Rao bulletin 1 October 2014 html edition this bulletin contains the following articles
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- * VETS *
- * VET LEGISLATION *
- * MILITARY *
- * MILITARY HISTORY *
- * H EALTH CARE *
- * F INANCES *
- * GENERAL INTEREST *
- * ATTACHMENTS *
- TO READ OR DOWNLOAD THE ABOVE ARTICLES OR PAST BULLETINS REFER TO
- DoD/VA Seamless Transition Update 25 ► Effort Progressing
- Service Academies ► Nomination Process
- POW/MIA Update 37 ► Maj. Bobby Jones 42 Year MIA
- JoAnne Shirley Maj Bobby M Jones
- POW/MIA Recoveries ► 140916 thru 140930
RAO BULLETIN 1 October 2014 HTML Edition THIS BULLETIN CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES Pg Article Subject * DOD * . 04 == DoD/VA Seamless Transition [25] --------------- (Effort Progressing) 04 == Service Academies ------------------------------- (Nomination Process) 06 == POW/MIA [37] --------------------- (Maj. Bobby Jones 42 Year MIA) 08 == POW/MIA Recoveries --------------------------- (140916 thru 140930) * VA * . 10 == VA Appointments [11] -------- (New Scheduling System in 6-Years) 10 == How to File a VA Claim [02] ------------ (New Process | New forms) 11 == VA Whistleblowers [08] - (OIG Investigation White Wash Alleged) 12 == VA Whistleblowers [09] ------------ (Retaliation Complaints Double) 14 == VA Physician Salaries -- ($20K to $30K Annual Increases Coming) 16 == VA Loans ---------------------------------- (Six Easy Step to a VA Loan) 17 == VA Fraud, Waste, and Abuse -------------------- (140916 thru 140930) 18 == VAMC Minneapolis [01] -------------------------- (Town Hall Meeting) 19 == VAMC West Los Angeles [11] -- (Land Use Under-Billing Revealed) 20 == VAMC Memphis TN [01] --------------- (Town Hall Meeting 18 SEP) 20 == VAMC Nashville TN --------------------- (Town Hall Meeting 22 SEP) 22 == VAMC Syracuse NY --------------------- (Town Hall Meeting 18 SEP) 23 == VAMC Muskogee OK ----------------------------- (A Pattern of Denial) 24 == VARO Philadelphia PA ------- (HVAC Investigative Hearing 3 OCT) 25 == GI Bill [182] ------------- (Corinthian Colleges CFPB $500M Lawsuit) 25 == GI Bill [183] -------------- (Incentive to Lower Vet State Tuition Rates) 26 == PTSD [175] ----- (Up to 80,000 Vets eligible for Discharge Upgrades)
30 == Vet Charity Watch [49] ------------------ (Indiana Phony Vet Charities) 30 == Operation Grow4Vets -------------------- (Denver Cannabis Giveaway) 31 == Operation Grow4Vets [01] -- (Colorado Springs Cannabis Giveaway) 32 == Vet Cremains [24] ---- (5 Receive a Long-Overdue Official Farewell) 34 == Vet Toxic Exposure~Lejeune [47] --------- (Financial Relief Coming) 35 == Vet Toxic Exposure~Lejeune [48 ] ------------- (VA Final Regulation) 35 == Vet Smoking ----------------------- (Battling Tobacco Use in the Home) 36 == NORC –------------------- (A Means to Age Gracefully in Your Home) 37 == Illinois Veterans Homes [06] -- (New Chicago Home Breaks Ground) 38 == Retiree Appreciation Days --------------------------- (As of 28 Sep 2014) 39 == Vet Hiring Fairs –------------------------------------- (1 thru 31 Oct 2015) 40 == WWII Vets 71 ------------------------------------------------- (Martin~Jim) 42 == Afghanistan Vets 01 ------------------------------------- (Kong~Jonathan) 43 == America's Most Beloved Vets ------------------------ (World War II (2)) 44 == State Veteran's Benefits & Discounts --------------- (Connecticut 2014) * VET LEGISLATION * . 44 == VA Hospital Construction --------------- (House Passes Oversight Bill) 45 == TRICARE Birth Control [01] ------ (Legislation Introduced in House) 46 == VA Alternative Energy ------- (Bill to Cease Expenditures Introduced) 46 == Vet Bills Submitted to 113th Congress ------------ (As of 28 SEP 2014) * MILITARY * . 48 == Military Pay & Benefits [02] ------- (Blue Star Families’ 2014 Survey) 50 == Military Divorce & Separation [03] ------------ (Pay & Benefits Issues) 52 == Other than Honorable Discharge [01] --- (600k between 2000 & 2013) 54 == Army AKO [01] --------------------------------- (Beware Phony Website) 54 == Military 2015 Pay Raise [01] ----------------------------- (Last 30 Years) 55 == Medal of Honor Citations ---------------------- (Thompson, Max WWII) * MILITARY HISTORY * . 57 == Aviation Art ---------------------------------------- (A Bandit Goes Down) 58 == Military History ----------- (Only U.S. Woman POW in WWII Europe) 58 == D-Day ------------------------------------------- (Andrew Jackson Higgins) 61 == WWII Postwar Events ----------------------- (Hitler’s Retreat May 1945) 62 == Spanish American War Image 55 ------------- (Battle of Las Guasimas) 62 == WWI in Photos 112 ------------------------------ (Battlefield at Midnight) 63 == Faces of WAR (WWII) ----- (Returning B-17 Bomber Crewmen 1942) 63 == USS Nevada (BB-36) ---------------------------------- (100th anniversary) 65 == Military Kits -- (1645 Battle of Naseby | New Model Army Musketeer) 66 == Military History Anniversaries --------------------------- (01 thru 31 Oct) * HEALTH CARE * . 