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The Duffel Brief · the free edition, Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Vol. 15 · No. 131 · Monday, 2 November 2026

Pentagon

Hegseth wears Eisenhower's globe as Halloween costume

Secretary says historic artifact looks better without America's allies

Spirit Halloween store to become pop-up ICE detention center

Army FRG unveils haunted house featuring spouses saying ‘I’m fine’

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Vol. 15 · No. 131

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Duffel Blog

Established 2012 · Deployed worldwide

Vol. 15 · No. 131 · Deployed worldwide

Monday

2 November 2026

1942 Zulu

Next edition Wednesday

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· Page 2

VA: Please hold. You should Hang up and just watch cat videos instead

Filed · 1542

We appreciate you holding. The VA is experiencing a higher-than-average volume of calls this week. Calls are answered in the order they are received. Someone should be able to assist you in [ONE] minutes.

From the lakes of Minnesota … to the hills of Tennessee …

Did you know that you can check the status of your claim by going online? Point your browser to w-w-w dot claims dot veterans dot medical dot va dot gov, forward-slash medical, forward-slash veterans, forward-slash claims, forward-slash 404 dot vagov dot current, forward-slash aspx dot com, forward-slash va.gov, forward-slash 404.html##.

Across the plains of Texas! From sea to shining sea …

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