Good
morning, Legionnaires and veterans’ advocates, it’s Friday, November
20, 2020, which is
Future Teachers of America Day, Globally Organized Hug A Runner Day,
National Peanut Butter Fudge Day, and Universal Children’s Day.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
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Leo Shane III | 1 day ago
Tens of thousands of Army veterans with other-than-honorable dismissals will see an easier path to upgrading their discharge
status under a new legal settlement announced Wednesday.
The
deal, the resolution of a class-action lawsuit filed in the U.S.
District Court for Connecticut more than three years ago,
requires Army officials to automatically review tens of thousands of
discharge upgrade applications denied over the last nine years, this
time using “procedures more favorable to veterans” regarding evidence of
underlying mental health conditions.
Similarly, Army veterans whose applications were denied between 2001 and 2011 will be informed of new opportunities to reapply
for a discharge upgrade, to include the same broad considerations of mental health factors in their cases.
And
the Army Discharge Review Board for the first time will allow veterans
to argue their cases over the phone, instead of requiring
them to travel to Washington, D.C. — at personal expense — for their
upgrade hearings.
“I’ve
heard from veterans across the country who were kicked out for suicide
attempts, are self-medicating to deal with combat
stress, for going AWOL because they couldn’t deal with it anymore,”
said Steve Kennedy, an Iraq War veteran and one of the named plantiffs
in the lawsuit.
“All
of them were discharged for symptoms of mental health conditions and
then stripped of the very benefits that may have helped
them heal. Now they will have the chance for justice.”
Officials
from the Yale Law School Veterans Legal Services Clinic, which handled
the case, estimate as many as 50,000 Army veterans
may benefit from the new review board changes.
Veterans
advocates for years have pushed for widespread reforms in how military
officials handle discharge upgrade requests,
arguing that many veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were
improperly kicked out of the ranks because of undiagnosed brain
injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder and other unseen injuries.
The
difference between an honorable and other-than-honorable discharge can
mean a denial of tens of thousands of dollars in education
benefits, access to certain health care services and eligibility for
many job training and financial assistance programs.
A Government Accountability Office report released in 2017 found that nearly one in four troops booted for misconduct over a
four-year span suffered from some type of mental health condition that may have been cause for a different discharge decision.
Later
that year, Pentagon officials issued a memo requiring that reviewers
should take into consideration “conditions resulting
from post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, sexual
assault or sexual harassment” when deciding whether to upgrade a
veterans' status.
But those standards did not necessarily apply to veterans already denied discharge upgrades. The new settlement reopens that
opportunity for Army veterans, through both the automatic reviews and the opportunity for other veterans to refile.
The
settlement also requires Army officials to conduct new annual training
for review board members on how to properly evaluate
claims of mental health conditions, and notify all applications of
their right to legal and medical assistance when filing the claims.
Yale Legal Services Clinic officials said they have a similar lawsuit pending with the Navy, and hope for similar accommodations
from service officials there.
Harm Venhuizen | 12 hours ago
It pays to be a veteran, according to a new study by veterans claims law firm Hill and Ponton.
The average annual income for veterans was about $65,000 in 2019, the study reported. Those who didn’t serve brought home nearly
$11,000 less, with an average annual income of about $54,000.
Hill and Ponton’s study also analyzed the states and careers where veterans stood to gain the most, using 2019 census data from
the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series to draw their conclusions.
Here’s what they found:
Best states for veterans’ salaries
The five locations where veterans made the most money in 2019 are Washington D.C. ($102,900), Connecticut ($101,000), New Jersey
($98,000), Massachusetts ($92,000) and Michigan ($82,900).
In Michigan, veterans stood to gain the most, with average salaries 64.9 percent higher than their civilian counterparts.
The only state in which veterans made less money than their civilian counterparts was Kentucky, where employees without prior
service made an average of 3.9 percent more each year.
The
five lowest paying states include Arkansas ($48,200), West Virginia
($48,700), Wyoming ($49,000), Vermont ($50,200) and South
Carolina ($51,200).
Highest paying jobs for veterans
The
study also measured the highest paying career fields for veterans as
well as the disparity between veteran and civilian salaries
in each field. For instance, the highest paying career fields for vets
were public administration, physicians and surgeons, and aircraft pilots
and flight engineers; however, these careers respectively offered only a
17.1 percent, -2.7 percent, and 29.7 percent
advantage to veterans.
Careers
as real estate brokers and agents, first-line supervisors of office and
administrative employees and computer support
specialists, while not as highly paid as the top jobs, gave veterans
the greatest comparative advantage. Veterans in real estate made an
average of 56.4 percent more than their civilian counterparts, and
veterans working as supervisors or computer support
specialists saw gains of 41 percent and 40.3 percent respectively.
Few
careers offered veterans lower average salaries than civilians. Among
them were judicial workers such as judges and lawyers
(-18.9 percent), wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives
(-6.5 percent), and accountants and auditors (-6.4 percent).
