Have you thanked a
Veteran for the Freedoms you enjoy Today?
Thank you to all of you for your service to our
country, for signing that check that devoted life, limb, well being....
May you all have many things to be thankful for
and may each day bring bountiful blessings to you and yours!
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It gives me great pleasure to announce that next month I, along with Joe D'Entremont
of Rolling Thunder MA. will meet with Mayor Michael McGlynn of Medford MA to discuss putting a POW/MIA Chair in Medford, at the City Hall! :*) It would be nice if others could take up the charge and contact their local city/town officials to see if one could be made permanent in each and every community throughout the country!
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By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2013 - Forty years ago today, a C-141A Starlifter transport jet with a distinctive red cross on its tail lifted off from Hanoi, North Vietnam, and the first flight of 40 U.S. prisoners of war began their journey home through Operation Homecoming.
Newly freed prisoners of war celebrate as their C-141A aircraft lifts off from Hanoi, North Vietnam, on Feb. 12, 1973, during Operation Homecoming. The mission included 54 C-141 flights between Feb. 12 and April 4, 1973, returning 591 POWs to American soil. U.S. Air Force photo (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. By the day's end, three C-141A aircraft would lift off from Hanoi, as well as a C-9A aircraft from Saigon, South Vietnam. In a steady flow of flights through late March 1973 under terms set through the Paris Peace Accords, 591 POWs returned to American soil. Americans were spellbound as they watched news clips of the POWs being carried in stretchers or walking tentatively toward U.S. officers at the awaiting aircraft for the first flight from Hanoi's Gia Lam Airport. The POWs ranged from privates first class to colonels, all wearing new gray uniforms issued by the North Vietnamese just before their release. Air Force Tech. Sgt. James R. Cook, who suffered severe wounds when he bailed out of his stricken aircraft over North Vietnam in December 1972, saluted the U.S. colors from his stretcher as he was carried aboard the aircraft. Also on the first flight was Navy Cmdr. Everett Alvarez Jr., the first American pilot to be shot down in North Vietnam and, by the war's end, the longest-held POW there. He spent eight-and-a-half years in captivity. Celebration broke out aboard the first aircraft -- nicknamed the "Hanoi Taxi" -- as it lifted skyward and the POWs experienced their first taste of freedom. Historian Andrew H. Lipps captured the magnitude of the moment in his account, "Operation Homecoming: The Return of American POWs from Vietnam." "Imagine you're imprisoned in a cage; imagine the cage surrounded by the smell of feces; imagine the rotted food you eat is so infested with insects that to eat only a few is a blessing; imagine knowing your life could be taken by one of your captors on a whim at any moment; imagine you are subjected to mental and physical torture designed to break not bones but instead spirit on a daily basis. That was being a prisoner of North Vietnam," Lipps wrote. "Then imagine one day, after seemingly endless disappointment, you are given a change of clothes and lined up to watch an American plane land to return you home. That was Operation Homecoming." Aeromedical teams assigned to each aircraft tended to the former POWs during the two-and-a-half hour flight to Clark Air Base in the Philippines, the first stop on their trip home. Meanwhile, many of the POWs joked and smoked American cigarettes as they caught up on all they'd missed while in captivity: fashion trends and the women's liberation movement, among them. "Everything seemed like heaven," recalled Air Force Capt. Larry Chesley, who, after being shot down over North Vietnam, spent seven years in the notorious "Hanoi Hilton" and other POW prisons. "When the doors of that C-141 closed, there were tears in the eyes of every man aboard," he said. Air Force Maj. Gen. Ed Mechenbier, the last Vietnam POW to serve in the Air Force, recalled the emotion of his own journey out of North Vietnam on Feb. 18, 1973. "When we got airborne and the frailty of being a POW turned into the reality of freedom, we yelled, cried and cheered," he said. The POWs arrived to a hero's welcome at Clark Air Base, where Navy Adm. Noel Gayler, commander of U.S. Forces Pacific, led their greeting party. Joining him were Air Force Lt. Gen. William