Veterans who have recently left the military received hiring preference for federal government jobs Tuesday, allowing them to join their brethren from previous military conflicts.
Congress extended the veterans' preference to all personnel who were honorably discharged after serving at least 180 consecutive days on active duty with any part of their service after Sept. 11, 2001.
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The preference gives qualified veterans extra points on federal employment exams and requires federal agencies to hire a qualified veteran over anybody with similar test scores and qualifications.
Before the new rules went into effect Tuesday, the only veterans who qualified for the hiring preference were those who received a campaign medal for combat service or those who served during a major conflict designated by Congress. The last time Congress had extended preference to all who served during a particular time was for Operation Desert Storm in 1990-91.
"This now gives veterans' preference in hiring to individuals such as reservists and members of the National Guard who were called to active duty with the Armed Forces, whether or not they served in-country,"ť said Jo Schuda, a spokeswoman for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
This is a pretty big contrast to say, the Vietnam War when nobody wanted the vets around. The Government is doing the right thing here. Our soldiers gave up their time and end up behind their peers in the job force when they get home. Hopefully this will help balance that out.
The number of medical students accepting Army and Navy scholarships has fallen sharply over the last two years, in part because of the mayhem in Iraq as depicted in daily news reports, say service medical leaders.
A scholarship program that the Army surgeon general calls “our lifeblood, over time, for recruiting physicians” is failing to attract enough qualified applicants by wide margins, except in the Air Force.
Difficulties in recruiting the next generation of Army and Navy physicians and dentists have spurred the Senate to approve new authorities to increase dramatically medical bonuses and stipends.
The increases, which potentially involve millions of additional dollars for medical personnel, are before a House-Senate conference committee and could win the full support of Congress by fall.
I would think this would be one of the more popular career tracks. I know it's not an easy one, but the pay is good, you are less likely to see combat and when you get out you could get into the medical field and end up making a lot of money. I wonder what's keeping people from going into these careers? But it looks like they are putting more money and benefits into the program to get more people to sign up.
he Army has slashed the rate at which young soldiers wash out, allowing it to keep more of the recruits it has struggled to find.
That's due largely to changes in how the Army treats enlistees. Gone are the days when trainees run 'til they drop. Soldiers who need counseling get extra attention, not a screaming drill sergeant.
The attrition rate within the soldier's first six months plummeted from 18.1% in May 2005 to today's rate of 7.6%. Last year the Army, which supplies most of the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, missed its recruiting goal of 80,000 soldiers; it's on track to meet this year's goal, also 80,000.
It made sense to change basic training, because the Army relies more on technology skills than brute strength, said Michael O'Hanlon, a military analyst at the Brookings Institution. "If you're losing good people with those skills because of lack of physical prowess, that's not a good thing."
I'm sure the soldiers stuck in the field with people who would have previously washed out makes them feel better with that guy watching their back.
Pentagon officials announced Monday that the Army has managed to achieve its latest recruiting goals, while admitting that they have lowered some standards that had been set to ensure the quality of the force.
But as the military continues investigations into alleged atrocities committed by U.S. troops in Iraq, some experts worry that the Army, stretched thin by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and under pressure to fill its ranks, might be signing up soldiers who should not be in the service.
The military's revelation last week that former Pfc. Steven Green, who allegedly organized the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the killing of her family, suffered from "anti-social personality disorder" sheds new light on the importance of how the Army decides whom to sign up for service, say military analysts.
"The issue is not whether they've met their quota," said Winslow Wheeler, an expert on the U.S. military at the Center for Defense Information in Washington. "The issue is quality ... and what concessions they are willing to make to meet this quota."
First off, it's not news that the Army has lowered it's standards to get more people to enlist. We've been talking about it here for over a year now. Most of the changes in standards dropped them from higher than other branches down to match what other branches were doing. That means that previously, people who could not get in the Army could get into the Navy, Air Force or Marines as they all had lower standards than the Army. This is a good example of how a story can get slanted to have a certain impact.
Total cost estimates for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems have nearly doubled in the last three years, soaring from $175 billion to $300 billion.
The money is to develop, build and operate the massive modernization program, according to a report sent to Capitol Hill last week.
The latest cost estimate, provided by the Office of the Secretary of Defense's Cost Analysis Improvement Group, or CAIG, comes at a particularly crucial time for FCS, which has been under intense scrutiny from Government Accountability Office investigators and lawmakers concerned that the program is neither affordable nor executable, CongressDaily reported Friday.
