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Quil Lawrence

David Aquila ("Quil") Lawrence is an award-winning correspondent for NPR News. Previously, he was NPR's foreign correspondent based in Kabul, Afghanistan, a position he began in July 2010.

Lawrence joined NPR in 2009 as the Baghdad Bureau Chief. He has covered Iraq regularly since 2000, and reported from all the neighboring countries. That reporting made the foundation for his first book Invisible Nation: How the Kurds' Quest for Statehood is Shaping Iraq and the Middle East, published in 2008. Prior to coming to NPR, Lawrence was based in Jerusalem, as Middle East correspondent for The World from Public Radio International and the BBC.

Lawrence began his career as a freelancer for NPR and various newspapers based in Bogota, Colombia, and covering Latin America. Other reporting trips took him to Sudan, Morocco, Cuba, Pakistan and Iran. Lawrence covered the fall of the Taliban in December 2001 and returned to Afghanistan periodically to report on development, the drug trade and insurgency.

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.

The Impact of War
11:32 am
Fri December 28, 2012

Suicide Hotline Fights To Keep Vets And Troops Alive

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Credit Chris Hondros / Getty Images
David Easterling, manager of the Suicide Prevention Program at Fort Riley in Kansas spray-paints Army boots white in 2009 as part of an on-base display to commemorate the six Fort Riley soldiers who committed suicide in 2008.
Credit John Berry / The Post-Standard/Landov
Each responder for the VA National Suicide Prevention Hotline Call Center has a bell on their desk that they ring when they need assistance in handling a call at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center in upstate New York.
Credit Emilio Morenatti / AP
Soldiers on patrol in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border in 2009. This year, more active-duty troops died by suicide than by fighting in Afghanistan.
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Originally published on Fri December 28, 2012 2:06 pm

At a suicide prevention center in upstate New York, America's troops and veterans are calling in for help.

And that help is needed more than ever. This past year witnessed a terrible death toll from suicide. For the first time in a decade of war, more active-duty troops have taken their own lives this year than have died fighting in Afghanistan.

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U.S.
12:26 am
Thu December 27, 2012

For Veterans, The Wait For Disability Claims Grows Longer

Credit Karen Bleier / Getty Images
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs began the year with a promise to cut wait times disability benefits claims. Instead, the backlog of pending claims has worsened.
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Originally published on Thu December 27, 2012 1:34 am

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Superstorm Sandy: Before, During And Beyond
2:44 am
Sun November 11, 2012

Veterans Deploy To Northeast After Superstorm Sandy

Credit Quil Lawrence / NPR
Veterans from around the country have deployed to the Northeast to help after Superstorm Sandy. Jeff Blaney (left) of San Francisco was in the Army and Jamie Havig was a Navy medic attached to the Marines in Iraq.
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Originally published on Sun November 11, 2012 11:22 am

Among the thousands of volunteers helping the victims of Superstorm Sandy in New York and New Jersey are hundreds of military veterans who have turned out to help.

For this group, work like this seems to address a real need for a sense of mission. Former troops who have been cleaning up and rebuilding say that volunteering helps them as much as it supports the local residents.

In front of Sami McFarlanes' house off Rockaway Beach Boulevard in Queens, N.Y., a group of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans take chainsaws to a huge spruce tree hung up on wires.

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Election 2012
3:43 pm
Mon November 5, 2012

New York To Allow Voters To Cast Ballots By Affidavit

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Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

Now many who will cast presidential ballots in New York have been facing a complicated post-storm challenge - where they should vote. Superstorm Sandy has displaced many residents from their homes and some polling places are out of commission because of storm damage. Late today, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an order, telling voters they can cast ballots wherever they want.

I asked NPR's Quil Lawrence in New York about just what Governor Cuomo said today.

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Election 2012
2:22 pm
Mon November 5, 2012

Many New Yorkers Still Unsure Of Where To Vote

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Originally published on Mon November 5, 2012 2:49 pm

A day before the election, some storm-stricken New Yorkers were trying to figure out where to vote. Meanwhile, the New York City Board of Elections is under pressure to make things run smoothly.

Election 2012
2:04 am
Fri November 2, 2012

N.Y., N.J. Scramble To Make Voting Possible

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Originally published on Fri November 2, 2012 8:43 am

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Along with other post-Hurricane Sandy reconstruction, New York and New Jersey are trying to reassemble their election preparations. The storm affected hundreds of polling stations. Neither of these reliably Democratic states was poised to decide the presidential election, but public officials are still scrambling to make voting possible for millions of people in the evacuation zones. NPR's Quil Lawrence reports.

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The Impact of War
2:03 am
Wed October 24, 2012

Vet Walks On New Legs, With A Little Help From Mom

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Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Nick Staback, who lost both of his legs to a bomb in Afghanistan, talks with his mother, Maria Staback, in Scranton, Pa. Maria Staback took a leave of absence from her job to move in with her son while he was recuperating at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington, D.C.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Staback takes aim with a replica sniper rifle on his back porch in Scranton, Pa. After a year at Walter Reed, he's moving into an apartment with a friend near the hospital in Bethesda, Md.
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Originally published on Wed October 24, 2012 11:58 am

On furlough from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center this summer, 21-year-old Nick Staback lounges on his parents' back porch in Scranton, Pa., taking potshots at sparrows with a replica sniper rifle. The long plastic gun fires pellets that mostly just scare the birds away.

It's been a tough year for Staback since his last foot patrol in Afghanistan.

"We [were] just channeling down a beaten trail, of course, you just don't know what's on it," he says. "We had the mine sweepers out front and everything like that."

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Election 2012
1:52 am
Tue October 16, 2012

Veterans Want Solutions To Unemployment Issue

Credit Mary Altaffer / AP
Veterans applaud at an Oct. 8 campaign event in Swanton, Ohio, for Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. Health care and unemployment are among veterans' chief concerns this election season, and both the Obama and the Romney campaigns have offered solutions.
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Originally published on Wed October 17, 2012 7:35 am

Military veterans across the country have a whole range of concerns this election season, from the high rate of suicide to special challenges for female vets. But like everyone else, they're especially concerned with health care and jobs.

The nation's obligations to some 2 million veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan pose a challenge for the next commander in chief. Unemployment for post-Sept. 11 vets is about 2 percentage points worse than the national average, and veterans want solutions.

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It's All Politics
12:31 am
Thu September 20, 2012

Military Vote Seen As A Key To Capturing Virginia

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Credit Brian Snyder / Reuters/Landov
Mitt Romney takes the stage at a campaign rally at the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, Va., on Sept. 8.
Credit Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images
President Obama is greeted by naval officers at Naval Air Station Norfolk, in Norfolk, Va., on Sept. 4.
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Originally published on Thu September 20, 2012 5:38 pm

Both presidential campaigns are focusing on just a few swing states, and the relatively few remaining undecided voters. One of those states is Virginia, where a key swing constituency is military veterans.

Troops and veterans have long been considered a natural part of the Republican base. But President Obama is pushing hard for the veterans' vote to help him in a state he captured in 2008.

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