ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Department of the Army civilians can no longer enroll in the Army Fee Assistance Program effective March 1.

The move is part of an effort to “prioritize resources to soldiers and their families,” Lt. Gen. Bradley Becker, commanding general of the U.S. Army Installation Management Command, wrote in a memo.

The Army Fee Assistance Program helps eligible families cover child care costs by paying a monthly fee directly to the child care provider. The program is designed to help families who send their children to off-post child care centers because the centers on post are full.

An interim report from the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service says unfamiliarity with the benefits, opportunities and realities of military service present an obstacle that could be addressed with a nationwide campaign.

In a year of study, including meeting with a broad cross section of Americans, the commission headed by former U.S. Rep. and retired Army Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Heck discovered, as military recruiters have found, many service-aged youths don’t know much about the military and don’t know anyone who has served.

Seven Army civilians were honored at a Dec. 13 leadership summit in Washington, D.C., for their accomplishments in the 2018 Presidential Rank Awards.

Three Army civilians are Distinguished Executive Recipients. They are:

Nominations are due Dec. 30 for the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation’s 2019 Citizen Honors awards, a program in which military heroes identify courage and self-sacrifice in others.

Award winners will be announced on March 25, 2019, which is National Medal of Honor Day.

The Trump administration nominee to be the Army’s top personnel official says more flexibility is needed in how the Army classifies and pays its civilian workforce.

Casey Wardynski, a retired Army colonel who served from 1995 to 2010 as director of the Army Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in written testimony that having a “modern, agile, information-advantaged Army requires a motivated, diverse and highly skilled civilian workforce.”

Twenty-one Army civilians received Presidential Rank Awards at a June 25 ceremony hosted by Army Secretary Mark T. Esper.

More than two dozen Department of the Army senior executives were rewarded for extraordinary public service and excellence in leadership

Professional development programs for Department of the Army civilians were well-attended additions to the 2017 Annual Meeting and Exposition of the Association of the U.S. Army.

April 12, 2017

The Army’s temporary civilian hiring freeze is over, but the implications are not yet clear concerning the Trump administration’s next step: an overhaul of the federal civilian workforce.

Lifting the hiring freeze “does not mean that the agencies will be free to hire willy-nilly,” said White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. The across-the-board freeze is being replaced “with a smarter plan, a more strategic plan, a more surgical plan.”