G. Moore Jr., who commanded 13th Air Force and the homecoming operation at Clark, and Roger Shields, deputy assistant secretary of defense for POW/MIA affairs. Speaking to the crowd that lined the tarmac to welcome the aircraft, returning POW Navy Capt. Jeremiah Denton -- who would go on to earn the rank of rear admiral and later was elected to the U.S. Senate, representing Alabama -- elicited cheers as he thanked all who had worked for their release and proclaimed, "God bless America." Air Force Lt. Col. Carlyle "Smitty" Harris, who spent almost eight years as a POW after being shot down over North Vietnam, joined the many other POWs who echoed that sentiment. "My only message is, 'God bless America,'" he said, dismissing assertions in the media that the POWs had been directed to say it. "With six, seven or eight years to think about the really important things in life, a belief in God and country was strengthened in every POW with whom I had contact," he said. "Firsthand exposure to a system which made a mockery of religion and where men are unable to know truth made us all appreciate some of the most basic values in 'God bless America.'" Air Force Col. Robinson Risner, the senior Air Force officer at the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" honored today by a statue in his likeness at the U.S. Air Force Academy, choked back emotion as he arrived on the second C-141 flight from Hanoi. "Thank you all for bringing us home to freedom again," he told the crowd. After receiving medical exams and feasting on steak, ice cream and other American food, the former POWs received new uniforms for their follow-on flights home. Their aircraft made stops in Hawaii and California. The first group of 20 former POWs arrived at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., on Feb. 14, 1973. News clips of the arrival reveal the deep emotion of the freed POWs as they arrived on the U.S. mainland. Navy Capt. James Stockdale, who went on to become a vice admiral and vice presidential candidate, was the first man to limp off the aircraft. Stockdale paused to thank his countrymen for the loyalty they had showed him and his fellow POWs. "The men who follow me down that ramp know what loyalty means because they have been living with loyalty, living on loyalty, the past several years -- loyalty to each other, loyalty to the military, loyalty to our commander-in-chief," he said. Of the 591 POWs liberated during Operation Homecoming, 325 served in the Air Force, 138 in the Navy; 77 in the Army and 26 in the Marine Corps. Twenty-five of the POWs were civilian employees of U.S. government agencies. In addition, 69 POWs the Viet Cong had held in South Vietnam left aboard flights from Loc Ninh. Nine other POWs were released from Laos, and three from China. Forty years after their release, two of the former POWs serve in Congress: Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Rep. Sam Johnson of Texas. A dinner and ceremony being planned for late May at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in California will honor the POWs, recreating the dinner the president hosted for them at the White House in 1973.
Related Sites: Operation Homecoming Fact Sheet U.S. Vietnam War Commemoration
Air Tech. Sgt. James R. Cook, who was captured after bailing out of his stricken aircraft over North Vietnam, salutes the colors from his stretcher as he is carried aboard a C-141A aircraft during Operation Homecoming, Feb. 12, 1973. U.S. Air Force photo Download screen-resolution Download high-resolution
Updates from the U.S. Department of Defense
40 Years After Release, Hanoi Hilton POWs Reflect
Feb 11, 2013
Stars and Stripes | by Wyatt Olson
HANOI -- Little remains downtown of the prison known as Hoa Lo, a name loosely translated as "hell hole."
Most of the French colonial-era complex was razed to make way for a luxury apartment high rise. The Vietnamese government turned what was left into a museum exhibiting a few of the dank cells where Vietnamese revolutionaries were held and sometimes executed by the French in the mid-20th century.
There is one small room near the back devoted to a different group of inmates who languished for years: American prisoners of the Vietnam War.
To those POWs this was the Hanoi Hilton, a nickname that oozed irony and defiance, the kind of petty "thumb in your eye" that provided some small pride in a place designed to strip dignity away.
Forty years ago on Feb. 12, the first of those long-held POWs were released as part of the Paris Peace Accords that ended America's decade long war with Vietnam.