Unemployment
The
best locations for veterans to find employment are New Mexico,
Delaware, Oklahoma, Florida, and Louisiana. Meanwhile, Alaska,
Oregon, Washington D.C., Michigan, and Illinois were the worst.
Overall, North Dakota is the only state where veterans had a higher rate of unemployment than civilians.
Unemployment statistics differ significantly between veterans and non-veterans, Hill and Ponton found. At the time of the study,
the nearly 18 million veterans in the U.S. accounted for approximately 7 percent of the adult population.
Sixty-two
percent of non-veterans were employed in 2019, 34 percent were not
currently in the workforce, and nearly four percent
were unemployed. Meanwhile, 49 percent of veterans were working, 48
percent were not in the workforce, and about 3 percent were unemployed.
Those who are not actively employed or seeking employment are considered out of the work force. This can include retirees, those
with family responsibilities, those in prison, and those pursuing education.
More than five million veterans reported at least one disability, according to the IPUMS data, and 1.2 million veterans were
living below the poverty line. Nearly 38,000 prior service members were homeless at the time of the study.
Gender pay gap
Hill
and Ponton also found that the gender pay gap is lessened, albeit
slightly, among employed veterans. Among non-veterans,
men earn an average of $18,000 more than women. This difference shrank
to about $16,000 when comparing the salaries of veterans.
Women
who served in the military made the most money in Alaska, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Georgia and Virginia. The gender pay
gap was highest for veterans in states like Arizona, Michigan, and
Louisiana, all of which had a more than 50 percent gap between male and
female veterans.
Andrew Taylor, The Associated Press | 10 hours ago
WASHINGTON
— An annual defense policy measure that has passed Congress every year
since the Kennedy administration is in danger
of cratering next month over a move by Democrats to rename military
bases, such as Fort Benning, that are named after Confederate officers.
President Donald Trump opposes renaming bases like Fort Hood and has threatened to veto the popular measure over the provision,
which was added to both the House and Senate versions of the so-called defense authorization bill this summer.
Republicans
are vowing they will not send the broader bill to Trump if it includes
language requiring bases named after Confederate
officers to be renamed. Trump used the debate this summer to appeal to
Southern voters nostalgic about the Confederacy, and those appeals
remain relevant now due to two Senate runoff elections in Georgia that
will determine control of the chamber during the
first two years of President-elect Joe Biden’s tenure.
“I
am concerned that there is at least the potential that political
concerns, especially with the Georgia runoffs, are going
to play a bigger role,” said top House Armed Services Committee
Republican Mac Thornberry of Texas. “I have no doubt that we can reach
an agreement. The question is whether the politics above us will allow
us to.”
Senate
Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., is strongly
backing Trump, aides involved in the talks say. But
Democrats, who won GOP support in both the House and Senate to force
the renaming of the bases, vow they will not back down. Typically, when
both House and Senate versions of legislation contain comparable
provisions, the default position is to leave the language
in the final product. The differences between the House and Senate
provisions are relatively modest.
“It’s
Senate language that we want to agree to,” said House Armed Services
Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash. “So there shouldn’t
be controversy here.” He called Trump “a little bit erratic at the
moment.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., says the names must be changed.
“It is imperative that the conference report include provisions that secure this essential priority,” said Pelosi. “Our bases
should reflect our highest ideals as Americans.”
The bill has to pass next month to avoid breaking a 59-year streak of enacting the annual measure, which sets policy across the
Pentagon and would award the military a 3 percent pay raise starting Jan. 1, among its other provisions.
“Look, the defense bill is really important,” Smith said, expressing hope that Republicans would relent.
White
House chief of staff Mark Meadows has even floated the idea of a
tradeoff in which Trump would sign the legislation containing
the Democratic language in exchange for repealing so-called Section
230, a legal shield for social media outlets like Facebook that protects
websites from liability for content posted on their sites. The New York
Times first reported Meadows’ attempt at deal
making, which was confirmed by a Democratic aide who requested
anonymity because the negotiations are occurring behind closed doors.
Both
the House and Senate defense measures passed by veto-proof margins but
GOP leaders want to avoid the chances of a veto coming
to pass. Either way, the issue seems to be a loser for Georgia’s
Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. Breaking with
Trump to override the veto could mean a loss in support among core GOP
voters, while standing in favor of keeping the base
names could drain support from independents.
By COREY DICKSTEIN | STARS AND STRIPES | Published: November 19, 2020
WASHINGTON
— The Pentagon has narrowed its choices on the permanent headquarters
location for U.S. Space Command to six finalists,
Air Force officials announced Thursday.
The
remaining candidates to house the newest combatant command are Kirtland
Air Force Base in New Mexico, Offutt Air Force Base
in Nebraska, Patrick Air Force Base in Florida, Peterson Air Force Base
in Colorado, Port San Antonio in Texas, and Redstone Arsenal in
Alabama, according to the Air Force. A final decision is expected in
early 2021, said Ann Stefanek, a spokeswoman for the
service charged with making the final basing decision for SPACECOM.
