Air Force hiring officials have placed increased emphasis on employing individuals with disabilities within its civilian workforce.
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and Air Force officials here are reaching out to Air Force leaders to educate them on the Air Force's five-year Plan for Increasing Federal Employment of Individuals with Disabilities.
"We need to inform leaders that employees with disabilities make good, reliable workers," said Barbara Barger, the deputy director for Force Development, and senior lead on the working group to implement the Air Force plan. "Historically, these employees have also been shown to stay in their jobs longer than their non-disabled counterparts, reducing recruitment and training costs."
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The second volume of Pioneers in Blue, a special project highlighting the contributions of 40 Air Force veterans from across generations, will launch in late October.
"Pioneers in Blue" is a Air Force Public Affairs Agency sponsored project that includes portrait-based displays, video interviews, multimedia and a website dedicated to telling the stories of individual veterans. The entire endeavor will be submitted to the Library of Congress as part of the Veterans History Project and distributed to numerous media outlets to help honor those who have served proudly.
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Two Airmen received the Cheney Award from Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley here Oct. 27 in recognition of their efforts to support Pakistan flood relief operations in 2010.
Maj. John Foy, a C-130E/H Hercules navigator, and Capt. Patrick Markey, a logistics readiness officer; both assigned to the 819th Global Support Squadron at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.; served as directors of operations for the 621st Contingency Response Element when the unit deployed to Chaklala Air Base, Pakistan, from Aug. 28 to Oct. 21, 2010.
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Air Force officials have teamed with the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies to launch the Air Force Exceptional Family Member Program Respite Care Program.
The program is built around providing a break for parents with special-needs children. It allows parents to receive 8-20 hours of respite care per month at no charge as long as they meet eligibility requirements.
The program was launched in July in seven regions with a high concentration of Air Force families, officials said. The locations include: The National Capital Region; Tacoma, Wash.; San Antonio; Honolulu; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Charleston, S.C.; and Hampton, Va.
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U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder cautioned would-be cheaters that health care fraud is not easy money during a press conference earlier this year. That same warning goes for workers' compensation fraud.
The Federal Employees' Compensation Act provides compensation for employees who sustain injuries or illnesses as a result of their job. Such compensation is an important protection for federal workers, according to Marty Watson, the Air Force Personnel Center Chief of Injury Compensation, but when people abuse the system, everyone suffers.
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Airmen had the opportunity to mingle with nearly 30 World War II veterans here Oct. 17-21 during the 98th Bomb Group Reunion.
Members of the 98th BG Veterans Association hosted the famed Ploesti Raiders to highlight the achievements of the bomb group during World War II for their day-time raids against the oil refineries around Ploesti, Romania.
Retired Col. Bill Seals, who is the current president of the 98th BGA, opened the gathering with a slideshow detailing the non-classified aspects of Operation Tidal Wave. He described the challenges of the mission, mistakes that were made during the chaos and the final results.
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The Defense Department has no proposals or recommendations on revamping military retirement at this time, but any future proposal must not break faith with those in the military today, senior Pentagon officials told Congress Oct. 25.
Jo Ann Rooney, the principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, and Vee Penrod, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for military personnel policy, testified on military retirement before the House Armed Services Committee's military personnel subcommittee.
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Air Force Space Command's 39th Information Operations Squadron members were honored with a 2011 U.S. National Cybersecurity Innovation Award during a ceremony here Oct. 21.
The award, presented by officials from the SANS Institute at the 2011 National Cybersecurity Conference, recognizes innovations undertaken by civilian companies and government agencies to develop and deploy processes or technologies that have not been deployed effectively before, shows a significant impact on reducing cyber risk, can be scaled quickly to serve large numbers of people and may be adopted efficiently by other organizations.
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Because U.S. forces are coming home from Iraq by the end of the year, the U.S. Postal Service will stop accepting mail addressed to military post offices in Iraq starting Nov. 17, Defense Department officials said Oct. 26.
Military post offices in Iraq also will stop processing mail Nov. 17, and service members there should begin now to advise those who send them mail about the Nov. 17 deadline.
Mail still in the postal system through Nov. 17 will be processed and delivered to service members in Iraq, officials said.
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The Air Force has some new ammunition in the war against waste thanks to Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment officials launching the third edition of the Win the War Against Waste tool kit recently.
Win the War Against Waste is an outreach campaign developed to support the Air Force's worldwide environmental objectives for solid waste management.
While earlier versions are still available, new tools have been added to the kit for this edition, said Nancy Carper, the integrated solid waste management specialist at AFCEE.
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