[Senate Hearing 108-670]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 108-670
ISSUES AFFECTING FAMILIES OF SOLDIERS, SAILORS, AIRMEN, AND MARINES
=======================================================================
HEARINGS
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON PERSONNEL
of the
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
UNITED STATES SENATE
JUNE 2 AND OCTOBER 7, 2003
AND
JOINT HEARINGS
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON PERSONNEL
of the
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
AND
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
of the
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
JUNE 24 AND DECEMBER 11, 2003
__________
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Armed Services
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COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
JOHN WARNER, Virginia, Chairman
JOHN McCAIN, Arizona CARL LEVIN, Michigan
JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts
PAT ROBERTS, Kansas ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia
WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut
JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama JACK REED, Rhode Island
SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii
JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada BILL NELSON, Florida
JAMES M. TALENT, Missouri E. BENJAMIN NELSON, Nebraska
SAXBY CHAMBLISS, Georgia MARK DAYTON, Minnesota
LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina EVAN BAYH, Indiana
ELIZABETH DOLE, North Carolina HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, New York
JOHN CORNYN, Texas MARK PRYOR, Arkansas
Judith A. Ansley, Staff Director
Richard D. DeBobes, Democratic Staff Director
______
Subcommittee on Personnel
SAXBY CHAMBLISS, Georgia, Chairman
SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine E. BENJAMIN NELSON, Nebraska
ELIZABETH DOLE, North Carolina EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts
JOHN CORNYN, Texas MARK PRYOR, Arkansas
______
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS
JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire, Chairman
BILL FRIST, Tennessee EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee TOM HARKIN, Iowa
CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland
MIKE DeWINE, Ohio JAMES M. JEFFORDS (I), Vermont
PAT ROBERTS, Kansas JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico
JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama PATTY MURRAY, Washington
JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada JACK REED, Rhode Island
LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina JOHN EDWARDS, North Carolina
JOHN WARNER, Virginia HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, New York
Sharon R. Soderstrom, Staff Director
J. Michael Myers, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
______
Subcommittee on Children and Families
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee, Chairman
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut
CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri TOM HARKIN, Iowa
MIKE DeWINE, Ohio JAMES M. JEFFORDS (I), Vermont
PAT ROBERTS, Kansas JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico
JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama PATTY MURRAY, Washington
JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada JACK REED, Rhode Island
LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina JOHN EDWARDS, North Carolina
JOHN W. WARNER, Virginia HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, New York
Marguerite Sallee, Staff Director
Grace A. Reef, Minority Staff Director
(ii)
?
C O N T E N T S
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CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WITNESSES
Issues Affecting Families of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines
june 2, 2003
Page
Isaacs, Peter F., Deputy Director, Community and Family Support
Center, USA.................................................... 5
Purcell, Rear Adm. (Sel.) Marc L., USN, Assistant Commander for
Personnel Readiness and Community Support, Navy Personnel
Command........................................................ 10
Yanello, Col. Gerald L., USMC, Deputy Director, Personnel and
Family Readiness Division, Headquarters, United States Marine
Corps.......................................................... 19
Murray, Barbara, Chief, Force Sustainment Division, Headquarters,
United States Air Force........................................ 23
Heifferon, Linda, Director, Directorate for Community Activity
and Services, Fort Stewart, Georgia............................ 37
Kelly, Dr. John, Program Manager for Community Support, Navy
Region Southeast, Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida...... 42
Lukens, Ann, Director, Family Support Center, Moody Air Force
Base, Georgia.................................................. 45
Payne, Kate, Spouse of Cpt. Matt Payne, USA...................... 55
Palomo, Chrystie, Spouse of Sgt. Philip Palomo, USA.............. 58
Edmondson, Krischele, Spouse of MM1 (SS) Richard Edmondson, USN.. 61
Bush, Marian, Spouse of Capt. Jason Bush, USAF................... 61
Matthews, Semantha, Spouse of Tsgt. Lawrence Matthews, USAF...... 61
Issues Affecting Families of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines
june 24, 2003
Alexander, Hon. Lamar, U.S. Senator from Tennessee............... 74
Dodd, Hon. Christopher, U.S. Senator from Connecticut............ 76
Molino, Hon. John M., Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for
Military Community and Family Policy........................... 81
Tafoya, Dr. Joseph, Director, Department of Defense Education
Activity....................................................... 89
Scott, Col. James L., II, ARNG, Director, Individual and Family
Support, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Reserve Affairs................................................ 91
Petrilli, Michael J., Associate Deputy Under Secretary for
Innovation and Improvement, Department of Education............ 95
MacDermid, Shelley M., Ph.D., Co-Director, Military Family
Research Institute, Purdue University.......................... 110
Raezer, Joyce Wessel, Director, Government Relations, National
Military Family Association.................................... 114
Lucas, M.A., Director, Army Child and Youth Services, U.S. Army
Community and Family Support Center............................ 133
(iii)
Issues Relating to the Education of Military Children
october 7, 2003
Deegan, Dr. John F., Superintendent, Bellevue Public School
District and CEO of Military Impacted Schools Association...... 153
Thomas, Otto J., Director of Educational Opportunities, Office of
the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness..... 157
Simon, Senior Master Sergeant Thomas, USAF; Accompanied by Mrs.
Michele Simon.................................................. 165
Bruno, Marie..................................................... 166
Lemasters, Navy Petty Officer Maria.............................. 166
Bruce, Marion.................................................... 166
Murphy, Sheila................................................... 168
Issues Affecting Families of Reserve and National Guard Soldiers,
Sailors, Airmen, and Marines
december 11, 2003
Alexander, Hon. Lamar, U.S. Senator from Tennessee............... 187
Winkler, John P., Ph.D., Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense
for Reserve Affairs (Manpower and Personnel)................... 190
Scott, Col. James L., II, ARNG Director, Individual and Family
Policy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Reserve Affairs................................................ 191
Hollingsworth, Bob, Executive Director, National Committee for
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve...................... 197
Ward, Major Terry, Tennessee National Guard...................... 211
Lindsay, Denise, 1st and 181st Battalion Family Readiness Group
Representative................................................. 215
Hardin, Major Scott, United States Army Reserve.................. 216
Schroyer, Lt. Larry, Chattanooga Police Department............... 217
ISSUES AFFECTING FAMILIES OF SOLDIERS, SAILORS, AIRMEN, AND MARINES
----------
MONDAY, JUNE 2, 2003
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Personnel,
Committee on Armed Services,
Warner Robins Air Force Base, Georgia.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 1:00 p.m., in
Building 1500, the Museum of Aviation at Warner Robins Air
Force Base, Senator Saxby Chambliss (chairman of the
subcommittee) presiding.
Committee member present: Senator Chambliss.
Majority staff member present: Richard F. Walsh, counsel.
Minority staff member present: Gerald J. Leeling; minority
counsel.
Committee members' assistants present: Clyde A. Taylor IV,
assistant to Senator Chambliss.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR SAXBY CHAMBLISS, CHAIRMAN
Senator Chambliss. Good afternoon. The subcommittee will
come to order. The Subcommittee on Personnel meets today to
receive testimony on issues affecting families of soldiers,
sailors, airmen, and marines.
As we are getting started here and before I get into my
opening statement, I want to, first of all, acknowledge a few
folks that are here and make a couple of comments about where
the idea for this came from and what we hope to achieve over
the next several weeks with respect to a couple of hearings,
two of which are being held today. One will be held in
Nebraska, another one will be held back in Washington, DC, and
possibly even some others after that.
We are just coming off a very difficult conflict in Iraq
where our military personnel have performed just amazing feats.
All of us as Americans, particularly those of us who are
closely connected with our service personnel, could not be
prouder of our men and women who serve in uniform and the job
that they did liberating the people of Iraq. But just as
important as the men and women who serve in the Armed Forces,
are the spouses and the family members of those men and women.
It is critically important that we make sure that we make
life as easy as possible for our spouses and our children
because the last thing that we want a family member doing while
they are serving on active duty is being concerned about what
is going on back home. We want them to be able to take comfort
in the fact that, first of all, their spouses are well prepared
to take care of all the family business and that they have the
appropriate professional help at each of our military
installations to make sure that happens and that they get
whatever assistance they need.
Second, that the children of those military personnel
continue to have the opportunity for a quality education, both
while the spouse is at home as well as while they are deployed,
and that those children are adapting to Mom or Dad being gone
at frequent intervals and being placed in harm's way and that
they, again, are receiving whatever appropriate professional
needs and services that they might need while their moms and
their dads are gone.
I would note that my colleague, and I will refer to it in
my formal remarks, Senator Lamar Alexander who chairs the
Subcommittee on Children and Families of the Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions Committee, is holding a hearing similar to
this today. We talked about the idea of doing this several
weeks ago, and it was unusual that both of us have shared this
same concern, and the concern on my part was raised once again
when I visited the spouses of a number of our deployed
personnel at Hunter Army Airfield over in the Savannah area. He
had done the same thing at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, which is on
the Tennessee-Kentucky border, and that is where he is holding
his hearing today.
Interestingly enough, there is one other individual who
shares the same concerns that we do who has been very vocal
about that. That is First Lady Laura Bush. At the First Lady's
luncheon a couple of weeks ago she made specific mention of our
children of military personnel and making sure that, or we want
to make sure, in her words, that we are doing what is necessary
to provide the quality education that these children need and
also to provide them with whatever professional services are
needed while their parents are deployed, particularly at this
very difficult time in the life of those families.
I want to borrow something from her comments that were made
at that luncheon that day where she quoted a sixth grade
student. Her name is Kiara. She is a sixth grade student at
Belle Chasse Academy in Louisiana. Kiara wrote a poem. She is
the daughter of a military father. This is what she said. Her
poem was titled ``I Serve Too,'' and it reads as follows:
``I'm a military child, I stay strong when my dad
goes away. If there's a war and my dad is detached, I
will help him fight back. With my braveness and courage
I can stay strong, my family's support helps me carry
on.
``Whenever we move, I start over again, I have to go
to a new school, and make new friends. Even though
people think I'm a military brat, I just don't quite
see it like that.
``My daddy helps defend our country, so we can live
in peace and harmony. So all the military children help
their mothers and fathers because we serve too, we're
their sons and daughters.''
I think that sums up the feeling of a lot of us who over
the years have become close to these kids and have seen these
children attend schools on base, off base, having, in some
instances, critical problems that have to be dealt with in a
little bit different way from what some of our other children
have to deal with. I know we have some folks here today who
know a lot more about it than I do, and I really do look
forward to hearing from them.
It is essential that the subcommittee take advantage of
every opportunity to visit military communities and receive
firsthand the views of those whose professional and personal
lives so directly involve the well-being of the men and women
of the Armed Forces and their families. No State is blessed
with more outstanding representatives from the Armed Forces
than Georgia, and it is fitting that the subcommittee's first
field hearing of the 108th Congress be conducted here in Warner
Robins.
I want to thank the Director of the Museum of Aviation here
at Robins Air Force Base, Paul Hibbits, and all of his staff
for hosting this event, and to General Wetekam and his team
here at Robins Air Force Base for their support. These folks
have been great friends of mine over the years, they do a
terrific job, and I am just very pleased that a lot of folks
from around our State are having an opportunity to visit this
museum today. I hope you will take the time to look around
because it truly is a great institution and a real jewel of our
military assets here in our State.
Before we get started I would like to note for the record
my appreciation of the strong advocacy of Senator Ben Nelson of
Nebraska, the ranking member of the Personnel Subcommittee, on
behalf of the men and women of the Armed Forces. The Committee
on Armed Services has a strong tradition of bipartisanship, and
that tradition could not be stronger in the Personnel
Subcommittee.
Senator Nelson could not attend today, but he is
represented by Gary Leeling, his staff member from the Armed
Services Committee, and we thank Gary for being here. Thank
you, Gary. Senator Nelson has a prepared statement that I will
include in the record.
[The prepared statement of Senator Ben Nelson follows:]
Prepared Statement by Senator Ben Nelson
Thank you, Senator Chambliss.
I am delighted that you called this hearing to explore issues that
are important to the families of our military personnel.
We ask alot of our military families. I think it is entirely
appropriate that you conduct this hearing here in Georgia to hear from
officials responsible for family support and from family members
themselves about family life in the military.
