By Debbie Gregory. Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain has a plan to fortify the U.S. military, and it comes with a hefty price tag. McCain’s 33-page white paper, “Restoring American Power,” makes recommendations for the defense budget for fiscal years 2018 through 2022. The report details how defense budget cuts under the Budget Control […]
By Debbie Gregory. Defense Secretary James Mattis has named retired Navy Rear Adm. Kevin Sweeney, who served with him previously at U.S. Central Command, to be his chief of staff. Two-star Navy Rear Adm. Craig Faller, currently the service’s chief of legislative affairs, was chosen to serve as Mattis’ senior military assistant. Mattis has known […]
By Debbie Gregory. The U.S. Army has launched a new physical fitness dubbed the Occupational Physical Assessment Test (OPAT) to weed out new recruits and soldiers that fall short of the physical demands of certain jobs. Job specialties are being divided into three physical demand categories: Heavy (Black), Significant (Gray), Moderate (Gold). Category Black is […]
By Debbie Gregory. Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technology to provide clinical health care from a distance. And now, veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) who have difficulties making it to in-person therapy sessions may be able to get treatment that’s just as good via videoconference. Telemedicine helps eliminate distance barriers […]
By Debbie Gregory. As the first month of 2017 draws to an end, we learned a very interesting fact. For the first week of this year, for the first time since World War II, no U.S. aircraft carriers were deployed, anywhere, a Navy spokesman confirmed. Had the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which had been in […]
By Debbie Gregory. Thanks to higher beneficiary co-pays, tighter point-of-service rules and recent streamlining of prescription drug processes across the military, the Department of Defense pharmacy program may be able to reduce the cost of prescriptions by more than $1 billion in the five year period between 2014 and 2019. Policy changes have forced or […]
By Debbie Gregory. In an effort to open the door to more recruits who would otherwise be barred from service because of their body ink, the U.S. Air Force is revamping its restrictions on tattoos. The U.S. Marines overhauled its tattoo restrictions about six months ago, with the goal of balancing “the personal desires of […]
By Debbie Gregory. The Department of Defense has made a policy change to allow 16 million honorably discharged veterans to shop online for discounted military exchange products. Not only does the change reward those who have served by giving them a 20 percent savings over commercial department stores, but it will also increase exchange revenues […]
By Debbie Gregory. With the new president’s blessing, the Navy is proposing the biggest shipbuilding boom since the end of the Cold War to meet threats from a resurgent Russia and saber-rattling China. The Navy’s 355-ship proposal surpasses the number that President Trump had promoted on the campaign trail, providing a potential boost to shipyards […]
By Debbie Gregory. Gen. David Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff , said the service is critically short of personnel and needs to expand by more than 30,000 active-duty service members. Otherwise, the service branch may face challenges in meeting its security obligations, including an air war against Islamic State militants. Goldfein said he […]
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