They boarded a waiting plane and landed free men at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. They flew on to Hawaii, then to their families at home.
"Forty years later as I look back on that experience, believe it or not, I have somewhat mixed emotions in that it was a very difficult period," said Sen. John McCain, shot down and captured in 1967. "But at the same time the bonds of friendship and love for my fellow prisoners will be the most enduring memory of my five and half years of incarceration."
The POW experience at Hoa Lo -- and in the archipelago of other prison camps in North Vietnam -- was unlike anything American prisoners had encountered before or since.
POWs had faced brutality before in camps during World War II and the Korean War, but America's involvement in those wars was relatively short compared with the Vietnam War. Few GIs have been taken prisoner in Afghanistan -- despite the war's length.
"We had only the slightest inkling that the Age of Aquarius had happened in this country," said David Gray, an Air Force fighter pilot shot down and captured in January 1967. "We didn't have an appreciation for how widespread and pervasive the antiwar sentiment had become."
If POWs were unaware of what was happening in the U.S., Americans remained mindful of them. A student group in California created silver POW bracelets in 1970, asking Americans to wear them until POWs returned home. Millions were sold.
"There was a sense of unity, togetherness, shared adversity," said Gerald Coffee, a Navy aviator who was imprisoned for seven years and was among the first group released. "We came home and our release kind of symbolized the end of a very painful chapter in our nation's history.
"We got the homecoming that every Vietnam War veteran should have had when he or she came home. We didn't take that for granted."
Named Operation Homecoming, the series of releases returned 591 POWs to freedom.
The Hoa Lo POW exhibit doesn't provide many hints as to what prisoners such as Gray and Coffee experienced during those years. Much of it is given over to chiding the U.S. for aligning itself with the government of South Vietnam and its aerial bombardment of North Vietnam from 1965 to 1968 and then again in late 1972. McCain's flight suit hangs eerily behind a glass case, along with the parachute that saved him.
The thing is, it's not real. "Of course it's not, of course it's not," said McCain when asked about it. "They cut my flight suit off of me when I was taken into the prison … The ‘museum' is an excellent propaganda establishment with very little connection with the actual events that took place inside those walls." He's visited the museum a number of times for the sake of normalizing relations between the two countries, he said.
McCain said he has "great respect and affection for the Vietnamese people," but added with an acid laugh that "there are individuals who are still around Hanoi that I would, umm, look forward to seeing again on a level playing field.
"It wasn't so much for what they did to me but what they did to some of my fellow prisoners who did not return with us."
Behind another case is what are claimed to be belongings of downed Navy pilot Everett Alvarez, which include a pack of Winston cigarettes and box of Vicks cough drops. Prominent is what's labeled a "begging flag," which is a multi-language message printed on cloth and used by downed U.S. pilots to ask assistance from locals.
Nothing here captures what Gray described as "23 hours of boredom a day and one hour of terror."
Gray, who is 71 and lives in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., was on only his fourth mission over Hanoi when he was shot down. He fractured vertebrae and cut his face upon ejecting. Farmers quickly took him prisoner.
He was taken to Hoa Lo, where he was interrogated and tortured, sometimes by having his arms tied behind his back and then hoisted into the air. Mostly his interrogators wanted to know about upcoming planned missions.
"You make up stories as you go," Gray said in a matter-of-fact style of the torture sessions. "That's an unfortunate part about breaking in an interrogation. If you lie, they're going to ask you again and again and again. You have to remember what you said. And there were a bunch of us who screwed up and somehow managed to stupidly change our stories.
"Before you come to the realization that it's important to remember your lies, which happens about the second time they catch you …" Gray left the thought unfinished.
"The thing you learn about torture, particularly if you're not tortured to incapacitation and death, the kind of very painful torture that we went through, it leaves a mark on you and you find that over time, emotionally, the fear of torture gets worse than torture."