The young men and women serving in our Armed Forces are prepared to
lay down their lives in service to our Nation. We must ensure that
their families are well taken care of--that they receive quality
medical care, their children receive a quality education, and that
their spouses and children have a quality of life that is at least
comparable to what they would experience in the civilian world.
I want to thank our witnesses for appearing here today. I am most
anxious to hear their concerns and learn what we can do to make their
lives better.
Senator Chambliss. I would also like to thank Senator Lamar
Alexander of Tennessee who is a member of the Senate Committee
on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and chairs its
Subcommittee on Children and Families.
Today, Senator Alexander is presiding at a subcommittee
hearing at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, focusing on military
families. Later this month we intend to hold a joint hearing of
our two subcommittees. We plan to work closely together to
identify areas in which we can cooperate in improving the
quality of life for military families and share lessons with
civilian communities about matters involving family support,
education of dependent children, spousal employment, and
improved housing and healthcare.
Military families have been placed under tremendous stress
in recent years. Even before September 11, 2001 and the global
war on terrorism, the high tempo of operations for a
significantly smaller military was a source of great concern
for the personnel of our All-Volunteer Force. Since September
11, our active duty, Reserve, and National Guard personnel have
performed superbly throughout Operations Noble Eagle, Enduring
Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom, and have responded magnificently to
the President's call to be ready for all contingencies.
However, the sacrifices by military personnel and their
families, the separations endured and the problems that must be
addressed have only increased.
My expectation today is that we will gain insight into
initiatives taken by the Services in the formulation of
policies at the headquarters level, and also in the
implementation of those policies at Fort Stewart, at Moody Air
Force Base, and Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in providing
support for individual members and their families.
I would note that the first question I raised was, since we
are here at Robins Air Force Base, which has a special place in
my heart, why do we not have testimony from folks from Robins,
but I understand that the Services chose the people to come
testify. We have great experts, we have experts here at Robins,
too, who could also shed a lot of light on this.
We have three panels of witnesses who will testify this
afternoon. First, we will hear from Peter Isaacs, Deputy
Director for the Army's Community and Family Support Center;
Rear Admiral Select Marc Purcell, United States Navy, Assistant
Commander for Personal Readiness and Community Support; Colonel
Gerald Yanello, United States Marine Corps, Deputy Director of
the Personnel and Family Readiness Division; and Ms. Barbara
Murray, Chief of the Force Sustainment Division, United States
Air Force.
Our second panel will consist of key family support
managers from Fort Stewart, Moody Air Force Base, and from the
Navy's Southeast Region, which includes Naval Submarine Base,
Kings Bay. They will be followed by a third panel composed of
spouses of active duty military personnel stationed at each of
those installations.
I welcome the members of our first panel. Your written
testimony will be entered into the record, and in just a minute
I am going to ask that you proceed.
First of all, I hope all of you saw me take my Blackberry
out because if I do not take it out of this holster it will be
dinging all afternoon. If you would please make sure that your
Blackberries, cell phones are turned off so that we are not
interrupted during the course of this hearing.
There are a couple of other folks that I would like to
recognize. I mentioned Gary Leeling from the Democratic side of
the Armed Services staff. I also have my staff on the Personnel
Subcommittee, Dick Walsh, who is here. A couple of my local
staff members, Greg Wright from my Atlanta office, my State
director, Bill Stembridge who a lot of you here from the Robins
area knows who is from my Macon office. We have Jared Downs
from Senator Miller's office. Jared, thank you very much for
being here. Senator Miller and I have an extremely close
working relationship, and I promise you I will share the
information taken today with Senator Miller. I also have Clyde
Taylor from my Washington, DC, staff who handles my legislative
matters in the Armed Services area.
With that, I would like to turn to our first panel. Mr.
Isaacs, you are on our left and we will start with you, and,
Admiral Purcell, we will move down with you immediately
following any comments in the form of an opening statement by
Mr. Isaacs.
Again, thank you all very much for being here. We look
forward to hearing from you.
STATEMENT OF PETER F. ISAACS, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY AND
FAMILY SUPPORT CENTER, USA
Mr. Isaacs. Senator Chambliss, it is my pleasure to appear
before you today at this field hearing to discuss the Army's
commitment to soldiers and their families and the programs
designed to support them. I have submitted my statement for the
record which details these initiatives and I have just a few
brief comments.
I want to emphasize our senior leadership's philosophy that
dictates that soldiers are the centerpiece of our formation.
Our soldiers and their families deserve the same quality of
life as the citizens that they are sworn to defend, period,
non-negotiable.
In that regard we recognize the unique pressures placed on
military families. The Army continues to demonstrate that we
can rapidly deploy forces whenever and wherever they are needed
in the world. A key component of that success is our Family
Readiness Program which assures that soldiers and their
families are well cared for so that the soldier can stay
focused on the mission.
Experience has taught us that planning for reunion is as
important as preparing for deployment. Our Army Community
Services Programs provide programs to smooth that often
difficult transition from the deployment to the reentry into
family life.
While attending to the issues surrounding deployment, we
can't ignore the day-to-day challenges of raising and educating
soldiers' children. Army child care remains a model for the
Nation. Programs provide child care options designed to reduce
the conflict between a soldier's parental responsibilities and
their on-the-job mission requirements.
We have recently established school liaison services to
mobilize and use community resources to reduce the impact of
the mobile military lifestyle on military children and youth;
to implement the predictable support services to assist with
relocation, life transitions, and academic success.
These programs provide parents, children, schools,
commanders, and communities access to a wide range of resources
that facilitate school transition.
To address these concerns we listen to our soldiers, their
spouses, and commanders as we develop policies, programs, and
support systems. Our greatest challenge is to continue to meet
our standards for delivering programs within available
resources. With your continued support, we will fully embrace,
resource, and support the programs that meet the needs of these
spectacular and special families.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be happy to address any
questions you may have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Isaacs follows:]
Prepared Statement by Peter F. Isaacs
Senator Chambliss, it is a pleasure to appear before you today at
this field hearing to discuss our families and children.
The Chief of Staff of the Army in a recent address to Arlington
Ladies 30th Anniversary Luncheon said and I would like to quote: ``We
are proud beyond measure of each of our Army families and their gifts
and sacrifices are unique, but never more so than during a war. Through
the strength and devotion of Army families, soldiers can focus on the
tough missions that we give them. We ask a lot of our families--
families who soldier along with their soldiers. They are always the
most generous people I know. They constantly reinforce the truth of the
proposition soldiering is an affair of the heart a quotation also
attributed to General Creighton Abrams. So it is, so it will always be
an affair of the heart.''
Over the past several months, the leadership of the U.S. Army
Community and Family Support Center (USACFSC) has visited numerous
installations in the United States and overseas. On each visit the
leadership paid particular attention to family readiness. We held
discussions with garrison staffs, senior leaders, and spouses regarding
organization and effectiveness of Army Community Service (ACS) centers,
Family Assistance Centers (FACs), and Child and Youth Services (CYS)
facilities. Principal observations were:
Family members are phenomenally strong, but many are
concerned about Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi
Freedom, and other contingency operations and how long their
spouses will be gone.
The spouses agree they are better prepared now than
they were for Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm (OP DS/DS)
because the Army supported and strengthened Family Readiness
Groups (FRGs), ACS programs, CYS programs, and incorporated
lessons learned from previous deployments including OP DS/DS.
FAMILY READINESS
The Army places a high value on both military and personal
preparedness and is committed to providing a full range of essential
support and services to soldiers and their families throughout the
entire spectrum of operations: pre-deployment, deployment, and
redeployment. This commitment is implemented by caring leaders at all
levels of command, from the first-line supervisor to the senior
military and civilian leadership of the Army.
Both Active and Reserve component soldiers and their families
attend classes and briefings and receive written instructional
materials through ACS and Reserve Component (RC) Family Program
Coordinators. Ensuring family readiness is a command responsibility.
The ACS and RC Family Readiness Coordinators provide commanders with
The Army Leaders' Desk Reference for Soldier/Family Readiness. It
contains battalion readiness plans, guidance for conducting battalion
level pre-deployment briefings and for operating successful FRGs.
Additionally, rear detachment commanders (those that remain behind to
process necessary paperwork) maintain regular contact with the
commander at the mission location, coordinate with American Red Cross
regarding emergency information, and provide vital information to the
FRG. As such, they are important elements of the entire family
readiness support system. Establishing lines of communication between
families, deployed soldiers and units through rear detachment
commanders, family readiness groups and family assistance centers is
crucial to reducing anxiety and sustaining soldier and family morale.
Through technology (internet, e newsletters, video teleconferencing,
phone cards) soldiers are able to stay in touch with their families. A
FAC is a building or location that becomes a central hub where
professional staff coordinate services and resources a family will need
during a deployment such as ACS, ID card processing, medical
registration and insurance, legal assistance, emergency financial
assistance and crisis intervention. Community support and outreach are
essential during deployments. In some cases, the community in which the
installation is located considers the soldiers to be ``their own'' and
is as concerned about them as those remaining on the installation. ACS
personnel support mobilization and deployment efforts by participating
in the Soldier Readiness Processing Centers, talking with soldiers,
reviewing Family Care Plans, and identifying any family concerns that
may keep soldiers from focusing on their missions. Pre-deployment
briefings, FRG instruction, and Rear Detachment Commander training are
conducted. They also assist Guard and Reserve units to prepare for
deployment.
The Army National Guard (ARNG) has capabilities to operate 400
FACs. They've activated 387 so far with at least one at every State
Area Readiness Command (STARC) Headquarters for the State National
Guard. Typical services provided by ARNG FACs include information and
referral services relative to the local community and follow-up
services. The Army doctrine that governs mobilization does not require
the U.S. Army Reserve to have FACs. Instead, they receive support
through the ARNG FACs. However, the Regional Support Commands conduct
pre-deployment briefings for family members prior to units deploying.
Briefing materials are mailed to those families who cannot attend the
briefings. U.S. Army Reserve Command Family Program staff make monthly
telephonic follow-up with all family members of Individual Ready
Reserve soldiers, and the Rear Detachment operations cell makes monthly
calls to all families in the unit. USAR Rear Detachment Operations is a
new concept implemented since the beginning of current deployments. In
addition to the active FACs and those established for the NG, the
Surgeon General established three operational FACs at Walter Reed Army
Medical Center, Landstuhl and Brooke Army Medical Center to support
families of the injured.
Eleven FACs were activated at Forts Benning, Bliss, Bragg,
Campbell, Carson, Hood, Lewis, Riley, and Stewart; and Vicenza, Italy;
and Wiesbaden, Germany. The FACs provide a full range of family support
program services and emergency assistance.
The ACS has fielded a comprehensive set of resource materials for
use to guide families, leaders, and staff through deployments. Known as
``Operation Resources for Educating About Deployment and You''
(Operation READY), these resources include personal checklists for
families and unit commanders to ensure that deployments and reunions
are successful. This training program assists commanders in meeting
family readiness objectives. Modules include: Army Leaders' Desk
Reference for Soldier/Family Readiness, The Army Family Readiness
Handbook, Pre-deployment and Ongoing Readiness, Homecoming and Reunion,
Family Assistance Centers and Children's Workbooks and videos.
Operation READY is available through ACS, RC Family Program staff and
is on-line at Virtual ACS, www.goacs.org. The Operation READY materials
have been revised based on lessons learned from recent deployments. The
Leader's Guide and the Family Member Deployment Survival Guide were
distributed in June 2002. The remaining modules were distributed in
October and November 2002. Three modules have been translated into
German, Spanish, and Korean. Those modules are Pre-Deployment, Post-
Deployment, and The Family Readiness Group Leaders' Basic Handbook.
Feedback from Commanders, staff, and soldiers and their families
indicates Operation READY has been invaluable in helping prepare for
deployments.
All Army component soldiers (Active and Reserves) who are single
parents, and dual military couples with family members, are required to
have a ``Family Care Plan.'' This is the means by which soldiers
provide for the care of their family members when military duties
prevent them from doing so. The Family Care Plan includes proof that
guardians and escorts have been identified and thoroughly briefed on
the responsibilities they will assume for the soldier as well as the
procedures for accessing military and civilian facilities and services
on behalf of the soldier's family members. This ensures family members
will be well cared for while single parent and dual military couples
are fulfilling their military obligations. While Family Care Plans are
required for single parent and dual military couples with children, all
married soldiers are encouraged to complete and maintain a Family Care
Plan.
