Thursday, August 27, 2009

Springfield pays tribute to Belvoir with bridge walk

By Paul Bello
Staff writer

The 8th annual Springfield Bridge Walk, hosted by Lee District supervisor Jeffrey McKay, was held Tuesday night.
The event pays tribute to the Fort Belvoir community. This year the walk culminated with the signing of the Army Community Covenant - which signifies the long-standing partnership between the installation and its neighbors in Fairfax County.
Festivities began with a traditional march down Springfield Boulevard. Led by the American Legion Color Guard, more than 40 NCOs and another 150 Advanced Individual Training Soldiers from Belvoir crossed the highway overpass onto Amherst Avenue, before nestling themselves back inside the American Legion parking lot for the evening’s conclusion.
Looking out into a sea of men and women in uniform, McKay responded by saying, “Doesn’t Springfield look good tonight!“ After the applause, he summed up what brought everyone together and why the night was so special. . 
“This is an opportunity to show support of our Soldiers at Fort Belvoir,“ McKay said. “This community has proud and humble feelings for all of you and we can’t thank you enough for what you do. You mean a lot to everyone here.“
Joining McKay were two of his colleagues on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors - Chairman Sharon Bulova and supervisor Pat Herity of Springfield. Herity spoke fondly of the working relationship with Belvoir and said the covenant signing would permanently state that partnership for years to come.
Gen. Carl Horst, commanding general of Joint Forces Headquarters for the National Capital Region-Military District of Washington, also attended, along with Fort Belvoir Installation Commander Col. Jerry Blixt and Command Sgt. Maj. Gabriel Berhane.
Horst, who began his career 36 years ago as a private stationed at Belvoir, said he’s always proud to be around Soldiers and citizens.
“Our sons and daughters are represented through the men and women in service. We can’t do what we do without the support and consent of the community,“ Horst said. “When downrange, we always want to know what everyone back home thinks of our job. The fact that we can trust each other is what makes America great and that means a lot to us.“
Blixt added that he’s pleased to have so much support from the Springfield district, including that of the board of supervisors. According to him, the large turnout of Soldiers was Belvoir’s way of “returning the favor” to those in the community.
Among those attending from Belvoir were members of the following: HHC Special Activities; 212th Military Police Detachment; 12th Aviation Battalion; Dewitt Army Hospital Command; 249th Prime Power; Veterinary Command; 169th AIT and Joint Personnel Property Shipping Office.

Friday, February 05, 2010

BRAC FACT

As of today, there are 587 days (409 working days) until the Base Realignment and Closure deadline date of Sept. 15, 2011. Since BRAC began on Sept. 15, 2005, at Fort Belvoir, 1,603 days have passed.

MDW commander visits new hospital site

By Paul Bello
Staff writer

Gen. Karl R. Horst, commanding general, U.S. Army Military District of Washington and Joint Force Headquarters National Capital Region, got his first up-close look at the future DeWitt Army Community Hospital Thursday.
He was joined by Installation Commander Col. Jerry Blixt, Installation Command Sgt. Maj. Gabriel Berhane, Col. Mark Moffatt, deputy installation commander for transformation and BRAC; and Lt. Col. Kevin McKenna, commander of Belvoir’s Headquarters Battalion.
The group walked through the interior of the hospital where each floor will have a main reception area adjacent to an outside garden. The group also got an early glimpse of what the emergency room area will look like, in addition to the physical rehabilitation center and several other clinics and patient rooms.
Horst indicated he was quite impressed with the building’s overall design, which includes a skyway connecting the hospital’s two sides. Two parking garages will anchor each side of the hospital and specially-designed roofs are in place to collect and store water for the garden and surrounding landscape. 
“This is going to be an extraordinary facility once it’s completed,“ Horst said at the conclusion of his visit. “There will be a lot of lighting throughout the hospital and its design lends itself to many advantages for anyone using it.“

Smart Ideas program off and running

By Paul Bello
Staff writer

Any idea is a good idea. That’s what Stephen Brooks, deputy to the installation commander, is hoping people remember as Fort Belvoir’s garrison command launched its “Smart Ideas” program Tuesday.
To combat the recent budget crunch, Brooks said the program’s goal is to encourage all employees from Belvoir to e-mail their suggestions on how to cut costs while continuing to provide quality services around the installation.
He said the process is similar to the longstanding Army Suggestion Program - only without any official red tape or forms to fill out. Brooks said the Plans, Analysis and Integration Office will receive and review all suggestions before forwarding them back to himself and Installation Commander Col. Jerry Blixt for further consideration.
“We want to do everything we can to minimize costs while providing the same quality services,“ Brooks said. “By doing it this way, we’re empowering our work force and asking them to submit their ideas on how we can be most efficient.“
Operating at just 59 percent compared to last year’s total budget, Brooks said the garrison command is interested in any idea that can be implemented right away. He added that employees will also receive help submitting their ideas to the Army Suggestion Program for possible compensation.
“We want to provide employees a simple way of submitting their suggestions for improving their work process or any other cost-reduction ideas they may have,“ said Lynne Castro, a planning specialist for PAIO. “People can think of this as team building.“
Anyone interested can submit ideas via e-mail to Customer Management Services at . 