He remained isolated initially, but by the fifth or sixth day he made contact with another GI by talking under the door.
"Until then you think of yourself as some kind of traitor because they've bested you physically," he said. But by talking to the others "you get brought into the game of trying to frustrate" the guards as much as possible. "It's the only combativeness allowed to us in that circumstance. As different people I shared a cell with pointed out, you do things like that for the lack of anything better to do. If they want something, then you don't want them to have it."
He would soon be taught the "tap code" for communicating through walls.
Over the next six years he would live in camps nicknamed New Guy Village, Little Vegas, Faith, Hope, Dogpatch, Dirty Bird and Trolly Tracks.
"They tried initially to keep people in solitary, but they got so many of us that they couldn't do that," he said. "Cellmates are a godsend. You'd share every tidbit of knowledge your cellmates had."
They passed the time by describing in detail books they read and movies they had watched.
After U.S. forces raided Son Tay camp in an attempt to rescue POWs, the Vietnamese moved many prisoners in outlying camps into Hoa Lo. That benefited the POWs because they were able to more easily socialize.
Gray said that he, like many others, never thought they'd be held in prison for so long.
"A thought widely shared by a lot of the American POWs was six months to a year," he said. "Your mind does that to you. It forces you into some kind of overly optimistic state."
That sense of optimism didn't just help them survive imprisonment. It is likely what helped some of the released prisoners leave such extreme trauma behind them and live productive lives, according to the findings of a study published last year in the Journal of Traumatic Stress by the Robert E. Mitchell Center for Prisoner of War Studies in Pensacola, Fla.
The center has evaluated more than 400 of the Vietnam POWs since their release.
"By knowing them and having them as patients coming up on 40 years now, what we can do is focus on the type of person who had the experience," said Dr. Jeffrey L. Moore, the center's director and a co-author of the study.
"The results indicate that among this group, it was not merely the type of trauma that occurred which explained how one fared afterwards, but in addition, what type of person who experienced the trauma," the study concluded.
Optimism was, in fact, a stronger predictor of resilience than the level of trauma, such as type and severity of torture, a prisoner received, the study found.
Gray said that he and many others were highly attuned to optimistic "signs" that release was somewhat near, whether that was an increase in the quantity and quality of food, more frequent visits by a dentist or doctor, or more humane treatment in general.
In early 1973, the search for signs ended.
One day in January they were ushered out of their cells at Hoa Lo and ordered to stand in two long lines. A movie camera was off to the side, but not hidden so well that the men weren't aware of it, Gray said.
The peace accords required that a notice of their imminent release be read to the men.
"They read this thing. Zero reaction," recalled Gray. So it was read again. "No reaction."
"And so we just wandered away. We ruined their evening news shot." It was part of POW code of behavior years in the making.
Coffee recalled a celebratory atmosphere the night he and about 60 others were scheduled for release the next day.
The next day he boarded a C-141 plane and was greeted by a crew that included "four beautiful Air Force nurses," he said.
"The pilot cranked up the engines and taxied out to the end of the runway. It really got quiet because we were all sitting there thinking, God, is this really going to be it? Are we really going home? Am I dreaming?"
The plane rattled down the rough runway, arched into the sky and smoothed out.
"The pilot came on and said, ‘Congratulations, men, we just left North Vietnam.' And that's when we cheered. That's when we believed it."
Gray's release came a few weeks later in March. He was led to the open rear-cargo door of another C-141 plane.
"Alongside the ramp is a medical orderly wearing whites," Gray recalled. "He's asking, ‘Who are you?' When he gets to me, I say, Captain Gray -- because I knew I was a captain by then.
"What does he say to me?"
"A-y or e-y?"
It was at that moment he felt a free man.
IMPORTANT INFO
If you
receive your federal benefits by paper check, you'll need to
switch to
electronic payments by March 1, 2013.