And this won't be the last time the cost goes up. It happens every time you want to build something, even in civilian life. The building across the street nearly doubled in cost from the day the announced it to the day the broke ground and it went up again after they started building it. Projections and reality and always different, it seems. The main difference is that our tax money is paying for these doubled costs, good or bad.
Want to be a foreign area officer? Now’s your chance. The Army is increasing FAO billets by 30 percent, so that more can be pushed down to the corps, division and brigade level to train and deploy with them.
That way, soldiers with expert military and geopolitical knowledge, advanced language skills and studied cultural understanding can be spread throughout the force.
...
The FAO selection board meets next in September. It looks at soldiers’ language abilities, GRE and GPA scores, regional travel experience and what they’ve studied in college. About two-thirds of the soldiers reviewed during the last board in February had foreign language skills, Fagundes said, and that percentage is growing.
Looks like a great career path for anyone wanting a chance to move up and make good money in the military.
The Mujahedeen Shura Council made the claim in a 4:39 minute video posted on the Internet which included the mutilated bodies of two of the Soldiers attacked June 16 near Youssifiyah southwest of Baghdad, according to a statement by the SITE Institute. Their remains were found three days later.
The institute released still pictures from the video showing two of the American dead, one of whom had been decapitated.
According to the institute, the statement by the insurgent group said the video was released as "revenge for our sister who was dishonored by a Soldier of the same brigade."
Two sergeants are among five American Soldiers charged in the March 12 alleged rape-murder and the killing her parents and a younger sister. The U.S. military released the identities of the suspects Monday.
This is a pretty disturbing story. According to the reports I've read, soldiers targeted a 13 year old Iraqi girl at a check point, found her two weeks later and raped and killed her and her family. If this is true, I don't blame the military, this is clearly the actions of some disturbed people and they should be punished. Killing more innocent people to avenge other innocent people is pure madness. The people responsible should have to pay the price.
The Army surpassed its recruiting goal for June, the Pentagon said Monday, marking the 13th consecutive month the service met or exceeded its target.
The Navy met its goal and Air Force and Marine Corps exceeded theirs slightly, according to Defense Department statistics.
Recruiting is especially important to the Army, which has been stretched thin by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The active-duty Army, which is offering a wider array of financial incentives for potential recruits and has put thousands more recruiters on the street, found 8,756 new recruits last month, compared with its target of 8,600, the Pentagon said.
Recruiting numbers are still going strong for all branches in sharp contrast to just over a year ago when the Army was missing it's goals month after month for the first time in decades. The Army has beat it's goal for the last 13 months straight and other branches are either breaking even or beating their goals as well. The Army obviously has the toughest recruiting job as they are the ones most often sent into combat and while we are at war with Iraq many people are afraid they'll have to go to war.
Japan is considering whether a preemptive strike on North Korean missile bases would be an acceptable form of self-defense under the pacifist Japanese constitution, the government spokesman said Monday.
"If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack ... there is the view that attacking the launch base of the guided missiles is within the constitutional right of self-defense. We need to deepen discussion," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.
Abe added that the ruling party may take up the matter internally.
Japan's constitution currently bars the use of military force in settling international disputes and prohibits Japan from maintaining a military for warfare. Tokyo, however, has interpreted that to mean it can have armed troops to protect itself.
I would love to see the U.N. support a move like this. Taking out their launch site seems like an appropriate response considering N. Korea refuses to talk to anyone.
For the first time since its debut in 1999, the Tricare Web site has a new look.
The revamped Press Room section of the site, accessible at featured sleeker graphics and a more streamlined look for easier browsing.
The site's new Resources tab takes readers to a collection of military medical statistics, a glossary of Tricare terms, an organizational chart for the Pentagon's medical divisions, biographies of key medical players at the Defense Department and photo galleries.
Digging up TRICARE info and news for the last year or so I've been to the TRICARE web site many time. This is a very nice improvement and should make things easier to find for everyone. Take a look for yourself.
TRICARE Management Activity (TMA) recently changed the maternity ultrasound policy, making ultrasounds easier to obtain when medically necessary. Ultrasounds for medical necessity have always been part of TRICARE's maternity benefit; however, they were formerly covered as a service within the global fee for prenatal care and delivery services. According to Army Col. (Dr.) John Kugler of the TRICARE Office of the Chief Medical Officer, "Because an obstetric ultrasound is not a simple procedure, and may be an involved process, as of April 4, 2006, we changed the policy to have TRICARE cover medically necessary maternity ultrasounds separate from the global delivery fee."ť
TRICARE has made quite a few improvements lately and the latest is an increase in benefits regarding Maternity Ultrasounds. I know there is always a baby boom during and after a war so it only makes sense that this kind of coverage is a good thing for everyone.
