By Chris Amos - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Dec 31, 2007 6:22:02 EST
* * *
[Psychologist Cmdr. Heidi Squier] Kraft [author of Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital] did not know at the time, but the wounded Marine was Cpl. Jason Dunham. He would later receive the Medal of Honor, posthumously, for using his body and helmet to protect two of his comrades from an exploding hand grenade. She only knew that the dog tag in his boot said his name was J.L. Dunham, that he was a Methodist, and that trauma surgeons had decided that there was nothing they could do to save him.
"I was very drawn to him," Kraft said. "Once I started to hold his hand, I didn’t want to leave. I spoke to him. I told him the Marine Corps was proud of him. I told him it was OK if he was ready to let go if he wanted to."
But then Dunham squeezed her hand, and seconds later he squeezed again. . . .
Read more at http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/marine_kraft_rules_071229w/
Monday, December 31, 2007
Mothers, wives upend lives for war wounded
By Michelle Roberts - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Dec 31, 2007 6:07:00 EST
SAN ANTONIO — Rose Lage swears it is true: Suddenly, in the midst of a fitful night of sleep last June, she knew that her son had been injured in Iraq.
"I heard my son’s voice," she recalls. "It might sound weird, but I heard him holler ‘Mama!"’
In fact, Staff Sgt. Michael Lage was the only survivor of a blast that killed four others. Lage suffered third-degree burns to nearly half his body; part of his nose and ears were missing, and his face, scalp, arms and torso were seared. His left hand had to be amputated.
Rose Lage, 54, understood her son’s life would change. But she didn’t understand how much her own quiet life — a life spent playing with grandkids, fishing and preparing for her husband’s retirement — would change, as well.
She would exchange her two-story house in Atlanta for a hotel room on an Army post, watch her nest egg shrink and spend her days helping a 30-year-old son change bandages and wriggle into garments meant to reduce scarring.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_wounded_mothers_071228/
Posted : Monday Dec 31, 2007 6:07:00 EST
SAN ANTONIO — Rose Lage swears it is true: Suddenly, in the midst of a fitful night of sleep last June, she knew that her son had been injured in Iraq.
"I heard my son’s voice," she recalls. "It might sound weird, but I heard him holler ‘Mama!"’
In fact, Staff Sgt. Michael Lage was the only survivor of a blast that killed four others. Lage suffered third-degree burns to nearly half his body; part of his nose and ears were missing, and his face, scalp, arms and torso were seared. His left hand had to be amputated.
Rose Lage, 54, understood her son’s life would change. But she didn’t understand how much her own quiet life — a life spent playing with grandkids, fishing and preparing for her husband’s retirement — would change, as well.
She would exchange her two-story house in Atlanta for a hotel room on an Army post, watch her nest egg shrink and spend her days helping a 30-year-old son change bandages and wriggle into garments meant to reduce scarring.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_wounded_mothers_071228/
Bring Personnel Management into the 21st Century
Proceedings, January 2008
Time to modernize. The current system is a relic, creaky and counterproductive.
By Colonel David A. Smith, U.S. Air Force Reserve (Retired)
Since the Cold War ended, we have seen fundamental changes in threats, military tactics, weapons, and technologies. At the same time, funding constraints have increased—as has competition for talented people. Changing demographics have brought changes in the motivations and expectations of the workforce. The current human capital system, commonly known as the Manpower, Personnel, Training, and Education system, must be completely modernized to meet these new challenges—and to improve retention.
Although we do now see a few changes, such as attempts to institute career on- and off-ramps, continuum of service, officer retention initiatives, and sabbaticals, we cannot expect a system that was crafted for the needs of the mid-20th century to be successful in today's vastly different environment. Our 60-year-old system has served our nation well, but it cannot meet the demands of the 21st century. Since 1947, our system has continuously been modified, adjusted, and added to. Now we need a total overhaul.
For full text see http://tfxnews.blogspot.com/2007/12/david-smith-bring-personnel-management.html
Time to modernize. The current system is a relic, creaky and counterproductive.
By Colonel David A. Smith, U.S. Air Force Reserve (Retired)
Since the Cold War ended, we have seen fundamental changes in threats, military tactics, weapons, and technologies. At the same time, funding constraints have increased—as has competition for talented people. Changing demographics have brought changes in the motivations and expectations of the workforce. The current human capital system, commonly known as the Manpower, Personnel, Training, and Education system, must be completely modernized to meet these new challenges—and to improve retention.
Although we do now see a few changes, such as attempts to institute career on- and off-ramps, continuum of service, officer retention initiatives, and sabbaticals, we cannot expect a system that was crafted for the needs of the mid-20th century to be successful in today's vastly different environment. Our 60-year-old system has served our nation well, but it cannot meet the demands of the 21st century. Since 1947, our system has continuously been modified, adjusted, and added to. Now we need a total overhaul.
For full text see http://tfxnews.blogspot.com/2007/12/david-smith-bring-personnel-management.html
Online colonel seemed like a catch
Con artist uses Marine’s identity to scam women
By Kimberly Johnson - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Dec 31, 2007 6:13:10 EST
Wendy McKay thought she had met someone special when the Marine colonel deployed to Iraq started chatting with her on the online dating Web site.
Someone claiming to be Col. Richard Bartch told her he was in Iraq for the first time after volunteering for duty. And like her, he was divorced. Chats quickly led to e-mails and within a day he sent her photos of himself in uniform.
* * *
McKay almost bought it. That is, until she realized doing so was really going to cost her.
Bartch — or more accurately, the con artist who had stolen the identity of the real Marine officer, from a family-oriented military Web site — wanted her to send him $5,000.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/marine_datingcon_071230w/
By Kimberly Johnson - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Dec 31, 2007 6:13:10 EST
Wendy McKay thought she had met someone special when the Marine colonel deployed to Iraq started chatting with her on the online dating Web site.
Someone claiming to be Col. Richard Bartch told her he was in Iraq for the first time after volunteering for duty. And like her, he was divorced. Chats quickly led to e-mails and within a day he sent her photos of himself in uniform.
* * *
McKay almost bought it. That is, until she realized doing so was really going to cost her.
Bartch — or more accurately, the con artist who had stolen the identity of the real Marine officer, from a family-oriented military Web site — wanted her to send him $5,000.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/marine_datingcon_071230w/
VA program at Texas school studies TBI
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Dec 28, 2007 11:15:47 EST
AUSTIN — Doctors will begin studying brain injuries among U.S. troops through a new $4.2 million Department of Veterans Affairs program at the University of Texas.
Some estimate that more than 20,000 troops have suffered from brain injuries in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where roadside bomb blasts can jar the brains of nearby soldiers. The damage varies in severity, and the injuries can create a broad range of symptoms, some that manifest months later and can be confused with other conditions.
"It’s a virtually unexplored area," said Michael Domjan, director of the Imaging Research Center, which UT opened in January 2006 before talks with the VA had begun. "We’ve got a powerful research tool we’re pleased to see used to address a serious medical problem, one that is not limited to just veterans."
The program will use UT’s new $2.2 million state-of-the-art brain scanner at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus, among the most sophisticated brain-imaging devices in the world. Dr. Robert Van Boven, the VA program director, said it is the first to combine the three types of brain scans the machine can perform.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_brainstudy_071228/
Posted : Friday Dec 28, 2007 11:15:47 EST
AUSTIN — Doctors will begin studying brain injuries among U.S. troops through a new $4.2 million Department of Veterans Affairs program at the University of Texas.
Some estimate that more than 20,000 troops have suffered from brain injuries in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where roadside bomb blasts can jar the brains of nearby soldiers. The damage varies in severity, and the injuries can create a broad range of symptoms, some that manifest months later and can be confused with other conditions.
"It’s a virtually unexplored area," said Michael Domjan, director of the Imaging Research Center, which UT opened in January 2006 before talks with the VA had begun. "We’ve got a powerful research tool we’re pleased to see used to address a serious medical problem, one that is not limited to just veterans."
The program will use UT’s new $2.2 million state-of-the-art brain scanner at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus, among the most sophisticated brain-imaging devices in the world. Dr. Robert Van Boven, the VA program director, said it is the first to combine the three types of brain scans the machine can perform.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_brainstudy_071228/
Enhanced Health Information Sharing Supports Care of Wounded Warriors
IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 1439-07
December 27, 2007
The Department of Defense (DoD) announced the organization-wide release of enhancements that allow DoD to share electronic health information with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) through the Bidirectional Health Information Exchange (BHIE) and the Clinical Data Repository/Health Data Repository (CHDR) interfaces.
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11588
December 27, 2007
The Department of Defense (DoD) announced the organization-wide release of enhancements that allow DoD to share electronic health information with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) through the Bidirectional Health Information Exchange (BHIE) and the Clinical Data Repository/Health Data Repository (CHDR) interfaces.
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11588
A rocky road from combat to college
By Mary Beth Marklein - USA Today
Posted : Thursday Dec 27, 2007 16:44:46 EST
STARKVILLE, Miss. — By the time he completed his four-year stint in the military three summers ago, Frank Wills had gotten used to taking orders, carrying a rifle and taking pictures of the dead as a combat photographer. He knew how to be a Marine. He hadn't a clue how a Marine becomes a college student.
Neither, it seemed, did anyone else on campus. Advisers at one school Wills attended gave him incorrect information. Officials at a second offered no help at all. Often, he says, he felt like "the new kid who didn't fit in."
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/gns_gibill_071227/
Also published in 12/27/07 Early Bird:
http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071227569920.html
Accompanying article:
Veterans' Education Plans Aren't Easy To Gauge
http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071227569922.html
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20071227/d_cover27_side.art.htm
Posted : Thursday Dec 27, 2007 16:44:46 EST
STARKVILLE, Miss. — By the time he completed his four-year stint in the military three summers ago, Frank Wills had gotten used to taking orders, carrying a rifle and taking pictures of the dead as a combat photographer. He knew how to be a Marine. He hadn't a clue how a Marine becomes a college student.
Neither, it seemed, did anyone else on campus. Advisers at one school Wills attended gave him incorrect information. Officials at a second offered no help at all. Often, he says, he felt like "the new kid who didn't fit in."
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/gns_gibill_071227/
Also published in 12/27/07 Early Bird:
http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071227569920.html
Accompanying article:
Veterans' Education Plans Aren't Easy To Gauge
http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071227569922.html
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20071227/d_cover27_side.art.htm
As military begins to draw down, National Guard ramps up
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
National Journal
December 26, 2007
The Iraq drawdown has begun. By New Year's, a brigade of more than 3,000 U.S. troops will have left Iraq without a comparable unit taking its place. By mid-2008, the Bush administration pledges that force levels in Iraq will have returned to what they were before the 2007 "surge."
Republican political candidates across the country are hoping that this troop reduction -- from a high of 164,000 last August to 130,000-plus next July -- will relieve the political pressure from a still-unpopular war at a critical moment in their 2008 campaigns.
But there's a snag. While the military as a whole is ramping down, its most politically sensitive component -- the citizen-soldiers of the Army National Guard -- is ramping up. "Today we stand at 46,000 mobilized," said Lt. Gen. Clyde A. Vaughn, the Pentagon's director of the Army Guard. "I see us adding about 10,000 to that."
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38907&dcn=todaysnews
National Journal
December 26, 2007
The Iraq drawdown has begun. By New Year's, a brigade of more than 3,000 U.S. troops will have left Iraq without a comparable unit taking its place. By mid-2008, the Bush administration pledges that force levels in Iraq will have returned to what they were before the 2007 "surge."
Republican political candidates across the country are hoping that this troop reduction -- from a high of 164,000 last August to 130,000-plus next July -- will relieve the political pressure from a still-unpopular war at a critical moment in their 2008 campaigns.
But there's a snag. While the military as a whole is ramping down, its most politically sensitive component -- the citizen-soldiers of the Army National Guard -- is ramping up. "Today we stand at 46,000 mobilized," said Lt. Gen. Clyde A. Vaughn, the Pentagon's director of the Army Guard. "I see us adding about 10,000 to that."
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38907&dcn=todaysnews
Sunday, December 30, 2007
David Smith: Bring Personnel Management into the 21st Century
Proceedings, January 2008
Time to modernize. The current system is a relic, creaky and counterproductive.
By Colonel David A. Smith, U.S. Air Force Reserve (Retired)
Since the Cold War ended, we have seen fundamental changes in threats, military tactics, weapons, and technologies. At the same time, funding constraints have increased—as has competition for talented people. Changing demographics have brought changes in the motivations and expectations of the workforce. The current human capital system, commonly known as the Manpower, Personnel, Training, and Education system, must be completely modernized to meet these new challenges—and to improve retention.
Although we do now see a few changes, such as attempts to institute career on- and off-ramps, continuum of service, officer retention initiatives, and sabbaticals, we cannot expect a system that was crafted for the needs of the mid-20th century to be successful in today's vastly different environment. Our 60-year-old system has served our nation well, but it cannot meet the demands of the 21st century. Since 1947, our system has continuously been modified, adjusted, and added to. Now we need a total overhaul.
Shape the New Workforce for War
We have been using laws and policies that were created for peacetime, but our new workforce is tasked with defeating new, complex, and often asymmetrical threats over many years. We need highly effective methods that will ensure we have the right people with the right skills at the right time and place doing the right work. This means a modern personnel management system based on relevant and measurable information.
To accomplish it, force-shaping tools must be available in law and policies that permit managing personnel resources with the agility, flexibility, and latitude that are needed in wartime. Examples are provisions for quickly and temporarily changing such policies as grade limitations, up-or-out provisions, different incentives or bonuses, retraining protocols, and other tools to readily solve unforeseen problems.
One issue central to our personnel management is the 20-year-cliff retirement system. The norm for a military career is 20 years, with few—other than general and flag officers—staying 30 years or longer. As a result, we lose many talented leaders too early, when their skills and experience are at a peak. Conversely, some unneeded or noncompetitive members are retained because there is no provision for equitably removing them involuntarily before they qualify for 20-year retirement.
The system forces everything—field and staff service, training and education—to be squeezed into 20 years. To comply with the Goldwater-Nichols joint training requirements, even more must go into this two-decade career. New ideas are needed, including retirement matching, and 401K-type and portable pension systems. We must manage the active and Reserve military force more effectively.
We Need More Time
It takes time to train, educate, and develop officers and senior enlisted personnel. We need to develop longer career planning consistent with a new, longer retirement system and with modifying up-or-out promotion. For years we have been stuffing more requirements into the same period. Goldwater-Nichols added joint education and training, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has directed that increased language and cultural training be provided, and new kinds of threats and weapons require increased training.
Often, personnel with highly developed skills leave the military when still in the prime of their lives and capabilities. In 2005, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asked Congress for authority to retain selected officers beyond their mandatory retirement dates.
The up-or-out system was designed to assure that only the most qualified officers remained in the force, and to provide acceptable promotion rates and opportunities for younger officers. However, the unintended consequence is that many skilled officers who perform well and could continue to do so for many more years are eliminated early, without being competitive for further promotions.
