The President of the Association of the U. S. Army expressed his concern over language included in the Senate’s version of the defense authorization bill which addresses plan to grow the Army by 20,000 soldiers a year.

Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, USA, Ret., said in his letter to key Senate leadership, “I was struck by the language pertaining to the Committee’s concern that the planned growth in the ground forces will be too late to impact today’s need for more soldiers.

He added, “Simply directing the Army senior leaders to add 20,000 new troops a year is not reflective of reality as I believe most people who understand the recruiting environment know. I appreciate the intent, but the ability of the recruiters to recruit 20,000 additional troops a year is problematic.”

The letter continues, “This Administration and this Congress can offer all of the monetary rewards they want to try and attract quality men and women for today’s All Volunteer force, but the fact remains that there must be recognition from the American people that the Nation’s defense is a shared responsibility.”

Adding, “It would be helpful and indeed critical for all to join forces with military recruiters and publicly proclaim to the Nation that serving our country in uniform requires unmatched courage and dedication and is an honorable endeavor. This is the moment for all national leaders to speak directly about the virtues of selfless service to America.”


House Panel Hears Testimony about Army’s Medical Action Plan

Gen. Richard Cody, the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army told a key House panel last week that it should call senior Army leaders in and out of the Medical Command back to Capitol Hill in October and again in February to report on the service’s progress in implementing the 120 points of its medical action plan.

Testifying before the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee, Gen. Cody said, “We’re going to continue to go out and measure” how effectively the plan is being implemented not only at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington but across the board in Army clinics and hospitals.

When asked how the plan would continue in the future, Gen. Cody said that the Army is providing about $370 million toward it from emergency spending bills for the next two years and plans to add the funds into its regular budget starting in Fiscal Year 2009. About $168 million will be spent in bringing Army medical facilities in compliance with the American with Disabilities Act.

The money for this year and next is coming from funds provided to add 65,000 soldiers to the active force over the next five years, he added.

Gen. Cody said, “That’s why we did it with executive and operational orders [that] became a requirement for two stars, three stars, four stars and the Army staff. …The tasks are very directive.”

BG Michael Tucker, Deputy Commander of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command, said it was a coordinated plan designed to exercise unity of command in caring for the seriously wounded and ill soldiers.

Gen. Cody said that two of the most significant advances in caring for wounded or seriously ill soldiers and their families have been the establishment of 37 Warrior Transition programs, eliminating the medical hold and medical holdover units, and creating the transition triad of squad leaders from all components – most with combat experience, professional case managers and primary care providers, to look after these soldiers and their families.

“We’re committed to getting this right,” MG Gale Pollock, Acting Surgeon General, said. She told the panel how “tiger teams” went to 11 medical facilities across the Army to determine if conditions were similar to those discovered at Walter Reed and also to take away from those visits “best practices” that could be used at all Army medical facilities.

“We’re very focused on family support,” she added, citing the escorts who meet the families at the airports, arrange their transportation to the hospital and set up meetings with chaplains and social works before they meet with their wounded or ill family member. MG Pollock said the Army has trained ombudsmen who are proactive in ensuring that the soldiers’ and families’ needs are being met. “They are not sitting in their offices waiting” for someone to come to them. The ombudsmen would be providing feedback at the installation and higher levels on care.

Gen. Cody added that feedback on how care is being delivered would also be coming from soldiers and their families, the Army’s inspector general and inspector generals at various commands and installations.

Walter Reed’s Commander, MG Eric Schoomaker said, “We [also] have a program of sending letters back to the unit. …They need to have some sense that the system is working.”

“Every time we find a problem [in caring for these soldiers and their families], we try to determine if was a part of policy, part of law” that needs to be addressed, BG Tucker said.

Problems can be basic – pay, for example, but directly affect soldiers and their families. The different personnel, promotion and pay procedures for the three components presents challenges that are not easily fixed, Col. Terrence McKenrick, commander of the Warrior Transition Brigade at Walter Reed, said. He is adding two personnel specialists to handle these matters for guardsmen and reservists. There is one specialist now assigned to these matters for guardsmen and reservists in the brigade.

MG Pollock said, “What we are dealing with no one has done before” in caring for 15,000 severely wounded and seriously ill soldiers and that the Army’s experience could be very useful lessons for civilian medical care in providing continuing care in the aftermath of manmade or natural disasters.

Reminder: The latest Defense Report issued by AUSA’s Institute of Land Warfare offers a timely, comprehensive review of the Army’s Medical Action Plan. The report examines the Army’s initiative to develop a sustainable system wherein wounded, injured and ill soldiers are medically treated and vocationally rehabilitated and ensure the needs of operational units and soldiers and their families are jointly met.

To view this report and other educational materials, visit AUSA’s website, www.ausa.org and click on the Institute of Land Warfare link.


Military Personnel Compensation Studied

A report released Friday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) concluded that compensation packages for active duty enlisted military personnel grew by 21 percent from 2000 to 2006, helping to eliminate the pay and benefits gap between military and civilian jobs.

The CBO report noted that while military basic pay is still slightly less than civilian salaries, once food and housing allowances are factored in, the pay gap “appears to have been eliminated,” said Matthew Goldberg, the Assistant Director of Office of Management and Budget’s national security division.

The difficulty in comparing civilian pay to total military compensation packages was acknowledged by the CBO in its report. “Policymakers, individual service members and taxpayers may find it difficult to assess the adequacy of military pay because that compensation includes many components spread among different agencies and appropriations.” That compensation includes various non-cash benefits such as subsidized child care and health care.

The CBO suggested ways to make military and civilian compensation comparison easier including consolidating personnel costs into a single appropriation or Congress could just combine the three largest components of cash compensation –basic pay, and the allowances for housing and food.

Additionally, the CBO offered several options for substituting cast for non-cash benefits including:

--Offering a “cafeteria plan” of health care benefits for family members of service personnel;

--consolidating commissaries and post exchanges to offer a tax-free grocery allowance; and

--closing DOD-run domestic schools and offering families a tuition allowance.

AUSA strongly believes that because military life is so distinctly different from that of civilians, those differences must be reflected in the compensation package offered to service members.

To view the CBO report in its entirely, go to www.cbo.gov and click on “Evaluating Military Compensation.”

House Approved Pay Raise for Civilians

Speaking of civilian pay, the House approved a bill granting civilian federal employees a 2008 pay raise of 3.5 percent, a figure equal to that already authorized in the House of members for the military.

The White House is opposed to the raise and believes the 3.0 percent it requested for the military and civilian employees is adequate.


Did You Know…

…that Independence Day should have been July 2? July 2, 1776, is the day that the Continental Congress actually voted for independence. John Adams, in his writings, even noted that July 2 would be remembered in the annals of American history and would be marked with fireworks and celebrations. The written Declaration of Independence was dated July 4 but wasn’t actually signed until August 2. Fifty-six delegates eventually signed the document, although all were not present on that day in August.

The Declaration of Independence spent many years on the road. After the signing ceremony on August 2, it was most likely filed in Philadelphia. On December 12, threatened by the British, Congress adjourned and reconvened eight days later in Baltimore, Maryland, where the document remained until its return to Philadelphia in March of 1777. In the years to follow, it traveled widely with the Continental Congress throughout the Northeast, then moving to Washington, D.C. in 1800. In 1814, again threatened by war, it was moved to an unused gristmill in Virginia for protection. On August 24, as the British burned the White House, it was moved to Leesburg, Virginia until September, when it returned to the nation’s capital. With the exception of a trip to Philadelphia for the Centennial and to Fort Knox during World War II, it has remained there ever since.

Happy Independence Day!!!