The federal benefits affected are:
The federal benefits affected are:
- Social Security
- Supplemental Security Income
- Veterans Affairs
- Railroad Retirement Board
- Office of Personnel Management
- Department of Labor (Black Lung)
You have two options for receiving benefits electronically: 1. Direct Deposit: The U.S. Treasury deposits your benefits directly into your bank account. You can sign up for direct deposit in one of these ways:
- Enroll online.
- Visit your bank or credit union.
- Call (800) 333-1795 (Mon-Fri, 8am-8pm ET).
- Contact the local office of the agency providing your federal benefits.
- Enroll by mail.
2. Prepaid Debit Card: The U.S. Treasury deposits your benefits directly to a debit card. This is an option if you don't have a bank account and do not want to open one. You can request a debit card by calling (800) 333-1795 (Mon-Fri, 8am-8pm ET).
Be ready with the information you'll need to set up your federal benefit payments by direct deposit or debit card.
If you have questions, call the Go Direct Helpline at (800) 333-1795.
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Statement from Pentagon
Press Secretary George Little on Proposed 2014 Military
Pay Raise
"The Department
of Defense (DoD) will propose a one percent pay raise for
service members in calendar year 2014 as part of the
forthcoming fiscal 2014 defense budget request to Congress.
"The proposal provides a pay raise for U.S. forces in an era of slowing defense spending. In addition to this pay increase, the department will maintain important benefits for active duty service members and families, including housing and subsistence allowances, special pay, tuition assistance, health care, commissaries, child care and youth development programs, and military retirement benefits. Further details will be made available in the fiscal 2014 budget submission. "Given the current budget environment, this pay raise is less than previously projected but allows the Department to maintain critical investments in readiness and modernization going forward. Department leaders preserved an increase in compensation as part of a balanced approach to future defense budgets that ensures service members are fully equipped, trained, and supported." |
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Military Eyes Cutbacks, Shifts in Drone Programs
The Pentagon for the first time is considering scaling back the massive buildup of drones it has overseen in recent years, both to save money and to adapt to changing security threats and an increased focus on Asia as the Afghan war winds down. http://tracking.military.com/cgi-bin/outlog.cgi?url=http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/02/12/military-eyes-cutbacks-shifts-in-drone-programs.html?ESRC=eb.nl&code=130212DEBH01
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Feb 11, 2013
Richard Sisk
The Defense Department extended a range of benefits to same sex military couples Monday but declined to grant the two main ones -- housing and health care -- because of prohibitions in the Defense of Marriage Act.
"One of the legal limitations to providing all benefits at this time is the Defense of Marriage Act, which is still the law of the land," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a statement.
Until the Supreme Court or Congress changes DOMA on the definition of "spouse," DOD "will continue to comply with the current law" barring housing and health benefits to same sex couples in the military, Panetta said.
DOD said the range of benefits that will now be available to same sex couples included military identification cards, death benefits, hospital visitation privileges, access to base commissaries and exchanges, daycare for the children of same sex couples, legal assistance and rights to space available travel on chartered military flights.
At a background briefing at the Pentagon, DOD personnel and legal affairs officials made clear that the defense department favored extending housing and health care benefits to same sex couples and their dependents but could not get around DOMA's definition of "spouse" as being a person of the opposite sex.
Unless and until DOMA is changed, "we would be violating the spirit of that law" by extending the full range of benefits, the DOD personnel official said. A base commander who acted on his own to extend housing and health care benefits "would be put in a very difficult postion," the official said, "and, therefore, the decision was made not to offer those benefits at this time."
The official estimated that decisions on extending same sex benefits applied to about 5,600 active duty personnel, 3,400 in the Guard and Reserves, and about 8,000 retirees.
The DOD legal official said that the effort to extend more benefits "is not off the table" but would depend on the Supreme Court's action. The Court was scheduled to hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of DOMA in March and a decision was expected in June.
The extension of benefits has been the subject of DOD reviews since the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy banning gays from serving openly in the military was scrapped last September.
