a. NCO and Soldier Programs – “Should sleep be monitored to control sleep deprivation?”
For all of us in uniform or who have served in uniform, we know the use of alcohol is known to degrade mental capacity and impair decision-making. It is because of these factors Soldiers are not allowed to consume alcohol on duty and they are held liable for punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice if they report for duty under the effects of alcohol. The article below draws a comparison between sleep deprivation and the influence of alcohol by stating 5 to 6 hours of sleep is equal to reporting to duty with a blood alcohol content of .08 which is considered legally drunk in all states. One method of measuring sleep deprivation is to mandate the use of wearable sleep trackers. There are pros and cons to this initiative which would require policies and regulations for commanders and leaders to implement and enforce. What are the pros and cons you see from your foxhole?
b. AUSA Five Things – “Veterans make up half of Army civilian workforce .”
AUSA Five Things: A Weekly Tip Sheet for AUSA Members, dated November21, 2016: “Half of Army Civilians Are Veterans.”
The Fiscal Year 2015 Officer of Personnel Management Report on veterans’ employment in the federal government finds the percentage of veterans in the Army civilian workforce is about 50 percent – 111, 760 veterans in a workforce of 223,622. The Air Force is the only executive branch agency with a higher percentage. Its 82,180 veterans make up 57.2 percent of its civilian workforce.
What to watch: The Army’s percentage looks to remain stable, as 51 percent of new hires in 2015 were veterans.
c. AUSA Moderator – “Biggest threat to the Army is budget instability.”
“If the incoming Trump administration and the new Congress want to help the Army meet its readiness goals, the most significant step they could take would be to reduce the year-to-year instability that has plagued the military budget for much of this decade, Army Secretary Eric Fanning says.
‘So the biggest threat to the Army that I’ve been working through has been the budget instability. We’re on a path to get to our readiness goals. But all these issues we talk about, readiness, technology, modernization, force deployment … if we had a more stable baseline from which to plan, I could get to a lot of my goals faster.’”
d. AUSA Five Things – “Associated Units Program moves forward.”
AUSA Five Things: A Weekly Tip Sheet for AUSA Members, dated November 14, 2016: “More Affiliated Units.”
The Vermont National Guard’s 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team has become the third maneuver brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, the latest move in the Associated Units pilot program that establishes formal relationships among Regular Army, Army National Guard and Army Reserve Units. National Guard units from Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Washington all are part of the initial test.
What to watch: Associated Units is similar to other partnerships among active and reserve component units, but what makes this different is that National Guard and Reserve units will get up to 15 additional training days a year to work with their active-duty partners, an effort that planners believe will improve overall readiness.
THIS WEEK'S POLL QUESTION:
(To Vote: Scroll down to the footer of the page)
Should all honorably discharged veterans have online shopping privileges for the military exchange?
o Yes
o No
o Not sure