If we institute a dual track for some occupations, those so inclined can continue doing the jobs they enjoy as long as they meet established standards. Imagine the effectiveness of a Marine supply officer or maintenance supervisory officer who has ten years' experience in his specialty—and wants nothing more than to continue to be the Corps' best.
Longer careers will mean reducing the number of reassignments and relocations. We should require personnel to remain in one position longer, thereby increasing the quality of their leadership and performance.
More Flexibility
Each Service must have the ability to tailor its personnel management for its own culture and mission. We have outgrown today's one-size-fits-all mentality. A competency-based approach observes and measures patterns of knowledge, skill, abilities, and behaviors. If we use this, we will improve performance, agility, and efficiency. Competency-based management should be accepted as a DOD-wide tool throughout the personnel life cycle.
In support of more flexibility, the compensation system for all personnel must be revised. The military services should formally move toward a market-based compensation system, including bonuses and incentives to reward skills and risks, with a smaller portion going to base pay.
A close look reveals that many aspects of a market-based system are already being adopted, slowly and piecemeal. We are paying bonuses for referrals, re-enlistments, and keeping mid-grade officers; we are paying incentives for special skills such as information technology specialists. If we had a new system based on modern portable pensions, base pay would no longer be the basis of retirement pay.
The current automatic two-year longevity increase provision does not reward performance and should be abolished. Pay bands and performance standards similar to those of the new civil service compensation should be adopted.
And it is time to implement continuum of service. The way things stand now, one can move easily from active duty to the Reserve components, civilian, and/or contractor status. However, there are very few ways (called ramps) that permit people to move from Reserve and civilian status back to active duty—for example, being reintegrated with the regular component—without career-ruining consequences.
Continuum of service would provide for a seamless integrated Total Force, with on- and off-ramps for military and civilians alike. Many military personnel leaders are talking about it as a means of accessing scarce skills as needed. For example, in 2003 Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called General Peter Schoomaker out of retirement to serve as Army Chief of Staff. But to implement this at lesser grades, many laws and, more important, traditions would have to change.
Smaller Crews Need More Training
By using competencies to determine training requirements, the Navy has planned and built ships for the future (such as the new, highly computerized Smart Ship) that require significantly fewer personnel. Both the Navy and Air Force are reducing active duty end strength in order to save money that can be used to build new weapons.
But new weapons are more complex. And fewer people are available to use these weapons, so they must be trained to assume multiple functions. Controversial though this may be, the limits of funds and the high cost of skilled personnel result in reducing crew size as much as possible.
We find similar examples in the Army and Marine Corps. However, these services put people in combat, while the Navy and Air Force man platforms. The two ground services are therefore increasing total end strength to build more force structure and combat capability.
More innovation and certification will have to be included, thereby allowing military personnel to respond to new mission requirements more quickly. Training and education should be used to develop multi-skilled personnel to handle newer technologies, thus reducing the personnel required for mission accomplishment.
As in the private sector, this training should involve improved certifications, more standardization, consolidation of redundant programs, and development of technologies.
Joint Is the Way to Go
Today's conflicts have demonstrated that lower-grade officers and enlisted personnel are increasingly involved in situations where they are making decisions that have strategic importance. As a result, further revisions to joint professional military education are needed.
Currently this education involves two levels. Phase One material is taught at the services' intermediate service schools and senior service schools; Phase Two at the Industrial War College, National War College, and Joint Forces Staff College.
Aside from more cultural and language proficiency, joint professional training and education need to be provided much earlier in careers, with changes to and lengthening of officers' careers. Therefore, intermediate service schools should come earlier, while senior service schools would come later.
The National War College should become a true National Security University, adding more leaders from other federal agencies as both students and faculty. This should be in addition to service war colleges, and it should come at about the 25-year point.
With longer careers, war college graduates could be expected to remain on active duty longer. Officers selected for War Colleges (Senior Service Schools) should be selected for, or already be promoted to, O-6. These officers should then be committed to stay in the service for at least 30 years, and be eligible for extended service beyond that as needed.
Tear Down the House
Our present system is like a modest house that was built in 1947, then added to and adjusted over the next 60 years as children came, grew, and left. The result today is an overburdened structure still sitting on the same foundation. We see many such old, chopped-up, inefficient houses in our neighborhoods. We also see them being torn down, while new houses go up.
We must rebuild our chopped-up, many-times-changed 1947 Manpower, Personnel, Training, and Education house. Instead of fiddling with it and making it even more complex and less satisfactory, let's have the foresight and willingness to start the long, difficult process of a total reformation. We need a state-of-the-art Human Capital Planning, Development, and Management System.
Colonel Smith was most recently the vice president for Manpower Analysis and Reserve Affairs at the Wexford Group International, now a CACI International company. He has been an analyst of manpower, human resources, training, and organizational policies and issues for 40 years, serving in leadership and policy positions at Headquarters U.S. Air Force, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Executive Office of the President. Smith is a Naval Academy graduate.
© 2007 U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE
Time to modernize. The current system is a relic, creaky and counterproductive.
By Colonel David A. Smith, U.S. Air Force Reserve (Retired)
Since the Cold War ended, we have seen fundamental changes in threats, military tactics, weapons, and technologies. At the same time, funding constraints have increased—as has competition for talented people. Changing demographics have brought changes in the motivations and expectations of the workforce. The current human capital system, commonly known as the Manpower, Personnel, Training, and Education system, must be completely modernized to meet these new challenges—and to improve retention.
Although we do now see a few changes, such as attempts to institute career on- and off-ramps, continuum of service, officer retention initiatives, and sabbaticals, we cannot expect a system that was crafted for the needs of the mid-20th century to be successful in today's vastly different environment. Our 60-year-old system has served our nation well, but it cannot meet the demands of the 21st century. Since 1947, our system has continuously been modified, adjusted, and added to. Now we need a total overhaul.
Shape the New Workforce for War
We have been using laws and policies that were created for peacetime, but our new workforce is tasked with defeating new, complex, and often asymmetrical threats over many years. We need highly effective methods that will ensure we have the right people with the right skills at the right time and place doing the right work. This means a modern personnel management system based on relevant and measurable information.
To accomplish it, force-shaping tools must be available in law and policies that permit managing personnel resources with the agility, flexibility, and latitude that are needed in wartime. Examples are provisions for quickly and temporarily changing such policies as grade limitations, up-or-out provisions, different incentives or bonuses, retraining protocols, and other tools to readily solve unforeseen problems.
One issue central to our personnel management is the 20-year-cliff retirement system. The norm for a military career is 20 years, with few—other than general and flag officers—staying 30 years or longer. As a result, we lose many talented leaders too early, when their skills and experience are at a peak. Conversely, some unneeded or noncompetitive members are retained because there is no provision for equitably removing them involuntarily before they qualify for 20-year retirement.
The system forces everything—field and staff service, training and education—to be squeezed into 20 years. To comply with the Goldwater-Nichols joint training requirements, even more must go into this two-decade career. New ideas are needed, including retirement matching, and 401K-type and portable pension systems. We must manage the active and Reserve military force more effectively.
We Need More Time
It takes time to train, educate, and develop officers and senior enlisted personnel. We need to develop longer career planning consistent with a new, longer retirement system and with modifying up-or-out promotion. For years we have been stuffing more requirements into the same period. Goldwater-Nichols added joint education and training, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has directed that increased language and cultural training be provided, and new kinds of threats and weapons require increased training.
Often, personnel with highly developed skills leave the military when still in the prime of their lives and capabilities. In 2005, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asked Congress for authority to retain selected officers beyond their mandatory retirement dates.
The up-or-out system was designed to assure that only the most qualified officers remained in the force, and to provide acceptable promotion rates and opportunities for younger officers. However, the unintended consequence is that many skilled officers who perform well and could continue to do so for many more years are eliminated early, without being competitive for further promotions.
If we institute a dual track for some occupations, those so inclined can continue doing the jobs they enjoy as long as they meet established standards. Imagine the effectiveness of a Marine supply officer or maintenance supervisory officer who has ten years' experience in his specialty—and wants nothing more than to continue to be the Corps' best.
Longer careers will mean reducing the number of reassignments and relocations. We should require personnel to remain in one position longer, thereby increasing the quality of their leadership and performance.
More Flexibility
Each Service must have the ability to tailor its personnel management for its own culture and mission. We have outgrown today's one-size-fits-all mentality. A competency-based approach observes and measures patterns of knowledge, skill, abilities, and behaviors. If we use this, we will improve performance, agility, and efficiency. Competency-based management should be accepted as a DOD-wide tool throughout the personnel life cycle.
In support of more flexibility, the compensation system for all personnel must be revised. The military services should formally move toward a market-based compensation system, including bonuses and incentives to reward skills and risks, with a smaller portion going to base pay.
A close look reveals that many aspects of a market-based system are already being adopted, slowly and piecemeal. We are paying bonuses for referrals, re-enlistments, and keeping mid-grade officers; we are paying incentives for special skills such as information technology specialists. If we had a new system based on modern portable pensions, base pay would no longer be the basis of retirement pay.
The current automatic two-year longevity increase provision does not reward performance and should be abolished. Pay bands and performance standards similar to those of the new civil service compensation should be adopted.
And it is time to implement continuum of service. The way things stand now, one can move easily from active duty to the Reserve components, civilian, and/or contractor status. However, there are very few ways (called ramps) that permit people to move from Reserve and civilian status back to active duty—for example, being reintegrated with the regular component—without career-ruining consequences.
Continuum of service would provide for a seamless integrated Total Force, with on- and off-ramps for military and civilians alike. Many military personnel leaders are talking about it as a means of accessing scarce skills as needed. For example, in 2003 Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called General Peter Schoomaker out of retirement to serve as Army Chief of Staff. But to implement this at lesser grades, many laws and, more important, traditions would have to change.
Smaller Crews Need More Training
By using competencies to determine training requirements, the Navy has planned and built ships for the future (such as the new, highly computerized Smart Ship) that require significantly fewer personnel. Both the Navy and Air Force are reducing active duty end strength in order to save money that can be used to build new weapons.
But new weapons are more complex. And fewer people are available to use these weapons, so they must be trained to assume multiple functions. Controversial though this may be, the limits of funds and the high cost of skilled personnel result in reducing crew size as much as possible.
We find similar examples in the Army and Marine Corps. However, these services put people in combat, while the Navy and Air Force man platforms. The two ground services are therefore increasing total end strength to build more force structure and combat capability.
More innovation and certification will have to be included, thereby allowing military personnel to respond to new mission requirements more quickly. Training and education should be used to develop multi-skilled personnel to handle newer technologies, thus reducing the personnel required for mission accomplishment.
As in the private sector, this training should involve improved certifications, more standardization, consolidation of redundant programs, and development of technologies.
Joint Is the Way to Go
Today's conflicts have demonstrated that lower-grade officers and enlisted personnel are increasingly involved in situations where they are making decisions that have strategic importance. As a result, further revisions to joint professional military education are needed.
Currently this education involves two levels. Phase One material is taught at the services' intermediate service schools and senior service schools; Phase Two at the Industrial War College, National War College, and Joint Forces Staff College.
Aside from more cultural and language proficiency, joint professional training and education need to be provided much earlier in careers, with changes to and lengthening of officers' careers. Therefore, intermediate service schools should come earlier, while senior service schools would come later.
The National War College should become a true National Security University, adding more leaders from other federal agencies as both students and faculty. This should be in addition to service war colleges, and it should come at about the 25-year point.
With longer careers, war college graduates could be expected to remain on active duty longer. Officers selected for War Colleges (Senior Service Schools) should be selected for, or already be promoted to, O-6. These officers should then be committed to stay in the service for at least 30 years, and be eligible for extended service beyond that as needed.
Tear Down the House
Our present system is like a modest house that was built in 1947, then added to and adjusted over the next 60 years as children came, grew, and left. The result today is an overburdened structure still sitting on the same foundation. We see many such old, chopped-up, inefficient houses in our neighborhoods. We also see them being torn down, while new houses go up.
We must rebuild our chopped-up, many-times-changed 1947 Manpower, Personnel, Training, and Education house. Instead of fiddling with it and making it even more complex and less satisfactory, let's have the foresight and willingness to start the long, difficult process of a total reformation. We need a state-of-the-art Human Capital Planning, Development, and Management System.
Colonel Smith was most recently the vice president for Manpower Analysis and Reserve Affairs at the Wexford Group International, now a CACI International company. He has been an analyst of manpower, human resources, training, and organizational policies and issues for 40 years, serving in leadership and policy positions at Headquarters U.S. Air Force, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Executive Office of the President. Smith is a Naval Academy graduate.
© 2007 U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Panel recommends jump in Tricare fees
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 21, 2007 5:52:09 EST
A Pentagon task force is recommending dramatic increases in pharmacy and health insurance expenses for military families, retirees and their families, arguing that higher fees may not cover rising costs but could have other benefits, including discouraging people from using their earned benefits.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/military_tricarereport_071220w/
Posted : Friday Dec 21, 2007 5:52:09 EST
A Pentagon task force is recommending dramatic increases in pharmacy and health insurance expenses for military families, retirees and their families, arguing that higher fees may not cover rising costs but could have other benefits, including discouraging people from using their earned benefits.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/military_tricarereport_071220w/
Pentagon task force urges 'modest' rise in TRICARE fees
By Otto Kreisher CongressDaily
December 20, 2007
The Defense Department task force seeking a way to ensure the quality, efficiency and fairness of the military healthcare system issued a final report Thursday with recommendations for higher fees for military retirees, which Congress rejected repeatedly when proposed by the Bush administration. The leaders of the congressionally created task force said a "modest" increase in enrollment fees would restore the balance between what the government and the beneficiaries pay.
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38900&dcn=todaysnews
December 20, 2007
The Defense Department task force seeking a way to ensure the quality, efficiency and fairness of the military healthcare system issued a final report Thursday with recommendations for higher fees for military retirees, which Congress rejected repeatedly when proposed by the Bush administration. The leaders of the congressionally created task force said a "modest" increase in enrollment fees would restore the balance between what the government and the beneficiaries pay.
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38900&dcn=todaysnews
Congress slashes Defense health supplemental funding request
By Bob Brewin bbrewin@govexec.com
December 20, 2007
Congress cut $561.7 million out of the Defense Department's $1.14 billion request in supplemental funding for health care, which is attached to the current fiscal 2008 omnibus appropriation bill, a move sharply decried by former top military health officials and veterans organizations.
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38903&dcn=todaysnews
December 20, 2007
Congress cut $561.7 million out of the Defense Department's $1.14 billion request in supplemental funding for health care, which is attached to the current fiscal 2008 omnibus appropriation bill, a move sharply decried by former top military health officials and veterans organizations.
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38903&dcn=todaysnews
Findings and Recommendations of Task Force on the Future of Military Healthcare Released
December 20, 2007
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England today received the findings and recommendations from the 14-member task force on the future of military healthcare.
The overview of recommendations was provided by the task force co-chairs, Gen. John Corley and Gail Wilensky.