The Army Family Liaison Office (AFLO) maintains a toll-free
information line that is available within the Continental United States
Monday thru Friday, during normal duty hours. The purpose of the toll
free number is to provide a mechanism for family members to get answers
to routine questions on all aspects of military family life, including
family readiness and benefit eligibility. The toll free number is
published monthly in newsletters from the Well-Being office and the
AFLO, and is also available on the AFLO Web site at www.aflo.org.
To accommodate the increased demand of Operation Iraqi Freedom, we
expanded this to a 24-hour toll-free Family Assistance Hotline (FAH) on
March 21, 2003. Primary function was to provide referrals and
information to the families of deployed or activated soldiers. The FAH
was intended for use by family members of soldiers on active duty as
well as those in the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve called to
active duty. It was a 'safety net' for those who had exhausted all
other resources. After hearing a short, recorded message, callers were
able to speak to hotline staff members with access to extensive
reference materials. In addition to local and Army-level assistance via
telephone, family members could find answers to many routine questions
about family readiness, ACS, and deployment support resources online at
the ACS Web site, www.goacs.org.
The FAH operated 24/7 from March 21, 2003 to May 19, 2003. The
mission has now returned to AFLO based on the level of demand. During
its 8 weeks of operation, the FAH received over 8,000 telephone calls.
Primary areas of caller concerns were locating a soldier, accuracy of
media information, delays in mail, exact dates of deployments and
returns, how to contact a soldier's unit, and casualty notification
information. Family members of single soldiers connected neither
through rear detachments nor family readiness groups made up the
greatest number of callers.
Equally as important as support provided to soldiers and their
families during deployments is the post-deployment help they need to
readjust after returning home from combat. In addition to its on-going
reunion training, typically provided by ACS and chaplains, the Army
recognizes the need for a proactive program to be up and running prior
to soldiers redeploying from Operation Iraqi Freedom. In response to
this requirement, the Army has implemented the Deployment Cycle Support
(DCS) plan. DCS operations begin in theater/area of operations,
continuing at home and/or Demobilization station, and through the
sustainment phase at home station. DCS taps wide-ranging resources
including medical, mental health, chaplain, schools, and family support
staff. The Army's goal with DCS is to standardize the process of
providing our forces with the proper psychological screening,
debriefing, and most importantly, identify those ``at-risk'' personnel
that may require immediate attention. Soldiers, Department of the Army
civilians, and family members are provided information that will
educate them on the need for individual reconstitution. The plan calls
for returning soldiers and civilians to remain with their unit or
organization through mandatory medical and mental health screening, as
well as reunion training designed to ease soldiers' move back into
family relationships. Unit leaders will use a new ``tip card'' to help
screen soldiers for any personal problems. Family members will be
offered reunion training. The Army will implement a toll free employee
assistance program that includes telephonic information and referral
assistance and up to six face-to-face counseling sessions. The toll
free line, Army One Source, is anticipated to be available when the
first soldiers return, in early June. This is particularly important
for the Reserve component where units may be hundreds of miles away
from an armory or support system. It allows significantly more privacy
for those concerned that mental health assistance may negatively impact
their careers.
CHILDREN AND YOUTH
The ultimate aim of the Army child care system is to meet 80
percent of the demand of the Objective Force in the outyears. Only
through a well-resourced strategic mix of different child care delivery
systems (on post centers, family child care homes, and local community
partnerships) can the Army ensure its system remains ``a model for the
Nation.''
The Army currently has a DOD-assigned goal to meet 65 percent of
the potential child care demand in the field. Fiscal year 2002 was a
challenge in that the Army was only able to meet 61 percent of demand
and, for fiscal year 2004, we anticipate a loss of capacity to serve
another 2,800 (equating to meeting only 59 percent of demand).
The Army Child Care Program is experiencing high turnover and staff
shortages because current salary levels do not match other positions
with common labor pools (e.g., local public schools, fast food and
retail establishments, etc.). Workforce issues were a key factor in the
decline of Army child spaces to 61 percent and are a major element in
some Army child care centers losing their accreditation status this
fiscal year.
Army Child and Youth Services (CYS) fielded a CYS Mobilization and
Contingency (MAC) Plan Workbook that gives installations support
materials to develop and monitor their CYS MAC Plans. The workbook
includes briefings, procedural guidance, planning references, on-line
resources, and ``lessons learned'' from Operation Desert Storm, Bosnia,
and other contingencies. The detailed checklists and worksheets allow
the installation staff to customize their CYS mission support. One
chapter of the workbook specifically addresses how to identify signs of
stress in children and provides coping strategies for dealing with it.
In addition to the MAC Plan, several ongoing CYS outreach efforts
are aimed at geographically isolated Active component soldiers as well
as Guard and Reserve members. A pilot Memorandum of Agreement with the
General Services Administration (GSA) permits active duty patrons in
Minnesota, New York, Georgia, and Washington to apply for subsidized
child care in accredited GSA centers. Walter Reed Army Medical Center
in the National Capital Region established a pilot program to support
monthly weekend drill for a Reserve unit--with the concept, once
validated, capable of being expanded to additional sites. Finally,
cooperative programs between Army CYS and the Boys & Girls Clubs of
Miami, Florida; Killeen, Texas; Tacoma, Washington; Silver Spring,
Maryland; and Dale City, Virginia, have opened opportunities for
military youth not living on installations to be served in the local
community. We are encouraged by these successes and continue to seek
further partnerships.
The value of this CYS focus on preparing to meet the challenges of
extraordinary contingency conditions, to include actual wartime
deployments, is being validated in practice. Indeed, the Army addresses
the needs of soldiers and their families by offering extended hours at
many of its facilities. The CYS makes arrangements for on-site child
care sessions where CYS takes the program to a site rather than parents
bringing children to a specific location like a child development
center. In the family child care program, providers agree to provide
care during evenings, weekends, and rotating shifts and round-the-clock
care for up to 60 days in long-term care homes.
To this point in fiscal year 2003, through its different
initiatives, CYS impacted nearly 10,000 families with more than 20,000
children by delivering 231,400 child care hours beyond ``normal''
operations. Soldiers requiring this extra child care are not asked to
pay more for it. The additional costs are being covered by supplemental
funds received from the Department of Defense.
The impact of these Child and Youth Services initiatives on Fort
Stewart/Hunter Army Air Field has been: 11 on-site sessions; 844
children served; and 22,243 child care hours. Please note that the high
figure for child care hours reported by Stewart/Hunter reflects the
large number of long term care [overnight] hours provided in family
child care homes.
Communicating via email with parents who are deployed is an
essential factor in maintaining well-being in the lives of our children
and youth. Youth computer labs located in Army CYS programs provide
controlled access for youth to use internet to stay in contact with
deployed parents. Because technology continually changes, the need to
replace computer labs on a 3-year replacement schedule that keeps pace
with the industry standard is becoming more evident if we are to
attract and keep young people involved in our programs. The Youth
Computer Labs are the primary implementation strategy to meet the
statutory requirement for the Youth Sponsorship Program, which also
supports youth education transition initiatives.
SCHOOLS/EDUCATION TRANSITION
Significant progress has been made since the initial Army Education
Summit held July 2000. The School Liaison Services (SLS) mission was
established to mobilize and use community resources to reduce the
impact of the mobile military lifestyle on military children and youth;
implement predictable support services to assist children and youth
with relocation, life transitions, and achieve academic success; and
provide access for parents, children/youth, schools, commanders, and
communities to a wide range of resources that facilitate school
transition. The SLS provides the following baseline services: School
Transition Support Service, Partnerships In Education (PIE)
Initiatives, Installation/School Communications, Home School Linkage/
Support, and Post-Secondary Preparation Opportunities.
A School Liaison Officer serves as the ``point person'' for
facilitating the delivery of quality school transition and education
support services and assisting parents to ease the impact of the
military lifestyle on the academic success of military children and
youth. The Army has funded 117 School Liaison Officers at the both the
installation and Installation Management Agency (IMA) Regional level to
support commanders, parents, and youth with school transition issues
that were highlighted in the groundbreaking Secondary Education
Transition Study (SETS) Report.
As a result of The Army Education Summit 2002, School Transition
Specialist positions have been established at the IMA Regions and at
Army headquarters. The School Transition Specialists work with local
school superintendents to build on the successes, share promising
practices, establish a system to provide feedback to superintendents,
and to continue to build on the success of the SETS Memorandum of
Agreement (MOA).
The Army CYS supports youth education transition initiatives
through coordinating the Youth Education Action (YEA) Working Group and
monitoring the SETS MOA. As of May 16, 2003, the SETS MOA had 123
signatories representing 127 school districts. Signed by school
superintendents, it addresses reciprocity of specific youth education
procedures (e.g., the timely transfer of records, improved access to
extracurricular activities, grading standards) that affect military
youth as their parents move them from one school system to another
throughout a military career. Army CYS will undertake another
coordination project to set up a July 2003 meeting of the National SETS
Steering Committee (NSSC). The NSSC is being formed to enhance
communications among superintendents and promote expansion of the SETS
MOA process in school systems supporting military installations. We
expect superintendents will use it to strengthen reciprocal practices.
MWR SUPPORT AT HOME STATION
Recreation programs support mobilization and deployment in multiple
ways. Installations use recreation and physical fitness facilities as
mobilization staging areas. For example, Fort Hood, Fort Campbell, Fort
Riley, and others processed deploying personnel and equipment in their
gymnasiums and recreation centers. Program managers adjust operating
hours to meet increased demand and community support requirements.
Normal recreation programs such as those at Fort Stewart provide non-
deploying units and family members with opportunities to participate in
both self-directed and organized activities designed to increase social
interaction and individual resiliency. Individual installations offer
special programs to meet local demand. We furnished 49 Small Unit
Recreation Kits to Reserve and National Guard units activated for force
protection at remote stateside posts.
CONCLUSION
Today, our Nation is supported by the best trained, best equipped,
and most technologically sophisticated Army in the history of the
world. These volunteer warriors, who sacrifice so much to serve their
country, are unequivocally sustained by loyal, dedicated families who,
themselves, sacrifice much in fulfilling their vital role in the lives
of soldiers. Never has this dedication been more evident than in the
global challenges the United States faces now. Our soldiers and their
families are the Nation's best. They deserve the best we can give them.
Every day, Army MWR and ACS fulfill this sacred obligation with
programs and services delivered around the world, wherever soldiers and
their families might be. While duty to country calls them in an
uncertain world, America's promise to them must be one of gratitude
demonstrated by opportunities for a quality of life comparable with
that afforded to the citizens they pledge to defend. Army MWR and ACS
answers that call. We know our success would not be possible without
your committed and steadfast support. Thank you.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you, sir.
Admiral Purcell.
STATEMENT OF REAR ADM. (SEL.) MARC L. PURCELL, USN, ASSISTANT
COMMANDER FOR PERSONNEL READINESS AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT, NAVY
PERSONNEL COMMAND
Admiral Purcell. Thank you, Senator. I would also like to
say I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to discuss
the Navy's personnel programs that are directed to families and
sailors. I have submitted a written statement for the record,
and if I may I would like to share a few highlights with you
before taking your questions.
We feel frequent deployments are an integral part of life
in the Navy. Not just during war, but even during normal
operations, and with over one-third to one-half of all naval
personnel deployed at any one time, our first mission has
always been to support those deployed personnel.
Right behind that is the priority placed on supporting our
families and our personnel ashore. We deliver the support at
sea and shore through both Fleet and Family Support Centers and
Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs. Our 65 full-service
Fleet and Family Support Centers had over 3.7 million client
contacts in 2002 and are on track to exceed that figure
substantially in fiscal year 2003.
Our Fleet and Family Support Centers offer a large variety
of programs to support Navy families, but I would like to focus
my comments primarily on some key deployment readiness
programs.
During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Navy Fleet and Family
Support Centers conducted 1,600 pre-deployment, mid-deployment,
and Reserve mobilization briefings for over 35,000 sailors and
their families.
In March 2003, a significant effort was focused on helping
families, schools, and community groups deal with the stress
and impact of combat operations and the continuous news
coverage of the war. Fleet and Family Support Centers conducted
a record 158 training sessions for over 950 teachers and
counselors and over 4,000 students. Attendance at the Fleet and
Family stress management classes quadrupled. Requests for
individual counseling for families and children also increased.
In the war's post-deployment period, family centers are
also focusing on preparing sailors and family members for
homecoming by providing professional guidance on reestablishing
relationships and readjusting family roles.