Servicemembers urged to check, update SGLI status

By Margaret Steele
Assistant editor

A Fort Belvoir director is urging servicemembers to check their bi-weekly Leave and Earnings Statement to make sure they are, in fact, getting the SGLI benefit they are paying for and that they are paying for the insurance to which they believe they’re entitled.
Joe Panteloglous, director of human resources, said a recent study of the system indicated there was a systematic, Army-wide problem with some servicemembers’ SGLI accounts. 
It could be a human or computer error in processing, locally or at Defense Financing and Accounting Service. “The glitch could happen anywhere,“ Panteloglous added.
Panteloglous said mistakes have been found in both the coverage requested and premiums deducted from servicemembers’ pay and suggested servicemembers compare their LES deductions for SGLI to the coverage they think they’re getting. 
Panteloglous said new servicemembers who sign for coverage during basic training typically receive the maximum amount of coverage - $400,000 of term life insurance for $27 a month. “They have to manually choose anything less than $400,000 of coverage,“ he said.
SGLI, Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance, is a low-cost benefit for active-duty, Ready Reservists, National Guard members, the Commissioned Corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Public Health Service, cadets and midshipmen of the four service academies; and members of the Reserve Officer Training Corps.
“The money can help with whatever the surviving family needs after a servicemember’s death,“ Panteloglous said. “What’s left of a mortgage, children’s education costs, funeral costs.“
“Insurance is a personal choice,“ he said. “However, for servicemembers who decline the benefit entirely, their commander is notified and he or she should have a counseling session with the servicemember.“
Diana Franco, a human resources specialist at the Directorate of Human Resources, urged Soldiers and other servicemembers to keep their records current, especially if he or she has had a big life change. “For instance, if they get married or divorced, increase their family size, PCS, deploy, whatever.“
Franco also reminded people about the process of naming beneficiaries for insurance claims. “By law, if no name is listed as a beneficiary, then the benefit, upon the servicemember’s death, goes to the spouse. What if they were divorced five years before the death, but the insurance-beneficiary paperwork was not up-to-date?
“Benefits have gone to other people because servicemembers haven’t made changes. Everyone should update immediately. They must make the time, 10 or 15 minutes, on average, for something so important,“ Franco said.
Franco also suggested everyone check their LES and go to military personnel division in Bldg. 213. “No appointment is necessary for something this important,“ she said.

Newcomers Orientation introduces residents, employees to post

By Jacqueline Leeker
Public Affairs intern

Relocation can be difficult. But, why make it harder than it needs to be?
To ease people’s transition to Belvoir and to the National Capital Region, Army Community Service provides valuable support services. One of them is the Fort Belvoir Newcomers’ Briefing, where participants get with accurate, timely information and other support needed to minimize problems associated with relocating to a new duty station.
The briefing is the first Monday of every month, or the following Monday if the first Monday is a holiday, for all new incoming military, their families, and civilian personnel assigned to or living on post.
The program gives information about units and organizations on the post, TRICARE, child and youth services available, hospital information, [DFMWR] programs, and education. Additionally, representatives of organizations, such as the fire or police departments, stop in to discuss safety.
“Many families arrive unaware of all the resources available to them,“ said Tammye Braddy, program manager for the Relocation Readiness Program. “With so many tenant organizations at Belvoir, ACS works as the common denominator. We can get information out from the various organizations on post,“ she said.
If you are new to Belvoir and have not attended the newcomers’ briefing, plan to attend and find out what you may have been missing.
The class is at 9800 Belvoir Road, Bldg. 200, Fort Belvoir, and is open to all military spouses and family members; DoD civilians and Soldiers.
Don’t miss a great opportunity to receive information about the post, meet the installation commander, the garrison staff, and network with other members in the community.