They included:
* Better integration of purchased care and direct care at the point of delivery of healthcare
* Independent examination of financial controls to ensure healthcare for those eligible and to ensure that Tricare operates, as legally required, as a second payer when there is other health insurance
* Ways to improve wellness, preventive care, and disease management programs, and to measure the effectiveness of those programs, emphasizing the need for more coordination, leadership, and outreach outside of the department
* Recommendations for streamlining procurement systems and more effective contracting
* Continued attention on medical readiness of the Reserve component and close attention to the implementation and effectiveness of Tricare Reserve Select
* Restructuring of the cost-sharing structure for retirees and their families (not active duty and families), e.g., changes to enrollment fees, deductibles, co-payments, indexing, etc.), including the pharmacy benefit program, including a modest fee for the Tricare for Life program.
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11577
Report at http://www.dodfuturehealthcare.net/
DoD News Briefing with Gen. Corley and Gail Wilensky from the Pentagon Briefing Room, Arlington, Va <http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4112>
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England today received the findings and recommendations from the 14-member task force on the future of military healthcare.
The overview of recommendations was provided by the task force co-chairs, Gen. John Corley and Gail Wilensky.
They included:
* Better integration of purchased care and direct care at the point of delivery of healthcare
* Independent examination of financial controls to ensure healthcare for those eligible and to ensure that Tricare operates, as legally required, as a second payer when there is other health insurance
* Ways to improve wellness, preventive care, and disease management programs, and to measure the effectiveness of those programs, emphasizing the need for more coordination, leadership, and outreach outside of the department
* Recommendations for streamlining procurement systems and more effective contracting
* Continued attention on medical readiness of the Reserve component and close attention to the implementation and effectiveness of Tricare Reserve Select
* Restructuring of the cost-sharing structure for retirees and their families (not active duty and families), e.g., changes to enrollment fees, deductibles, co-payments, indexing, etc.), including the pharmacy benefit program, including a modest fee for the Tricare for Life program.
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11577
Report at http://www.dodfuturehealthcare.net/
DoD News Briefing with Gen. Corley and Gail Wilensky from the Pentagon Briefing Room, Arlington, Va <http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4112>
Report suggests strategies for managing older workers
By Alyssa Rosenberg arosenberg@govexec.com
December 20, 2007
A new report from a business research organization suggests that managers may need to adopt new approaches to older workers, but also indicates that a number of management and training tools can optimize the contributions and satisfaction of these employees.
"When companies face baby boomer retirements, they should step back and reevaluate their staffing strategy, both at the aggregate level and on a case-by-case basis, rather than automatically refilling positions," wrote Mary Young, a senior researcher at the Conference Board, who looked at 10 private-sector companies. "By integrating strategic workforce planning with long-term business planning, a company can differentiate potential threats from opportunities."
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38892&dcn=todaysnews
December 20, 2007
A new report from a business research organization suggests that managers may need to adopt new approaches to older workers, but also indicates that a number of management and training tools can optimize the contributions and satisfaction of these employees.
"When companies face baby boomer retirements, they should step back and reevaluate their staffing strategy, both at the aggregate level and on a case-by-case basis, rather than automatically refilling positions," wrote Mary Young, a senior researcher at the Conference Board, who looked at 10 private-sector companies. "By integrating strategic workforce planning with long-term business planning, a company can differentiate potential threats from opportunities."
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38892&dcn=todaysnews
Civilian nurses can get $30K to go Navy
The Navy has announced that it will sweeten an incentive used to lure civilian nurses onto active duty by paying them up to $30,000 to accept a commission as a Nurse Corps officer.
More at <http://cl.exct.net/?ju=fe20157472640d7a731c75&ls=fdf3117575660d7e7612737d&m=ff011577756600&l=fe8c15777262067b73&s=fde91577736d027877137977&jb=ffcf14&t=>
More at <http://cl.exct.net/?ju=fe20157472640d7a731c75&ls=fdf3117575660d7e7612737d&m=ff011577756600&l=fe8c15777262067b73&s=fde91577736d027877137977&jb=ffcf14&t=>
Lawmakers call for future Navy cruisers to be nuclear powered
By Greg Grant
House and Senate lawmakers are requiring the Navy to power its future classes of cruisers with nuclear reactors, unless the service decides that doing so isn't "in the national interest." This somewhat muddled provision is contained in the recently released fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill.
The provision states that all new ship classes of submarines, aircraft carriers and cruisers should be built with nuclear power plants. Since the Navy's plans for submarines and carriers already include nuclear propulsion, the provision would most directly affect the service's next-generation cruiser, designated CG(X). If nuclear powered, the service's designation for the ship would be CGN(X).
The Navy plans to award the contract for the lead ship of the CG(X) class of cruisers in 2011, at an estimated cost of $3.2 billion, and 18 more by 2023. Because of the long lead times needed to order nuclear components, procurement funds for the proposed cruiser's nuclear power plant would have to be included in the 2009 budget, currently being drafted by the Defense Department.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38865&dcn=e_gvet
House and Senate lawmakers are requiring the Navy to power its future classes of cruisers with nuclear reactors, unless the service decides that doing so isn't "in the national interest." This somewhat muddled provision is contained in the recently released fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill.
The provision states that all new ship classes of submarines, aircraft carriers and cruisers should be built with nuclear power plants. Since the Navy's plans for submarines and carriers already include nuclear propulsion, the provision would most directly affect the service's next-generation cruiser, designated CG(X). If nuclear powered, the service's designation for the ship would be CGN(X).
The Navy plans to award the contract for the lead ship of the CG(X) class of cruisers in 2011, at an estimated cost of $3.2 billion, and 18 more by 2023. Because of the long lead times needed to order nuclear components, procurement funds for the proposed cruiser's nuclear power plant would have to be included in the 2009 budget, currently being drafted by the Defense Department.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38865&dcn=e_gvet
Monday, December 17, 2007
Great White Fleet commemorated in Norfolk
By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Dec 17, 2007 6:43:19 EST
NORFOLK, Va. — One hundred years ago on Dec. 16, an armada of 16 American battleships pushed away from Hampton Roads on a 14-month circumnavigation of the globe to show the world what the U.S. Navy could do.
The Great White Fleet, as it was known because of its bright paintjob, was dispatched by President Theodore Roosevelt, a larger than life American leader who had been in his career, among other things, Navy secretary.
To mark the anniversary, current Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter hosted some 500 guests aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt — "America’s Big Stick" — pierside in its Norfolk homeport.
In a speech held in a hangar bay decorated with images and quotes of Roosevelt, Winter told the audience that "a maritime nation with maritime interests" needs a potent naval force always able to span the globe.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/navy_greatwhitefleet_071216/
Posted : Monday Dec 17, 2007 6:43:19 EST
NORFOLK, Va. — One hundred years ago on Dec. 16, an armada of 16 American battleships pushed away from Hampton Roads on a 14-month circumnavigation of the globe to show the world what the U.S. Navy could do.
The Great White Fleet, as it was known because of its bright paintjob, was dispatched by President Theodore Roosevelt, a larger than life American leader who had been in his career, among other things, Navy secretary.
To mark the anniversary, current Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter hosted some 500 guests aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt — "America’s Big Stick" — pierside in its Norfolk homeport.
In a speech held in a hangar bay decorated with images and quotes of Roosevelt, Winter told the audience that "a maritime nation with maritime interests" needs a potent naval force always able to span the globe.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/navy_greatwhitefleet_071216/
Wounded bonus bill speeds through Senate
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 14, 2007 19:44:46
Before leaving for the weekend, the Senate passed the Wounded Warrior Bonus Equity Act, a bill guaranteeing that a combat-related injury would not cost a service member any bonus or special pay.
The bill, S 2400, passed by voice vote and with no debate. It is not final because the House of Representatives has not passed the same bill, but similar proposals are pending in the House.
Under the bill, a service member entitled to a bonus or special pay before being injured would receive the full payment — including annual installments — if separated or retired because of the injury.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/military_woundedbonus_senate_071214/
Posted : Friday Dec 14, 2007 19:44:46
Before leaving for the weekend, the Senate passed the Wounded Warrior Bonus Equity Act, a bill guaranteeing that a combat-related injury would not cost a service member any bonus or special pay.
The bill, S 2400, passed by voice vote and with no debate. It is not final because the House of Representatives has not passed the same bill, but similar proposals are pending in the House.
Under the bill, a service member entitled to a bonus or special pay before being injured would receive the full payment — including annual installments — if separated or retired because of the injury.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/military_woundedbonus_senate_071214/
Panel hears VA, critics on suicides
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 14, 2007 11:47:56 EST
The father of a veteran who committed suicide teed off on the Department of Veterans Affairs at a congressional hearing Thursday, calling the VA’s mental health system "broken."
"The VA mental health system is broken in function, and understaffed in operation," Mike Bowman told the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. "There are many cases of soldiers coming to the VA for help and being turned away or misdiagnosed for [post-traumatic stress disorder] and then losing their battle with their demons."
His son, Spc. Timothy Noble Bowman, killed himself on Thanksgiving Day, 2005, eight months after returning from Iraq with his Illinois National Guard unit. He was 23.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/military_mentalhealth_071214w/
Posted : Friday Dec 14, 2007 11:47:56 EST
The father of a veteran who committed suicide teed off on the Department of Veterans Affairs at a congressional hearing Thursday, calling the VA’s mental health system "broken."
"The VA mental health system is broken in function, and understaffed in operation," Mike Bowman told the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. "There are many cases of soldiers coming to the VA for help and being turned away or misdiagnosed for [post-traumatic stress disorder] and then losing their battle with their demons."
His son, Spc. Timothy Noble Bowman, killed himself on Thanksgiving Day, 2005, eight months after returning from Iraq with his Illinois National Guard unit. He was 23.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/military_mentalhealth_071214w/
Military Health System debuts new Web presence
By Bob Brewin
The Military Health System operates many Web sites packed with useful information, but they had such drab interfaces and hard-to-navigate pages that true "jewels of information were hidden from our operational folks," Dr. S. Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs, said in an interview with Government Executive.
Casscells said he kicked off a redesign of the MHS Web site this October to make essential information more accessible to medical and nonmedical personnel and families, and to improve public knowledge of the system, an effort he characterized as "only halfway there."
To date, the repositioning of MHS' site includes a crisper look that owes a lot to commercial Web design, along with easier to navigate features accessible from a top-level series of buttons arranged under the MHS banner.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38853&dcn=e_gvet
The Military Health System operates many Web sites packed with useful information, but they had such drab interfaces and hard-to-navigate pages that true "jewels of information were hidden from our operational folks," Dr. S. Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs, said in an interview with Government Executive.
Casscells said he kicked off a redesign of the MHS Web site this October to make essential information more accessible to medical and nonmedical personnel and families, and to improve public knowledge of the system, an effort he characterized as "only halfway there."
To date, the repositioning of MHS' site includes a crisper look that owes a lot to commercial Web design, along with easier to navigate features accessible from a top-level series of buttons arranged under the MHS banner.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38853&dcn=e_gvet
Lawmakers push for chief management officers at agencies
By Ellizabeth Newell
Two key lawmakers are continuing to advocate the creation of a chief management officer position for federal agencies to ensure that management issues are a top priority and progress continues into the next administration.
Sens. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, have pushed for the new position for several years, focusing originally on the Defense and Homeland Security departments. While both those agencies have named CMOs, the senators fear the reforms might have been insufficiently comprehensive. The Government Accountability Office has called for full-time, senior-level chief operating officers or chief management officers with term appointments of five to seven years with a performance agreement.
"The federal government is no model to be followed for economy, efficiency, effectiveness, ethics, and the mere fact that we don't have these positions now is part of the problem and we need to resolve that," said Comptroller General David M. Walker.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38835&dcn=e_gvet
Two key lawmakers are continuing to advocate the creation of a chief management officer position for federal agencies to ensure that management issues are a top priority and progress continues into the next administration.
Sens. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, have pushed for the new position for several years, focusing originally on the Defense and Homeland Security departments. While both those agencies have named CMOs, the senators fear the reforms might have been insufficiently comprehensive. The Government Accountability Office has called for full-time, senior-level chief operating officers or chief management officers with term appointments of five to seven years with a performance agreement.
"The federal government is no model to be followed for economy, efficiency, effectiveness, ethics, and the mere fact that we don't have these positions now is part of the problem and we need to resolve that," said Comptroller General David M. Walker.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38835&dcn=e_gvet
Fedblog: What's 'Widely Attended'?
By Tom Shoop
Outside the bureaucracy, looking in.
Wednesday, December 12, 6:41 p.m. ET:
You may be aware that while there are strict limits on gifts that federal employees can accept from outside sources, there is a widely used exemption for free admission to "widely attended gatherings." But what exactly is a "widely attended gathering"? The Office of Government Ethics has issued some guidance
<http://www.usoge.gov/pages/daeograms/dgr_files/2007/do07047.txt> on that question.
Full column: http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/
Outside the bureaucracy, looking in.
Wednesday, December 12, 6:41 p.m. ET:
You may be aware that while there are strict limits on gifts that federal employees can accept from outside sources, there is a widely used exemption for free admission to "widely attended gatherings." But what exactly is a "widely attended gathering"? The Office of Government Ethics has issued some guidance
<http://www.usoge.gov/pages/daeograms/dgr_files/2007/do07047.txt> on that question.
Full column: http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/
DOD Gender Relations: Creating a Better Climate
http://www.defenselink.mil/home/features/2007/1213_gr/
Sexual Assault Report Shows System Works
WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2007 – Rather than being alarmed by 40 reports of sexual assault at the U.S. service academies during the 2006-2007 school year, officials are calling them a sign that programs designed to encourage victims to report are working. Story
Related Links:
Report
U.S. Military Academy
U.S. Naval Academy
U.S. Air Force Academy
Sexual Assault Report Shows System Works
WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2007 – Rather than being alarmed by 40 reports of sexual assault at the U.S. service academies during the 2006-2007 school year, officials are calling them a sign that programs designed to encourage victims to report are working. Story
Related Links:
Report
U.S. Military Academy
U.S. Naval Academy
U.S. Air Force Academy
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Great White Fleet celebrates 100 years
The Associated PressPosted : Tuesday Dec 11, 2007 7:45:19 EST
NORFOLK, Va. — Navy Secretary Donald Winter will be in Norfolk on Saturday to mark the 100th anniversary of the Navy’s Great White Fleet.
NORFOLK, Va. — Navy Secretary Donald Winter will be in Norfolk on Saturday to mark the 100th anniversary of the Navy’s Great White Fleet.
Sixteen battleships departed Hampton Roads on Dec. 16, 1907, for a 14-month global naval voyage.
The deployment included about 14,000 sailors, covered 43,000 miles and made 20 port calls on six continents. The ships that took part were later be dubbed the Great White Fleet because each was painted white.
Naval history says the trip was supposed to be a "grand pageant of American sea power."
The ceremony will take place on board the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt.
More info at:
Lawmakers told federal Web efforts hinder accessibility
By Gautham Nagesh
Information technology executives and congressional leaders today questioned the progress of the Bush administration's efforts to make public documents easily accessible online and to inform Americans how it is protecting their personal information, as required by law.