Unlike the Air Force, Navy and Army, all three of which sponsor expensive satellite programs, the cash-strapped Marines are pushing just one space concept. It's called Small Unit Space Transport and Insertion, or SUSTAIN, and it's a reusable spaceplane meant to get a squad of Marines to any hotspot on Earth in two hours -- then get them out. The idea is to reinforce embattled embassies, take out terrorist leaders or defuse hostage situations before it's too late. "The Marine Corps needs [this] capability," Brig. Gen. Richard C. Zilmer told Congress in 2004.
"The Corps has always been an expeditionary force, a force of readiness, a 911 force," Wassink says. "All SUSTAIN is, is a requirement to move Marines very rapidly from one place to another. Space lends itself to that role."
Spaceplanes -- that is, craft that take off and land like airplanes but achieve low orbit using rocket motors -- aren't science fiction anymore. In 2004, Burt Rutan's Space Ship One snared the $10 million X-Prize by demonstrating that a relatively cheap and simple vehicle could get a man into low orbit in two stages and return him safely. Air Force Brig. Gen. S. Pete Worden said Rutan's bird offers a glimpse of a future military space transport. "It's just a scaled-up version of that that would do this [SUSTAIN] mission."
The Marines want a space plane? Who doesn't want a space plane? The military benefits are obvious - increased speed to get into the field when the soldiers are needed most. Time is critical in military operations. When you have intelligence that an enemy has been located it's only a matter of time before they move. Getting our people into place quickly is the key to acting on that kind of information. But this could also be a nice benefit for civilians once the technology is proven. Models could be developed to take passengers overseas in a fraction of the time and be much safer than the recently grounded concord.
The question of the identity of the successor to Zarqawi took another twist a few days ago when Osama Bin Laden said in an audio message that a man by the name of Abu Hamza al-Muhajir was the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Mr Ismail says no-one has heard of al-Muhajir.
He adds that the names being released by the Americans and Bin Laden, are probably part of disinformation campaigns from both sides, whose sole purpose is to confound each other.
I can't keep up with this story. It's one thing that both sides are claiming different people are in charge and both probably trying to mislead everyone. But it's another problem for me that the names are so similar. The name the U.S. gave as the new leader appears to be of a main who's been in jail in Egypt for the last 7 years, according to a lawyer from Egypt. Who knows for sure? Only time will tell.
The U.S. military did not identify the captured insurgent leader, but said he "heads multiple insurgent cells in Baghdad whose main focus is to conduct attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces" using roadside and car bombs.
"He and his followers have kidnapped, tortured and murdered Iraqi citizens, and he is also is personally responsible for the killing two Iraqi soldiers in an attempt to improve his organization's status with higher leadership," the military said. "Additionally, he is linked to a 'punishment committee' that carries out vigilante judgment on perceived enemies of his organization."
"This individual is also involved in the transfer of weapons from Syria into Iraq to reportedly facilitate his efforts to splinter away from his current insurgent organization."
This was a fairly bloody battle, 40 insurgents died as well as 10 civilians. The guy they captures sounds like a text book villain to me and hopefully the deaths mean more lives saved in the future. You can't really balance the scales that way, but it has to mean something, right? This guy needed to be taken out if the description of him (quoted above) is true.
North Korea's missile tests suggested the country can't directly threaten the United States _ for now. But the Koreans can learn from mistakes, whether the tests were posturing, serious military efforts or both, U.S. officials and military experts said.
North Korea test-fired a seventh missile on Wednesday after it had defied international protests by launching a long-range missile and at least five shorter-range weapons.
The long-range Taepodong-2 missile _ the object of intense international attention for more than a month _ failed 42 seconds after liftoff, suggesting a catastrophic failure of the rocket's first, or booster, stage.
Recent news also suggests that N. Korea is getting ready for more tests. Perhaps they have learned from the mistakes in the recent tests or perhaps they just want to make sure the U.N., U.S. and Japan have to take action. It's hard to say what is motivating N. Korea but I think their leader is power mad and loves the attention. He's clearly in love with idea of being on television. I think he's watched a few too many Bond movies.
