local commanders and then denied by national headquarters.”

Left to contemplate suicide and more, the Air Force and Department of Defense (DOD) will soon abandon one of their own, and they simply don’t seem to care.

A U.S. Air Force sergeant who reportedly attempted suicide several times after returning from a deployment last year in the Middle East was told this week that he has to leave his base in New Jersey.

Just about every doctor who examined him agrees that Kyle Matthews, an Air Force sergeant, developed psychological problems after returning last year to his base in New Jersey from a Middle East deployment.

As the Department of Defense continues to ignore the plight of many service members injured in the line of duty, the House Armed Services Committee shamefully ignores repeated calls for accountability and compliance with federal law.

Jeremy Schuld joined the military 20 years ago. He wanted to battle terrorism after 9/11.

He didn’t expect to end his military career in a battle for benefits.

“It was a rough way to end an otherwise very good career,” Schuld told the ABC15 Investigators earlier this month.

Part 2: In 2021, Kjornes was sent to Maxwell Airforce Base in Alabama for a year-long officer training school. Her medical records show the stress aggravated an illness that she first experienced a decade before while in pilot training.