Airman bucks family’s Army tradition

American Forces Press Service

When Capt. Karoline Scott decided to join the Air Force, she knew she’d be stepping into a long line of military tradition. She also knew she’d be the sole blue uniform in her family’s sea of Army green.
“I certainly respect my family for going into the Army,“ said Scott, a Lorton, Va., native. “I just wanted to do something a little different.“
Scott is the only Airman in her family, which can trace its active-duty Army service back more than 130 years. Her father, Bruce Scott, retired as a major general, and her five brothers and sisters all followed in his Army footsteps.
While proud of her family’s Army roots, Scott said, she wanted to take a different route.
Both of her older siblings had gone to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. “I knew that had been a great experience for them,“ she added, “but I wanted to do my own thing. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I’m very proud to wear Air Force blue.“
Scott attended St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia on an Air Force ROTC scholarship. “When she entered, she was quiet and shy,“ her father said. “When she graduated, she did so magna cum laude, elected into Phi Beta Kappa, and she was the ranking Air Force cadet in all of Philadelphia.“
Scott is now serving on her first deployment as a public affairs officer assigned to U.S. Forces Iraq in Baghdad.
“I was inspired to choose this career field because I get to help tell the Air Force story,“ she said. “I am able to interact with a wide range of folks in a number of different career fields. I learn something new every single day.
“The people I’ve met in my Air Force career have also been amazing - truly the best and brightest in the country,“ she added.
When home, Scott said, she’s jokingly referred to as the “blue sheep” of the family. “My father reminds me frequently that the Air Force used to be the Army Air Corps,“ she said.
Joking aside, Scott is proud of her family’s military roots. “Our family history of military service was certainly a huge inspiration,“ she said. “Growing up as an Army ‘brat’ and watching my older siblings go into the military showed me the benefits of joining the military.
“The deciding factor for me, however, was my strong desire to do something that served a purpose greater than myself,“ she continued. “It is not exaggeration to say that I am proud to put on my uniform every day.“
Scott said her friends often are surprised when they find out about her family’s extensive military history.
“Some jokingly say that the military is the Scott family business,“ she said. “Most people think it is wonderful and say, ‘Your parents must be so proud.‘ I know my parents are proud of all of us - what could be better than that?“

“Inside Buffalo” screening kicks off Black History Month

By Andrew Sharbel
Staff writer

Every year, Black History Month allows our country to remember accomplishments of Americans, despite the hardships and treatment they received during our history.
Director Fred Kuwornu, an Italian filmmaker of African heritage, set out two years ago to tell the story of the accomplishments of the 92nd “Buffalo” Division during World War II.
As a result, Kuwornu wrote, directed and produced a 54-minute documentary entitled “Inside Buffalo.“
Fort Belvoir’s Army Management Staff College hosted the first screening of the film Tuesday. The screening was the first on his documentary tour, which will visit Army Installations across the nation during Black History Month.
The event was also the first of several Black History Month observances at Belvoir during the month.
“Inside Buffalo” is a documentary and tells the little-known aspects of the story, including the treatment of Soldiers and the details of the friendships forged between African American Soldiers and Italian partisan fighters and the villagers they liberated from fascist rule.
Kuwornu was inspired to begin researching the 92nd Division during a meeting with Spike Lee, while Lee was filming, “Miracle at St. Anna” in Tuscany, Italy, in 2008.
Included in the documentary are first-hand accounts of conflicts and war-time experiences by original members of the Buffalo Soldiers.
Buffalo Division veteran Joseph Stephenson and Medal of Honor winner Vernon Baker were featured and told their stories of their respective units.
Stephenson attended Tuesday’s screening and recounted how much has changed since he volunteered for the Army in 1940.
“In 1940, the military had limited how many blacks could be in the Army. The recruiter gave me a list of all the black units in the Army and I promptly sent them all letters. All of them replied there were no vacancies,“ Stephenson said. “The last unit I wrote to told me about a unit I didn’t have on my list, so I wrote to them. They had one vacancy and I went up for an interview and that’s how I got into the Army.
“I never went to basic training,“ Stephenson said.
Stephenson noted the racism he received at that time was very prominent.
“Soldiers would see me in the street and salute me and would say ‘I am saluting the uniform, not the man’ and that was how the culture was back then,“ Stephenson said.
Stephenson closed by telling the crowd what the movie meant to him.
“The horror depicted in this film says to me ‘never again’ and that is true, because, think about what the movie shows and what it’s like now,“ Stephenson said. “In the early 1960s, my neighbor was a black lieutenant colonel and that same man is now a retired three-star general. That is a change.
“Colin Powell was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and now, in this past presidential election, 57 million Americans voted for a black president,“ Stephenson said. “We are now more apt to judge a person by their character and not by their color. There is great hope and I look to the future and not the past.“

