“This morning my two oldest sons, have joined me and their proud but devastated grandparents, in welcoming their father – Major Brent Russell Taylor – back onto U.S. soil.” The widow of the UT Mayor killed in Afghanistan speaks as his body returns home https://t.co/AMK0rypRB7 pic.twitter.com/m2Fvkk0Oil
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) November 6, 2018
Inspiring words. This is the news video of Jennie Taylor, the widow of Major Brent Taylor who was killed in Afghanistan, addressing the press as her husband’s body arrived back in Salt Lake City.
From the First Command website
Every year at this time, we pause from our busy day-to-day lives to remember and pay tribute to the millions of American veterans, living and dead, who have served and sacrificed in defense of our freedom. So if you are among those brave men and women who are a part of this proud legacy of national service, you have our enduring respect and gratitude.
This year marks a significant milestone in this tradition of recognition, so it seems appropriate to review the long and winding history of the national holiday known today as Veterans Day.
Retiree News photograph | click to enlarge
On December 12, 2003, the then-Adjutant General, MG Robert Lee hosted a Christmas reception. The reception was held at then-Hickam AFB in one of the large hangers. There was food and refreshment for members and families of the Hawaii National Guard. One of the highlights was a chili cookoff between several Guard teams.
The photograph shows Tamahlani Noh, her husband Michael and their son. Tama ran the Hawaii Guard’s drug interdiction programs for many years. Her last military assignment was the 154th Wing’s Inspector General before her retirement.
It’d be nice if saving for retirement was all we had to do. Turns out, we also need to decide on the best way to pull out our savings once we retire.
Luckily, smart people have come up with a variety of tactics to stretch our savings for the long haul. Read on to review some of the most popular retirement withdrawal strategies.
(Or check out our calculator for a quick look at how long your retirement savings will last.)
Would you like for a family member or caregiver to call Medicare on your behalf?
Medicare can’t give personal health information about you to anyone unless you give permission in writing first. To do this, fill out form CMS-10106: “Authorization to Disclose Personal Health Information.”
You can fill out and submit the form online simply by logging into your MyMedicare.gov account and following these steps:
- Navigate to the “My Account” tab.
- Click “Authorized Representative.”
- Click “Medicare Authorization to Disclose Personal Health Information form.”
- Enter the requested information and click the “Continue” button.
Don’t have a MyMedicare account yet? Signing up is easy — just visit MyMedicare.gov to get started. Alternatively, you can print and mail form-10106 to us.
HONOLULU – November 9, 2012 – The Hawaii Air National Guard’s 199th Fighter Squadron and the active duty Air Force’s 19th Fighter Squadron (Those squadrons fall under the 154th Wing and 15th Wing, respectively) have achieved Initial Operational Capability (IOC) status.
The IOC announcement comes at the end of a three day long exercise that clearly demonstrates the units’ ability to fly and maintain the world’s most advanced fighter aircraft for any contingency operation. “This is a huge milestone for our combined 154th and 15th Wings. IOC means we are able to deploy a portion of our F-22 Raptors, anytime, anywhere, in support of theater operations. Our F-22 Raptors underscore the U.S. commitment to the Pacific region and adds additional air dominance capability to U.S. Pacific Command”, said Brig. Gen. Braden Sakai, 154th Wing commander. “Having this capability in Hawaii gives the U.S. Pacific Command the ability to respond rapidly to any contingency, anywhere in the theater in minimal time”.
The F-22A Raptor is capable of both air-to-air, as well as air-to-ground precision strike and is the Air Force’s primary air superiority fighter providing unmatched capabilities for air supremacy and homeland defense.
The fifth-generation F-22 Raptor has unparalleled stealthiness, supercruise, unmatched maneuverability and improved sustainability that would enable the aircraft to strike deep and fast, day or night, paving the way for friendly air, ground and naval forces to operate freely; gather and distribute intelligence across the battlefield; and even engage incoming missiles.
Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam is home to a total of 20 F-22 Raptors. The HIANG and the active duty air Force share responsibility for flying and maintaining the F-22s.
Video by TSgt Andrew Jackson
From the U.S. News & World Report website
Documents and directives are a part of modern life. You might have documents proving you own your house, showing the terms of your mortgage and detailing the agreement for your credit card. You might have a prenuptual agreement, a divorce decree or an employment contract.
Once you retire – or even before you retire – you should think about documents that will serve you in your later years. These four documents may not be the only ones you need, but they are the basic ones that every retired person should prepare, for your own sake and your heirs.
October 13, 2011 was a very good day for runner Fauja Singh. On that date, he set eight world records for his age group, spanning distances from 100 to 5,000 meters. Three days later, he added the record for the marathon – 8 hours, 11 minutes, 6 seconds. His age group? One hundred years and up.