John Lewis Needham, manager of public content partnerships at Google Inc., told a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that the configurations of many agencies' Web sites prevent search engines such as Google from finding public documents and displaying them in search results. He cited technical barriers including outmoded Web sites and proprietary federal databases that require unique search forms.
The 2002 E-Government Act requires agencies to make documents more accessible to the public via the Internet in an effort to make government policy-making more transparent. The law required the Office of Management and Budget to oversee the creation of a governmentwide portal (now called USA.gov), where citizens can access information from agencies and other organizations. Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., Tuesday introduced a measure to reauthorize the E-Gov Act for another five years.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38804&dcn=e_gvet
Information technology executives and congressional leaders today questioned the progress of the Bush administration's efforts to make public documents easily accessible online and to inform Americans how it is protecting their personal information, as required by law.
John Lewis Needham, manager of public content partnerships at Google Inc., told a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that the configurations of many agencies' Web sites prevent search engines such as Google from finding public documents and displaying them in search results. He cited technical barriers including outmoded Web sites and proprietary federal databases that require unique search forms.
The 2002 E-Government Act requires agencies to make documents more accessible to the public via the Internet in an effort to make government policy-making more transparent. The law required the Office of Management and Budget to oversee the creation of a governmentwide portal (now called USA.gov), where citizens can access information from agencies and other organizations. Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., Tuesday introduced a measure to reauthorize the E-Gov Act for another five years.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38804&dcn=e_gvet
Media Roundtable: Disability Evaluation System Pilot
Media Roundtable with Michael Dominguez, Bill Carr, and Assistant Surgeon General for Warrior Care and Transition Brig. Gen. Michael Tucker from the Pentagon, Arlington, Va
Mon, 3 Dec 2007 15:55:00 -0600
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4100
Mon, 3 Dec 2007 15:55:00 -0600
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4100
Executive diversity legislation gains support
By Alyssa Rosenberg
Diversity organizations are confident that legislation aimed at increasing the number of women and minorities in the Senior Executive Service can pass Congress in 2008, and they are moving forward with training programs to help members move up in the ranks.
Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill. introduced bills in October that would create a resource center for oversight of SES diversity efforts, promote mentoring programs and collect and publish statistics in the Federal Register.
"It seems pretty noncontroversial," said Janet Kopenhaver, a representative for Federally Employed Women, a Washington advocacy group. "I would hope that we could get it through the Congress next year. They've had a lot on their plate. This is not one of these big issues that you read about, but maybe we can get it through on the merits."
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38669&dcn=e_wfw
Diversity organizations are confident that legislation aimed at increasing the number of women and minorities in the Senior Executive Service can pass Congress in 2008, and they are moving forward with training programs to help members move up in the ranks.
Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill. introduced bills in October that would create a resource center for oversight of SES diversity efforts, promote mentoring programs and collect and publish statistics in the Federal Register.
"It seems pretty noncontroversial," said Janet Kopenhaver, a representative for Federally Employed Women, a Washington advocacy group. "I would hope that we could get it through the Congress next year. They've had a lot on their plate. This is not one of these big issues that you read about, but maybe we can get it through on the merits."
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38669&dcn=e_wfw
Forward Observer: Military's Anguish
GovExec.com Today -- December 4, 2007
By George C. Wilson, CongressDaily
The stage is set for our armed services to relive the worst days of the 1970s when discipline broke down, crime ran rampant, race relations soured, many of the best and brightest in the junior officer corps left the military in disgust, planes couldn't fly and ships couldn't sail for want of spare parts and technical specialists.
Generals, admirals and Defense secretaries favored buying new over fixing up the old, generating a readiness crisis. It doesn't take a crystal ball to make those predictions, just time in grade.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38720&dcn=e_gvet
By George C. Wilson, CongressDaily
The stage is set for our armed services to relive the worst days of the 1970s when discipline broke down, crime ran rampant, race relations soured, many of the best and brightest in the junior officer corps left the military in disgust, planes couldn't fly and ships couldn't sail for want of spare parts and technical specialists.
Generals, admirals and Defense secretaries favored buying new over fixing up the old, generating a readiness crisis. It doesn't take a crystal ball to make those predictions, just time in grade.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38720&dcn=e_gvet
Tech Insider: Needed: Presidential IT IQ
What's happening and what's being discussed in the federal IT community.
Monday, December 3, 11:37 a.m. ET:
For years, information technology has been trying to break into the corporate board room or the high-level government management meetings where it can help inform strategies to accomplish an organization's goals, be it making more profit or serving the public interest. Despite assertions that state otherwise, IT still, by a long shot, has yet to really become a driver in helping government deliver public services and fundamentally transform how agencies do business. IT has tinkered at the edges.
Full column: http://blogs.govexec.com/techinsider/
Monday, December 3, 11:37 a.m. ET:
For years, information technology has been trying to break into the corporate board room or the high-level government management meetings where it can help inform strategies to accomplish an organization's goals, be it making more profit or serving the public interest. Despite assertions that state otherwise, IT still, by a long shot, has yet to really become a driver in helping government deliver public services and fundamentally transform how agencies do business. IT has tinkered at the edges.
Full column: http://blogs.govexec.com/techinsider/
Friday, November 30, 2007
England Emphasizes Importance of Internal Checks
By Donna MilesAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29, 2007 – Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England donned a Santa hat today to remind Defense Department managers to take the red-suited fellow’s lead by checking their lists twice to enforce internal controls within the department.
Internal controls are critical as DoD manages a budget of more than $500 billion, not including war costs, England told attendees at the Manager’s Internal Control Program and Check-It Campaign Conference at Fort McNair here. The way the department enforces its internal controls has a direct impact on the men and women in uniform defending the United States and its friends and allies, England said.
"We are the people behind the lines, and we make it possible for our men and women who serve on the front lines … to do their jobs. They count on us every single day. They count on us doing this job, and they count on us doing it right. And we know that we do it right when we check it every day," he said.
Report examines troop voting problems
Posted : Friday Nov 30, 2007 6:59:12 EST
NEW YORK — U.S. troops in Iraq and other places around the world are center stage in this year’s presidential election. But when it comes to casting votes for the candidates, American soldiers and other U.S. citizens living abroad often face daunting obstacles. A new report from the Century Foundation sheds light on this problem, which has received surprisingly little public attention. It also warns that with a frontloaded primary system and a large number of caucuses, U.S. military personnel and other citizens living abroad could find it more difficult than ever to have their votes count.
In a report titled "Bringing Voting Rights to Military and Overseas Voters," author Tova Wang, Democracy Fellow at the Century Foundation, explains how difficult it is for military and overseas voters to cast a ballot, examines the problems encountered in making sure that their votes are counted, and suggests reforms for both easing the procedural problems and improving turnout among this often neglected group of voters.
According to the report, a survey by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission showed that only 5.5 percent of eligible military and overseas voters actually participated successfully in the 2006 midterm election.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/ap_troopvoting_071130/
NEW YORK — U.S. troops in Iraq and other places around the world are center stage in this year’s presidential election. But when it comes to casting votes for the candidates, American soldiers and other U.S. citizens living abroad often face daunting obstacles. A new report from the Century Foundation sheds light on this problem, which has received surprisingly little public attention. It also warns that with a frontloaded primary system and a large number of caucuses, U.S. military personnel and other citizens living abroad could find it more difficult than ever to have their votes count.
In a report titled "Bringing Voting Rights to Military and Overseas Voters," author Tova Wang, Democracy Fellow at the Century Foundation, explains how difficult it is for military and overseas voters to cast a ballot, examines the problems encountered in making sure that their votes are counted, and suggests reforms for both easing the procedural problems and improving turnout among this often neglected group of voters.
According to the report, a survey by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission showed that only 5.5 percent of eligible military and overseas voters actually participated successfully in the 2006 midterm election.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/ap_troopvoting_071130/
Marine Corps continues building Special Operations Command force
By Megan Scully CongressDaily November 29, 2007
The commander of the Marine Corps' nascent Special Operations Command Thursday said he has roughly 65 percent of his force in place, with plans to fill all 2,600 positions by next year. Maj. Gen. Dennis Hejik said growing the new command, which was created in February 2006, initially proved challenging because he had to recruit from within the Marine Corps' ranks.
"That in itself was a little bit difficult to start with," Hejik said. But over the last 20 months, he has attracted hundreds of special operators, all of whom have combat experience. The command, Hejik added, is "a very top-heavy organization" by Marine Corps standards, with most personnel having eight to 10 years of experience. Of the 1,700 personnel under his command, Hejik said 70 are majors -- an unusually high number of mid-grade officers for the Corps.
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38691&dcn=todaysnews
The commander of the Marine Corps' nascent Special Operations Command Thursday said he has roughly 65 percent of his force in place, with plans to fill all 2,600 positions by next year. Maj. Gen. Dennis Hejik said growing the new command, which was created in February 2006, initially proved challenging because he had to recruit from within the Marine Corps' ranks.
"That in itself was a little bit difficult to start with," Hejik said. But over the last 20 months, he has attracted hundreds of special operators, all of whom have combat experience. The command, Hejik added, is "a very top-heavy organization" by Marine Corps standards, with most personnel having eight to 10 years of experience. Of the 1,700 personnel under his command, Hejik said 70 are majors -- an unusually high number of mid-grade officers for the Corps.
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38691&dcn=todaysnews
The Good Fight (religion in the workplace)
By Alyssa Rosenberg arosenberg@govexec.com
Government Executive November 15, 2007
Dispatches from opposite sides of the debate about religion in the workplace.
At the beginning of our first phone conversation, Mikey Weinstein asks me if I'm Jewish. At the end of our first e-mail exchange, Angie Tracey tells me to have a blessed evening. Weinstein has spent the past four years fighting what he calls a war against Christian proselytizing through the chain of command in the military; Tracey founded the first officially recognized Christian federal employee association in the nation.
Though they are separated by 1,900 miles, religious traditions, and civil and military backgrounds, Weinstein and Tracey personify the poles in a debate about the role religious faith plays when a person picks up a weapon or sits down at a computer in service of the U.S. government.
http://www.govexec.com/features/1107-15/1107-15s2.htm
Government Executive November 15, 2007
Dispatches from opposite sides of the debate about religion in the workplace.
At the beginning of our first phone conversation, Mikey Weinstein asks me if I'm Jewish. At the end of our first e-mail exchange, Angie Tracey tells me to have a blessed evening. Weinstein has spent the past four years fighting what he calls a war against Christian proselytizing through the chain of command in the military; Tracey founded the first officially recognized Christian federal employee association in the nation.
Though they are separated by 1,900 miles, religious traditions, and civil and military backgrounds, Weinstein and Tracey personify the poles in a debate about the role religious faith plays when a person picks up a weapon or sits down at a computer in service of the U.S. government.
http://www.govexec.com/features/1107-15/1107-15s2.htm
Senators urge closer eye on military housing
Lawmakers say Air Force overestimated demand, owes subcontractors
By Ben Evans - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Nov 29, 2007 19:39:02 EST
Two U.S. senators want the Pentagon to tighten its oversight of private housing construction on military bases, citing delays at four Air Force projects that could keep thousands of military families out of new homes for years.
Sens. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said they plan to introduce legislation next month aimed at holding contractors more accountable for the kind of problems that have plagued bases in their states and in Florida and Massachusetts.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/ap_housing_071129/
By Ben Evans - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Nov 29, 2007 19:39:02 EST
Two U.S. senators want the Pentagon to tighten its oversight of private housing construction on military bases, citing delays at four Air Force projects that could keep thousands of military families out of new homes for years.
Sens. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said they plan to introduce legislation next month aimed at holding contractors more accountable for the kind of problems that have plagued bases in their states and in Florida and Massachusetts.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/ap_housing_071129/
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Transcript of SECDEF Speech
Landon Lecture
Remarks as Delivered by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates
Manhattan, Kansas
Monday, November 26, 2007
Excerpt:
"[M]y message today is not about the defense budget or military power. My message is that if we are to meet the myriad challenges around the world in the coming decades, this country must strengthen other important elements of national power both institutionally and financially, and create the capability to integrate and apply all of the elements of national power to problems and challenges abroad. In short, based on my experience serving seven presidents, as a former Director of CIA and now as Secretary of Defense, I am here to make the case for strengthening our capacity to use "soft" power and for better integrating it with 'hard' power."
Transcript at http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=1199
Remarks as Delivered by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates
Manhattan, Kansas
Monday, November 26, 2007
Excerpt:
"[M]y message today is not about the defense budget or military power. My message is that if we are to meet the myriad challenges around the world in the coming decades, this country must strengthen other important elements of national power both institutionally and financially, and create the capability to integrate and apply all of the elements of national power to problems and challenges abroad. In short, based on my experience serving seven presidents, as a former Director of CIA and now as Secretary of Defense, I am here to make the case for strengthening our capacity to use "soft" power and for better integrating it with 'hard' power."
Transcript at http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=1199
The Hon. Ike Skelton on Civil-Military Relations
By Ike Skelton
November 2007
Congressman Ike Skelton (D-Mo) is Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. He is a graduate of Wentworth Military Academy and the University of Missouri at Columbia, where he received A.B. and L.L.B. degrees. He gave this keynote address at the conference, “Mind the Gap: Post-Iraq Civil Military Relations in America, sponsored by the Foreign Policy Research Institute and the Reserve Officers Association, held October 15, 2007, in Washington, D.C.
Videotapes, a conference report, and other conference papers are available at www.fpri.org/research/nationalsecurity/mindthegap.
Excerpt:
"Still, recently Congress has been the scene of what I consider to be an example of a breakdown in the acceptable roles and norms of civil-military relations. I am referring, of course, to the recent hearings with General David Petraeus on the Iraq War. It is nearly impossible to steer clear of the politics surrounding these hearings, but let us try for a moment to focus on the role the General found himself playing. Congress required the General to report on the progress in Iraq, and Congress required that the report be issued in public. This, I believe, is appropriate.
"However, in the weeks leading up the report, the President indicated that he would wait until the General’s testimony to Congress before he would announce the next phase of his Iraq War policy. The result was that the President largely abdicated his policymaking role and placed the burden of making U.S. war-related policy on the shoulders of a serving military officer. I spoke earlier of the natural constitutional tension that exists between the Legislative and Executive branches. The President should have received General Petraeus’ report in private first, and then issued his policy for the nation. At that time, it would have been more than appropriate to hold a hearing with General Petraeus to determine if that civilian-determined war policy was supportable by the facts presented in his report and his professional military judgment."
Transcript at http://www.fpri.org/enotes/200711.skelton.civilmilitaryrelations.html
November 2007
Congressman Ike Skelton (D-Mo) is Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. He is a graduate of Wentworth Military Academy and the University of Missouri at Columbia, where he received A.B. and L.L.B. degrees. He gave this keynote address at the conference, “Mind the Gap: Post-Iraq Civil Military Relations in America, sponsored by the Foreign Policy Research Institute and the Reserve Officers Association, held October 15, 2007, in Washington, D.C.
Videotapes, a conference report, and other conference papers are available at www.fpri.org/research/nationalsecurity/mindthegap.