Training teams are offering special programs on stress and
anger, combat stress, and identifying post-traumatic stress
symptoms and treatment resources. Packages of materials and
resources for reservists, including resources and links to the
nearest Family Support Center in their local community are also
being provided.
Full service support for all Reserves regardless of service
continues for up to 120 days after their release from active
duty.
On the home front, preceding the return of deployed
sailors, family centers are also offering similar briefings to
spouses and families through family support groups. These
include discussions on dealing with post-traumatic stress.
Family centers are also helping ombudsmen or family groups
prepare for homecoming activities and are scheduling wellness
days and resource fairs to represent local support agencies in
regional communities.
The Morale, Welfare, and Recreation program also continues
to work aggressively to serve both our sailors and their
families at shore and afloat. Navy child development and youth
programs have continued to expand to meet the needs of Navy
families in providing quality child care for over 45,000
children. This year we also implemented a pilot program to
provide child care services around the clock for families in
Norfolk and Pearl Harbor regions to help meet the needs of
night shift workers.
Last year, we implemented new teen summer camp
scholarships, outdoor adventure camps, and teen employment
opportunities, and these programs are providing positive
recreational outlets for Navy teens and creating positive
feedback from our families.
We have also improved our E-mail connectivity in many of
our youth centers making it easier for teens to communicate
with their parents when deployed.
Mr. Chairman, as you see, the Navy is fully committed to
supporting the health and welfare of our families. I would like
to thank you and your committee, obviously, for the personal
commitment and ongoing support that we receive for these
valuable programs.
I look forward to answering any of your questions, sir.
[The prepared statement of Admiral Purcell follows:]
Prepared Statement by Rear Adm. (Select) Marc Purcell, USN
OPENING REMARKS
Mr. Chairman and subcommittee members, thank you for this
opportunity to update you on the Navy's efforts to support our sailors
and their families. Our two primary means for delivering this support
are our Fleet and Family Support Centers (FFSCs) and our Morale,
Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) programs. The mission of these two
programs is to ensure that both our sailors and their families receive
whatever support is necessary to maintain the Navy as an effective
fighting force.
Frequent deployments are integral to life in the Navy. Over half of
all naval personnel are assigned to ships, overseas bases, or Special
Forces units. While our primary mission has always been to support
those deployed personnel, we also believe our sailors will only
maintain their readiness if they are secure in the knowledge that their
families are continually receiving the support they need before,
during, and after deployment.
In order to meet this challenge, we have focused our efforts in the
following broad areas:
FLEET AND FAMILY SUPPORT PROGRAMS
Fleet and Family Support Centers are located at all major Navy
installations and deliver services at 65 full-service sites worldwide.
Many centers also operate satellite or part-time offices at other work
and housing sites to provide better access to sailors and family
members.
FFSCs had 3.7 million client-service contacts in fiscal year 2002
representing a 15-percent increase over fiscal year 2001. These
included information inquiries, counseling, advocacy contacts, and
class participants. FFSCs experienced a 196-percent increase in
deployment and mobilization services in the first 6 months of the
current fiscal year.
Beginning in fiscal year 2003, all Navy FFSCs receive a formal
inspection assessment of performance and quality standards in each of
their basic service programs. This rigorous review process ensures
quality and standardization of programs and services Navy-wide.
FFSCs offer three categories of basic services:
Deployment and Readiness Programs
Crisis Response Programs
Career Support and Retention Programs
Deployment and Readiness Programs
These programs directly support deployment and mission readiness by
preparing service and family members to anticipate and understand the
demands associated with the Navy lifestyle and operating tempo. These
programs include:
Relocation Assistance Program (RAP) offers pre-move
planning and post-arrival settling-in services for permanent
change of duty station moves. Sailors and family members are
provided workshops, briefs, and relocation counseling on an
individual basis.
Life Skills Education Program offers general
educational programs on such issues as stress management,
couples communication, relationship skills, and parenting
skills.
Information and Referral Program provides assistance
in identifying available resources within a local military or
civilian community. These include information, such as
educational resources and community social services, that may
be useful to service members and family that have moved to a
new location.
Repatriation Program is the Navy program for assisting
and tracking Navy family members who have been evacuated from
overseas areas. FFSCs ensure families are provided a
personalized point of contact for information regarding
entitlements and benefits. FFSCs also coordinate any assistance
offered by other agencies. This year, FFSCs have assisted
families evacuated from ``hot spots'' in Indonesia, the Ivory
Coast, Bahrain and other Middle Eastern countries.
Ombudsman Program coordinates the training of
ombudsman volunteers who provide a vital link between the
commanding officer and family members in the command. Ombudsmen
are married to a member of the command and provide information
directly to and from the commanding officer to command families
regarding local command and Navy policies, military and
community social service assistance, deployment schedules and
assistance to spouses when the service member is deployed. All
Navy commands, including shore activities, have an ombudsman
assigned. FFSCs provide ongoing support to ombudsmen in areas
such as coordination of training for new ombudsmen,
establishment of ombudsman support groups, provision of
information and referral resources when individual family
problems are presented to the obudsman, and maintenance of area
obudsman rosters.
Deployment and Mobilization Support Program provides
services in pre- and mid-deployment. This year the program was
particularly busy supporting the mobilization for Operation
Iraqi Freedom. Navy FFSCs conducted 1,600 sessions of
deployment and mobilization briefings and related activities
for a total of 35,000 customers from January through March of
this year. Homeport briefings included programs for children as
well as sailors and spouses, and often included the fiances and
parents of single sailors. Special attention was focused on
coping with the suddenness of many deployments and the
significant increase in reservists' departures. Ombudsmen
training and support group services began increasing
simultaneously with this pre-deployment period.
FFSC staff provided consultation and briefings for Command Family
Support Groups, and organized local support groups when command groups
were not available. In March, additional efforts were focused on
families with school-aged children as the stress and impact of
Operation Iraqi Freedom and its news coverage affected students and
schools. Requests for teacher/counselor and student briefings reached
an all-time high with 158 sessions conducted for 947 teachers and
counselors, and 3,996 students. Attendance at stress management classes
quadrupled from 628 in February 2003 to 2,602 in March 2003 and
requests for counseling services more than tripled from 240 to 849
sessions during the same period.
FFSCs have been providing deployment support services for the past
23 years. The Navy has shared lessons learned, counseling information,
training materials and procedures with the other Services as requested.
Informational material developed by family centers in Hampton Roads for
the training school administration personnel was distributed throughout
the Department of Defense.
In post-deployment, the challenge is to prepare commands, sailors
and family members for return and reunion, which involves both
reestablishing relationships and readjusting family roles. This became
a larger than normal challenge as three Battle Groups returned home
nearly simultaneously. FFSC staff at the primary homeports of Everett,
San Diego and Yokosuka, Japan formed Return and Reunion Teams,
augmented by trained staff from other FFSCs, to ensure proper coverage
of all the ships in each of the first three returning Battle Groups.
Funding was made available from the FFSCs and Regional Commands to fund
these first teams.
For all returning Navy units, special programming is being provided
on stress and anger management and on combat stress. For Command
Leadership, we also provided tailored training in identifying post-
traumatic stress symptoms and treatment resources.
Packages of materials and resources for reservists including
resources and links to the nearest military Family Support Center in
their local community are also being provided. Reservists of all
Services are eligible for full use of Navy FFSC resources, at no cost,
for up to 120 days after release from active duty.
At the same time, FFSCs are offering similar ``reunion'' briefs for
families and support groups at home, with discussion on normal stress
reactions and resources (such as medical) to contact about post-
traumatic stress. FFSCs are assisting family groups and ombudsmen with
preparations for homecoming activities by providing homecoming planning
assistance for ombudsmen, updating their local homecoming guides, and
scheduling family wellness days or resource fairs with representatives
from local and regional support agencies.
FFSCs are also providing expedited or priority appointments to
returning service members and their families to ensure prompt
assistance if problems develop. A new pocket guide on stress management
for sailors entitled ``Thriving on Stress'' has also been distributed.
In addition, the new required Navy Training on Suicide Prevention
is now available through our FFSCs. This training was a joint project
between Naval Education and Training Command (NETC) and the Chief of
Navy Personnel's Suicide Prevention Program. It provides sailors with
response strategies to reduce suicide risk among both shipmates and
family members. The Navy suicide rate is currently about 50 percent
below the civilian rate when matched to Navy demographics, and within
the Navy is now down 22 percent overall since 1998. This new Navy
suicide prevention video was awarded a production industry standards
award (Bronze Telly), achieved by only 12-14 percent of the 10,000
annual video industry entries.
Crisis Response Programs
The second major category of basic services offered at Navy Fleet
and Family Support Centers is Crisis Response. Crisis Response programs
provide professional and paraprofessional assistance to sailors, family
members, and commands in response to both personal and community
emergencies. Program services run the gamut from assistance resources
for personal and positive life-changing events like those offered in
the New Parent Support Program, to services offered in the midst of
tragedy such as those provided during casualty and disaster response,
family violence counseling, or in the aftermath of a sexual assault.
The following services are included in Navy's FFSC Crisis Response
Programs:
Casualty and Disaster Response. These emergency
response services most commonly include provision of critical
incident stress debriefing to commands and the Navy community
in response to small-scale events, such as suicides within the
command, or larger events, such as natural disasters.
Crisis Intervention. These services include providing
emergency assessment and, in most cases, referral for sailors/
family members, such as those who present a danger to
themselves or others.
New Parent Support (NPS) program is a military
community-based child abuse prevention program funded by DOD
through the Family Advocacy Program. While all the services
have an NPS program, specific implementation varies. Navy NPS
is available to any family in the military community with
infants under the age of 4 months, regardless of branch of
service. It is a voluntary service available to all expectant/
new mothers and fathers, not just first-time parents.
This program aims to reduce the risk of child abuse and
neglect by enhancing parenting skills and positive parent/child
interactions, promoting healthy childhood development, and
increasing access to prenatal and general healthcare.
NPS provides two levels of service. All families receive
systematic screening and assessment. NPS Standard provides
links with community resources, as well as educational programs
on childbirth, growth, development and newborn parenting. The
second level of service, NPS Plus, is available to those
parents screened as most in need. This level includes home
visiting services by a nurse or social worker and may continue
for up to 5 years with parental agreement. The Navy NPS program
provided assistance to 16,600 new parents in fiscal year 2002.
The Family Advocacy Program (FAP) is a DOD-mandated
and funded program responsible for prevention, identification,
reporting, intervention, and follow-up in cases of alleged
child and spouse abuse.
Since 1997, there have been two levels of response to alleged
incidents of child or spouse abuse. Incidents assessed to be of
low risk or low severity, as determined by licensed and
credentialed FAP case managers are diverted from the FAP
process to the Families In Need of Services (FINS), through
which families are offered voluntary services. Once referrals
for those families wanting support services are made, FAP
involvement ends. Command involvement in FINS incidents is
minimal. The Defense Task Force on Domestic Violence endorsed
adoption service-wide of a process similar to Navy FINS.
Incidents assessed by a FAP case manager to be of moderate or
higher severity, or of moderate or higher risk (with or without
a known history of abuse) are managed by FAP. Command
involvement is required, and the recommended interventions for
service member offenders will be enforced by the command.
Incidents are professionally assessed on an individualized
basis. FAP monitoring may continue for up to 1 year for
substantiated incidents, and the command may discharge a member
for treatment failure or repeated abuse.
FFSCs/FAP centers provide a range of prevention and education
services for general military audiences, including child/spouse
abuse awareness briefs to commands, families and community
organizations. Classes and groups are also offered on parenting
skills, anger management, couples communication, and stress
management.
In addition to offering these prevention services, the Department
of Navy's Family Advocacy Program leads the way in victim advocacy. The
Navy and the Marine Corps are the only Services to provide fleet-wide
domestic violence victim advocacy services. The Navy provides 31 paid
victim advocates at 21 locations. Advocates provide safety assessment,
safety planning, and a range of support services including assistance
in securing civilian restraining orders or Military Protective Orders,
accompanying victims to medical/legal appointments, securing shelter
services, and more.
Navy Family Advocacy Program initiatives include:
Training Initiatives:
Domestic Violence Video and Training
Materials, in partnership with Naval Education Training
Command, for mandatory fiscal year 2004 GMT.
Web-based, interactive domestic violence
training for command leadership will begin in fiscal
year 2004.
