A sweeping new plan to overhaul the Pentagon's retirement system would give some benefits to all troops and phase out the 20-year cliff vesting system that has defined military careers for generations.

In a massive change that could affect today's troops, the plan calls for a corporate-style benefits program that would contribute money to troops' retirement savings account rather than the promise of a future monthly pension, according to a new proposal from an influential Pentagon advisory board.

All troops would receive the yearly retirement contributions, regardless of whether they stay for 20 years. Those contributions might amount to about 16.5 percent of a member's annual pay and would be deposited into a mandatory version of the Thrift Savings Plan, the military's existing 401(k)-style account that now does not include government matching contributions.

A critical new feature would adjust those contributions to give more money to troops who deploy frequently, accept hardship assignments or serve in high-demand jobs. It would also give the services a new lever to incentivize some troops to leave or stay on active duty longer.

To read the complete story, click here.

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. - Two months after being posted on the Army Training Network, U.S. Army training materials on the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" or DADT, continue to be the most-downloaded information on the Army training website - with more than 85,000 total downloads. 

The DADT video, a summary of top things you need to know, presentation slides and other DADT tools have also been added to the downloadable ATN2GO app. The app, which has been downloaded more than 5,000 times since it was introduced in August, allows anyone with a CAC card or Army Knowledge Online login ID to choose DADT and other Army training materials they want to download to their iPad, iPhone or Android mobile device.

Developed by a Combined Arms Center-Training team, the ATN2GO app is taking training to the Soldier - offering opportunities to view lessons-learned training videos, field manuals and a wide variety of other resources even when an Internet connection isn't available. Plus, the just-released version 2 app allows Soldiers to select which Army Training Network content they want to download to their mobile device, and also can alert them when new content is available to download.

The latest ATN2GO download set also includes:
-- A "Wide Area Security-Patrol Leader" training video set. Similar to Duffer's Drift, the set brings counterinsurgency lessons to life through the vivid dreams of a new platoon leader enroute to Iraq. 
-- A promotional video on the Mission Command Process Trainer prototype that's being tested at Fort Hood, Texas, Fort Benning, Ga., and seven other military installations. This Low-Overhead Simulation/Stimulation Capability toolkit inter-operates with other simulations such as Virtual BattleSpace 2 or One Semi-Automated Forces and stimulates mission command systems for staff training. MCPT uses a single laptop to replicate what big systems do.
-- Officer and enlisted Training & Evaluation Outlines submitted by the U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School, from conducting a military memorial service to integrating a Unit Ministry Team into Convoy operations. 

Not familiar with the Army Training Network? Listen to or download the new What-U-Need2Know podcast on Army Training Network at http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/podcasts. Anyone with a CAC card or AKO login can download ATN2GO at https://atn.army.mil. Just click the ATN2GO image on the left side of the page. The site includes detailed how-to videos for downloading and using the ATN2GO app and content.

Have training content that you'd like to add on the Army Training Network and its ATN2GO app? Send it to leav-atn@conus.army.mil or contact the Army Training Network team at 913-684-2722/7224.

Part of the Training and Doctrine Command, the U.S. Army's Combined Arms Center-Training delivers training programs, products and services to leaders and units in support of Army readiness. Wherever Army training occurs, the Combined Arms Center-Training helps make it happen. 

To learn more about the Combined Arms Center-Training, visit http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cac-t/, www.facebook.com/usacactraining or www.twitter.com/usacactraining.    

This from Air Force Times: Legislation shielding military pay from the effects of a government shutdown is quickly gaining cosponsors as the clock ticks toward the midnight Friday expiration of federal funding, after which the government would shut down.

In the Senate, 71 cosponsors have signed onto a bill sponsored by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, that would continue paying the military during a shutdown and would give the Defense Department the discretion to also pay federal civilian workers and defense contractors deployed on contingency operations in support of U.S. troops.

To read the entire story, click here. 

WASHINGTON, April 7, 2011 - The Defense Department is hopeful that a government shutdown will be averted, but is releasing guidance to help plan for an orderly process if a shutdown becomes necessary, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III said in a memo issued today.

"The president and the [Defense] Secretary [Robert M. Gates] know that the uncertainty of the current situation puts federal employees in a difficult position and are very much aware that a shutdown would impose hardships on our military and civilian personnel as well as our military families," Lynn wrote.

Operations and activities essential to safety and to protect human life and property will not be shut down, he wrote.

Addressing duty status, Lynn wrote that military personnel are not subject to furlough and should report for duty during a shutdown. Civilian personnel performing excepted activities will continue to work during a shutdown, he wrote.