“The
Department of the Air Force evaluated each location and will now
conduct both virtual and on-site visits at each candidate
location to assess which location is best suited to host the U.S. Space
Command Headquarters,” Stefanek said. “This assessment will be based on
factors related to mission, infrastructure capacity, community support,
and costs to the Department of Defense.”
The
Air Force initially expected to announce a home base for Space
Command’s about 1,400 military and civilian headquarters workforce
by late 2019, even releasing a different list of six finalists as
possible locations last year. But the service scrapped those plans in
May and began a new search.
The
new effort allowed American communities to self-nominate themselves for
consideration to host Space Command. Air Force officials
at that time announced that to be considered, communities must be
within 25 miles of an existing military base, within one of the top 150
most populous Metropolitan Statistical Areas within the country, and
score at least 50 out of 100 points on the American
Association of Retired Persons’ Livability Index.
SPACECOM was formally established in August 2019 to oversee and control the U.S. military’s myriad space-based infrastructure
and operations. It has been temporarily housed at Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs since it was established.
Peterson AFB is one of two locations to twice be named a finalist. The Army’s Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Ala., is the
other.
Stefanek said the Air Force considered locations in 24 states before naming the finalists on Thursday.
Air Force officials have said previously the service estimated it could take some six years to build the facilities necessary
to house U.S. Space Command, once a location is chosen.
Space
Command’s establishment last year was actually a re-establishment of
the combatant command, after the Pentagon shuttered
it in 2002 as part of the post-9/11 government restructuring. It was
established just months before the newest military branch, U.S. Space
Force, was founded last year.
Under
Defense Department structure, the military services — in this case, the
Space Force — are responsible for training and
equipping troops who then operate under the leadership and control of a
combatant command— in this case, the Space Command. Space Force, as it
grows, is expected to provide the bulk of the troops assigned to Space
Command, but the other military services will
also provide some troops to the command, officials have said.
Space Command is now led by Army four-star Gen. James Dickinson.
Space Force, like all military services, is headquartered at the Pentagon, where it will remain. It is led by Gen. Jay Raymond,
the chief of space operations.
By: Aaron Mehta | 9 hours ago
WASHINGTON
— A top Pentagon civilian has tested positive for COVID-19 after
meeting with a foreign dignitary — who may have also
exposed Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, as well as the
top civilians from the Air Force, Navy and Army, Defense News has
learned.
Lithuanian
Minister of Defense Raimundas Karoblis met with Miller, the service
secretaries and retired Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata,
who is performing the duties of the undersecretary for policy, during a
Nov. 13 visit to the Pentagon. Upon returning to Vilnius this week, he
tested positive for COVID.
Miller, as well as Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite,
who met with Karbolis Nov. 16, have all tested negative and do not plan to self-isolate.
The
disease, which has claimed the lives of over 250,000 Americans, has an
incubation period of up to 14 days, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is unclear when or where
Karoblis contracted the disease and whether he was contagious during
his visit to the Pentagon.
Photos from the meetings between Karoblis and the Pentagon leaders show those in attendance wearing face masks, although one
formal photo shows Miller and Karoblis standing without face coverings.
In
response to questions about a possible infection from Defense News,
chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said the
department learned of Karoblis’ positive test today and began testing.
Tata tested positive twice, and will now isolate at home for 14 days.
“We
have and are continuing to conduct further contact tracing of DoD
personnel who have had close contact with the Lithuanian
delegation or Mr. Tata, and are taking appropriate precautions in
accordance with CDC guidelines,” Hoffman said. “Additionally, DoD
personnel who had contact with the delegation have received or are
receiving at this time rapid COVID tests as deemed necessary
based on CDC protocols. Additional necessary testing for individuals
who had contact with Mr. Tata is ongoing.”
“We will report additional positive cases as appropriate,” Hoffman added.
COVID
tests are more accurate the further from the potential infection, which
is now six days ago. However, individuals infected
with COVID can still spread the virus at any point during the 14-day
infection period, per CDC guidelines. It is also possible that others in
their circle were exposed during Karbolis’ visit or in the days after,
when he traveled to Pennsylvania to meet with
adjutant general Maj. Gen. Anthony Carrelli; in one photo posted on
Twitter, Karbolis is seen without a mask.
The
Pentagon leaders have made several public appearances since the meeting
with Karoblis. On Tuesday, Miller made his first
public comments since taking the helm by appearing in the briefing room
to announce troop drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan; he then spent
Wednesday traveling to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where he met with
members of the military, as well as the USS Gerald
R. Ford carrier.
The
same day that Barrett met with Karoblis, she attended the retirement
ceremony for Gen. Stephen Wilson, the outgoing Air Force
vice chief of staff, along with several service leaders. On Nov. 18,
McCarthy was present at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier’s 100th anniversary,
pictured both with and without a mask.
This
is not the first COVID scare to hit top Pentagon leadership. On Oct. 6,
almost the entirety of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
chose to self-isolate after the vice commandant of the Coast Guard
tested positive for the disease. On Oct. 19, the officers were given the
all-clear to return in-person work.