Sexual Assault Victim Intervention (SAVI) program is
also among the FFSCs' crisis response programs. Navy's SAVI
program is unique and was established in 1993. The goal is to
provide a Navy-wide comprehensive, standardized, victim-
sensitive system to prevent and respond to sexual assault.
Program components include awareness and prevention education,
and victim advocacy and intervention. Awareness and prevention
education classes include: preventing sexual assault;
minimizing the risk of becoming a victim; responding to sexual
assault incidents; and measures commands can take to ensure a
safe environment for service members and their families. In
addition, a new SAVI video is being released this month.
The victim advocacy and intervention component includes a
highly responsive, volunteer victim advocate support system to
provide immediate emotional support to sexual assault victims,
even when deployed aboard afloat commands. SAVI coordinators
also insure the availability of professional intervention
services for victims, if desired, and act as a go-between for
the victim with the legal system. Victim advocacy within the
SAVI program complements and enhances the Victim and Witness
Assistance Program already in place, and also provides a
mechanism outside the chain of command to insure appropriate
response to alleged sexual assault.
Professional counseling services are also included
among the FFSCs' crisis response programs. The provision of
these services in military family and community support centers
is unique to the Department of Navy. The Navy has provided
these services since the establishment of FFSCs 23 years ago.
Professional counseling services are available for all active
duty, family members, activated reservists and their families,
and to retirees and their families on a space available basis.
Mental health professionals, independently licensed to meet
civilian standards, provide these counseling services. Either
command or self-referrals are accepted. Brief (less than eight
sessions), problem-focused counseling is provided to
individuals, couples, families and groups. Services include
assessment and counseling for commonly occurring life
problems--e.g., marital, parenting, school or occupational
problems. Individuals who are assessed or suspected to have a
more significant, psychiatric diagnosis are referred for
further assessment and intervention. Active duty members are
referred to a medical treatment facility and family members are
referred to the TRICARE network.
These professional counseling services are free and afford
sailors and their families a great degree of privacy, as FFSC
counseling information is not incorporated into the
individual's medical record and rarely rises to the level of a
command's ``need to know''. In fiscal year 2002, FFSC
professional counseling services saved military families an
estimated $1.5 million in TRICARE co-pays or $7 million in out-
of-pocket expenses.
Career Support and Retention Programs
Career Support and Retention Programs comprise the third and final
category of basic services offered at Navy Fleet and Family Support
Centers. These programs are integral to increased service member
retention and the planning of successful military and civilian careers
for sailors and family members. This category includes the following
programs:
Transition Assistance Management Program (TAMP)
prepares separating and retiring individuals to enter the
civilian sector and pursue goals whether they are employment,
education, or retirement.
Personal Financial Management Program (PFMP) provides
services to assist sailors and families to plan and manage
their finances and financial future through education and
training.
Spouse Employment Assistance Program (SEAP). In 2001,
the Navy Personnel Research Science and Technology (NPRST)
Study, rated SEAP the highest-ranking program in ``exceeding
client expectations.'' Ninety percent of spouses agreed that
SEAP:
Improved their job search skills,
Increased their opportunity for employment,
and
Positively impacted their family's financial
well being.
However, lack of employment portability remains a dissatisfier for
many spouses. The Navy is addressing this through partnerships with
corporations like Adecco (the world's largest placement agency) and the
Virtual Business Owners Program. As of March 2003, 937 Navy spouses
have registered with the Adecco Career Accelerator Program, with a hire
rate almost matching Adecco's nation-wide rate of 34 percent.
MWR PROGRAM SUPPORT FOR FAMILIES
Besides caring for the emotional, financial, and psychological
needs of Navy families, we also provide a wide variety of MWR programs
that directly support the leisure and childcare needs of families. Some
of our MWR programs include the following.
CHILD DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
The Navy's child development programs are among the most highly
ranked and valued programs for our service members with children.
Without these programs, many parents would not be able to balance the
demands of work and family, particularly during times of deployment.
These services are designed to ensure military children receive high
quality developmental care at an affordable cost.
We use three delivery methods. Navy Child Development Centers
provide high quality care in a facility-based setting. Our child
development homes provide the same high quality care in a home-based
environment, particularly appropriate for very young children and for
those who need flexibility because of scheduling or work related
demands. The Navy's School-Age Care (SAC) Program provides before and
after school care with activities that complement rather than duplicate
the school day. The Navy SAC programs are affiliated with the Boys and
Girls Club of America and offer programs focusing on five cores areas:
Character and Leadership Development, Education and Career Development,
Health and Life Skills, the Arts, and Sports, Fitness, and Recreation.
SAC programs actively provide services and special events that foster
family involvement.
These three programs are the foundation of our support for families
and are essential to our strategy of ensuring quality, affordable care
to as many children as possible.
Navy childcare, as part of the military child care system, has been
frequently recognized as a model for quality childcare. Our child
development programs are accredited by the National Association for the
Education of Young Children (NAEYC). This credentialing is consistent
with the requirements of the Military Child Care Act and provides
assurance to military families that their children are receiving top
quality care that equals or exceeds the highest national standards.
In fiscal year 2002, Navy met 69 percent of the potential demand
for childcare as defined in DOD standards, which was our highest
percentage to date. By the end of fiscal year 2003, we will reach the
73 percent level. The Navy continues to work toward meeting the child
care goals established by DOD to meet 80 percent of potential need.
However, the funding outlook for fiscal year 2004 and beyond will make
this challenging as the Navy has many competing operational demands for
resources. We are exploring a variety of methods to enable us to
maintain the program within the resources available to us. These
include expanding Child Development Homes both on and off-base,
partnering with local, State, and government programs, and improving
our ability to manage waiting lists more effectively.
In support of contingency operations, we have developed a pilot
project now underway in the Norfolk and Pearl Harbor regions to provide
increased childcare availability to meet the extended hour care needs
of shift workers and families of deployed sailors. Our Child
Development Home Program team has offered increased subsidies to home
care providers in these regions to provide expanded hours of in-home
care. In addition, we are also adding overnight care services in each
region accommodating 12 to 18 children whose parents work night shifts.
The response from sailors and their families has been very positive.
The child development homes have been operating at very high capacity
levels since February 2003. The overnight facility in Pearl Harbor has
just opened and the one in Norfolk will open in a few months but demand
is also very high for those centers. Although this approach will not be
sustainable in all areas, we believe it will be very useful in large
fleet concentration centers where there are large numbers of deployed
personnel and shift workers.
Childcare services are one of the centerpieces to the Navy's
commitment to take care of our sailors and their families, particularly
during times of long separation.
YOUTH PROGRAMS
One of the many worries our deploying sailors and their families
face is ensuring that their teens have healthy outlets for their
energies and opportunities to grow. In helping families meet this need,
MWR has found a great opportunity for some creative programming ideas
to reach out to these teens.
We continue to operate an extensive summer camp program, presently
serving over 30,000 youth per year. We have expanded many of these
basic summer camp programs to include Youth Outdoor Adventure Camps as
well. These camps provide more adventure oriented recreation
opportunities (e.g., rock climbing, surfing, kayaking) that meet the
interest levels of today's teens and increase the availability of camp
spaces. In fiscal year 2004 we plan to build on the popularity of Youth
Outdoor Adventure Camps and expand them to include parents and family
members. Our pilot Family Outdoor Adventure Camp project in fiscal year
2004 will combine teen and adult outdoor recreation experiences into a
single program for a few days as a means of building family unity.
To ease separation anxiety for youth with deployed family members,
the Navy used a portion of the supplemental funding provided by
Congress last year to implement a Teen Scholarship Camp Program and a
Teen Employment Program. These efforts have generated a lot of
excitement and have a significant positive impact on many Navy teens.
The summer scholarship program includes specialty camps, which
emphasize extreme sports and life-skill development. A few examples
include camps on Outdoor Leadership, Space Flight, Snowboarding,
Sailing, Drama, and Photography. We awarded 122 all expense paid
scholarships in fiscal year 2002 and project a 10-percent increase in
participants this year. As you might expect, feedback from parents and
teens was extremely positive.
MWR also focused in its own small way on the lack of teen
employment opportunities that has been raised by teens and Navy Youth
professionals attending Navy sponsored Teen Summits. A Teen Employment
Program was piloted successfully in fiscal year 2002 to provide teens
an opportunity to develop job and life skills that will be beneficial
through their career. The aim of the program was not just to provide a
job but rather to use the job as an opportunity to teach these teens
the key skills they need to succeed in the working world. For most, it
was their first such exposure. We have expanded this program by 45
percent in fiscal year 2003 to increase the number of employment
opportunities for Navy teens. The results are most gratifying.
Our Navy youth are just as interested as our sailors in using e-
mail to stay connected with their parents while they are deployed. Navy
Youth ``Operation Connect'' has been set up to connect children with
deployed/separated family members through Internet and digital
photography Navy-wide. About 70 percent of our activities will be
operating this service by the end of fiscal year 2003.
Saluting Sailors and Families
Sailors and their families make significant sacrifices. MWR wanted
to do something a little extra to show our appreciation. Saluting
sailors and their families is a series of central and regional contests
that offers sailors and their families chances to win MWR sponsored
``trips of a lifetime''. Notable family events in fiscal year 2002
included a ``Sand and Slopes'' vacation where winners enjoyed a few
days in a mountain setting and then were taken to a tropical beach
resort for some relaxation in the sun. We hosted a group of winning
Navy families in Orlando for a ``Family Safari''. A group of sailors
and their families enjoyed a ``Monumental July 4th'' holiday in
Washington, DC. Others were treated to a special New Year's Eve
celebration in New York City. We have received excellent publicity from
within the Navy and in the community at large from this program. The
program has provided another positive incentive for promoting the Navy,
as an employer of choice and letting families know their sacrifices are
appreciated.
OTHER SPECIAL EVENTS
To support families during homecoming events, Navy MWR
has provided homecoming grants to ships and submarines
returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom. These grants were used
for welcome home celebrations that were designed to create a
stress-free environment for the families by providing food,
childcare, and other services on the day of arrival.
MWR distributed phone cards during the holiday season
to every sailor to help them stay connected with home. Several
organizations partnered with MWR to make this program
successful. VFW and its corporate partners (Hallmark, Wal-Mart
Good Works, and FedEx) provided the Navy with a gift of 200,000
60-minute prepaid telephone cards, which were distributed to
overseas and deploying commands. Running parallel with the VFW
initiative, Navy MWR, through a commercial sponsorship
agreement with AT&T, secured 235,000 15-minute ``Homeland''
(CONUS) prepaid calling cards. These cards were distributed to
all stateside active duty personnel and all reservists recalled
to active duty.
The Navy MWR Movie Program initiated a ``Sneak
Preview'' program with showings of 26 first-run movies to over
330,000 sailors and their families in Navy theaters up to a
week before commercial release. Many of the local MWR programs
included free concession packages for patrons.
The Navy MWR entertainment program has also been very
active this year, bringing big name entertainers to deployed
personnel and those assigned to overseas bases as well as
families at home. While much of our focus has obviously been on
satisfying requests from afloat units, we also supported
numerous stateside events for families, including a summer
concert series in the Norfolk, VA, Southern California, Great
Lakes, IL, and Groton, CT areas.
NAVY FAMILY TEAM SUMMIT
Navy MWR hosted a summit of over 200 individuals from every segment
of the Navy including spouses, active duty personnel, family members,
Navy leaders, and single sailors. The objective was to engage this
broad spectrum of naval personnel in identifying opportunities and
empowering families to tell us how we could work with them to better
support the Navy mission. Our focus was on identifying and developing
realistic achievable pilot projects, which addressed their needs. They
identified the need for expanded child care hours to assist in mission
related circumstances and provided suggestions for refining teen
programs to provide greater teen empowerment in programming.
In fiscal year 2003 we have been implementing the five most
promising program initiatives from the Family Team Summit. These
initiatives include improving the affordability of child care;
providing extended hour child care for shift workers; improving the
quality, accessibility, and timeliness of information about the Navy
for families; seeking standard in-state tuition policies nationwide for
military members and their families; and establishing a series of
training sessions for families at key points in a sailor's career. All
these innovations are either being finalized or already have been
initiated. We will continue to maintain dialogue with sailors and their
families by conducting another summit in July 2004. These summits have
proven to be an effective way to include sailors and families in the
improvement and development of Quality of Life Programs.
