CHANGES LOOKED AT FOR GROWTH OF MILITARY PAY AND BENEFITS

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 
Military Must Slow Growth for Military Pay, Health Care
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

SEOUL, South Korea, Oct. 1, 2013 - The military has to look at the entire package of compensation, health care and retirement, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey told a U.S. Forces Korea Town Hall meeting here today.

 The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his wife, Deanie, spent an hour answering question from the joint service audience. Budget issues were a main concern for the service members.

Personnel costs have to be brought under control, the chairman said. He assured the service members that any changes to military retirement would be grandfathered. "So the question is what do we do with retirement for the next generation of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines," he said. "But compensation ... and health care costs are growing at rates that are unsustainable to the all-volunteer force."

This does not mean cuts, the chairman said, "we may not actually have to reduce pay and benefits, but we have to slow the growth."

Last year, for example, DOD recommended a 1 percent pay raise for military personnel. Congress upped the total to 1.8 percent. Slowing the rate by just that much would have saved DOD $13 billion. Instead, the money to pay for the raise came out of readiness accounts, the chairman said.

In an interview with reporters traveling with him, Dempsey expanded on this. He noted he has been through three drawdowns in his career that began in 1974 – the post-Vietnam drawdown, the post-Cold War drawdown and the current one. This one is alarming to him because it is the steepest drawdown he has seen.

"The steepness of it puts us in a position to not exert enough control on balancing our requirements across all the accounts, whether they are manpower accounts, modernization, maintenance, training, family care," he said. "It's extraordinarily challenging to try to balance the budget because of the steepness of this drawdown."

He is worried about the long-term effects of the drawdown. Under sequester, DOD must cut an additional $52 billion from the budget in fiscal 2014. "If I were able to shrink the force, close some unnecessary infrastructure, potentially cancel some weapons systems that we don't think are as important as others, I think I can probably balance it and not affect readiness to the extent we are," he said.

But Congress will not allow another base realignment and closure process, and Congress has continued some weapons systems the department has specifically said it does not need. "Because there are parts of the budget that are untouchable to me at this point," he said. "Unless I can touch some of those things, it all comes out of readiness, which means the next group to deploy will be less ready than they should be.

"That's not a position that our armed forces should be in as the greatest military on the planet serving the greatest nation on the planet."

And sequestration could continue to be a year-by-year process, and that is dangerous "because we are asking the force to live with uncertainty and do it a year at a time," he said. "Eventually I think they are going to lose faith if we do it a year at a time."

RETIRMENT OF THE FIREFIGHTER

Donald Warner, the chief of the Fire Emergency Services Division in the Air Force Civil Engineer Center Readiness Directorate, Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., retired Dec. 28, 2012, completing 46 years of military and civilian service as a firefighter. U.S. Air Force photo by Eddie Green

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Face of Defense: Air Force's Top Firefighter Retires
By John Burt
Air Force Civil Engineer Center

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., Jan. 2, 2013 - The Air Force's top firefighter has stepped down after 46 years of military and civilian service.

Donald Warner, chief of the Fire Emergency Services Division in the Air Force Civil Engineer Center Readiness Directorate here retired on Dec. 29, 2012, ending a career in firefighting that has spanned six decades.

"When I enlisted in 1965, the Air Force chose the firefighting career field for me," Warner said. "They did a good job because I have loved it. I can't think of anything else I would have rather done."

Over his career, Warner has seen Air Force firefighting evolve and, as the Air Force Fire Chief for the past 11 years, he has helped guide many of those changes.

"Our career field has become more technical and our duty responsibilities have expanded tremendously," he said. "When I came in, we were almost exclusively crash-response firefighters. Now we are an all-hazards response force."

Warner said the principal call received by Air Force firefighters today is for emergency medical services response.

"We provide the first level of care typically on Air Force bases and have a lot of success stories," he said. "Our firefighters save about 30 people per year. I'm very proud of that."

The most apparent changes in Air Force firefighting have been technological advances in vehicles and equipment, Warner said. In the past, the Air Force only used firefighting vehicles specified and built for the military.

