Relocating can be one of the most stressful events in a person's life. With approximately 500,000 household goods shipments every year, the military is the largest moving population in the United States.
Officials with the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command are committed to making every move a better experience for service members, their families and DOD civilians. One way that experience has been improved is with better protection of household goods and improved repair or replacement policies. Mandated by Congress, Full Replacement Value does just that.
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U.S. warfighters and allies operating in Afghanistan and Iraq depend on various sensor platforms that can provide information about the enemy's whereabouts night or day, a senior U.S. military officer said Oct. 29 here.
That's why the annual joint Empire Challenge demonstration, which explores how to improve dissemination of vital intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information to battlefield commanders, is so important, Col. George Krakie, the director of this year's exercise told American Forces Press Service.
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Working together as a team is the advice the Air Force military family of the year has for coping with frequent deployments.
"Know your resources, such as key spouses," said Master Sgt. Wayne Ojala, the superintendent of the Airman and Family Readiness Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.
"And take advantage of them," added Tech. Sgt. Thane Ojala, a 99th Force Support Squadron food service accountant. "There are so many programs in place. You're never in it alone."
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Airmen of the 380th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron generate KC-10 Extenders to refuel aircraft providing combat support in Afghanistan.
"Everything that we do on this ramp directly supports the troops in Afghanistan," said Staff Sgt. Charles Powers, a crew chief from the 380th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.
"These planes go up and refuel fighters providing combat support for the troops on the ground," said Sergeant Powers, a Los Angeles native deployed from Travis Air Force Base, Calif.
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Air Force officials are seeking Airmen for a three- to five-year period for a Defense Department program aimed at creating greater continuity, focus and persistent engagement across the battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Afghanistan Pakistan Hands program was established by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and will change the paradigm of counterinsurgency forces.
"The APH program will develop and use a cohort of experts who speak the local language, are culturally attuned and are focused on the problem for an extended period of time," said Admiral Mullen.
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Air Force officials here announced the list of candidate locations Oct. 29 for basing the F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter.
The list of candidate bases was approved by the secretary and chief of staff of the Air Force and identifies the first group of bases to be considered for joint strike fighter basing decisions. The selection of these bases signifies the determination of Air Force officials that these locations have the greatest potential to accommodate the F-35 training or operational mission.
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About 200 volunteers from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and the surrounding communities gathered Oct. 24 at the MERCI Mission Center in Goldsboro, N.C., to help stop hunger for the people of Afghanistan and to keep them warm throughout the winter.
The volunteers prepared more than 115,000 rice- and soy-based meals and thousands of pounds of winter clothing for shipment to Afghanistan.
The idea for this mission transpired between the Seymour Johnson AFB chaplains and the Rev. Billy Olsen, a Pine Forest United Methodist Church pastor in North Carolina, as a way to bring together members of the base and local community. With the help of the MERCI Mission Center, an outreach program of the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, and Stop Hunger Now, an international hunger relief organization, the mission became a reality.
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A new perspective has enabled leaders at the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve the level and accessibility of care provided to servicemembers, the department's assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs said here Oct. 27.
"I bring with me to VA a really different, new perspective that is coming with all the new leadership," Tammy Duckworth told an audience at the 2009 National Guard Bureau Public Affairs Training Workshop. "We have for the first time at the VA a large percentage of the leadership who are disabled servicemembers."
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Air Force officials here announced the list of candidate locations Oct. 29 for basing the F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter.
The list of candidate bases was approved by the secretary and chief of staff of the Air Force and identifies the first group of bases to be considered for joint strike fighter basing decisions. The selection of these bases signifies the determination of Air Force officials that these locations have the greatest potential to accommodate the F-35 training or operational mission.
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Department of Defense officials here have acquired enough doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine to immunize all 460,000 members of the National Guard, officials announced Oct. 29 here.
"The DOD supply will go out to the Guard based on their order through the ... U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency," said Army Lt. Col. Dawn Barrowman, the chief of occupational health for the Army National Guard.
All states have ordered the H1N1 injectable vaccine through USAMMA, which is the same way that states order the seasonal flu vaccine.
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