DENVER – Not only were Colorado homes damaged by the recent severe storms, flooding, landslides or mudslides, but many survivors also lost valuable personal documents. The documents include everything from Social Security cards to driver licenses to credit cards.
The following is a partial list of ways to get duplicates of destroyed or missing documents: http://ow.ly/qGcin
Aloha All!
Please review the attached “updated” flyer for new information: Birthday Commemoration Flyer – Discounted tables of “10” for E1s thru E4s – Discounted tables of “10” for E5s & E6s – Hotel Rooms/Commemoration rates of $177/night….only 20 left – New extended RSVP date of 22 Nov 13We are asking for each individual UNIT to make a table center piece that has a unit/Christmas theme to compete against all the other HIANG units for the Air Guard and all HIARNG units to compete against all the Army Guard. 1st, 2nd and 3rd place will be judged for the Air Guard and 1st, 2nd and 3rd place will be judged for the Army Guard. Prizes will be given for each place winner for the Army and the Air. Here are the guidelines for the centerpieces:
– Diameter: no more than 18 inches in diameter – Height: No more than 24 inches in height – Must depict a “Christmas” theme as well as depict the theme of the unit it is representing. – 1 entry per unit (example: if the 487th CAV purchased 3 tables, only 1 of the 3 tables will have a unit centerpiece, the other 2 tables will have the hotel centerpiece). – Notify CCM Lee (HIANG entries) or CSM Wingad (HIARNG entries) that you will be submitting an entry. Need name of POC, phone number and Unit. – Centerpiece must be at the ballroom set up and displayed between 1630hrs and 1730hrs NOW IS THE TIME TO SHOW YOUR UNIT PRIDE, HOLIDAY SPIRIT AND TEAMWORK…….SHOW OFF YOUR TALENT AND CREATIVITY!Honored to serve,
Robert S.K. Lee III, CMSgt, HING Senior Enlisted Leader, Hawaii National Guard State Command Chief, Hawaii Air National Guard robert.lee.4@us.af.mil Comm: (808) 672-1220 Work Cell: (808) 722-7199 Personal Cell: (808) 780-8944 Fax: (808) 733-4227“The world will turn to Hawai’i as they search for world peace because Hawai’i has the key…..and that key is “ALOHA” – Aunty Pilahi Paki
Time To Think About TRICARE. Representatives from various military services on November 5 urged the congressionally mandated commission on military compensation reform to take a serious look at health care spending accounts as a means of cutting costs. Commissioner Peter Chiarelli, former Army Vice Chief of Staff, said the service chiefs all have asked Congress to allow changes to the basic fee structure for TRICARE for Life, but it has largely gone unchanged since the 1990s. Dick Newton, former head of personnel on the Air Staff and AFA’s executive vice president, told commissioners the Defense Department should be looking at innovative ways to meet service member needs—this could include looking at Tricare fees and cost of living adjustments. There must be a transformational approach to dealing with rising health care costs in the military, said Newton.
This report came from the Air Force Magazine daily electronic newsletter.
Webmaster’s Comments: As mentioned earlier in Retiree News, TRICARE Standard and TRICARE for Life are currently free to retired members. The costs of these programs come from the Department of Defense’s budget. These programs are not funded independently like other entitlement programs administered by the Veterans Administration.
The DOD has its back to the wall. Between reduced budgets, increased operational costs and sequestration, they must make important budget decisions in the coming year (and beyond). The DOD’s proposed is a “small nominal fee” to start and the fee would increase annually, tied to the cost of living adjustments. Think of it as your Social Security annuity increasing but Medicare costs increasing at the same percentage rate. By the way, they have already increased copays on prescription drugs.
In the near future, there will be calls by military retiree organizations to contact your Congressional members to express your opposition to this plan. Members of Congress have not allowed any recurring fees for both TRICARE Standard and TRICARE for Life since their inception. But unless retirees and their families speak out, this could be the time where fees begin. Are you ready for the start of monthly fees?
Tad T. Iimura, 86, of Honolulu, passed away October 30 in California. He was born in Wahiawā.
He was a veteran of the U.S. Army and Hawai‘i Air National Guard. He was a civil engineer for the City and County of Honolulu, State of Hawai‘i, Federal Aviation Administration, and HQ Pacific Air Forces Hickam.
Survived by wife Irene, son Russell, sisters Chieko and Shizue, brother Wallace, and two grandchildren.
On September 20, 2013, the Army published its plan to modernize Army Knowledge Online (AKO). The plan transitions business users to a suite of more secure, interoperable Department of Defense (DOD) services. The improved security requires users to have Common Access Cards (CAC) embedded with users’ personal digital certificates.
The Army will close all accounts for military and civilian retirees and family members, who do not have CACs.
The Army plans to close inactive retiree and family member AKO accounts on December 31, 2013. These are accounts that have not had a password change in over 90 days and are not set to automatically forward email to another government account. The Army will also remove email storage for active retiree and family member accounts on this date. Read more http://ow.ly/qDJEw
Special thanks to Aaron Pollick for identifying this change to Retiree News
Foot Locker – Veterans, servicemembers (active, guard, and reserve), and their immediate families with a Foot Locker Veterans Advantage Card receive a 20% discount every day of the year. That offer is good both online and at any store location, including Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Footaction and Champs Sports — even on sale items.
Home Depot – Home Depot offers a 10% discount (up to a $500 maximum) to all active military, reserve, retired or disabled veterans and their family members with a valid military ID. All other veterans qualify for a 10% discount during Veterans Day, Memorial Day and Independence Day.