The Defense of Marriage Act, signed by former President Bill Clinton in 1996, defines marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman under federal law. States that do not permit same sex marriage are not required to recognize a same sex marriage from another state, further complicating the effort of the military to extend benefits.
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Feb 15, 2013
by Bryant Jordan
The Military Order of the Purple Heart as thrown its support behind efforts to lower the ranking of a new medal intended for drone pilots and cyber warriors below those of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for valor.
“To rank what is basically an award for meritorious service higher than any award for heroism is degrading and insulting to every American combat Soldier, Airman, Sailor or Marine who risks his or her life and endures the daily rigors of combat in a hostile environment,” the group said in a statement released Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile, a Texas man has started a petition on the WhiteHouse.gov site calling for the lowering of the medal’s precedence. The petition’s creator, identified on the White House site by the initials “J.E.,” called the current ranking of the Distinguished Warfare Medal “an injustice to those who have served and risked their lives.”
As of Friday afternoon the petition had more than 200 signatures.The award was announced on Wednesday by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey. He said the military needed a medal that recognizes that post-9/11 warfare is different, with servicemembers at consoles in the U.S. directly affecting the outcome of enemy engagements.
Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he formally approved the medal in order to honor the contributions of drone and cyber warriors with a military decoration.
By Thursday, the Veterans of Foreign Wars came out opposing the medal’s ranking and demanded it be lowered.
VFW National Commander John E. Hamilton said in a statement the status of the new medal could become a morale issue. He said the VFW recognizes the changed battlefield landscape and that drone pilots and cyber warfare specialists have a direct, real-time impact on operations, but that these troops do not face the same physical risks as those in combat.
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Feb 16, 2013
Ventura County Star, Calif.| by Cheri Carlson
Sarah Trujillo grew up hearing her dad's stories of the Marine Corps and dreamed of a military career of her own.
But some posts were off limits to women, a barrier she thought was unfair.
Her father told her things could change by the time she was old enough to serve. She hoped he was right.
Late last month, Pentagon chief Leon Panetta lifted the military's ban on women serving in combat, opening as many as 230,000 front-line positions.
Some jobs may be open this year. Others may take longer. Any exceptions must be narrowly tailored and based on an analysis of data, defense officials said.
The transition should be complete by 2016.
"I was so excited. I was jumping up and down," said Sarah, who at 14 still has at least four years before she can sign up.
But the Oxnard High School freshman who compares her dad's dog tags to "a beacon of amazingness" said she knows she wants a military career.
"This is really what I want to do," Sarah said, before falling back into drills in her Junior ROTC class. "I've been wanting to do this for a long time."
Sarah and her classmates represent a generation of girls for whom military careers will carry far fewer restrictions.
They grew up with the country at war, as troops fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When asked recently, they overwhelmingly supported lifting the ban on women in combat.
"We're passing the torch to a new generation," said Maj. Dale Weaver, an Air Force veteran who leads the high school program.
"They are the voice of the future that says, 'Let everyone have an equal opportunity.' "
'little bit more equal'
Women make up 14 percent, or 202,400, of the U.S. military's 1.4 million active personnel.
The Department of Defense says hundreds of thousands of women were deployed to recent operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 800 women have been wounded in the two wars and more than 130 have died, according to a congressional report.
Lifting the restrictions likely won't dramatically change the type of women joining the military, said Stacie Furia, a research sociologist at the Palm Center, a research institute at UCLA.
The move, however, will change women's experience in the military. Women will get an opportunity to gain experience to grow their military careers in ways they haven't had before, Furia said.
As more women move into new roles and do so successfully, it also will help people break down stereotypes. As that happens, more women may become interested in military careers, she said.
"Now, it's more open for everybody to do the job they want to do. And it gives women more jobs in the military," said Scarlet Schmitz, 17, a senior at Oxnard High who has participated in Junior ROTC for the past four years.
She already planned on a military career, wanting to become a therapist or psychiatrist, most likely in the Navy.
"I don't want to go into a combat position, but I'm glad women are now considered a little bit more equal to be able to if they want to," she said.