CREATING A WELCOMING MWR ENVIRONMENT FOR FAMILIES
Over the past several years with the support of Navy leadership and
Congress, MWR has made substantial strides in training staff, creating,
and outfitting facilities so that we create programs where the families
of our deployed sailors feel comfortable. There is an often overlooked
but very important sense of security for our families to know that
there are high quality and familiar services available to them on base.
These range over the entire spectrum of MWR services from name brand
food outlets, to outstanding and well-equipped fitness centers. They
include 10 new youth centers that we have completed in recent years and
MWR employees who are now extensively trained to provide world-class
customer service. Our sailors and families are not just customers. They
own MWR and we want them to feel that way.
SUMMARY
Navy Fleet and Family Support and MWR programs remain focused on
being a significant contributor to our guiding principal: ``Mission
First--Sailors Always''. We thank you for the continued strong support
of Congress in our partnership to ensure sailors and their families
enjoy the benefit of wholesome and quality lifestyles as they lead the
fight in our war against terrorism.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you, Admiral.
Colonel Yanello.
STATEMENT OF COL. GERALD L. YANELLO, USMC, DEPUTY DIRECTOR,
PERSONNEL AND FAMILY READINESS DIVISION, HEADQUARTERS, UNITED
STATES MARINE CORPS
Colonel Yanello. Good afternoon, Senator. It is a distinct
honor to appear before you today to talk about the Marine Corps
services and programs for families. I have submitted written
testimony with specific examples of support, but I would like
to highlight a few points specific to family support during
deployments.
The Marine Corps is an expeditionary force by design, so it
is a built-in part of our ethos to take care of marines and
their families during deployments. Commanders are armed with
the tools they need to ensure family readiness at all times,
whether it be through detailed deployment guides they use for
pre-deployment and on-deployment, and post-deployment
briefings, or their ability to alter child care services during
deployments as needed. Marine Corps bases from which the
largest number of troops deploy are Camp Lejeune in North
Carolina and Camp Pendleton in California. The Marine Corps
base in Albany here in your great State is a logistics base and
largely responsible for preparing troops to deploy. Out of the
approximately 625 active duty marines assigned to the base in
Albany, only a handful, approximately 15 to 20, were deployed
in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Five of them were from
Marine Corps community services in support of exchange and MWR
activities in country.
Overall, over 76,000 marines deployed in support of
Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Approximately 2,000 active duty marines and approximately 900
reservists list Georgia as their home State.
No deployment is without challenges in the family support
area and we try to learn from them. One of the biggest
challenges during Operation Iraqi Freedom was the so-called
``CNN effect'' and the immediate need for information. We rose
to the occasion by establishing 24-hour family and community
service call centers to provide information to families of
friends and deployed marines.
Taking care of marines and their families is a critical
point of pride for the Marine Corps. As I said before, it is
part of our ethos. Our continuum of care begins with the yellow
footprints at the start of recruit training and continues
throughout the life of a marine.
Marines are marines for life. There are no ex-marines.
There are only former marines. The legendary hallmarks of
``Once a marine always a marine'' and ``Semper Fi'' prove our
long-term commitment and provide convincing testimony for
marines that they are forever changed and a part of a society
that is sustained through self-perpetuation and a shared
culture. Taking care of the families of marines during
deployments is a vital part of that culture. Regardless whether
we are providing pre-deployment briefings, providing assistance
on family care programs, or adjusting child care services to
meet the needs of the families with deployed marines, the
Marine Corps takes great pride in taking care of the marines
and their families every day.
Sir, that completes my comments, and I am open to your
questions.
[The prepared statement of Colonel Yanello follows:]
Prepared Statement by Col. Gerald L. Yanello, USMC
Chairman Chambliss, Senator Nelson, and members of the
subcommittee: it is a distinct pleasure to have this opportunity to
appear before you today to discuss the services that the Marine Corps
provides to families of deployed marines. Taking care of our own is one
of the Marine Corps' abiding principles and you can be confident that
those responsible for ``taking care of marines and their families''--at
home or away--are not confused as to their mission or the importance of
what they do--this is integral to the Marine culture.
As an expeditionary force, we are accustomed to providing extended
support. Approximately 76,150 marines were deployed in support of
Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), of
this number 2,098 active duty and 893 reservists were from Georgia.
While we are the youngest, most junior, and least married of the four
military services, the Marine Corps has approximately the same number
of family members as active duty personnel. The Marine Corps possesses
a strong community support backbone that is well established at our
major bases and stations to support these family members. We serve the
needs of marines and families at home and away through an
organizational construct that combines MWR, exchanges, family services,
and voluntary education under a single leadership structure called
Marine Corps Community Services (MCCS). MCCS is a combined arms
community support organization that offers a diverse and expansive
capability from which to draw personal and family readiness support.
The single leadership structure of MCCS allows the commander to cut
across previous program stovepipes. Removing the barrier and burden of
stovepipes has allowed our commanders greater flexibility and
encouraged development of true community-based interventions, programs
or services. Installation commanders continuously gauge community
service levels from which informed decisions are made to respond to
changing needs. MCCS is easily adaptable to serve the mobility
requirements of an expeditionary force.
Marine Corps Family Team Building within MCCS is the headquarters
element that provides plans, policy, and resources for the programs
executed on installations.
SUPPORTING MARINE CORPS FAMILIES
The challenges of the military lifestyle such as relocation,
transition, and deployments are soothed by the comforts and familiarity
of hometown, USA support. Our MWR activities provide that reminder of
home and family, and wholesome fun. This is particularly important
during periods of deployment when so much is uncertain and separation
causes anxiety for the marine's family members. During deployments,
marine families bear the burden of waiting but also the added
responsibility of keeping the family together and functioning as
normally as possible. This is a big job, but help is available.
At each of our bases or stations, the Key Volunteer Network (KVN)
Program serves as the official communication link between the deployed
command and the families. Additionally, the Lifestyle Insights,
Networking, Knowledge and Skills (LINKS) Program is offered to new
marine spouses to acquaint them with the military lifestyle and the
Marine Corps, including the challenges brought about by frequent
deployments. We are hearing great things from our deployed commanding
officers as units begin to arrive home from OIF regarding the necessity
of this family readiness support while they were away and as part of
their homecoming. Other support that is offered to families of deployed
marines includes assisting in developing proactive, prevention oriented
plans such as family care plans, powers of attorney, family financial
planning, and enrollment in the Dependent Eligibility and Enrollment
Reporting System (DEERS). The Family Readiness Officer and the support
structure within the Marine Corps Family Team Building team play a key
role in this area. Additional services are provided to those who need
assistance coping with separation or desire specialized support such as
spiritual guidance, coping and social skills, or just a caring
listener.
We are very proud to be the Department of Defense (DOD) pilot for
implementation of an employee assistance program, which became
available to the total Marine Corps force by February 1 and has been
very helpful for families over the last few months. MCCS One Source is
a 24/7, 365 day per year information and referral service designed to
reach both active duty and Reserve families wherever they may be
located. It can be accessed anytime via toll free numbers, email or the
Internet. By offering round-the-clock information and referral
services, we greatly expanded the support services previously offered
aboard installations to marines and their family members, and
particularly for Reserve families who are often located away from bases
and installations. MCCS One Source support areas include parenting and
child care, education services, financial information and advice,
legal, elder care, health and wellness, crisis support, and relocation.
We're excited about the reality of extended support capabilities and
how this contributes to the well being of marines and their families.
All Information All the Time. . .
One of the lessons that became quite apparent in the early days of
OIF was the need for immediate information as a result of the so-called
``CNN effect.'' With a 24-hour news cycle complete with embedded
reporters, an immediate need for information became the expected norm.
We realized that it was no longer sufficient just to provide updates to
the ``traditional'' dependents such as the spouse through the 1-800
numbers or the Key Volunteer Network as we had in the past. The
already-established East and West Coast 1-800 family assistance
hotlines at Camp Lejeune and Camp Pendleton were expanded and operated
24/7 to provide information and referral services related to deployed
marines. In April, Headquarters Marine Corps established the OIF Family
Information Line to provide one phone number to concerned family
members and the general public with the East and West Coast hotlines
and weblinks to the Marine Corps and the MCCS Web site for the latest
news about deployed marines. By mid-April, the east and west coast
hotlines were receiving an average of 150-300 calls per day from
spouses, parents, other relatives, and friends of deployed marines. In
addition to these hotlines, special deployment support links were built
on Marine Corps web sites, many deployed units had their own toll free
numbers that the commander could update from the field with information
for the families back at home, and Single Marine Programs at each
installation were provided with templates on how best to keep the
parents of single marines updated.
The Children. . .
One of the family members that can be overlooked during deployments
is the child. The Marine Corps' Children, Youth, and Teen program
provides installations with overall guidance in providing childcare and
during deployments, helps them to meet the needs of spouses with
expanded hours of care and other programs designed for children. In
addition to the child care needs during a deployment, there are 1.5
million school-aged children of active duty, Reserve and National Guard
families attending schools not affiliated with the Department of
Defense. Skilled educators, counselors and mental health workers
associated with the public schools attended by military children
generally do not have an awareness of the lifestyle, issues or
challenges of the military child. To be optimally effective, they must
be trained in military child issues and appropriate interventions. The
Marine Corps was pleased that the Department partnered with the
Department of Education's Safe and Drug Free Schools so that the
Services could work with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network
(sponsored by UCLA, Duke University and the Department of Health and
Human Services) to develop information booklets such as: An Educator's
Guide to the Military Child During Deployment; An Educator's Guide to
the Military Child During Post Deployment; and Challenges of Family
Reunion.
Another family program that can be especially helpful during times
of deployment is the New Parent Support Program (NPSP). The NPSP is a
prevention program to enhance family readiness through education and
support of families with children from newborn to 6 years of age.
Parenting skill classes, home visits, support groups and referrals for
additional services are provided. Classes and home visits for a new
parent who is alone as a result of a deployment can be very reassuring.
In fiscal year 2002, 19,000 parents attended NPSP classes, 11,000
families received home visitations.
The Marine Corps received $700,000 in supplemental funding for
children and youth initiatives in support of OEF and associated
contingency operations. As of May 1, we have distributed approximately
$470,000 of those funds for respite care, extended child care hours,
child care during deployment briefs, and deployment training materials
geared for children. The Marine Corps is meeting DOD's intent for the
supplemental funding and is aggressively pursuing further execution of
the funds in support of marines and their families.
Community Support
Local communities outside our installations' gates are
significantly impacted by marine deployments. Beyond expected sales and
revenue declines experienced by local businesses, marines and family
members often immerse themselves in the local community by volunteering
as coaches, scout leaders, fire fighters, etc. For this reason, local
businesses or community service organizations feel very connected to
the marines and their families and want to help. At Camp Lejeune where
over half of the troops were deployed at one time, MCCS is working with
the Chamber of Commerce and the local community on Project CARE which
seeks to match military families with services in the local community.
Project Enduring Families are partnerships between MCCS and the
communities surrounding Twentynine Palms and Miramar that are working
to help families maintain daily routines and stay connected to the
community. Some other examples of MCCS activities during this current
deployment include: provision of more varied and flexible child care
options; respite care; special events for families; free postage and
packing (up to 10 pounds) of gift items for deployed troops; and
offering deployed spouses free tire repairs at the Exchange Service
Station.
The Challenges of Providing Support
Perhaps one of the most challenging times to provide support to
families is after the death of a beloved marine. As we worked with
families to help them handle a death as a result of OEF or OIF, we
realized that current policy sometimes was outdated and inadequate. The
Department of Defense worked quickly with Congress and the Services to
address needed changes as we became aware of the additional support
these grieving families needed. Certainly one of the challenges we have
faced during OIF involved the ``CNN effect'' and balancing the public's
need for instant information with the military casualty assistance
process and the family's needs. Mr. Chairman, as you are well aware and
have addressed in S. 783 with Senator Miller, the process of applying
and funding posthumous citizenship requests from the families of fallen
marines was another issue for families like that of Corporal Jose
Garibay and Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez. In the absence of statute or
policy that allowed for automatic application, our casualty assistance
calls officers were provided with the information to help families that
wished to apply for posthumous citizenship and Dr. Chu worked with
other Federal agencies involved in the citizenship process to waive the
required fees. A third area of increased support as a result of the war
supplemental was the ability to pay per diem to those families
traveling to the bedside of a marine wounded in OEF or OIF. We
appreciate the willingness of Congress and the Department of Defense to
quickly address issues such as these that help us better serve marines
and their families in times of need.
