Author: tom philpott Military Update
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Mattis aims to boost deployable forces
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is concerned enough about strengthening the lethality of U.S. forces that he broke with tradition last month to impose a first-ever “universal retention policy” across the four service branches. For decades,…
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Online shopping coming to more vets
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save After two years of study and debate, the Department of Defense has made a policy change effective November to allow 16 million more honorably discharged veterans to shop online for discounted military exchange products. Peter…
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New Pentagon spending plan includes health care changes
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save The National Defense Authorization Act (S 2943) signed into law Dec. 23 orders an avalanche of changes to the Tricare healthcare benefit used by service members, retirees and their families. It also makes sweeping reforms…
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Military Update: Lawmakers question VA spending on electronic benefits system
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Over the past five years, since Republicans won control of the House, the Department of Veteran Affairs has been flogged publicly many times, often for allowing a mountain of backlogged disability compensation claims. As the…
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Military Update: Lawmakers will have final say on combat jobs for women
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Six days before he closed out a 45-year Marine Corps career, Gen. John Kelly sounded an alarm. Kelly, who headed U.S. Southern Command before he retired on Jan. 14, was asked at his final Pentagon…
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Military Update: House eyes giving widows more relief from survivor benefit offset
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save In a hopeful sign for 60,000 military widows and widowers who lost spouses to service-connected illnesses or injuries, a key House subcommittee is taking a fresh look at how Congress might provide heartier survivor benefit…
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Military Update: Stateside housing allowances to rise 3.4 percent
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Housing stipends paid to a million service members living off base in the United States will rise an average of 3.4 percent Jan. 1, which for a second straight year will not be enough to…
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Military Update: VA expands ‘Choice,’ seeks money to consolidate outside care
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save An additional 160,000 veterans became eligible Dec. 1 to receive VA-paid medical care from civilian health care providers, the result of changes to the Choice Act of 2014 voted several months ago as Congress seeks…
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Military Update: Congress, beneficiary groups prepare for health reforms
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save In January, the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission proposed replacing the triple-option Tricare benefit with a menu of commercial insurance options, similar to those offered to federal civilians, but with a break on premiums…
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Military Update: Carter’s ‘Force of the Future’ tallies only modest changes
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Defense Secretary Ash Carter unveiled the “first tranche” of his Force of the Future initiatives Wednesday. They included none of the costly or controversial ideas that his personnel chief had brainstormed with experts. No end…