The Defense Department will continue to conduct activities in support of national security, Lynn wrote, including operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Japan, as well as Libya-related support operations and other activities essential to national security.

Continuing operations include the following, Lynn wrote:

-- Inpatient and emergency outpatient care in DOD medical treatment facilities and emergency dental care;

-- Dining facilities and child-care activities;

-- Some legal activities, and contracting and logistics operations supporting excepted activities;

-- Some education and training activities, including Department of Defense Education Activity schools, and some financial management activities.

"In the absence of appropriations, non-excepted activities that have not already been fully funded will need to be shut down in an orderly fashion," Lynn wrote.

He will issue more detailed guidance to the department regarding specific activities that are considered excepted or non-excepted. Lynn wrote that he understands the military departments, defense agencies and individual commanders must tailor this guidance to many different situations around the world.

"Therefore, should there be a government shutdown, DOD personnel will be informed through their chain of command about how a shutdown may affect them personally," he wrote.

On the topic of military, civilian and retiree pay, Lynn said if the government shuts down because of a lack of funding, DOD will have no funds to pay military members or civilian employees for the days during which the government is shut down.

But military and civilian personnel will receive pay for time worked before the shutdown, he said, and military personnel and civilians in excepted positions will be paid retroactively for their work during the shutdown once the department receives additional funding.

"Congress would have to provide authority in order for the department to retroactively pay non-excepted employees for the furloughed period," Lynn wrote.

Benefits for military retirees and annuitants should continue without interruption, he added.

This from the Washington National Guard Public Affairs: CAMP MURRAY, WA - The Washington National Guard is taking steps to ensure critical operations dedicated to serving our state and federal mission continue in the event of a funding gap caused by a government shutdown.   

Our citizen-soldiers and airmen are paid, trained and equipped through
federal appropriations.  A funding gap occurs when neither an appropriations
act, or a Continuing Resolution has been enacted.  

In preparation for this scenario, Guard personnel essential to the
war-fight, and the protection of lives and property here in the state are
being identified.  Those full-time employees critical to the execution of
these missions will be exempt.  Non-exempt employees will be furloughed
until federal appropriations allow them to return to work.  Personnel who
are on Additional Duty Operational Support (ADOS) orders, and full-time
general schedule federal employees of the Guard will report to work for
their next scheduled work day.  At that time, non-exempt employees will be
furloughed.

Drill weekends for all Washington National Guard units scheduled for this
weekend (April 8-10) have been canceled, and will be re-scheduled at a
future date.  Guard members who performed their drill last weekend will be
paid on time.  Soldiers and Airmen currently conducting their two-week
Annual Training period will end their training on Saturday; Annual Training
will be rescheduled at a later time.  Citizen-soldiers currently attending
certain Army schools may be sent home.  The State Family Programs conference
scheduled April 8-10 in Cle Elum has been abbreviated to April 8-9.  We are
working to contact all of our impacted personnel by the close of business
today in order to give them and their families an accurate assessment of the
situation and how it will affect them.

We currently have approximately 400 citizen-soldiers and airmen on Title X
federal active duty preparing for deployment and serving in locations around
the world.  The pay of these service members will be affected in the same
way that other active duty service members will be impacted.  If this causes
a significant hardship for any of the families of our deployed Guardsmen,
please call our Veterans and Families (J9) Directorate at 1-877-585-5655.

Operations continuing through next week will include the staffing of our
Joint Operations Center, Counter Drug Task Force training with Drug
Enforcement Agency and Military Funeral Honors support to funeral services
of veterans.

State employees of the Washington Military Department will continue to work
per their normal schedules.

Public safety and security through our state and federal mission are the
priority of the Washington National Guard.  Plans and personnel are, and
will be in place to ensure these priorities are met.    

BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AFNS) -- While emphasizing that service members eventually will receive the pay they would earn during a government shutdown, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates acknowledged here April 7 that if the government shuts down for a week starting April 8, their mid-month paychecks would include only the pay they earned for the first week of the month.

During a visit with U.S. Division Center Soldiers at Camp Liberty, the first question posed to the secretary concerned the possibility of a government shutdown and the effect it would have on service members' pay.

"Over time, they won't lose anything," the secretary told reporters after the visit. "But you all know as well as I do that a lot of these young troops live pretty much paycheck to paycheck, and when I start to think about the inconvenience that it's going to cause these kids and a lot of their families, even half a paycheck delayed can be a problem for them.

"So I hope they work this whole thing out," he added.