RETURN AND REUNION
One of the most rewarding experiences program managers enjoy is the
opportunity to work with marine families during homecoming preparations
and celebrations. Deployments are a constant reality for marines,
sailors, and their families and while homecomings are a time of love
and joy, they can also present significant challenges for all,
regardless of age, experience, or length of service. As marines return
and reunite with their families, they require adequate preparation and
support services to ease the transition from the battlefield to the
home. As important as this transition is for the returning marine, it
is equally important for the family members.
In recognition of the importance of the transition home for both
marines and their families, the Marine Corps developed a standardized
return and reunion program developed in coordination with MCCS
personnel, health professionals, and chaplains. The program consists of
a mandatory warrior transition brief for the returning marine, a return
and reunion guidebook for marines and family members, a caregiver
brief, and briefs designed for spouses. The Commandant recently
outlined the steps in this important program for all marines in ALMAR
#032/03 and to commanders in White Letter #03-03. Return and reunion
presentations for family members are being made abundantly available
and marketed to family members (spouses, children, and significant
others) aboard receiving installations and at appropriate Reserve
locations as early as 30 days prior to the return of units. The
information used by command leaders, family readiness officers, and
Marine Corps Family Team Building staff organizes the topics according
to perspective: single marines and their significant others, married
marines and their spouses, marines with children, single parent
marines, and reservists going back to civilian jobs. In addition to the
travel-size copy of the guidebook provided to all marines prior to
their departure from the theater of operations, guidebooks are
available on-line to installation staff and family members at home.
Guidebooks cover issues like: return as a process requiring time and
effort, managing expectations and staying flexible, reunion as a single
parent, reunion and marriage, children, and work. Tips for a successful
homecoming are also included.
Key Volunteer Networks are critical in passing the word regarding
the availability and scheduling of return and reunion briefings for
spouses, identification of supportive information and resources, and
helping in making referrals for families for follow-on support as
needed. The brief for caregivers, ``Caring for the Caregivers'', is
available on-line for installation staff and command representatives to
offer to Key Volunteers and spouses who have been particularly
challenged in support of the units during the deployment. This is a 3-
hour facilitated discussion to decompress those who have remained
strong to care for others in crisis.
CONCLUSION
Mr. Chairman, taking care of marines and their families is a
cultivated, point of pride of the Marine Corps; it is part of our
ethos. Our continuum of care begins with the ``yellow footprints'' and
continues throughout the life of a marine. Marines are marines for
life. Legendary hallmarks of ``Once a marine . . . always a marine''
and ``Semper Fi'' prove our long-term commitment and provide convincing
testimony from marines that they are forever changed and a part of a
``society'' that is sustained through self-perpetuation and a shared
culture. Taking care of the families of marines during deployments is a
vital part of that culture. Family readiness leads to mission readiness
and is just one way that the Corps and the Nation say thank you for the
sacrifices these families make.
We would like to thank this subcommittee and Congress as a whole
for the unwavering support you provide to our men and women in uniform
and their families. Marines and their families are worthy of your time
and attention. They perform a great service for this Nation and deserve
a quality of life that recognizes that commitment. Your ongoing support
will make it possible for MCCS to continue to provide the type of
programs and services for our marines and their families that make it
easier for marines to serve our Nation in every corner of the world and
for their families to continue to support them.
Subject to your questions, Mr. Chairman, this concludes my remarks.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you very much, Colonel.
Ms. Murray.
STATEMENT OF BARBARA MURRAY, CHIEF, FORCE SUSTAINMENT DIVISION,
HEADQUARTERS, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE
Ms. Murray. It is a pleasure to be here this afternoon. I
would like to start by thanking you and the rest of Congress
for all of the wonderful things you helped the military
families with in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
for Fiscal Year 2003. It has certainly made our job with family
support a lot easier. We have seen a marked increase in
commitment, the satisfaction level of our families, and in a
host of other quality-of-life indicators as a result of what
came from the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2003. My thanks on behalf of
the Air Force and Air Force families for that. It was a
tremendous support for all of us.
Senator Chambliss. You guys are easy to work for.
Ms. Murray. Thank you, sir. Sir, I have prepared testimony,
as everyone does, for the record, but I would like to focus not
on the activities of our family support programs so much as a
change in philosophy in the Air Force and how we approach
family support as a whole.
We have historically focused on family centers and a list
of programs and a list of activities for our families to
support their needs and issues. One of the lessons that we
learned in Operation Desert Storm from our families that came
to us very loud and clear was it is not the formal activities
we need as much, it is where we turn to for help. Where
families go when they want something is to the informal
network: to their friends, to their neighbors, and to their own
family members.
We realized at that point that we had been focused
primarily on building the most stellar formal programs that we
could, on ensuring that we had leadership support connected,
but that in a lot of ways we had not done the kind of support
that we needed to ensure that our informal networks had the
capacity to care for each other. So we have changed the focus
somewhat in the Air Force in terms of how we approach family
support, and we are integrating all of our activities at the
unit level with the hope that we can strengthen those informal
spouse networks and provide the resources that they need so
that they can manage and care for each other, and our
leadership stands behind them in that care and support. So it
is a bit of a different shift from what has been our historical
focus on providing a litany of strong support programs.
While those are still available, we are focused more
intently on that informal network and helping the community
build their capacity for shared social responsibility. We have
seen some tremendous stories as a result of that.
In conjunction with that we have entered into new
partnerships in our communities. Three of them I would like to
highlight. We have recently engaged with the national VFW, in a
partnership that involves bringing the VFW members closer to
what is going on in the local installations where they can come
in as senior mentors for our young families, working with those
families and working at the local level with local needs to
help address our family and community issues.
On a national level, they have now opened their National
Children's Home, which is probably one of the best kept secrets
I have come across lately. It is a 660-acre campus in Lansing,
Michigan, that has served VFW children and single parents with
children since the early 1920s. They have now opened that to
our active duty members in the event that there is some kind of
emergency family care need with deployed members and the family
care plan breaks down through no fault of their own. We now
have a very safe, warm, and loving environment that is well
ingrained in the military community that we can offer those
children while the deployment takes place.
Another partnership that we have strengthened is that with
our aid society. The Air Force Aid Society has stepped forward
with tremendous resources and support for all of our military
families, regardless of whether it was repatriating families
that we had to bring out of theater, whether it was families
here who were experiencing financial difficulties because of
the deployment. Regardless of what the issue was the Air Force
Aid folks were on the front line with us, shoulder to shoulder
working our family support issues.
Finally, the third partnership I would like to highlight is
that with our schools. We had Family Support Center personnel
go into our schools and form liaisons with all of our local
schools, helping the administration and the teachers understand
the unique requirements and the unique issues of our children.
They have partnered together to help focus on what are the
needs for our children in the education systems that will
support our families, issues those children come back home from
school every day.
One of our heart-warming stories is we had a little guy, a
third grader, and at school they had a mock-up deployment so
the other children in the school could experience what the
active duty member does as they move through a deployment
process. Then all of those children collectively built what was
called worry chains, where they all wrote their worries on
links of chain and they united those links of chain into one
chain for all of the students in that class. That little guy
went home and shared that with his mother, and she was in tears
as she called us to let us know the tremendous support and what
that did for her child in terms of acknowledging where the
father was and what they could do and how they could engage
with the rest of the community in strengthening their father,
their hero, and that is one of the tremendous success stories
we received daily.
I could go on for hours about all the wonderful things that
are happening in our centers and in our community. I know you
are going to hear testimony from some of our local Family
Support Center staffs as well as from our spouses. This has
been, in terms of the refocusing of how we approach family
support in the Air Force, a tremendous success story for us, so
I would enter that for my opening statements, and look forward
to your questions, sir. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Murray follows:]
Prepared Statement by Barbara Murray
INTRODUCTION
Senator Chambliss, it is a tremendous honor to appear before you to
present our Air Force family programs that aid and support our
dedicated men and women of the United States Air Force and their
families. While we ask much of our military members, we also ask much
of their families--especially as we deploy in increasing numbers.
Today, we are facing one of our greatest challenges. How we adapt
to the new steady state of accelerated operations and personnel tempo
while ensuring the well being of our personnel and their families.
Throughout the Air Force we have a number of programs designed to focus
on the member and his/her family to enhance their overall quality of
life and help them effectively confront the demands of this new AF
operational imperative.
One of the largest stressors on our airman and their families is
deployment. To manage our deployment schedule, the Air Force developed
the Air Expeditionary Force (AEF) concept which we have been refining
and using since the late 1990s. While world events since September 11
and, more recently, Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), have forced us to
deploy more personnel, the AEF construct has proved its flexibility and
usefulness. Prior to 11 September, the Air Force had approximately
7,000 personnel deployed; following those events, the number jumped
25,000; and then with OIF we jumped again to almost 55,000.
As we continue to track tempo, we find that there has been a
significant increase in tempo levels across the force when comparing
levels from fiscal year 2001 to fiscal year 2002. For example, on
average those who were away from home station were gone 38 days in
fiscal year 2001 and 48 days in fiscal year 2002 (21 percent increase).
Further, in fiscal year 2001 crews from only 6 of our 38 major weapon
systems were away from home station above 25 percent of their available
time. In fiscal year 2002, that number increased to 17. Throughout our
recent operations, the Air Force has continued to proactively manage
our force deployments and the durations for each and every airman. Even
so, the toll on our families has been greater than we would like. But
our families are resilient, and they have come through with shining
colors. Much of our success in the area of member and family support is
directly attributable to the significant support we have enjoyed from
Congress, especially in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
for Fiscal Year 2003 . The Quality of Life (QoL) Survey 2002 indicates
our members' satisfaction with the Air Force has improved in large part
based on the significant support from Congress.
We thank Congress for approving another significant overall pay
raise to include targeting for our military personnel in the NDAA for
Fiscal Year 2003. In addition, you improved the Basic Allowance for
Housing (BAH) rates effective 1 Jan 03, based on 7.5 percent out-of-
pocket for the National Median Housing Cost for each grade and
dependency status, continuing toward our goal of eliminating out of
pocket expenses. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2003 also authorizes increases in minimum caps on health profession
special and incentive pays, increases to Reserve component prior
service enlistment bonus amounts, and several additional travel and
transportation entitlements that will continue our effort to reduce
other out-of-pocket expenses for our military personnel. These critical
compensation initiatives are keys to meeting our families' basic needs
while improving the readiness of our force and contributes greatly to
morale and retention.
The NDAA for Fiscal Year 2003 also provides many TRICARE
initiatives designed to improve the quality of service for our
beneficiaries. The fiscal year 2003 NDAA extends TRICARE eligibility to
Reserve dependents residing in remote locations without their Reserve
sponsors. Additionally, eligibility for the TRICARE Dental Program is
expanded to surviving dependents, providing much needed dental benefits
to surviving family members. It also approves the use of Medicare
providers as TRICARE providers, expanding provider availability to
improve beneficiary access to care. How our airmen perceive their
quality of life directly and fundamentally impacts our readiness
capabilities. We place intense demands on our mission-focused Total
Force, and it is imperative that we provide our airmen and their
families with the quality of life they have earned and deserve. We are
reviewing our manning and workload to realign resources across the Air
Force to alleviate stress on our high demand assets. We seek to improve
workplace environments; provide fair and competitive compensation and
benefits; provide safe, affordable, and adequate housing; enhance
community and family programs; improve educational opportunities; and
provide quality health care, as these have a direct impact on our
ability to recruit and retain our people and sustain a ready force.
Again the QoL Survey supports this by showing our airmen and AF
civilians believe by over 90 percent that the Air Force is a good place
to work. The survey also reflects families being over 80 percent
supportive of the AF way of life. We will not stop looking for ways to
improve, however we are happy to report the efforts on behalf of our AF
personnel have made significant impact on our airmen and their
families.
More specifically, as we look at deployment issues/concerns, we are
pleased with the tremendous advancements we have made over the last
decade in caring for our members and their families. As early as 1995,
the Air Force placed Readiness NCOs in each of our Family Support
Centers (FSC). Those NCOs are charged to take care of family issues
during deployments, plane mishaps, and natural disasters. They have
become one of our best success stories as they link leadership,
members, families and community agencies maximizing resources to
effectively handle the stresses of deployment and/or reunions. The
Readiness NCO prepares, sustains and reunites members and families so
they are able to meet today's mission requirements.