66 == PTSD Update [176] --- (Funds Sought for Naprapathy Therapy Study) 68 == TRICARE Young Adult Program [09] ----- (2015 Monthly Premiums) 69 == TRICARE Pediatric Care ---- (Meeting the Needs with Some Caveats) 70 == Women Healthy Aging ------------------------- (Action Kit Availability) 70 == Traumatic Brain Injury [41] ------------------- (Concussion Coach App) 71 == TRICARE Flu Shots [03] - Flu and Cold Season Near | Get your shot) * FINANCES * . 72 == Student Loan [02] ---------------- (Aging Americans Burdened by Debt) 73 == VA Disability Compensation [10] ----------------------------------- (Q&A) 76 == Money Flipping Scam --------------------------------------- (How It works) 77 == Click Bait Scam ---------------------------------------------- (How It works) 78 == Tax Burden for North Carolina Retirees ---------------- (As of Sep 2014) 79 == Tax Fraud ----------------------- (IRS Still Struggles With Identify Theft) 82 == Thrift Savings Plan 2014 ------------ (Share Prices + YTD Gain or Loss)
84 == Vet Toxic Exposure~Lejeune [47] ---------- (Financial Relief Coming) 85 == Presidential Salute ------------ (Obama’s Latte Salute | Cut Some Slack) 86 == Unconditional Surrender Statue [01] ------ (On 1-Year Loan to France) 87 == Lighthouses ------------------------------ (Coast Guard Selling Them Off) 87 == Obesity ----------- (Mission Readiness Retreat Is Not an Option Report) 89 == Guantanamo Bay Navy Base ------ (Extension of the U.S.? | Yes & No) 92 == Photos That Say It All -------------------------------------- No Swimming) 92 == Normandy Then & Now ----- (Utah Beach at Les Dunes de Varreville) 93 == WWII Ads ------------------------------------------------------------- (Buick) 93 == Baby Powder ------------------------------------------ (Ways You Can Use) 94 == Have You Heard? ----------------------------------- (Grandpa’s IRS Audit) 95 == They Grew Up to Be ----------------- (Addams Family - Christina Ricci) 96 == Interesting Ideas --------------- (Cellphone/Computer Alternate Charger) *ATTACHMENTS* . Attachment - Veteran Legislation as of 28 Sep 2014 Attachment – Connecticut Vet State Benefits & Discounts Sep 2014 Attachment - Military History Anniversaries 1 thru 31 Oct Attachment - Retiree Activity\Appreciation Days (RAD) Schedule as of Sept. 28, 2014 Attachment – VA Camp Lejeune Final Regulations Fact Sheet ********************************* TO READ OR DOWNLOAD THE ABOVE ARTICLES OR PAST BULLETINS REFER TO: -- http://www.nhc-ul.com/rao.html (PDF Edition w/ATTACHMENTS) -- http://www.veteransresources.org (PDF & HTML Editions w/ATTACHMENTS) -- http://frabr245.org (PDF & HTML Editions in Word format) -- http://www.veteransresources.org/rao-bulletin (past Bulletins) -- http://w11.zetaboards.com/CFLNewsChat/topic/10387883/1 (Index of Previous Articles 140701) * DoD *   
DoD/VA Seamless Transition Update 25 ► Effort Progressing According to federaltimes.com, in the near future the Defense Department will choose a new commercial electronic health records (EHR) management program. A request for proposals was released in late August and responses from prospective vendors are due 9 OCT. However, the Pentagon is claiming that its plans to implement the new EHR program are less about the IT systems and more about the ‘culture and change. ‘We all know about the failed past plans regarding joint VA/DOD interoperable health records. Now DOD is purchasing a new records management system while the VA plans to overhaul its existing, open-source VistA program’. In order to focus on the people that are the end-users of the military healthcare system as well as the processes that go into making the experience a pleasant one DOD is pursuing an approach to the acquisitions process that incorporates elements of different traditional acquisition models. The hoped-for result is one that officials say will permit flexibility that allows DOD to leverage fast-moving technology in the future. By asking for things like training and support in the request for proposal, DOD officials hope that once the system is deployed people are actually able to use an effective, efficient system. [Source: From Washington: News for the Enlisted Sept. 22, 2014 ++] ******************************** Service Academies ► Nomination Process Each year, members of Congress exercise a little-known power to help constituents obtain a nomination to one of the country's four elite service academies, which prepare future officers for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Merchant Marine. In doing so, they are helping the nominees obtain a highly sought college education worth nearly $500,000 while shaping the leadership of the military. Those nominations are often secret, sometimes political and always prestigious. In some cases, a USA TODAY examination shows, they go to children of friends, political supporters and donors to the lawmakers' campaigns. At a time when the public ranks Congress' performance at all-time lows, lawmakers have retained this 171-year-old perk described by historian Lance Betros as "a prized currency of patronage, a means of pandering to political favorites." 
