The process for ending Soldiers' terms of services is about to get a lot longer. In fact, eventually it will start almost as soon as they enter the Army.

An Army executive order, effective later this month, will officially begin implementing a more individualized transition process. Though the changes will be gradual, the idea is to get Soldiers thinking about their futures sooner rather than later - and to get commanders to fully invested in their move to civilian life.

"We're all trying to move to that individualized program because not everyone transitions the same," Joint Base Lewis-McChord transition services manager Robin Baker said.

The executive order, which will be further supported by the Vow to Hire Heroes Act in November of next year, will have Soldiers begin the transition process 12 months in advance for those ending their term of service and 24 for retirees.

The executive order and law have practical roots. The Army spent $620 million in unemployment benefits for former Soldiers last Fiscal Year, according to JBLM human resources director Mark Brown. With a bad economy, issues with homeless or unemployed veterans are not uncommon, and administrators Armywide hope to change that.

The previous Congressional mandate required Soldiers to complete the Army Career and Alumni Program's presepartion briefing no later than 90 days before leaving active duty. Under the new rules the timeline gets a lot longer. Soldiers will also have to create a resume and attend an improved Department of Labor Employment Workshop, currently in development at Fort Bragg, N.C., in addition to the preseparation briefing.

To make the changes stick, the executive order is asking for buy-in from those in charge at every level. Reports measuring the program's effectiveness on several levels (including overall participation, timeliness and Soldiers' satisfaction with transition) will be sent to commanders to help keep them engaged.

These reports will ideally expand in the future to track Soldiers after they've left the service. This will help program administrators see how many Soldiers are actually finding jobs, how long it's taking them and so on.

"Right now we're not responsible to actually track if our folks are successful or not," Brown said.

The hope is to encourage servicemembers to start using more of the transition services already available to them, and thus be more prepared for their lives as civilians.

In the past additional services, such as one-on-one career counseling, resume workshops or mock-interview sessions have been underutilized. Baker estimates that no more than 40 to 50 percent of exiting Soldiers did more than the minimum required.

With the extended timeframe, servicemembers will have more time to dig into their options for civilian life. But more than that, the ACAP program is offering more of its services online so they can be accessed from anywhere in the world. "There's more flexibility as to how you implement that plan," Baker said.

In addition to flexibility, there will be more options to ensure that Soldiers will find a new career that's a good fit for them and a realistic choice for the job market.

ACAP has identified four major pathways that servicemembers might pursue in their civilian lives - formal education, employment, entrepreneurship (small business ownership) and vocational or technical training.

The next step is to build relationships with businesses and schools in the civilian world so that Soldiers have plenty of resources available to them when they start to think about what they want to do next - and the sooner the better. Ultimately administrators hope that initial career counseling will happen at roughly the same time as Advanced Individual Training.

"(That way) when you start the transition 12 months out, it's not the first time you've thought about it," Brown said.

The program isn't there yet, but it is on its way. The program JBLM has already enhanced many of its services, which Soldiers can use whether they're 12 months or 20 years away from their transition.

"It's a great time, actually, to be transitioning," Baker said.

TO LEARN MORE For more information, visit the Army Career and Alumni Program on the Web at https://www.hrc.army.mil/site/active/tagd/acap/

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