Excerpt:
"Still, recently Congress has been the scene of what I consider to be an example of a breakdown in the acceptable roles and norms of civil-military relations. I am referring, of course, to the recent hearings with General David Petraeus on the Iraq War. It is nearly impossible to steer clear of the politics surrounding these hearings, but let us try for a moment to focus on the role the General found himself playing. Congress required the General to report on the progress in Iraq, and Congress required that the report be issued in public. This, I believe, is appropriate.
"However, in the weeks leading up the report, the President indicated that he would wait until the General’s testimony to Congress before he would announce the next phase of his Iraq War policy. The result was that the President largely abdicated his policymaking role and placed the burden of making U.S. war-related policy on the shoulders of a serving military officer. I spoke earlier of the natural constitutional tension that exists between the Legislative and Executive branches. The President should have received General Petraeus’ report in private first, and then issued his policy for the nation. At that time, it would have been more than appropriate to hold a hearing with General Petraeus to determine if that civilian-determined war policy was supportable by the facts presented in his report and his professional military judgment."
Transcript at http://www.fpri.org/enotes/200711.skelton.civilmilitaryrelations.html
Monday, November 26, 2007
Announcing New Blog: TFX Reader
TFX READER links to professional periodicals and popular military blogs. Posted (more or less) monthly.
Check out TFX READER today. Add it to your Favorites so you'll have links to professional periodicals at your fingertips whenever you need to look at them (the magazines, that is, not your fingertips).
http://www.tfxreader.blogspot.com/
Check out TFX READER today. Add it to your Favorites so you'll have links to professional periodicals at your fingertips whenever you need to look at them (the magazines, that is, not your fingertips).
http://www.tfxreader.blogspot.com/
Comfort mission: Public health or public relations?
Political value may overshadow better options, some say
By Chris Amos - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 26, 2007 6:08:31 EST
BALTIMORE — The hospital ship Comfort has operating rooms, a dental clinic, intensive care and neonatal care units, some of the most sophisticated medical imaging equipment in the world, and a flight deck that can accommodate the world’s largest helicopters.
On a wall near its quarterdeck are plaques and certificates from foreign governments visited on its recent four-month humanitarian deployment to 12 Caribbean and Latin American countries. On another wall there are pictures of a sailor playing basketball with Colombian children and a foreign man waving an American flag.
Navy medical officers familiar with the deployment say the photos and plaques — and not Comfort’s array of medical equipment — are the reason the ship is still in service, and the reason that Comfort, and not a smaller Navy ship with better logistical capability, was sent on the humanitarian deployment this summer.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/navy_comfort_071125w/
By Chris Amos - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 26, 2007 6:08:31 EST
BALTIMORE — The hospital ship Comfort has operating rooms, a dental clinic, intensive care and neonatal care units, some of the most sophisticated medical imaging equipment in the world, and a flight deck that can accommodate the world’s largest helicopters.
On a wall near its quarterdeck are plaques and certificates from foreign governments visited on its recent four-month humanitarian deployment to 12 Caribbean and Latin American countries. On another wall there are pictures of a sailor playing basketball with Colombian children and a foreign man waving an American flag.
Navy medical officers familiar with the deployment say the photos and plaques — and not Comfort’s array of medical equipment — are the reason the ship is still in service, and the reason that Comfort, and not a smaller Navy ship with better logistical capability, was sent on the humanitarian deployment this summer.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/navy_comfort_071125w/
High-tech helmet may help indicate injury
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Nov 26, 2007 5:44:57 EST
LEBANON, N.H. — A high-tech helmet invented by a New Hampshire company is helping football teams and the military learn more about head injuries.
The helmet and sensors created by research-and-development company Simbex LLC measures and records the force of impacts to the head. The system already is being used by many football teams looking to detect and prevent injuries. The military also has ordered some of the systems.
The Head Impact Telemetry System, or HIT system, includes a helmet and data transmitter and a console and can monitor dozens of football players or soldiers simultaneously.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/ap_hightechhelmet_071124/
Posted : Monday Nov 26, 2007 5:44:57 EST
LEBANON, N.H. — A high-tech helmet invented by a New Hampshire company is helping football teams and the military learn more about head injuries.
The helmet and sensors created by research-and-development company Simbex LLC measures and records the force of impacts to the head. The system already is being used by many football teams looking to detect and prevent injuries. The military also has ordered some of the systems.
The Head Impact Telemetry System, or HIT system, includes a helmet and data transmitter and a console and can monitor dozens of football players or soldiers simultaneously.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/ap_hightechhelmet_071124/
Data: Thousands of TBI cases off the record
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Sunday Nov 25, 2007 11:13:21 EST
Along with 20,000 other veterans, Marine Lance Cpl. Gene Landrus is not included in the Pentagon’s official count of U.S. troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s because his wound was to his brain and hidden from view.
Landrus — who faces medical separation from the Corps and is up for the Purple Heart for wounds sustained in a May 2006 roadside bomb attack outside Abu Ghraib, Iraq — said he did not realize the nausea, dizziness, memory loss and headaches he suffered after the blast were signs of a lasting brain injury.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/gns_tbi_071123/
Posted : Sunday Nov 25, 2007 11:13:21 EST
Along with 20,000 other veterans, Marine Lance Cpl. Gene Landrus is not included in the Pentagon’s official count of U.S. troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s because his wound was to his brain and hidden from view.
Landrus — who faces medical separation from the Corps and is up for the Purple Heart for wounds sustained in a May 2006 roadside bomb attack outside Abu Ghraib, Iraq — said he did not realize the nausea, dizziness, memory loss and headaches he suffered after the blast were signs of a lasting brain injury.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/gns_tbi_071123/
Injured Diplomats Get Little Support
By Tom Shoop Wednesday, November 21, 2007 09:57 AM
Jeff Klein of CQ Homeland Security notes one reason diplomats didn't respond with relish to the notion of forced assignments to Iraq: "Wrecked physically and mentally from terrorist attacks or duty in combat zones," he writes, "State Department employees from senior diplomats on down to foreign aid workers say they have too often had to fend for themselves when they were hurt."
http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2007/11/injured_diplomats_get_little_s.php
Jeff Klein of CQ Homeland Security notes one reason diplomats didn't respond with relish to the notion of forced assignments to Iraq: "Wrecked physically and mentally from terrorist attacks or duty in combat zones," he writes, "State Department employees from senior diplomats on down to foreign aid workers say they have too often had to fend for themselves when they were hurt."
http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2007/11/injured_diplomats_get_little_s.php
Younger generation redefines public service
By Gregg Sangillo, National Journal
President Kennedy's call for young people to serve their country once energized an entire generation, and government institutions such as the Peace Corps and the Foreign Service were often the beneficiaries. If a president made a similar appeal today, young people might respond by asking not what they could do for their government but what they could do for a nonprofit organization.
The very meaning of public service has changed, and the transformation has had huge ramifications in Washington. Young professionals today often choose careers in the nonprofit world, as opposed to traditional jobs in government agencies. The rise of nonprofits, advocacy groups, think tanks, and lobby shops has made it much harder for federal agencies to attract young people to government service. Even when aspiring public servants enter government, they are often enticed to leave by job offers in the nonprofit or private sector.
Greg Berger, a 23-year-old administrative assistant with Public Citizen, a group founded by Ralph Nader, liked the idea of working for an independent organization. "I was very attracted by the fact that they don't take corporate or government money. The fact that they have a mandate to really do what their members think is the right thing to do. And they're not tied down by any other major political goals. And I think that gives them an incredible amount of freedom," he says.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38641&dcn=e_wfw
President Kennedy's call for young people to serve their country once energized an entire generation, and government institutions such as the Peace Corps and the Foreign Service were often the beneficiaries. If a president made a similar appeal today, young people might respond by asking not what they could do for their government but what they could do for a nonprofit organization.
The very meaning of public service has changed, and the transformation has had huge ramifications in Washington. Young professionals today often choose careers in the nonprofit world, as opposed to traditional jobs in government agencies. The rise of nonprofits, advocacy groups, think tanks, and lobby shops has made it much harder for federal agencies to attract young people to government service. Even when aspiring public servants enter government, they are often enticed to leave by job offers in the nonprofit or private sector.
Greg Berger, a 23-year-old administrative assistant with Public Citizen, a group founded by Ralph Nader, liked the idea of working for an independent organization. "I was very attracted by the fact that they don't take corporate or government money. The fact that they have a mandate to really do what their members think is the right thing to do. And they're not tied down by any other major political goals. And I think that gives them an incredible amount of freedom," he says.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38641&dcn=e_wfw
Generational stereotyping seen as barrier to recruiting
By Alyssa Rosenberg
Workforce planners should avoid stereotyping the needs and expectations of different generations of federal workers, experts at the Human Capital Management: Federal 2007 conference said on Wednesday.
Younger workers "want to be challenged, and they like to be treated with respect," said John Allison Jr., deputy director for human capital at the Defense Intelligence Agency. "They don't like to be lumped into this category, Generation Y, because it's made up with individuals…. If I address them as a generation, they turn me off."
Their aversion to being treated as a phenomenon rather than as individuals may stem from some of the assumptions about younger workers, including that they are self-centered or lack commitments to organizations or jobs, Allison said.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38594&dcn=e_wfw
Workforce planners should avoid stereotyping the needs and expectations of different generations of federal workers, experts at the Human Capital Management: Federal 2007 conference said on Wednesday.
Younger workers "want to be challenged, and they like to be treated with respect," said John Allison Jr., deputy director for human capital at the Defense Intelligence Agency. "They don't like to be lumped into this category, Generation Y, because it's made up with individuals…. If I address them as a generation, they turn me off."
Their aversion to being treated as a phenomenon rather than as individuals may stem from some of the assumptions about younger workers, including that they are self-centered or lack commitments to organizations or jobs, Allison said.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38594&dcn=e_wfw
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Experts call for top leaders at agencies to commit to diversity
By Alyssa Rosenberg
Federal agencies need strong leadership commitment, structural changes and a willingness to confront internalized biases if they want to create a truly diverse workforce, speakers at a National Academy of Public Administration panel said on Friday.
"People look at mechanisms to improve diversity, but the bottom line is if you don't have support at the top, those other things don't matter," said John Palguta, vice president for policy at the Partnership for Public Service. "Managers need to be held accountable for providing that culture."
Tania Shand, staff director for the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia, said a new bill introduced by Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., would provide some of that structural reform and accountability. The bill would create three-person panels that include a woman and a member of a racial minority group to review appointments to Senior Executive Service positions, and then report those appointments to agency heads.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38637&dcn=e_hsw
Federal agencies need strong leadership commitment, structural changes and a willingness to confront internalized biases if they want to create a truly diverse workforce, speakers at a National Academy of Public Administration panel said on Friday.
"People look at mechanisms to improve diversity, but the bottom line is if you don't have support at the top, those other things don't matter," said John Palguta, vice president for policy at the Partnership for Public Service. "Managers need to be held accountable for providing that culture."
Tania Shand, staff director for the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia, said a new bill introduced by Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., would provide some of that structural reform and accountability. The bill would create three-person panels that include a woman and a member of a racial minority group to review appointments to Senior Executive Service positions, and then report those appointments to agency heads.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38637&dcn=e_hsw
Bush orders agencies to appoint 'performance improvement officers'
By Robert Brodsky
President Bush has issued an executive order requiring heads of federal agencies to set clear annual goals, lay out specific plans for achieving them, and designate "performance improvement officers" to assess progress toward meeting the goals and report on it to the public.
With the order, issued Tuesday and detailed at a press briefing today, the Bush administration hopes to establish a lasting legacy for its management improvement agenda.
The performance improvement officers will be required to oversee agencies' "strategic plans, annual performance plans and annual performance reports as required by law," the order states. The officers also will review the goals of agency programs to determine if they are "sufficiently aggressive toward full achievement of the purposes of the program," and "realistic in light of authority and resources assigned to the specified agency personnel."
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38565&dcn=e_tma
Executive Order at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/11/20071113-9.html
President Bush has issued an executive order requiring heads of federal agencies to set clear annual goals, lay out specific plans for achieving them, and designate "performance improvement officers" to assess progress toward meeting the goals and report on it to the public.
With the order, issued Tuesday and detailed at a press briefing today, the Bush administration hopes to establish a lasting legacy for its management improvement agenda.
The performance improvement officers will be required to oversee agencies' "strategic plans, annual performance plans and annual performance reports as required by law," the order states. The officers also will review the goals of agency programs to determine if they are "sufficiently aggressive toward full achievement of the purposes of the program," and "realistic in light of authority and resources assigned to the specified agency personnel."
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38565&dcn=e_tma
Executive Order at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/11/20071113-9.html
Senate panel OKs bill to expand telework eligibility
By Andy Leonatti, CongressDaily
Citing the need to reduce long commutes and traffic congestion, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved a bill make more federal employees eligible to work from home or other remote sites.
The bill, S. 1000, was adopted by unanimous voice vote. It would make all federal employees eligible to telework unless they fall under categories that would prohibit it. Current law makes all federal employees ineligible to telecommute unless granted permission.
Employees who handle secure materials, work in protecting national security or the intelligence field, or have a job requiring their physical presence still would be ineligible.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38584&dcn=e_hsw
Citing the need to reduce long commutes and traffic congestion, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved a bill make more federal employees eligible to work from home or other remote sites.
The bill, S. 1000, was adopted by unanimous voice vote. It would make all federal employees eligible to telework unless they fall under categories that would prohibit it. Current law makes all federal employees ineligible to telecommute unless granted permission.
Employees who handle secure materials, work in protecting national security or the intelligence field, or have a job requiring their physical presence still would be ineligible.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38584&dcn=e_hsw
FCC announces creation of telehealth initiative
By Aliya Sternstein, National Journal's Technology Daily
The FCC is moving into the healthcare arena. Chairman Kevin Martin last week announced a plan for a $400 million effort to expand treatment access for Americans in rural and impoverished areas via high-speed Internet services.
The expansion of long-distance healthcare, known as telehealth, will help lay the foundation for the nationwide exchange of e-health records, according to experts. The president has set a goal of ensuring that most Americans have access to e-health records by 2014.
The FCC's plan will fund dedicated broadband networks for telehealth activities, like videoconference consultations or second opinions from out-of-state specialists. Telemedicine is intended to cuts costs, travel time and medical errors, especially for people in remote or poverty-stricken regions of the country.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38621&dcn=e_gvet
The FCC is moving into the healthcare arena. Chairman Kevin Martin last week announced a plan for a $400 million effort to expand treatment access for Americans in rural and impoverished areas via high-speed Internet services.
The expansion of long-distance healthcare, known as telehealth, will help lay the foundation for the nationwide exchange of e-health records, according to experts. The president has set a goal of ensuring that most Americans have access to e-health records by 2014.
The FCC's plan will fund dedicated broadband networks for telehealth activities, like videoconference consultations or second opinions from out-of-state specialists. Telemedicine is intended to cuts costs, travel time and medical errors, especially for people in remote or poverty-stricken regions of the country.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38621&dcn=e_gvet
HHS Turns Up Heat on ePrescribe
Monday, November 19, 3:56 p.m. ET:
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt wrote <http://secretarysblog.hhs.gov/my_weblog/> in his blog that he wants to see Medicare and Medicaid and large federal health care providers make e-prescribing "a mandatory part of medical practice soon."