Lowe’s – Lowe’s offers a year-round 10% discount offer for all active duty, National Guard and Reserve, retirees and disabled servicemembers and their immediate families. All other veterans receive the 10% discount on Veterans Day, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. The discount is available on in-stock and special-order purchases of up to $5,000. The offer can’t be used on sales at Lowes.com, on previous sales or on sales of services or gift cards. You must present a valid military I.D. card to receive the discount.
Earlier this year, Stephen Lum of the department’s Public Affairs Office completed a photo gallery recognizing the eighteen individuals who served as Hawai‘i’s adjutants general through the years. Each photo includes short biography of officer. This photo gallery is in the hallway outside the Adjutant General’s office here at the State Headquarters.
Special thanks to Steve for another superb job.
To share Steve’s hard work, we will post one of the photos each week. This week’s photo features Hawai‘i’s fifth Adjutant General, Colonel Harry Haywood.
click on photo to enlarge
Drew Michael Hurley served in the Hawai‘i Air National Guard as a Public Affairs Officer with the 154th Wing and the 201st Combat Communications Group. Those of you who grew up in the seventies might know him as Mike Hurley, a disk jockey on local radio stations and a reporter on KHON2 News. He later served as the Department’s fulltime Public Affairs Officer in the eighties.
When Drew graduated from the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa, he relocated to New Jersey. He has a private practice there and served as a New Jersey Municipal Court judge.
Drew’s other interests include skydiving for over 20 years and aerobatic flying for about eight years.
In a recent email, Drew said, “Looking toward retirement in a year or two from my law practice here in Somerville, New Jersey. Retired out of the 108th Air Refueling Wing at McGuire AFB back in 1995 during the Clinton draw down. Took up aerobatic flying and flew in airshows for some 8 years in a Russian Yak 55M. There are some videos on YouTube. Hope to get back to Hawai‘i for a visit in February or March.”
This video of Drew flying in an airshow in 2005 was on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykBu3dMzRMM
Special thanks to these Retiree News readers who registered to “Follow Blog via Email” last week: Aaron Pollick, Dan & Robyn Rose
Apologies to the registered reader whose email address did not include a recognizable name, but thank you for registering.
What Is a Vet?
Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eyes. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel — or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s alloy forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.
You can’t tell a vet just by looking. What is a vet?
The Vet is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.
The Vet may be the bar room loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel in Korea.
The Vet is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night in Da Nang.
The Vet is the former POW who went away one person and came back another – or didn’t come back at all.
The Vet is the Quantico drill instructor who maybe never experienced combat — but saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines by teaching them to watch and protect each other’s backs.
The Vet is the wheel chair riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
The Vet is the career quartermaster who watched the ribbons and medals pass him by but made certain every needed bullet found it way to the front line.
The Vet is one of the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose uncommon valor lies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.
The Vet is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket — palsied now and aggravatingly slow –who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife was still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
The Vet is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being – a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
Remember November 11th — Veterans Day.
“It is the soldier, not the reporter, who gave us Freedom of the Press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who gave us Freedom of Speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the Freedom to Demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag. It is the soldier whose bravery and sacrifice made it possible for the protester to burn the flag.”
click on photo to enlarge
The Office of Personnel Management’s Healthcare and Insurance staff will be hosting informational webcasts for the 2013 Federal Benefits Open Season. In these webcasts, we explain the basics of Open Season and the benefit programs involved. We ask for your help to ensure that all employees and retirees are aware of the webcasts.
This informational bulletin has more information about these webcasts Informational Webcast
If you receive a pension from a federal, state or local government based on work where you did not pay Social Security taxes, your Social Security spouse’s or widow’s or widower’s benefits may be reduced.
A fact sheet provided by the Social Security Administration answers the questions you may have about the reduction. It can be found at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf.
FORT LEE, Virginia – Commissaries will soon begin scanning customers’ Department of Defense ID cards at checkouts as the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) continues its pursuit to deliver a 21st century benefit. The commissary at Fort Lee, Va., became the first store to scan ID cards on October 22 as the first part of an agency-wide rollout to all stores that begins November 10 and will be completed by mid-January.
Commissary shoppers are used to showing their ID cards to establish their eligibility to use the commissary. By scanning the ID at checkout, DeCA will no longer need to maintain any personal information on customers in its computer systems, such as the system used for customers who write checks.
Scanning will also help improve the commissary benefit for all patrons, according to Joseph H. Jeu, DeCA director and CEO. “In addition to verifying customers as authorized commissary patrons, we’ll gain information that will give us a better understanding of our patrons, allowing the agency to provide the commissary benefit more effectively andefficiently,” Jeu said.
Cross-referenced with other DOD data, the scan data will give DeCA useful information about patron usage, by military service, along with customer demographics that does not identify specific personal data of an individual. This will eventually help the agency identify shopping needs and preferences – information that is essential in today’s retail business environment. It will also allow more accurate reporting to the military services on commissary usage.
The demographic information DeCA will use is strictly limited to: card ID number, rank, military status, branch of service, age, household size and ZIP codes of residence and duty station. DeCA will not be using any personal information such as names, addresses or phone numbers.
“The methods, processes and information we’ll use will not compromise our customers’ privacy – they can be sure of that,” Jeu said. “We’re putting technology to work to better understand our customers and ensure the commissary benefit continues to remain relevant to them now and in the future.”
For more information on ID card scanning, go to http://www.commissaries.com/documents/contact_deca/faqs/id_card_scanning.cfm