Study shows deployments’ impact on Army wives

By Elaine Wilson
American Forces Press Service

Army wives whose husbands deploy seek mental health services at a higher rate than others, and the longer the deployment, the greater the impact, according to a new study. Researchers from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, RTI International and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill conducted the study, published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Study investigators compared the rates of mental health diagnoses and use of mental health services between wives whose husbands had deployed with those whose husbands hadn’t deployed, using a sampling of about 250,000 active-duty Army wives, ages 18 to 48.
“We found a distinct pattern,“ said Army Col. (Dr.) Charles Engel, a study co-investigator and associate chair of psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. “The wives of servicemembers who deployed ... used more services when they had a diagnosis and more frequently received mental health diagnoses than those wives whose husbands didn’t deploy.“
The wives also were categorized by the total length of their spouses’ deployments. Investigators compared wives whose spouses hadn’t deployed, those who had deployed for less than a year and those who had deployed for more than a year. “The longer the husband had been deployed, the more we saw an excess of disorders,“ Engel noted.
The mental health diagnoses that were elevated were, for the most part, those related to stress, Engel explained, such as depression, anxiety and adjustment disorders. Investigators also found an increase in alcohol use. They didn’t, however, find an excess of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“The stress of deployment [for spouses] really isn’t the same as the kind of stress that causes PTSD,“ Engel said. Rather than the types of traumatic events that trigger post-traumatic stress, wives encounter stressors such as overwhelming demands at home and the uncertainty of having a loved one deployed, he explained.
The study used anonymous data from a military health system database, which captures care from the military health system and through Tricare military health care program networks.
“It was a very important use of the health tracking systems at our disposal in the military,“ Engel said. “These systems increasingly put us in a position to be able to look, in ways the civilian sector really just can’t, at the health impact of various things.“
But, use of the database limited the study to active-duty wives, Engel acknowledged. “One of the limitations of the findings is that we weren’t able to include National Guard or Reserve wives; we can’t be sure their health care is captured by the military system when their husband is demobilized,“ he said. “They may be getting care from other sources primarily.“
The study also restricted its analysis to spouses whose husbands had been in active-duty service for at least five years, Engel said, to ensure they captured a history of active health service use and mental health background.
The net effect of that, Engel pointed out, was an older sampling of wives who may be better-equipped at coping with military life. Since younger wives may be more vulnerable to the stressors of military life in general, the findings may underestimate the impact of deployments, he added.
“We say at the end, the differences we see between these two groups, if you were to include all wives, would probably be greater,“ he said. “This is a conservative estimate of the ... impact of deployment on the mental health of these wives.“
Limitations aside, the study reaped results that can be used as an impetus for change, Engel said. Experts know anecdotally that deployments have an impact on military families, but real findings help provide the thrust to change and improve support programs, he added.
“We assume [deployment] has an impact, but, in some fashion we don’t really know, until we have a chance to see it in terms of real findings from a scientific study,“ he said.
Engel noted he found one aspect of the findings reassuring: Army spouses are taking advantage of available mental health services.
“We now have some fairly definitive scientific data to demonstrate that the wives of Soldiers who deploy have some special needs,“ he said. “This is bound to lead to greater discussion of what those needs are and new programs to meet those needs. And, that can only be a positive thing.“
While this study was limited to the Army, future studies are sure to look at deployments’ impacts on spouses from other services, Engel said.
“Our group and other groups will want to analyze these data in ways that bring in the other services, particularly ... the Marine Corps,“ he said. “There’s every reason to think that the wives of Marines may be experiencing similar kinds of challenges.“

Military families get free access to caregiver network

By Elaine Wilson
American Forces Press Service

Military families now have free access to an online network of quality caregivers who can help with everything from babysitting to dog-walking.
Sittercity is the nation’s largest online source for local babysitters, nannies, elder care providers, dog walkers, housekeepers and tutors, and contains more than a million caregiver profiles, officials said.
The Sittercity Corporate Program, funded by the DoD, offers military families - including active duty, Guard and Reserve - with a paid membership to the site.
“We believe that access to Sittercity’s nationwide network of quality care providers will be highly beneficial to our servicemembers and their families,“ said Tommy T. Thomas, deputy undersecretary of defense for military community and family policy.
The paid membership enables military families entry to a custom-built, DoD Web site portal where they can match up caregivers to their situation; gain instant access to caregiver profiles, including background checks, references and reviews; and find military-certified care providers and caregivers who are military-subsidized and authorized access to a military installation.
The site will help meet the unique needs of military families as they face deployments, long work hours and assignments to remote locations, Thomas said.
“Because of the mobile nature of military life, trusted community resources are often difficult to identify and locate,“ he acknowledged. “These online tools will help service-and family members attain the best match between resource and need.“
Thomas said servicemembers and their families can rest assured they’re being provided with top-notch care. The site “links military family members with somebody that the Department of Defense says, ‘We’ve entrusted you to provide this service to our people,‘“ Thomas said.
“If that military member is out on the front line knowing the family back home has a sense of ease and comfort, life is good for everybody,“ he added.
While the membership is free, servicemembers will be responsible for hiring and paying caregivers, officials said.
Military members and their families can activate their membership by going to
sittercity.com/dod.