Shouts of "Hooah!" rang out among the 175 Soldiers gathered for the secretary's visit when Secretary Gates began his answer to a question about the possible shutdown by saying, "First of all, let me say you will be paid."

Secretary Gates joked that as a historian, it always has occurred to him that "a smart thing for government is always to pay the guys with the guns first." But he then explained how the shutdown would affect the Soldiers' pay.

"Based on some stuff I read this morning, if the government shutdown starts on the 8th and goes for a week, you'd get half a check," he said. "If it goes from the 15th to the 30th, you wouldn't get a paycheck on the 30th, but you would be back-paid for all of it (when the government resumes operations)."

Service members are paid on the 15th and last day of each month.

Secretary Gates told the Soldiers he knows that could present a tough situation for them.

"Frankly, I remember when I was your age, I did a lot of living from paycheck to paycheck," he said, "and so I hope this thing doesn't happen, because I know it'll be an inconvenience for a lot of troops."    

WASHINGTON — Military members would continue to earn wages in the event of an April 8 shutdown of the federal government, but they'd have to wait to collect them until Congress agrees on a budget, a senior administration official said here today.

During a telephone briefing administered by the Office of Management and Budget, a senior administration official detailed the consequences of a possible federal government shutdown that will occur April 8 if Congress doesn't agree on a budget.

Service members, the official said, "will continue to earn money" in the event of a shutdown.

But because there wouldn't be any money to pay out to service members during a shutdown, the official said, they would have to wait to be reimbursed.

"They will be paid once we have money again to pay them," the official said.

Some members of the Defense Department's federal civilian work force would be exempted from a shutdown because of their work in critical areas, or because they are funded through sources outside the federal budget, the official said.

However, "a significant number of DOD civilian employees, unfortunately, would be furloughed if the government shuts down," the official said.

Activities necessary to protecting life and property, or those whose funding comes from someplace other than the federal budget, will continue if the government shuts down April 8, the official added.

WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Beginning June 1, Social Security numbers on military identification cards will begin to disappear, said Maj. Monica M. Matoush, a Pentagon spokeswoman. 

The effort is part of a larger plan to protect service members and other DOD identification card holders from identity theft, officials said. 

Criminals use Social Security numbers to steal identities, allowing them to pillage resources, establish credit or to hijack credit cards, bank accounts or debit cards. 

Currently, the Social Security number is printed on the back of common access cards, and on the front of cards issued to dependents and retirees. Beginning in June, when current cards expire, they will be replaced with new cards having a DOD identification number replacing the Social Security number, officials said. The DOD identification number is a unique 10-digit number that is assigned to every person with a direct relationship with the department. The new number also will be the service member's Geneva Convention identification number. 

An 11-digit DOD benefits number also will appear on the cards of those people eligible for DOD benefits. The first nine digits are common to a sponsor, the official said, and the last two digits will identify a specific person within the sponsor's family. 

Social Security numbers embedded in the bar codes on the back of identification cards will remain there for the time being, and will be phased out beginning in 2012. 
The department will replace identification cards as they expire. 

"Because cards will be replaced upon expiration, it will be approximately four years until all cards are replaced with the DOD ID number," Matoush said. 

The identity protection program began in 2008, when DOD started removing Social Security numbers from family member identification cards.    

WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Children of U.S. service members around the world will be honored throughout the month of April for their contributions to their families' well-being and sacrifices on behalf of the nation, a Defense Department official said.

Each April, Americans pause to recognize the nation's 1.8 million military children during the Month of the Military Child, which marks its 25th anniversary this year.

"It's really exciting that the Department of Defense, the White House and civic leaders recognize the sacrifices that military children make," said Barbara Thompson, the director of the Pentagon's office of family policy, children and youth. "It's particularly important during these times of conflict, when children are missing their parents and are sacrificing a lot, to say your sacrifice is recognized and we want to commend you for what you do for your family."

Throughout the month, military installations worldwide will host programs and activities for military children, including fairs, picnics, carnivals and parades, Thompson said. Communities also can get involved by sponsoring fun events to celebrate military children.

Military children's sacrifices and contributions have risen to the forefront in recent years, Thompson said, as people have become increasingly aware of the impact a decade of war is having on military families. Along with the typical military-related stressors of multiple moves and schools, children also have had to deal with long-term, multiple deployments and separations from one, or both, parents over the past 10-plus years.

More than 900,000 military children have had a parent deploy multiple times, she added.    

War was the big topic in the first decade of the 21st century, now brace yourself for a slew of stories and updates on downsizing.  The Army Times has a report on how fast you need to move in rank if you want to stay in.