"They were very basic," he said. "We now buy commercial, off-the-shelf equipment. This change was a significant departure from our business practices of the past, but it enables us to keep up with technology and allows our firefighters to be more competitive and better prepared for a career after they leave the Air Force."

In overseeing Air Force fire department operations and about 10,000 airmen and civilian firefighters, Warner has faced numerous challenges. Key among these was addressing staffing requirements in the face of budget constraints.

"We had to dramatically change how we operated and were forced to make some tough decisions on the size of our total [firefighting] force," he said.

Warner and his team at AFCEC and major commands found that varying the number of firefighters on duty was the only means of achieving the manpower savings required -- making more firefighters available during higher risk periods and fewer firefighters at other times.

"We incorporated a risk management approach into our business to make certain our fire chiefs had the appropriate number of personnel according to local risk factors," he said.

Warner says one of the biggest advancements in vehicle and equipment modernization is the development of ultra-high pressure firefighting technology.

"With ultra-high pressure, we can put out fires using significantly less ... firefighting agent and sustain our firefighting operations longer," he said. "With conventional vehicles, we have about three minutes of firefighting time. UHP gives us three-and-a-half times that."

When fully fielded and trained, UHP will transform the way Air Force firefighters respond to crashes and will eventually change civil firefighting as well, the Air Force fire chief said.

One achievement that Warner said brought him personal satisfaction was garnering recognition for Department of Defense firefighters who had made the ultimate sacrifice.

"I was the catalyst for getting our military firefighters added to the National Fallen Firefighter Memorial in Emmitsburg, Md. Their omission had been a serious oversight and I was pleased to get that corrected," he said. "The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation went back and retroactively memorialized all DOD firefighters who had died in the line of duty since 1983. We have 13 on the memorial now, including an airman who was killed in the line of duty last year."

Warner said he retires with mixed emotions and many memories.

"There are things that a firefighter will never forget," he said. "It's a lifetime memory. I will miss the association with other firefighters. We have a good team. I won't miss, however, the heartbreak I feel every time we are unable to save someone. It is very emotional for me and all our firefighters. It's not just a number on a report, it represents a person."

The chief of the AFCEC Readiness Directorate said Warner leaves an indelible legacy.

"Mr. Warner has guided Air Force firefighting through significant changes," said Col. Mike Mendoza. "He has represented not only Air Force firefighters, but military firefighters with integrity, honor and dedication to service. He will be sorely missed."

MILITARY RETIREMENT AND THE ROTH THRIFT SAVINGS PLAN

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Roth Contributions to Open to All Active-duty Troops

By Terri Moon Cronk
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2012 - Beginning Oct. 1, 2012, active-duty members of the Army, Navy and Air Force will be able to contribute to the Roth Thrift Savings Plan as part of their investment planning, Defense Financing and Accounting Service officials said today.

The after-tax contributions will be electronically deducted from service members' pay accounts.

Active-duty service members also can start their Roth TSP contributions now through their online MyPay accounts, which offer the fastest, easiest and most secure method to manage both Roth and traditional TSP contributions. The second option open to service members is to submit a TSP-U-1 form to their finance office.

Active-duty Marines, Guardsmen, reservists and civilians paid by DFAS were able to begin making contributions to the program in June, officials said.

Additionally, the other branches of the National Guard and reserves will be able to make Roth TSP contributions by mid- to late 2013.

The timeline difference between active-duty and other service members resulted from an interim solution for reserve component members, which didn't meet Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board requirements, according to DFAS.

While work continues for options that will be available more quickly and satisfy the law and FRTIB requirements at the same time, the new schedule will allow time to make systems changes and electronic deductions that meet all requirements. DFAS officials said.

To begin making Roth TSP contributions, service members should determine how much of their pay is eligible. A Roth TSP worksheet can help make the calculations.

Military members are required to contribute an amount equaling 1 percent of their eligible pay to begin TSP contributions. For those who are not participating in traditional TSP investments, the initial Roth TSP election must meet this 1 percent requirement. The IRS maximum contribution to Roth TSP is $17,000 per year, DFAS officials said.

Military members can use pay earned in combat zones, and are excluded from federal taxes to contribute to Roth TSP.