Defenders of the system say it ensures geographic diversity, tests the mettle of applicants and gives each academy what amounts to a satellite recruiting office in every congressional district in the country. But the system also has its dangers. It is not always a meritocracy. The nominations are open to political influence. There are no consistent standards for nominations. The requirement that each congressional district be represented means that better candidates in more competitive districts sometimes lose out. "In the House, it's 435 fiefdoms and there's no centralized policy on how you do it," said R. Blake Chisam, a former lawyer for the House ethics panel. "Their method of collecting the candidates, the method of vetting the candidates and the method of selecting the candidates is up to the members." USA TODAY requested nomination lists from every member of Congress, compared them against campaign finance data, and interviewed dozens of parents, congressional staffers and academy admissions officers. The newspaper found a seldom-examined system with no oversight and little transparency — one that can be impenetrable to even those who have navigated it:
Admission to the service academies carries with it a financial benefit. Every student gets the equivalent of a full scholarship, including room and board. The U.S. Air Force Academy pegged the taxpayer cost of graduating each cadet in the Class of 2014 at more than $487,000. (Tuition, room and board accounted for more than $188,000 of that amount. The rest covered the wide range of expenses that the government pays to keep the academy running, from faculty salaries to building maintenance.) Cadets and midshipmen also make a little more than $1,000 a month, out of which some fees are deducted. Those nominated are typically exemplary young men and, increasingly, women. They include high school valedictorians, national merit scholars, Eagle Scouts and captains of football teams. A nomination alone doesn't guarantee admission. Candidates must also meet rigorous academic standards and pass medical and physical fitness tests. The path to an academy education is full of obstacles. Applicants must first get a nomination — usually from a member of Congress — and must pass academic, medical and physical fitness standards. USA TODAY used academy reports and nomination data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act for this look at how West Point, the nation’s oldest service academy, assembled its class of 2016.
If they pass all those hurdles, admitted students are on a fast track to join the military's elite after graduating. Four of the seven members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are academy graduates. Graduates of the academies are commissioned as junior officers, with salaries starting at $35,000. They must commit to at least five years of military service. But before they can do that, a high school student who seeks to take the academy route to a military career must first stop at the local congressional district office. [Source: USA TODAY| Gregory Korte and Fredreka Schouten | Sept. 15, 2014 ++] ******************************** POW/MIA Update 37 ► Maj. Bobby Jones 42 Year MIA Whenever people pass through Macon’s interchange at Interstates 75 and 16, Jo Anne Shirley asks that they say a little prayer, because she needs a miracle. The interchange is named for her brother, Bobby Jones, who is the only person from Macon still listed as missing in Vietnam. She started looking for him more than 40 years ago, and she believes time is running out. Jones, an Air Force physician, was a passenger on an F-4 fighter jet thought to have crashed on a remote mountain during a non-combat mission. Starting in 1997 U.S. investigators have made three trips to the suspected area of the crash and have found no remains. Due to the acidic nature of the soil in Vietnam, Shirley said, within about five years there likely will be no bone fragments left to be found. If there are, there probably won’t be enough for a DNA sample. She does not hold out much hope her brother’s remains will ever be found. “The government says they’ve done everything they can do, and basically they have,” Shirley said, as she stood 18 SEP by the POW/MIA monument at the Museum of Aviation. “That’s the problem. There’s really nothing else they can do. But I think miracles do happen, and I think that’s a possibility.”  