Full column: http://blogs.govexec.com/techinsider/
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt wrote <http://secretarysblog.hhs.gov/my_weblog/> in his blog that he wants to see Medicare and Medicaid and large federal health care providers make e-prescribing "a mandatory part of medical practice soon."
Full column: http://blogs.govexec.com/techinsider/
House Armed Services panel fills vacancies
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 19, 2007 16:36:36 EST
The House Armed Services Committee has filled two vacancies, one for each political party.
Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., who will serve on the military personnel and strategic forces subcommittees, fills an opening left by the resignation earlier this year of Rep. Martin Meehan, who represented the same congressional district.
The new Republican on the committee is Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado, who fills a vacancy created by the death of Rep. Jo Ann Davis, R-Va. Lamborn, whose congressional district includes Colorado Springs, is also a member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. He was assigned to the readiness and seapower subcommittees.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/military_housecommittee_vacancies_071119w/
Posted : Monday Nov 19, 2007 16:36:36 EST
The House Armed Services Committee has filled two vacancies, one for each political party.
Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., who will serve on the military personnel and strategic forces subcommittees, fills an opening left by the resignation earlier this year of Rep. Martin Meehan, who represented the same congressional district.
The new Republican on the committee is Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado, who fills a vacancy created by the death of Rep. Jo Ann Davis, R-Va. Lamborn, whose congressional district includes Colorado Springs, is also a member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. He was assigned to the readiness and seapower subcommittees.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/military_housecommittee_vacancies_071119w/
Army, Marine Corps struggle with mandate to expand
By Art Pine, National Journal
The Bush administration's plan to increase the size of the Army and the Marine Corps by 92,000 troops over the next five years is running into trouble.
In January, Defense Secretary Robert Gates proposed adding 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 marines to bring the Army's total to 547,000 troops and the Marines' to 202,000. The idea was to relieve pressure on today's overstressed ground forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and to better equip the military to deal with similar unconventional wars in the future. The move, designed to provide six more combat brigade teams and their support units, complements President Bush's order late last year to boost U.S. troop strength temporarily for the current "surge" in Iraq.
Now, nine months later, the services are clearly struggling with the expansion, and there are signs that the effort may face serious problems. Although Army leaders announced last month that they will meet Gates's targets by 2010 -- two years sooner than the secretary called for -- outside analysts say that the numbers belie such optimism. The Army fell short of its monthly recruiting goals in May and June, and it has begun lowering standards for new entrants in an effort to fill the gap. It also is paying unprecedented bonuses -- as much as $35,000 -- to retain midlevel officers and sergeants.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38540&dcn=e_wfw
The Bush administration's plan to increase the size of the Army and the Marine Corps by 92,000 troops over the next five years is running into trouble.
In January, Defense Secretary Robert Gates proposed adding 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 marines to bring the Army's total to 547,000 troops and the Marines' to 202,000. The idea was to relieve pressure on today's overstressed ground forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and to better equip the military to deal with similar unconventional wars in the future. The move, designed to provide six more combat brigade teams and their support units, complements President Bush's order late last year to boost U.S. troop strength temporarily for the current "surge" in Iraq.
Now, nine months later, the services are clearly struggling with the expansion, and there are signs that the effort may face serious problems. Although Army leaders announced last month that they will meet Gates's targets by 2010 -- two years sooner than the secretary called for -- outside analysts say that the numbers belie such optimism. The Army fell short of its monthly recruiting goals in May and June, and it has begun lowering standards for new entrants in an effort to fill the gap. It also is paying unprecedented bonuses -- as much as $35,000 -- to retain midlevel officers and sergeants.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38540&dcn=e_wfw
I Want You … Badly - A complete guide to Uncle Sam's recruiting incentives
By Phillip Carter and Brad Flora
Posted Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007, at 7:24 AM ET
Last month, Pentagon officials proudly trumpeted their recruiting and retention results, announcing they had met or exceeded the past year's goals for every branch of the service except the Army and Air National Guard. According to Undersecretary of Defense David Chu, the results show the continuing viability of the "all-volunteer" military, even as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars grind on. Top Pentagon officials say these numbers also refute arguments that Iraq is breaking the force, or that we need a return to the draft. However, critics charge that the huge and varied incentives being offered to recruits show the desperation of the all-volunteer force and its inability to cope with the sustained demands of the Iraq war. Others point out that these recruitment programs focus too much on quantity, rather than quality, leading to a lower-caliber military.
Slate's comprehensive list of Army recruiting and retention programs [complete with links to regs and releases] illustrates how the service is stretching to make manpower ends meet.
http://www.slate.com/id/2177426/
Posted Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007, at 7:24 AM ET
Last month, Pentagon officials proudly trumpeted their recruiting and retention results, announcing they had met or exceeded the past year's goals for every branch of the service except the Army and Air National Guard. According to Undersecretary of Defense David Chu, the results show the continuing viability of the "all-volunteer" military, even as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars grind on. Top Pentagon officials say these numbers also refute arguments that Iraq is breaking the force, or that we need a return to the draft. However, critics charge that the huge and varied incentives being offered to recruits show the desperation of the all-volunteer force and its inability to cope with the sustained demands of the Iraq war. Others point out that these recruitment programs focus too much on quantity, rather than quality, leading to a lower-caliber military.
Slate's comprehensive list of Army recruiting and retention programs [complete with links to regs and releases] illustrates how the service is stretching to make manpower ends meet.
http://www.slate.com/id/2177426/
Friday, November 9, 2007
Mattis Watch Bulletin: JFCOM Change of Command
Allied Command Transformation, U.S. Joint Forces Command honor outgoing commander, welcome new leader
NATO's Allied Command Transformation and U.S. Joint Forces Command honored its outgoing commander, Air Force Gen. Lance Smith, and welcomed the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation and commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command, Marine Gen. James Mattis, in a change of command ceremony aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington.
By MCC(SW/AW) Chris Hoffpauir USJFCOM Public Affairs
(NORFOLK, Va. – Nov. 9, 2007) – Air Force Gen. Lance Smith relinquished command of NATO's Allied Command Transformation (ACT) and U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) to Marine Gen. James Mattis at a change of command ceremony aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington here today.
As Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT), Mattis will lead the transformation of NATO's military structures, forces, capabilities and doctrines to improve interoperability and military effectiveness of the Alliance and its partner nations.
As commander, U.S. Joint Forces Command, he will oversee maximizing present and future military capabilities of the United States by leading the transformation of joint forces in the areas of providing joint forces to combatant commanders, joint training, joint interoperability, and joint innovation and experimentation.
***
Mattis discussed his enthusiasm in taking over both organizations.
"We have all inherited our freedoms here today thanks to the blood, sweat and tears of our predecessors, and here today ambassador, secretary, chairman, I pledge to give all I've got to build the strongest coalitions, the most agile forces, and the most ethical defenders of our nations, because we too have an obligation to pass on these freedoms to our children… and our children's children. Thank you. I look forward to working with all of you."
***
More at http://www.jfcom.mil/newslink/storyarchive/2007/pa110907.htm
Senate Confirmation Hearing: http://www.jfcom.mil/newslink/storyarchive/2007/pa092707.htm
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Report seeks 'smart power' overhaul of federal operations
By Greg Grant ggrant@govexec.com
November 6, 2007
America's global image is at an all-time low and is heading lower, crippling Washington's ability to shape world events and allowing other nations to usurp American leadership, concludes a recent report by a Washington think tank. The reason is that since the Sept. 11 attacks, America has elevated the war on terror to the central component of our global engagement, said study co-chair and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
Since Sept. 11, Americans have been "exporting our fear and anger," said Armitage at an event Tuesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which sponsored the Commission on Smart Power report. "I believe we need to get back to exporting more traditional values, such as hope, optimism and tolerance and opportunity."
More at http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38492&dcn=todaysnews
November 6, 2007
America's global image is at an all-time low and is heading lower, crippling Washington's ability to shape world events and allowing other nations to usurp American leadership, concludes a recent report by a Washington think tank. The reason is that since the Sept. 11 attacks, America has elevated the war on terror to the central component of our global engagement, said study co-chair and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
Since Sept. 11, Americans have been "exporting our fear and anger," said Armitage at an event Tuesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which sponsored the Commission on Smart Power report. "I believe we need to get back to exporting more traditional values, such as hope, optimism and tolerance and opportunity."
More at http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38492&dcn=todaysnews
New rules for recruits with criminal records?
By Lolita C. Baldor - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Nov 7, 2007 5:54:37 EST
WASHINGTON — Faced with higher recruiting goals, the Pentagon is quietly looking for ways to make it easier for people with minor criminal records to join the military, The Associated Press has learned.
The review, in its early stages, comes as the number of Army recruits needing waivers for bad behavior — such as trying drugs, stealing, carrying weapons on school grounds and fighting — rose from 15 percent in 2006 to 18 percent this year. And it reflects the services’ growing use of criminal, health and other waivers to build their ranks.
More at http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/ap_recruitwaivers_071106/
Posted : Wednesday Nov 7, 2007 5:54:37 EST
WASHINGTON — Faced with higher recruiting goals, the Pentagon is quietly looking for ways to make it easier for people with minor criminal records to join the military, The Associated Press has learned.
The review, in its early stages, comes as the number of Army recruits needing waivers for bad behavior — such as trying drugs, stealing, carrying weapons on school grounds and fighting — rose from 15 percent in 2006 to 18 percent this year. And it reflects the services’ growing use of criminal, health and other waivers to build their ranks.
More at http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/ap_recruitwaivers_071106/
Rising Expectations (GAO employees' union)
By Brittany R. Ballenstedt bballenstedt@govexec.com
November 7, 2007
More than a year ago, about 20 employees from the Government Accountability Office began meeting in the basement of Holy Rosary Church in Washington, charting their plans to bring in the first union in the agency's 86-year history.
On Sept. 19, the plan came to fruition. Out of an eligible bargaining unit of 1,800, analysts voted 897-445 to join the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, giving employees the ability to negotiate with management over pay and other personnel policies. And in an era when human capital reform and pay for performance in the federal government seem inevitable, the case at GAO indicates how older and even younger generations of employees are increasingly seeking a voice in the way management decisions are set.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1107/110707mm.htm
November 7, 2007
More than a year ago, about 20 employees from the Government Accountability Office began meeting in the basement of Holy Rosary Church in Washington, charting their plans to bring in the first union in the agency's 86-year history.
On Sept. 19, the plan came to fruition. Out of an eligible bargaining unit of 1,800, analysts voted 897-445 to join the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, giving employees the ability to negotiate with management over pay and other personnel policies. And in an era when human capital reform and pay for performance in the federal government seem inevitable, the case at GAO indicates how older and even younger generations of employees are increasingly seeking a voice in the way management decisions are set.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1107/110707mm.htm
DoD civilians will take more command positions
Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Nov 6, 2007 14:07:39 EST
Career civilian executives at the Defense Department will be taking over more leadership posts held by generals and admirals in the coming months and years.
Positions overseeing logistics and other non-warfighting operations — traditionally considered as military billets — will increasingly be done by members of the Defense Department’s Senior Executive Service (SES), said Patricia Bradshaw, the deputy undersecretary of Defense for civilian personnel policy, in a Nov. 2 interview.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/fed_seniorses_071106/
Posted : Tuesday Nov 6, 2007 14:07:39 EST
Career civilian executives at the Defense Department will be taking over more leadership posts held by generals and admirals in the coming months and years.
Positions overseeing logistics and other non-warfighting operations — traditionally considered as military billets — will increasingly be done by members of the Defense Department’s Senior Executive Service (SES), said Patricia Bradshaw, the deputy undersecretary of Defense for civilian personnel policy, in a Nov. 2 interview.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/fed_seniorses_071106/
Love, via Video, from Alaska
What's Brewin: There's Simple, Then There's Complex
By Bob Brewin
In 2006, Celine Johnson, chief of the Local Network Operations and Security Center of the 507th Signal Company, which is part of the 59th Signal Battalion at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, wanted to find a way to electronically bridge the gap between families on the base and their husbands, wives, mothers and fathers in the 172nd Stryker Brigade deployed to Iraq.
Sure, the soldiers had phones and e-mail, but Johnson wanted to add a video system that would help families see, as well as talk, to each other. She knew she needed a secure system that would conserve bandwidth. While attending the Army LandWarNet conference in September 2006, Johnson discovered VIDITalk, a streaming video system. She obtained a license and had the system up and running just in time to deal with a crisis: a three-month tour of duty extension for the 172nd in late 2006.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38465&dcn=e_gvet
By Bob Brewin
In 2006, Celine Johnson, chief of the Local Network Operations and Security Center of the 507th Signal Company, which is part of the 59th Signal Battalion at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, wanted to find a way to electronically bridge the gap between families on the base and their husbands, wives, mothers and fathers in the 172nd Stryker Brigade deployed to Iraq.
Sure, the soldiers had phones and e-mail, but Johnson wanted to add a video system that would help families see, as well as talk, to each other. She knew she needed a secure system that would conserve bandwidth. While attending the Army LandWarNet conference in September 2006, Johnson discovered VIDITalk, a streaming video system. She obtained a license and had the system up and running just in time to deal with a crisis: a three-month tour of duty extension for the 172nd in late 2006.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38465&dcn=e_gvet
Forward Observer: Knights Among Us (EOD Volunteers)
By George C. Wilson, CongressDaily
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The biggest issue polarizing Congress is the Iraq War.
I came to this sprawling base on the Florida Panhandle to find out why our uniformed young men and women are volunteering to do the most dangerous job in that war: Finding and disarming the bombs before they blow up and kill their military buddies and Iraqi civilians.
Their reasons make the so-called debate in Congress look all the more like petty partisanship.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38472&dcn=e_gvet
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The biggest issue polarizing Congress is the Iraq War.
I came to this sprawling base on the Florida Panhandle to find out why our uniformed young men and women are volunteering to do the most dangerous job in that war: Finding and disarming the bombs before they blow up and kill their military buddies and Iraqi civilians.
Their reasons make the so-called debate in Congress look all the more like petty partisanship.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38472&dcn=e_gvet
Report praises OPM's workforce planning
By Alyssa Rosenberg
The Office of Personnel Management has taken significant steps to address concerns about leadership and workforce management raised by the 2004 Federal Human Capital Survey, but could improve a morale gap between General Schedule and Senior Executive Service employees and centralize its workforce planning, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
"The results of the 2004 FHCS and the responses of the focus groups [convened in response to the survey] showed that OPM employees were most concerned with leadership and leadership's ability to deal with staff about policies and performance," the report (GAO-08-11) noted. "Employees identified additional problem areas for OPM, including lack of management support, inadequate training for supervisors and managers on performance culture and accountability, and a lack of senior executive interest in and respect for employees."