Running a marathon at age 100 might not even be the most remarkable thing about Singh. Possibly even more remarkable: He didn’t take up serious running until his mid-80s.
You’ve heard it again and again: “It’s never too late.” Well, it wasn’t too late for Singh to begin training to be a world-class master athlete in his mid-80s, but what about the rest of us? We might not aspire to be world-class athletes, but many of us do want to enhance our health and extend our lives a bit. When is it too late to begin?
Singh retired from competitive running after taking part in the Hong Kong marathon on February 24, 2013, five weeks shy of his 102nd birthday. He completed the 10 kilometre run at the Hong Kong marathon in 1 hour 32 minutes and 28 seconds and said that he intends to continue running for pleasure, health and charity.
Singh was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to sport and charity.
A Hawaii Air National Guard F-102 Delta Dagger with a buzz number in the early 1960s | click to enlarge
A buzz number was a large letter and number combination applied to U.S. Air Force planes after World War II and into the early 1960s. They were applied for general aerial identification of aircraft, but particularly for the identification of aircraft guilty of “buzzing” (very-low-altitude high-speed passes) over populated areas.
The system was designed to be a deterrent to 8th Air Force pilots performing unauthorized low-level flying over post-war Europe. This practice created the need for ground observers to be able to identify and report an offending aircraft.
In response to this need, a system of letters and numbers was developed to uniquely identify each aircraft in inventory. The number was painted as large as possible on each side of the fuselage, and on the underside of the left wing.
The Buzz Number system continued in use through the 1950s, but was ended during the 1960s. One of the last Air Force fighters to carry was the F-4 Phantom II, which used a Buzz Number of FJ.
Continue reading about buzz numbers at the Airplanes of the Past website– Great photographs
Special thanks to Drew Hurley for sending the link to this website to Retiree News. Drew was a public information officer in the Hawaii Air National Guard. He served for several years before transferring to the New Jersey Air National Guard. Retiree News is planning an update on Drew.
From the Adjutant General’s Facebook page
The 1st Squadron, 299th Cavalry Regiment took over the mission in Sinai. Be safe Soldiers!
Task Force Sinai conducted a Transfer of Authority ceremony this morning as 36th Infantry Division, 1st Squadron, 124th Cavalry Regiment departed and 1st Squadron, 299th Cavalry Regiment of the Hawaii Army National Guard arrived.
Are military retirees getting the word about looming changes to their dental coverage, and do older retirees in particular have the tools they need to make that decision?
Some advocates are concerned about the upcoming transition from the TRICARE Retiree Dental Program, which ends December 31. It’s being replaced by the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP), traditionally available to federal civilian employees, retirees and their families. But retirees are not automatically enrolled in the new FEDVIP coverage. They must enroll between November 12 and December 10, or they won’t have coverage on January 1.
Kamehameha Schools photograph | click to enlarge
On May 9, 2002, Kamehameha Schools held a Deactivation Parade to mark the end of Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) after 114 years.
Many past and current Hawaii Army and Air National Guard members were Kamehameha School graduates whose first encounter with military leadership, discipline, and values was through JROTC.
The following is some excerpted remarks by Dr. Michael J. Chun, Kamehameha Schools President and alum Campus Headmaster at the JROTC Deactivation Parade on May 9, 2002
For 114 years, the hills and valleys of Kalihi have echoed the cadence of cadets marching to the drumbeat of honor, duty and country. First to the Kingdom of Hawai‘i, and later to the United States of America, we pledged our allegiance and commitment to serve.
Whenever the call was made, Kamehameha graduates answered with valor, chivalry and patriotism. For all eyes and for all time, they courageously stood guard over this beloved land of ancient descent.
It is with deep sadness then, that we now bid farewell to a tradition that has been a hallmark at Kamehameha since our beginning. The strength of this program lies in the ideals and values that have been taught to our students, showing them what they should be, what they can be, what they will be. They have learned a strength of character, woven with kūpono, koa and na‘auao,that can be traced to Kamehameha the First.
Read the entire article from the September 2002 issue of Imua, a publication for the Kamehameha Schools ‘Ohana
The U.S. Air Force has expanded its Basic Military Training from seven-and-a-half weeks to eight-and-a-half weeks in an effort to align more closely with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ heightened focus on readiness and lethality, officials said Monday.
In a move that took effect September 4 but was announced Monday, the BMT curriculum has been enhanced with additional physical fitness and combat skills courses to train airmen for real-world events during the earliest days of their service, Air Education and Training Command said in a release.
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