JoAnne Shirley Maj Bobby M Jones The plane Jones was traveling in disappeared from radar on Nov. 28, 1972. Rescuers weren’t able to go to the crash site at the time due to enemy activity. About a year later Shirley and her parents became actively involved with the American League of POW/MIA Families. She would serve as chairwoman of the board of directors for 15 years, and she is now the league’s coordinator for Georgia. Last week she traveled across the state, including a stop in Warner Robins, for ceremonies held in connection with National POW/MIA Recognition Day, which was Friday. Her father, who never missed a league meeting, died in 1994. Her mother will soon turn 98 but still remains involved as much as she can. “I love my brother, but I learned very quickly that this issue is not just about Bobby,” Shirley said. “It’s about all of our guys that are missing and unaccounted for and the obligation that we have to never leave them behind.” She has made four trips to Vietnam and surrounding countries through the years, not just for her brother but to promote better cooperation to find all of the missing. She has been present at about a dozen site excavations. After decades of frustration with her brother’s case, it might seem Shirley would be downtrodden, but quite the opposite is true. She speaks about the POW/MIA issue with vigor and enthusiasm. “It’s been an amazing experience, and it’s blessed me in so many ways,” she said. “Every time we get an answer for somebody, whether it’s World War II or Korea and Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, that is a victory.” The closest they have been to an answer is the discovery of her brother’s “blood chit” during a search of the crash area in 2008. The blood chit is a segment of silk sewn into the uniform that, in varying languages, identifies the person as an American and asks that any civilian who finds it render assistance to the person wearing it. The number on it confirmed that it belonged to Jones. For Shirley, it was a little too convenient. It was found easily at the base of a tree, and did not appear as eroded as would have been expected. She believes someone who knew of the visit, which has to be approved by the Vietnam government, including the specific location, put the blood chit there perhaps to give some resolution to the case. That and the fact that a diligent search of the site turned up no bones and only some small aircraft parts, leads her to believe someone removed the bodies. Therefore, she believes, the best hope in finding her brother is in finding the person whom she believes put the blood chit there. Michael Keith came to know Shirley when he worked as a B-1 bomber crew chief at Robins Air Force Base. Once he learned about her cause, he became an ardent supporter and has been to Washington with her many times to lobby Congress. Now retired, he said Shirley is not shy about telling people of any office or rank what she thinks about the importance of bringing home missing troops. “She’s tenacious, diligent ... she just never stops,” Keith said. “She has no problem putting foot to butt when needed. She has no problem telling somebody when they are doing something right or doing something wrong.” Since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, 942 of those missing in action have been accounted for. That leaves 1,641 still missing. For World War II, there are 73,539 still missing, and for the Korean War there are 7,882, Shirley said. She also listed 126 for the Cold War and four for Iraq and Afghanistan. She said the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which was the primary responsibility for recovery, does a good job. However, she said the problem is that the unit is underfunded. On average the remains of about 70 missing in action are recovered each year. The 2010 defense spending bill, she said, mandated that 200 be recovered each year. The problem was that it included no additional funding to achieve that. Then sequestration cut funds. “It sounds good and it looks good,” she said, “but we need increased funding to accomplish this issue.” [Source: The Telegraph | Wayne Crenshaw | Sept. 19, 2014 ++] ******************************** POW/MIA Recoveries ► 140916 thru 140930 "Keeping the Promise", "Fulfill their Trust" and "No one left behind" are several of many mottos that refer to the efforts of the Department of Defense to recover those who became missing while serving our nation. The number of Americans who remain missing from conflicts in this century are: World War II (73,539) Korean War (7,822) Cold War (126), Vietnam War (1,642), 1991 Gulf War (0), and OEF/OIF (6). Over 600 Defense Department men and women -- both military and civilian -- work in organizations around the world as part of DoD's personnel recovery and personnel accounting communities. They are all dedicated to the single mission of finding and bringing our missing personnel home. For a listing of all personnel accounted for since 2007 refer to http: //www.dtic.mil/dpmo/accounted_for . For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) web site at http: //www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call or call (703) 699-1169. The remains of the following MIA/POW’s have been recovered, identified, and scheduled for burial since the publication of the last RAO Bulletin:     
Family members seeking more information about missing loved ones may call the following Service Casualty Offices: U.S. Air Force (800) 531-5501, U.S. Army (800) 892-2490, U.S. Marine Corps (800) 847-1597, U.S. Navy (800) 443-9298, or U.S. Department of State (202) 647-5470. The remains of the following MIA/POW’s have been recovered, identified, and scheduled for burial since the publication of the last RAO Bulletin: Directory: wp-content -> uploads -> 2014 2014 -> For want of a nail 2014 -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 2014 -> Ihbb asian Championships 2014 middle school bowl Round 4 First Quarter 2014 -> Ihbb european Championships 2014 Bowl Round 4 First Quarter 2014 -> International History Bee and Bowl 2013-14 Asian Division Question Set Bowl Round Six 2014 -> United states patent and trademark office 2014 -> Coffs harbour eisteddfod vocal syllabus 2014 -> Listen News Programs Schedule pledge now 2014 -> Slow club announce third album complete surrender Download 479.35 Kb. Share with your friends:
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