GAO identified interpersonal skills as a key area where managers and supervisors needed to improve, and issued a requirement that senior executives, managers and supervisors develop plans to close those competency gaps, according to the report.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38473&dcn=e_gvet
The Office of Personnel Management has taken significant steps to address concerns about leadership and workforce management raised by the 2004 Federal Human Capital Survey, but could improve a morale gap between General Schedule and Senior Executive Service employees and centralize its workforce planning, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
"The results of the 2004 FHCS and the responses of the focus groups [convened in response to the survey] showed that OPM employees were most concerned with leadership and leadership's ability to deal with staff about policies and performance," the report (GAO-08-11) noted. "Employees identified additional problem areas for OPM, including lack of management support, inadequate training for supervisors and managers on performance culture and accountability, and a lack of senior executive interest in and respect for employees."
GAO identified interpersonal skills as a key area where managers and supervisors needed to improve, and issued a requirement that senior executives, managers and supervisors develop plans to close those competency gaps, according to the report.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38473&dcn=e_gvet
Pilot project on handling veterans' employment complaints called inconclusive
By Brittany R. Ballenstedt
A demonstration project designed to study which of two federal agencies is better suited to investigate military service members' complaints about their federal employment rights was inconclusive and merits further review, members of a Senate committee said Wednesday.
Congress created the demonstration project in 2004 after criticism from several Guard members and reservists that the Labor Department's Veterans Employment and Training Service took far too long to investigate alleged violations of the 1994 Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act at federal agencies. The law is designed to protect veterans from employment discrimination resulting from their service.
"As our troops are returning home from battle, many of them seek to return to the jobs they held prior to their military service," said Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii. "I must admit to being particularly upset at the volume of claims related to federal service."
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38448&dcn=e_gvet
A demonstration project designed to study which of two federal agencies is better suited to investigate military service members' complaints about their federal employment rights was inconclusive and merits further review, members of a Senate committee said Wednesday.
Congress created the demonstration project in 2004 after criticism from several Guard members and reservists that the Labor Department's Veterans Employment and Training Service took far too long to investigate alleged violations of the 1994 Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act at federal agencies. The law is designed to protect veterans from employment discrimination resulting from their service.
"As our troops are returning home from battle, many of them seek to return to the jobs they held prior to their military service," said Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii. "I must admit to being particularly upset at the volume of claims related to federal service."
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38448&dcn=e_gvet
Firm tracks brain waves to find stressed troops
Max Jarman - The Arizona Republic
Posted : Thursday Nov 1, 2007 13:16:45 EDT
Imagine a critical wartime mission with lives on the line. There are no outward signs of agitation, but several key soldiers are so stressed that the operation could be in jeopardy.
New technology, being developed by Honeywell International's aerospace division, could alert the commanding officer, and the troubled fighters could be replaced.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/gns_brainwaves_071101/
Posted : Thursday Nov 1, 2007 13:16:45 EDT
Imagine a critical wartime mission with lives on the line. There are no outward signs of agitation, but several key soldiers are so stressed that the operation could be in jeopardy.
New technology, being developed by Honeywell International's aerospace division, could alert the commanding officer, and the troubled fighters could be replaced.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/gns_brainwaves_071101/
E-health woes in the military frustrate lawmakers
By Aliya Sternstein, National Journal's Technology Daily
At the third hearing on the topic this year, lawmakers on Wednesday struggled to understand why the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs continue to have problems electronically sharing information necessary to treat service members and veterans.
"I hope and I expect that DOD and VA will tell us today that, by no more than a year from now, clinicians in DOD and VA will have full electronic access to the medical information they need to treat their patients, whether that information resides in computers owned by DOD or by VA," Arizona Democrat Harry Mitchell, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, said at a hearing.
According to findings released at the hearing by the Government Accountability Office, the departments have ad hoc processes in place if there is an immediate need to provide data on severely wounded service members to VA centers that specialize in treating such patients. The manual workarounds, like scanning paper records, are generally feasible only because the number of such patients is small.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38372&dcn=e_gvet
At the third hearing on the topic this year, lawmakers on Wednesday struggled to understand why the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs continue to have problems electronically sharing information necessary to treat service members and veterans.
"I hope and I expect that DOD and VA will tell us today that, by no more than a year from now, clinicians in DOD and VA will have full electronic access to the medical information they need to treat their patients, whether that information resides in computers owned by DOD or by VA," Arizona Democrat Harry Mitchell, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, said at a hearing.
According to findings released at the hearing by the Government Accountability Office, the departments have ad hoc processes in place if there is an immediate need to provide data on severely wounded service members to VA centers that specialize in treating such patients. The manual workarounds, like scanning paper records, are generally feasible only because the number of such patients is small.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38372&dcn=e_gvet
Report: Contracting workforce needs more training
By Elizabeth Newell
A recent survey of the skills of the federal acquisition workforce shows that while contracting officials generally are operating at expected levels, they could benefit from additional training to bridge competency gaps.
The survey by the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the Federal Acquisition Institute aimed to help determine where resources should be concentrated to improve or maintain essential skills. OMB touted the report as "the first-ever baseline analysis of the proficiency levels of the civilian agency contracting workforce."
OFPP and FAI conducted the survey between April and May and had 5,400 respondents. The vast majority fit into the desired GS-1102 contracting officer or specialist category.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38356&dcn=e_gvet
A recent survey of the skills of the federal acquisition workforce shows that while contracting officials generally are operating at expected levels, they could benefit from additional training to bridge competency gaps.
The survey by the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the Federal Acquisition Institute aimed to help determine where resources should be concentrated to improve or maintain essential skills. OMB touted the report as "the first-ever baseline analysis of the proficiency levels of the civilian agency contracting workforce."
OFPP and FAI conducted the survey between April and May and had 5,400 respondents. The vast majority fit into the desired GS-1102 contracting officer or specialist category.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38356&dcn=e_gvet
Rigid pay systems listed among top workforce challenges
By Brittany R. Ballenstedt
Rigid pay systems and leadership skills gaps are among the challenges agencies will face as they seek to offset a talent shortage expected over the next decade, top government officials and an outside observer said Tuesday.
At a breakfast sponsored by the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute and the management and consulting firm Accenture, representatives from three agencies and a nonprofit group agreed that federal officials should immediately begin planning for how they will address such challenges.
If that doesn't happen, "rather than getting the best of the brightest, we're going to end up with the best of the desperate," said John Palguta, vice president for policy and research at the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38349&dcn=e_gvet
Rigid pay systems and leadership skills gaps are among the challenges agencies will face as they seek to offset a talent shortage expected over the next decade, top government officials and an outside observer said Tuesday.
At a breakfast sponsored by the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute and the management and consulting firm Accenture, representatives from three agencies and a nonprofit group agreed that federal officials should immediately begin planning for how they will address such challenges.
If that doesn't happen, "rather than getting the best of the brightest, we're going to end up with the best of the desperate," said John Palguta, vice president for policy and research at the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38349&dcn=e_gvet
Lawmakers probe health care staffing shortages at VA
By Brittany R. Ballenstedt
In the face of a critical shortage of health care professionals at the Veterans Health Administration, stronger incentives are needed to attract top talent into the workforce, group representatives told a House subcommittee Thursday.
"Shortages in health care staff threaten the VHA's ability to provide quality care and treatment to veterans," Joseph Wilson, assistant director of veterans affairs and rehabilitation for the American Legion, told the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Health.
By 2020, nurse and physician retirements are expected to create a shortage of about 24,000 physicians and almost 1 million nurses nationwide, according to government estimates. Further complicating the shortage is a lack of teaching faculty and classroom space in universities, which caused more than 42,000 qualified applicants to be turned away from nursing schools last year, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing reported separately.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38325&dcn=e_gvet
In the face of a critical shortage of health care professionals at the Veterans Health Administration, stronger incentives are needed to attract top talent into the workforce, group representatives told a House subcommittee Thursday.
"Shortages in health care staff threaten the VHA's ability to provide quality care and treatment to veterans," Joseph Wilson, assistant director of veterans affairs and rehabilitation for the American Legion, told the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Health.
By 2020, nurse and physician retirements are expected to create a shortage of about 24,000 physicians and almost 1 million nurses nationwide, according to government estimates. Further complicating the shortage is a lack of teaching faculty and classroom space in universities, which caused more than 42,000 qualified applicants to be turned away from nursing schools last year, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing reported separately.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38325&dcn=e_gvet
Navy wants under 1,000 sailors on new carriers
By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Oct 22, 2007 8:34:26 EDT
The Navy wants to figure out a way to put an aircraft carrier to sea with a crew of fewer than 1,000 sailors.
Huh? Or better, how?
In an era when manpower costs devour 60 percent of annual Navy budgets, the service has been hard pressed not only to reduce its end strength so it can afford the ships and aircraft it wants, but to pare down crew sizes while making the most of each sailor.
The manning goals for future Navy warships are far below that of current surface combatants, with just 75 sailors expected to be aboard the Littoral Combat Ship and fewer than 150 crew members aboard the Zumwalt-class destroyers. Future submarine crews also are being optimized.
But when it comes to the next-generation aircraft carrier, the cuts may be more dramatic.
More at http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/navy_optimalmanning_071019w/
Posted : Monday Oct 22, 2007 8:34:26 EDT
The Navy wants to figure out a way to put an aircraft carrier to sea with a crew of fewer than 1,000 sailors.
Huh? Or better, how?
In an era when manpower costs devour 60 percent of annual Navy budgets, the service has been hard pressed not only to reduce its end strength so it can afford the ships and aircraft it wants, but to pare down crew sizes while making the most of each sailor.
The manning goals for future Navy warships are far below that of current surface combatants, with just 75 sailors expected to be aboard the Littoral Combat Ship and fewer than 150 crew members aboard the Zumwalt-class destroyers. Future submarine crews also are being optimized.
But when it comes to the next-generation aircraft carrier, the cuts may be more dramatic.
More at http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/navy_optimalmanning_071019w/
Friday, October 19, 2007
Report: PTSD treatments need more research
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Oct 19, 2007 9:28:27 EDT
WASHINGTON — There isn’t enough evidence to tell whether most treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder work, according a scientific review that highlights the urgency of finding answers as thousands of suffering veterans return from Iraq.
The one proven treatment: "exposure therapies," where PTSD patients are gradually exposed to sights and sounds that essentially simulate their trauma to help them learn to cope, advisers to the government reported Thursday.
More at http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/ap_ptsd_071018/
Posted : Friday Oct 19, 2007 9:28:27 EDT
WASHINGTON — There isn’t enough evidence to tell whether most treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder work, according a scientific review that highlights the urgency of finding answers as thousands of suffering veterans return from Iraq.
The one proven treatment: "exposure therapies," where PTSD patients are gradually exposed to sights and sounds that essentially simulate their trauma to help them learn to cope, advisers to the government reported Thursday.
More at http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/ap_ptsd_071018/
Pentagon set to launch new disability system
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Oct 18, 2007 19:31:15 EDT
The Defense Department will soon unveil a new, streamlined disability evaluation system that, in tandem with the Department of Veterans Affairs, will replace the current cumbersome process with a single exam and single disability rating.
According to a copy of the plan obtained by Military Times and confirmed by Pentagon officials, veterans medically retired from service will be able to apply for, and get, VA benefits immediately.
More at http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/military_jointdisability_071018w/
Posted : Thursday Oct 18, 2007 19:31:15 EDT
The Defense Department will soon unveil a new, streamlined disability evaluation system that, in tandem with the Department of Veterans Affairs, will replace the current cumbersome process with a single exam and single disability rating.
According to a copy of the plan obtained by Military Times and confirmed by Pentagon officials, veterans medically retired from service will be able to apply for, and get, VA benefits immediately.
More at http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/military_jointdisability_071018w/
Sensor helps prosthetic arm move on thought
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Oct 18, 2007 11:10:35 EDT
When former Marine Cpl. Claudia Mitchell thinks about bending her bionic arm, it bends.
A neural sensor on her chest, along with an advanced mechanical arm and hand, give her a far greater range of motion than current prosthetic arms with hooks.
"I don’t have to think of the entire sequence of movements," she said, because with the technology, her thoughts control her nerves, and her nerves control the movement.
More at http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/military_bionicarms_071018/
Posted : Thursday Oct 18, 2007 11:10:35 EDT
When former Marine Cpl. Claudia Mitchell thinks about bending her bionic arm, it bends.
A neural sensor on her chest, along with an advanced mechanical arm and hand, give her a far greater range of motion than current prosthetic arms with hooks.
"I don’t have to think of the entire sequence of movements," she said, because with the technology, her thoughts control her nerves, and her nerves control the movement.
More at http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/military_bionicarms_071018/
Panels meet over troop tax breaks
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Oct 17, 2007 16:07:37 EDT
Several key financial benefits enjoyed by service members on active duty, such as the ability to make penalty-free withdrawals from retirement plans, are set to expire at the end of the year.
Two House subcommittees met Wednesday to consider whether to make those benefits permanent and to set into law other tax-related measures, some of which would benefit military families who lose a service member in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
More at http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/military_taxbreaks_071017w/
Posted : Wednesday Oct 17, 2007 16:07:37 EDT
Several key financial benefits enjoyed by service members on active duty, such as the ability to make penalty-free withdrawals from retirement plans, are set to expire at the end of the year.
Two House subcommittees met Wednesday to consider whether to make those benefits permanent and to set into law other tax-related measures, some of which would benefit military families who lose a service member in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
More at http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/military_taxbreaks_071017w/
House Hearing (24 Oct): VA-Defense Electronic Medical Record Sharing
House Veterans Affairs Committee
VA-Defense Electronic Medical Record Sharing
Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on "Sharing of Electronic Medical Records between Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs."
Witnesses: TBA
Location: 334 Cannon House Office Building. 10 a.m. (October 24, 2007)
Contact: 202-225-9756 [http://veterans.house.gov/]
VA-Defense Electronic Medical Record Sharing
Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on "Sharing of Electronic Medical Records between Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs."
Witnesses: TBA
Location: 334 Cannon House Office Building. 10 a.m. (October 24, 2007)
Contact: 202-225-9756 [http://veterans.house.gov/]
Army to offer recruitment incentives to meet expansion
By Megan Scully, CongressDaily
The Army will use two new financial incentives to recruit as many as 4,000 additional active-duty troops over the next year, part of a broader program to add 28,000 soldiers to the force by 2010.
At the urging of Army officials, Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently approved accelerating the service's growth plan by two years, adding new urgency to the service's efforts to recruit and retain personnel.
During a breakfast Thursday with reporters, Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle, the Army's personnel chief, said the service will soon begin an active-duty version of the successful Guard Recruiter Assistance Program, which offers bonuses to soldiers who sign up new recruits.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38322&dcn=e_gvet
The Army will use two new financial incentives to recruit as many as 4,000 additional active-duty troops over the next year, part of a broader program to add 28,000 soldiers to the force by 2010.
At the urging of Army officials, Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently approved accelerating the service's growth plan by two years, adding new urgency to the service's efforts to recruit and retain personnel.