"I know some women who would be good in that role -- really, really good," she said. "They would enjoy it, and they want to go in."
reserving judgment
Weaver agrees the ban should be lifted but thinks the shift will bring challenges.
Calling himself a traditionalist, he thinks he might have been overprotective of females in his unit if the change had come while he was serving. "I probably would have struggled with that at first," he said.
But once he saw the woman next to him was just as capable, things would change. Like any stereotype, he said, at some point you wonder how you ever thought there would be a problem.
Master Sgt. Stephen Emmons, who served in the Air Force for more than two decades and now teaches in the Junior ROTC program, doesn't have a strong opinion either way. He said he will reserve judgment until he sees whether the move helps the military in its mission.
"I just hope changes are made for the right reason," Emmons said. "The change should be made because it makes us a better fighting force. That really should be the only reason."
The Pentagon says it will not lower fitness standards for women but is reviewing requirements to see if they match the demands of various jobs.
Lucy Alcantara, 15, a first sergeant in the Junior ROTC program, said the standards should reflect what's needed for the job, whether it's a man or woman.
She has wanted to be a flight nurse in the Air Force since the seventh grade. It's a post that already is open to women, but she still feels strongly about the ban being lifted, saying it gives her more options.
If a man or woman successfully trains to meet those standards, they should earn respect from colleagues, she said. "If you're willing to do the work, that's the person I would want next to me in combat."
American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 2013 - Military members and retirees with same-sex partners will qualify for up to 24 new benefits under policy changes Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced today. In a memo to the service chiefs outlining the new policy, Panetta noted the department has "essentially completed" repeal of the so-called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law that barred gay and lesbian military members from serving openly. Now, the secretary wrote to the chiefs, military leaders' work must "expand to changing our policies and practices to ensure fairness and equal treatment and to taking care of all of our service members and their families, to the extent allowable under law." Two of the new benefits are available at the service member's election: hospital visitation and Family Readiness Group membership. For 22 other benefits, service members and their same-sex partners may file a "declaration of domestic partnership." That declaration entitles same-sex partners to military identification cards, commissary and exchange shopping privileges, child care and youth programs, sexual assault counseling and other benefits. Housing, medical and dental care, and overseas command sponsorship for same-sex partners are not included in this round of policy changes. As Panetta noted in a statement, those benefits are restricted under the Defense of Marriage Act, commonly known as DOMA, which defines "spouse" as someone married to a person of the opposite sex. The Supreme Court is reviewing the law, and is expected to rule on it later this year. The secretary wrote, "In the event that the Defense of Marriage Act is no longer applicable to the Department of Defense, it will be the policy of the department to construe the words 'spouse' and 'marriage' without regard to sexual orientation, and married couples, irrespective of sexual orientation, and their dependents, will be granted full military benefits." A senior Pentagon official emphasized in a briefing to Pentagon reporters today that benefit changes will happen as soon as possible. Panetta's guidance to the services directed they make "every effort" to have systems in place to accept same-sex benefit requests by Aug. 31. In no case, he wrote, may the services delay beyond Oct. 1 in rolling out the benefits. Rolling out a new benefit takes time, the official said, as regulations and instructions, systems and software all have to be updated, and workers will need to be trained in new processes. "Normally, we're looking at a year" to make such changes, the official noted. "This is a very ambitious schedule; we're really pressing hard to do this." Another official said the Defense Department is working to see if the housing benefit can be added to the list and is developing a mechanism to allow burial of same–sex partners at Arlington National Cemetery. The domestic partnership declaration isn't feasible in cases where one or both partners have died, the second official added. Retirees and their same-sex partners will be able to file the declaration once the new systems are in place. The first official estimated that 5,600 same-sex couples include an active-duty service member, 3,400 include a Reserve or National Guard member, and 8,000 include a retired military member. The cost of implementing the new benefits, the official added, would be negligible. |
Info on my friend Tim Chambers:
