The American Council of Education (ACE) has produced a new publication, A Transfer Guide:  Understanding Your Military Transcript and ACE Credit Recommendations.  This new publication will assist Servicemembers and veterans in understanding academic credit and how it can be awarded by institutions of higher education for military training and occupational experiences.  The publication is available in PDF at http://www.acenet.edu/Content/NavigationMenu/ProgramsServices/MilitaryPrograms/Transfer_Guide.htm Full story.

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Soldiers serving in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom may participate in the Army Direct Ordering (ADO) program, which allows deployed Soldiers to exchange worn and ineffective pieces of Organizational Clothing & Individual Equipment (OCIE) at no cost.  The program covers more than 45 different items and will begin to include Individual Physical Fitness Uniforms on April 15.  For more information please read the full article at http://www.military.com/military-report/uniform-swap-for-deployed-soldiers. Full story.

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Last year, Congress was concerned that medically unfit troops were being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.  Since then, the Army Inspector General has reported that more than a dozen of the Army’s combat fitness rules and regulations are “inadequate, unsynchronized or conflicting,” which increases the chances of deploying Soldiers who do not meet medical deployability requirements.  Read the article at http://www.military.com/news/article/March-2009/report-cites-confusing-army-fitness-policies. Full story.

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AAFES conducted a recent survey which found the second most important customer service tool for shoppers is price matching, but the same survey also concluded that only 52 percent of shoppers had ever taken advantage of price matching at the BX/PX.  AAFES will match the price of any competitor.  Price matching with AAFES can occur with or without the competitor’s ad depending on the amount of the price difference.  To find out more on how to price match with AAFES follow the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/aafespa/3399183064/?edited=1 Full story.

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On April 6, 2009 Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates announced the fiscal year 2010 defense budget. In a statement describing the budget, Secretary Gates outlined four priorities specifically for service members and their families:

    * Fully protect and properly fund the growth in military end strength in the base budget.  This means completing the growth in the Army and Marines while halting reductions in the Air Force and the Navy. Accomplishing this will require a nearly $11 billion increase above the Fiscal Year 2009 budget level.

    * Continue the steady growth in medical research and development by requesting $400 million more than last year.

    * Recognize the critical and permanent nature of wounded, ill and injured, traumatic brain injury, and psychological health programs. This means institutionalizing and properly funding these efforts in the base budget and increasing overall spending by $300 million. The department will spend over $47 billion on healthcare in Fiscal Year 2010.

    * Increase funding by $200 million for improvements in child care, spousal support, lodging, and education. Many of these programs have been funded in the past by supplementals. Secretary Gates stated, “We must move away from ad hoc funding of long-term commitments. Thus, we have added money to each of these areas and all will be permanently and properly carried in the base defense budget. Together they represent an increase in base budget funding of $13 billion from last year.”

The National Military Family Association has supported the inclusion of funding for family readiness and support programs in the base line budget. We appreciate the inclusion of increased quality of life funding in the 2010 DoD budget.

(Source: http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=1341)

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Thanks to Humana Military Healthcare Services, civilian providers throughout the country will now have access to an online course on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Humana Military Healthcare Services is the TRICARE contractor for the South Region. They are partnering with the University of Louisville to jointly sponsor a new continuing medical education course (CME) for physicians. The training enables civilian providers to recognize and care for active-duty and retired service members who show signs of TBI or PTSD. Upon completion of the course, physicians will receive two hours of Category I AMA Physician Recognition Award credit. There is no cost to physicians taking the course. For more information, or to register, please visit: www.chse.louisville.edu/courses.html and select the “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury” link.

(Source: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090316005759&newsLang=en)

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Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made public this week additional details of the department's FY2010 budget priorities.

Gates said his recommendations in the new budget are aimed at three principal objectives - first, "to reaffirm our commitment to take care of the all-volunteer force;" second, to rebalance the Pentagon's programs to be able to fight the type of wars and scenarios faced today and expected in the future; and third, to overhaul procurement, acquisition, and contracting.

While some programs could see growth, Gates recommended that several major weapon systems get the "ax" -- ending future F-22 and C-17 production, retiring 250 of the oldest Air Force fighters, terminating controversial over-budget helicopter programs, and scaling back on missile defense and Navy ship procurement.

On the people side, Gates said he built the budget to support troops and their families through funding for:
•    Manpower increases for the Army and Marine Corps while halting force reductions for the Air Force and Navy
•    Medical research and development
•    Traumatic brain injury and psychological health programs in direct support of wounded servicemembers
•    Child care, spousal support, lodging, and education

The budget also proposes large, phased cutbacks in the number of support contractors (currently 39% of the workforce) and replacing them with up to 30,000 full-time civil servants over the next five years. In particular, the plan is to increase the size of the defense acquisition workforce, converting 11,000 contractors and hiring an additional 9,000 government acquisition professionals by 2015.

On the health care side, Gates acknowledged that past Pentagon proposals to raise retiree TRICARE fees have been rejected by Congress. He said the new budget will "fully fund" military health care programs, but he will still ask Congress to make fee adjustments.

It was unclear as this article was being written whether the budget would include any proposed fee increases or whether those recommendations would be sent to Congress separately.

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