During a breakfast Thursday with reporters, Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle, the Army's personnel chief, said the service will soon begin an active-duty version of the successful Guard Recruiter Assistance Program, which offers bonuses to soldiers who sign up new recruits.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38322&dcn=e_gvet
HSPD-21: Public Health and Medical Preparedness
Homeland Security Presidential Directive HOMELAND SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/HSPD-21
Subject: Public Health and Medical Preparedness
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/10/20071018-10.html
Subject: Public Health and Medical Preparedness
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/10/20071018-10.html
GAO: DOD Chief Management Officer
Defense Business Transformation: A Full-time Chief Management Officer with a Term Appointment Is Needed at DOD to Maintain Continuity of Effort and Achieve Sustainable Success GAO-08-132T, October 16, 2007
Summary (HTML)
Highlights Page (PDF)
Full Report (PDF, 41 pages)
Summary (HTML)
Highlights Page (PDF)
Full Report (PDF, 41 pages)
GAO Benefits and Medical Care for Deployed Federal Civilians
Questions for the Record Related to the Benefits and Medical Care for Federal Civilian Employees Deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq GAO-08-155R, October 16, 2007
Summary (HTML)
Full Report (PDF, 6 pages)
Accessible Text
Summary (HTML)
Full Report (PDF, 6 pages)
Accessible Text
CRS Report: Defense FY2008 Authorization and Appropriations
CRS RL33999 2007 (Oct 9) - Defense: FY2008 Authorization and Appropriations, Pat Towell, Stephen Daggett, and Amy Belasco. Updated October 9, 2007.
http://www.library.dau.mil/CRS_RL33999_Oct9_07.pdf
http://www.library.dau.mil/CRS_RL33999_Oct9_07.pdf
Thursday, October 18, 2007
The Battle off the Virginia Capes, 1781
During the 1781 siege of Yorktown, a fleet of 27 French ships-of-the-line under the command of Adm. Paul Compte de Grasse blocked any chance for the British army to escape by sea by blockading the Chesapeake Bay. A British fleet, nominally under the command of Rear Adm. Lord Thomas Graves, engaged the French fleet in an attempt to break the siege. After a battle that lasted several hours, Graves and the British fleet failed in their task and they withdrew. British forces at Yorktown surrendered to French and Patriot ground forces a short time later, paving the way for the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
Hampton Roads Naval Museum website: http://www.hrnm.navy.mil/about_slideshow.html
Hampton Roads Naval Museum website: http://www.hrnm.navy.mil/about_slideshow.html
If you hurry, you may get there in time for lunch
Friday, October 19, 2007, 12 pm - Brunswick Stew Lunch. Join us for ham biscuits, Brunswick stew and homemade pies in the Churchyard of Grace Episcopal Church, 111 Church Street. Sponsored by the Yorktown Woman’s Club. ■ Admission. ■
Progress at West Point
A new, privately funded institution teaches cadets about a new enemy.
by Paul McLeary 10/18/2007 12:00:00 AM
FOR OVER 200 years, the military academy at West Point has schooled future Army officers in the ways of large-scale industrial war and, as the old joke goes, has established a reputation of having 200 years of history, untouched by progress. But with the United States the world's only remaining military superpower, and with insurgent-directed Fourth Generation warfare seemingly the order of the day in 21st century conflict, times have changed.
One of the West Point instructors taking a proactive view of this new environment is Lt. Col. Joe Felter. A 1987 West Point grad who spent the 1990s as a Special Forces operator, Felter has returned to his alma mater as director of the Combating Terrorism Center, a privately-funded think tank that offers valuable instruction to the corps of cadets about the enemy they'll encounter once they march out of the academy's Thayer Gate for the last time.
More at http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/235wdloj.asp
by Paul McLeary 10/18/2007 12:00:00 AM
FOR OVER 200 years, the military academy at West Point has schooled future Army officers in the ways of large-scale industrial war and, as the old joke goes, has established a reputation of having 200 years of history, untouched by progress. But with the United States the world's only remaining military superpower, and with insurgent-directed Fourth Generation warfare seemingly the order of the day in 21st century conflict, times have changed.
One of the West Point instructors taking a proactive view of this new environment is Lt. Col. Joe Felter. A 1987 West Point grad who spent the 1990s as a Special Forces operator, Felter has returned to his alma mater as director of the Combating Terrorism Center, a privately-funded think tank that offers valuable instruction to the corps of cadets about the enemy they'll encounter once they march out of the academy's Thayer Gate for the last time.
More at http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/235wdloj.asp
Abolish the Office of Secretary of Defense?
by John Kuehn
JFQ / issue 47, 4th quarter 2007
The political and defense communities of 2006 had the wrong debate about
former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Instead of "should he stay
or should he go," the debate should have been whether we even need the
Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD).
It is perhaps time to admit that the great post-World War II American
experiment called "unification" has failed.
More at http://www.ndu.edu/inss/Press/jfq_pages/editions/i47/26.pdf
JFQ / issue 47, 4th quarter 2007
The political and defense communities of 2006 had the wrong debate about
former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Instead of "should he stay
or should he go," the debate should have been whether we even need the
Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD).
It is perhaps time to admit that the great post-World War II American
experiment called "unification" has failed.
More at http://www.ndu.edu/inss/Press/jfq_pages/editions/i47/26.pdf
A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower
The web site is active now (www.navy.mil/maritime) and includes the complete strategy document http://www.navy.mil/maritime/MaritimeStrategy.pdf as well as video and other graphic support material.
DoD Announces New Defense Policy Board Members
Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:56:00 -0500
Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates today announced John J. Hamre will chair the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee. Hamre, a former deputy secretary of defense, is currently the president and chief executive officer of Center for Strategic and International Studies.
In addition, Secretary Gates announced the addition of the following new members to the board: J.D. Crouch, former Deputy National Security Advisor; Robert Joseph, former Under Secretary of State; Gen. (Ret.) Pete Pace, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs; William Perry, former Secretary of Defense; and Peter Rodman, former Assistant Secretary of Defense.
These members join the following returning members: Harold Brown; Adm. (Ret.) Vern Clark; Victoria Clarke; Devon Cross; Aaron Friedberg; Newt Gingrich; Fred Ikle; Gen. (Ret.) Jack Keane; Henry Kissinger; Gen. (Ret.) Richard Myers; Nadia Schadlow; James Schlesinger; Marin Strmecki; Vin Weber; Ruth Wedgewood; Christopher Williams; and James Q. Wilson.
The Defense Policy Board provides the secretary, deputy secretary and under secretary for policy with independent, informed advice and opinion concerning matters of defense policy.
On the web at http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11419
Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates today announced John J. Hamre will chair the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee. Hamre, a former deputy secretary of defense, is currently the president and chief executive officer of Center for Strategic and International Studies.
In addition, Secretary Gates announced the addition of the following new members to the board: J.D. Crouch, former Deputy National Security Advisor; Robert Joseph, former Under Secretary of State; Gen. (Ret.) Pete Pace, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs; William Perry, former Secretary of Defense; and Peter Rodman, former Assistant Secretary of Defense.
These members join the following returning members: Harold Brown; Adm. (Ret.) Vern Clark; Victoria Clarke; Devon Cross; Aaron Friedberg; Newt Gingrich; Fred Ikle; Gen. (Ret.) Jack Keane; Henry Kissinger; Gen. (Ret.) Richard Myers; Nadia Schadlow; James Schlesinger; Marin Strmecki; Vin Weber; Ruth Wedgewood; Christopher Williams; and James Q. Wilson.
The Defense Policy Board provides the secretary, deputy secretary and under secretary for policy with independent, informed advice and opinion concerning matters of defense policy.
On the web at http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11419
House panel questions benefits for deployed civilians
By Brittany R. Ballenstedt
Members of a House subcommittee on Tuesday probed whether non-Defense agencies are providing adequate incentives and benefits to encourage civilian employees to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.
At a hearing before the House Armed Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, witnesses from the Agriculture, Justice, State and Treasury departments and the U.S. Agency for International Development testified that they are providing attractive compensation and benefits packages to employees serving in war zones.
Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., extended sympathy to the family, friends and colleagues of Agriculture employee Tom Stefani, who was killed on Oct. 4 by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. "We thank all federal civilian employees who have volunteered to serve in combat zones for their sacrifices and their service to our nation," Snyder said.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38303&dcn=e_ndw
Members of a House subcommittee on Tuesday probed whether non-Defense agencies are providing adequate incentives and benefits to encourage civilian employees to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.
At a hearing before the House Armed Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, witnesses from the Agriculture, Justice, State and Treasury departments and the U.S. Agency for International Development testified that they are providing attractive compensation and benefits packages to employees serving in war zones.
Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., extended sympathy to the family, friends and colleagues of Agriculture employee Tom Stefani, who was killed on Oct. 4 by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. "We thank all federal civilian employees who have volunteered to serve in combat zones for their sacrifices and their service to our nation," Snyder said.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38303&dcn=e_ndw
Senators question Defense's attempts to improve management
By Dan Friedman, CongressDaily
Defense Department officials Tuesday defended their plans for improving management of their financial and business systems against charges from members of a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee that their efforts are slow and insufficient.
"I am not sure large quantities of change have occurred," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who pressed Pentagon officials to commit to more frequent consultation with the Federal Financial Management Subcommittee and the Government Accountability Office.
At issue is billions of dollars the department spends each year on separate business and financial systems. Defense since 1990 has been attempting to modernize thousands of unique accounting and information systems that limit its ability to track many of its costs.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38302&dcn=e_ndw
Defense Department officials Tuesday defended their plans for improving management of their financial and business systems against charges from members of a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee that their efforts are slow and insufficient.
"I am not sure large quantities of change have occurred," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who pressed Pentagon officials to commit to more frequent consultation with the Federal Financial Management Subcommittee and the Government Accountability Office.
At issue is billions of dollars the department spends each year on separate business and financial systems. Defense since 1990 has been attempting to modernize thousands of unique accounting and information systems that limit its ability to track many of its costs.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38302&dcn=e_ndw
Lawmakers urge Pentagon to hold off on new pay policy
By Brittany R. Ballenstedt
Three House lawmakers are urging the Pentagon to ensure that employees working under a new personnel system receive the compensation next year that they anticipated.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Reps. Tom Davis, R-Va., Frank Wolf, R-Va., and James Moran, D-Va., expressed concern over a new policy that will change the way some Defense Department employees will receive the 2008 governmentwide pay and cost-of-living increase.
"We have been contacted by numerous constituents gravely concerned about a recent announcement that they will not be receiving the across-the-board pay raise with other federal employees due to their transfer into [the] National Security Personnel System," the lawmakers wrote.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38294&dcn=e_ndw
Three House lawmakers are urging the Pentagon to ensure that employees working under a new personnel system receive the compensation next year that they anticipated.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Reps. Tom Davis, R-Va., Frank Wolf, R-Va., and James Moran, D-Va., expressed concern over a new policy that will change the way some Defense Department employees will receive the 2008 governmentwide pay and cost-of-living increase.
"We have been contacted by numerous constituents gravely concerned about a recent announcement that they will not be receiving the across-the-board pay raise with other federal employees due to their transfer into [the] National Security Personnel System," the lawmakers wrote.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38294&dcn=e_ndw
Webb calls for substantially bigger fleet
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Oct 18, 2007 6:05:04 EDT
The number of the ships in the Navy should be "substantially higher" than today’s 279 ships and the new "floor" of 313 ships that commanders hope for, Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb said Saturday.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/navy_webb_biggerfleet_071016w/
Posted : Thursday Oct 18, 2007 6:05:04 EDT
The number of the ships in the Navy should be "substantially higher" than today’s 279 ships and the new "floor" of 313 ships that commanders hope for, Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb said Saturday.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/navy_webb_biggerfleet_071016w/
More Marines receive basic medical training
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Oct 17, 2007 14:10:00 EDT
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The chuckles and sarcastic comments belied an underlying nervousness among the class of Marines.
They were about to stick each other in the arms with needles and catheters — if all went well, only once.
***
In the past year, the Corps has been expanding its combat lifesaving capabilities with a revamped program designed to save more lives on the battlefield. They are building more certified combat lifesaver trainers within units, mandating combat-lifesaving refresher training and requiring commanders to integrate more first aid and lifesaving skills in their units.
More at http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/marine_combat_medic_training_071016/
Posted : Wednesday Oct 17, 2007 14:10:00 EDT
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The chuckles and sarcastic comments belied an underlying nervousness among the class of Marines.
They were about to stick each other in the arms with needles and catheters — if all went well, only once.
***
In the past year, the Corps has been expanding its combat lifesaving capabilities with a revamped program designed to save more lives on the battlefield. They are building more certified combat lifesaver trainers within units, mandating combat-lifesaving refresher training and requiring commanders to integrate more first aid and lifesaving skills in their units.
More at http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/marine_combat_medic_training_071016/
Virtually There
By Anne Laurent alaurent@govexec.com
October 17, 2007
Bart Bartlett, a military officer, drives me past a dead dog on a Baghdad street. "Is there an IED in that dog?" I ask. "Let's see," he says, parking the white SUV and hopping out. Almost immediately, there is an explosion. Black smoke obscures the view. Bartlett is knocked to the ground, probably dead.
Fortunately, he's only an avatar, a digital representation of David Bartlett, director of marketing and business development for the national security division of Forterra Systems Inc., a San Mateo, Calif., company that creates private online virtual worlds for companies and government agencies.
More at http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1007/101707mm.htm
October 17, 2007
Bart Bartlett, a military officer, drives me past a dead dog on a Baghdad street. "Is there an IED in that dog?" I ask. "Let's see," he says, parking the white SUV and hopping out. Almost immediately, there is an explosion. Black smoke obscures the view. Bartlett is knocked to the ground, probably dead.
Fortunately, he's only an avatar, a digital representation of David Bartlett, director of marketing and business development for the national security division of Forterra Systems Inc., a San Mateo, Calif., company that creates private online virtual worlds for companies and government agencies.
More at http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1007/101707mm.htm
Survey indicates dissatisfaction with government management
By Robert Brodsky
Nearly 90 percent of Americans believe the federal government does a poor job spending taxpayer dollars and managing its programs efficiently, according to a new online survey.
The results of the "America Inc." survey, conducted in August by Primavera Systems, a software firm based in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., and O'Keefe & Co., a marketing and communications firm based in Alexandria, Va., also indicate a difference between the public's and federal managers' perceptions of the government's performance.
The survey asked 677 members of the public about the government's overall management efficiency and steps for improvement. The survey posed a number of more narrowly focused questions to 151 federal managers from across government and throughout the country. The public section had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percent while the federal manager component had a margin of plus or minus 8 percent.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38300&dcn=e_gvet
Nearly 90 percent of Americans believe the federal government does a poor job spending taxpayer dollars and managing its programs efficiently, according to a new online survey.
The results of the "America Inc." survey, conducted in August by Primavera Systems, a software firm based in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., and O'Keefe & Co., a marketing and communications firm based in Alexandria, Va., also indicate a difference between the public's and federal managers' perceptions of the government's performance.
The survey asked 677 members of the public about the government's overall management efficiency and steps for improvement. The survey posed a number of more narrowly focused questions to 151 federal managers from across government and throughout the country. The public section had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percent while the federal manager component had a margin of plus or minus 8 percent.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38300&dcn=e_gvet
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