FSC Readiness NCOs are tasked with providing individual and family
counseling prior to the deployment, to include administration of a pre-
separation checklist of practical considerations. While this counseling
is highly encouraged, the current AF Instruction does not make it
mandatory for military personnel. Some installations require members to
process through the FSC prior to deployment, but family counseling is
not mandatory. Unit briefings are held at the discretion of commanders
and are, in most cases, mandatory for the deploying military member.
These briefings involve subject matter experts (including the FSC
Readiness NCO) and cover family considerations, socio-political
demographics at the deployment site, Chaplains' briefings, pay and
entitlements, medical and legal concerns. Many FSC Readiness personnel
occupy a formal position on the mobility processing line and, while
this presence is an optional stop, most personnel stop to get support
information for their families, pick up self-help booklets for children
and spouses and register for free morale calls. At one Air Force
Material Command installation, the FSC stop was combined with the
Emergency Data (Form 93) stop. As members check their data, they can
easily access FSC information as well. Air Force Reserve Command
developed a standardized form to be filled out by the member at the
deployment line. The purpose is to capture unique concerns just prior
to the member's departure. The information cannot be captured at any
other time and provides the member one last opportunity to share
concerns about special family care needs (e.g. ``my son and spouse were
in a car accident a few days ago. They are fine but I would feel better
if someone would call them and check on them.'') It is the individual
attention the Readiness NCO provides to the member and family that has
truly made the difference for our families.
Following the departure of the military member, the FSC and the
Readiness NCO continue their engagement with the immediate family and,
in many cases, the caregivers of a single airman's children or a single
member's family of origin. Support is provided in the form of morale
calls, video phone calls, Hearts Apart support activities, free email
via GI Mail, individual adaptation consultations, referral and follow
up and access to AF's community Web site, AFCrossroads. Many
installations publish newsletters that describe community activities,
classes, volunteer opportunities, deployment ``survival'' tips and
``need to know'' information. Chaplains, FSCs, unit leaders, spouses
and base agencies contribute to these newsletters or create base web
pages for separated families. The VFW held a school supplies drive for
the 1,300 Air Force families who were evacuated from Incirlik Air Base,
Turkey, before the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Of those families,
12 chose to go to Robins Air Force Base, 5 chose to go to Dobbins Air
Reserve Base and 7 to Moody Air Force Base. They didn't have time to
pack their personal items, said John Senk, the VFW adjutant general.
This is one reason the organization collected the supplies. The VFW
also provides free phone cards to deployed members and their families,
and emergency relief funds to those who need it. The school supplies
were sent to stateside Air Force family support centers and distributed
to the families. Some of those supplies arrived in Georgia to support
the families there in Safe Haven status from Turkey.
The military member's return is often the toughest part of a
deployment. The member has to reenter the family, the work place and
get back to day-to-day obligations. The FSC and the Readiness NCO work
hand-in-hand with the unit prior to the member's return. All helping
agencies participate in the successful reintegration of the member and
the family. It is a community interest to support our members and
families reunite and return to a balance between work and family. The
Chaplains are an integral part of reuniting the unit members with their
families by providing reunion counseling/briefings at the deployed
locations.
Another tremendous success for the Air Force has been AFCrossroads,
our official family and community Web site. The Web site offers
information on each DOD installation, employment opportunities,
information resource center, teens and youth forum, Eldercare, Family
Separations and related Web site links to provide additional
information to the AF family. Just to show how truly successful this
Web site is, we recorded over 24 million hits for the month of April
2003 alone! The virtual community that has developed as a result of
this Web site is now extending back to our physical communities where
spouses, armed with the information they have shared/received via
AFCrossroads, are energizing all types of programs/services at their
base that only further respond to installation family needs.
Taking a more collaborative approach to community and family
service delivery, we created the Community Action Information Board and
Integrated Delivery System working groups at Air Staff, MAJCOM, and
Installation levels. The Community Action Information Board brings
together senior leaders to review and resolve individual, family and
installation community issues that impact military readiness and
quality of life. The Integrated Delivery System working group brings
together all community and family agencies to ensure our military
members and their families have access to the services and activities
they need. Through robust research over the last decade, we know that
communities that are the most equipped to respond positively to the
unique demands of deployments are those communities where there is a
shared competency among not just leadership and the formal agencies,
but also among members of the informal networks. While we have
historically focused our attention on strong leadership support and the
excellences of formal agencies, we now know that the first place people
seek help is from friends and family members by a resounding majority.
With that documented preference, we have begun to focus our efforts
much more heavily on strengthening the collective competency of our
informal networks, building a shared sense of social responsibility,
and ensuring that members of those informal networks have the resources
to effectively respond to their own issues/needs. Nowhere have we seen
the effects of that change more notably than in our suicides rates
which have dropped dramatically over the last 7 years. Another
resounding success in building community is a virtual community created
via a spouse forum on AFCrossroads. Since its debut, we have seen a
community of spouses form that exchanges encouragement, advice, and
information with each other on a daily basis. With the onset of
Operation Iraqi Freedom, the conversations turned to deployment needs
and support. Subsequently we now see conversation addressing how to
handle situations around reunions.
Programs like child development and youth programs are absolutely
critical to readiness and family well-being. Troops who know their
family is being properly cared for are better able to focus on the
mission and deliver top results. The Air Force sets the standard in
providing affordable, quality child-care in child development centers,
school age programs, and family child-care homes. Air Force childcare
centers and all of its before- and after-school programs for children
6-12 are 100 percent accredited. Over the last 2 years, the Air Force
expanded its family child-care program so it can offer free emergency
child-care for its members who have to work late, on the weekends, or
who experience shift changes. This program also serves parents who are
assigned to missile sites and need around-the-clock care. The most
recent variation of this program, spurred by Operation Enduring
Freedom, provides 16 hours of free child-care for members who are
returning home after an extended TDY. Beyond these benefits, on-base
programs are part of the non-pay benefit system providing savings over
the cost members would pay to receive similar services off base.
Across the Air Force, services squadron family member support
flights actively support our deployed members and their families. For
example, at Robins AFB, when Major General Wetekam, Warner Robins Air
Logistics Center Commander, held two briefings for spouses of deployed
members, on-site childcare was provided while he relayed vital
deployment information. Functional experts from Family Member Programs,
Family Support, the Chapel, Medical Group, Legal, the Housing Office,
and the base school attended and shared the programs offered to assist
families left behind.
Our extended partnerships with Air Force Aid Society (AFAS) and the
Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) have allowed us to even further extend
our support to our airmen and their families. General Hap Arnold and
his wife, Bea, started the AF Aid Society during World War II (1942)
for the purpose of taking care of Army Air Corps members and their
families. So we have a proud 61-year history of providing this support
during all combat operations that have occurred since our founding. As
the United States prepared to engage in the war with Iraq, while
continuing to fight the war on terrorism and defending the homeland,
General Mike McGinty re-emphasized to our Family Centers the commitment
of AFAS to help our great AF troops (Active, Guard, and Reserve) and
their families. Stating that they know what combat creates unique
problems, concerns, stresses and worries, they committed the AFAS to
help wherever and however they could. They repeatedly stepped in to
respond to special cases and considered every request.
SUMMARY
The global war on terrorism has imposed a new steady state of
radically accelerated operations and personnel tempo as well as a
demand for unprecedented speed, agility, and innovation in adapting to
unconventional and unexpected threats. While our tools and technology
are impressive, it is our airmen who will fight and win the Nation's
wars. Moreover, while they do that, it is incumbent upon us to care for
them and for their families. We will continue to rely on Congress as we
seek to improve and innovate our support mechanisms to meet the
challenges of our ``new steady state.'' Thank You.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you very much, and I know that
each of you have your own success stories because you work hard
at this issue.
One focus that we have had, particularly on the Senate side
over the last several weeks as we have moved into Operation
Iraqi Freedom, as well as moving into the authorization of the
defense bill for 2004, has been trying to upgrade and equalize
the benefits that our Guard and Reserve units have with that of
our Active Forces, because we are calling on these folks more
and more.
I know that the programs that your Services created to
support active duty families are impressive, but what about the
community support for the Guard and Reserve? Many of these
individuals live far from bases where Family Support Centers
are located.
I would like to ask each of you to take just a minute to
talk about what your particular Service has done to open up the
lines of communication with the spouses and children of
deployed guardsmen and reservists and how much of this mission
is supported by the Reserve components themselves and what kind
of collaboration is needed between your office and the Reserve,
Service Reserve chiefs.
Mr. Isaacs.
Mr. Isaacs. Sir, within the Army, as we deploy, we are very
much depending on Reserve components. So we are very closely
linked between the Active Force and Reserve components in all
of these programs. In specific what we call Family Assistance
Centers are those that are operated by the National Guard, the
Army National Guard, in each of the States and territories,
specifically to provide assistance that would normally be
provided for the active duty soldier on an installation within
the State, particularly for those family members who are not
proximate to an installation.
We work closely with both the National Guard and the
Reserve component to make sure that the programs designed track
with those that are in the Active Force, and some of that
funding comes from the National Guard Bureau and some of it
from the active component. We are working very hard to ensure
that the services that we provide to the Active Forces is
replicated in the Reserve component. This becomes critical to
us as we see more of our Reserve components participating in
our operational requirements.
So I would say that we have worked at it pretty hard. It
certainly is something that we need to work harder at to make
sure that we maintain the quality.
Admiral Purcell. Senator, the same sort of services that we
offered in terms of deployment, pre-deployment briefings, and
readiness programs were provided for families of reservists and
contact was made with those units. We usually deploy those as
groups. Those same home port briefings, and pre-deployment
briefings were also offered for the reservists. For folks that
were outside of areas, those contacts were made through the
Family Service Centers regardless of the geographical region.
Those services are also offered between all the Family
Service Centers, and services are offered for the other
services' folks, whether active or Reserve. So Army folks and
Navy folks can go to an Army base or vice versa, or other local
services, and those same kinds of support structures are going
to be there for them. Between the sharing and the contact of
deploying units and their preparations, particular emphasis was
placed on assisting those folks who had to rapidly deploy,
sometimes without much pre-notice, in terms of taking care of
personal affairs, and giving briefings, and taking care of
their families.
There was a significant effort made to address the concerns
of reservists and make sure that they were brought into the
same kind of pre-deployment briefings and provided with the
same sort of services as those that were available to the
active duty folks.
Senator Chambliss. Before we move to Colonel Yanello, you
mentioned the situation in which a reservist's or a guardsman's
family lives in an area maybe not where there is an Army base,
if they are Army, but where there is a Navy base. Is there any
communication between the Army and the Navy about those
guardsmen and reservists, so that you can take some overt
action to make sure that they know what services are available
in their community and can take advantage of them?
Admiral Purcell. I will have to get back to you for the
record about whether there is a specific formal link and what
that link is. With the resources that we have, I would expect
that we are going to refer them to the local agencies, phone
numbers, and contacts and who they would need to go or call.
What the level of formality that connection is, I will have to
find out for you, sir.
[The information referred to follows:]
With respect to support of mobilized reservists (Navy and other
Services), the following information is provided after talking with
FFSC Directors at Mid-South and Joint Reserve Base (JRB) Fort Worth,
both of which provide service to a variety of Reserve personnel at
local and remote sites.
Support services are provided by Navy Fleet and Family Support
Centers for Navy and other Service Reserve, National Guard, and Coast
Guard personnel and families through a variety of means:
- Army Reserve soldiers provide family contact information and
the Army Reserve notifies nearest Navy FFSC when members
activate and deploy. FFSC sends out letters with brochures or
booklets describing FFSC services and how to access them
locally or how to find information on nearest installation
services from the SITES internet database (SITES lists detailed
information for all DOD installations).
- FFSC assists local families to form support groups and
maintains contact with these groups as needed.
- When mobilization started, FFSCs surveyed all area Navy and
Marine Corps units to get lists of assigned Ombudsmen and Key
Volunteers and offered training for all. This drew Ombudsmen
and Key Volunteers from remote as well as nearby units.
- FFSCs use lists of Ombudsmen, Key Volunteers, Family Support
Groups, National Guard, Army and Air force Reserve Family
Assistance Officers as Points of Contact (POCs) for providing
general contact information as well as information of interest
to family members by email for further distribution within the
units and groups.
- FFSCs use other community organizations such as American Red
Cross, Veterans of Foreign Wars, etc. as well as area commands
to distribute information to units and family members. A number
of communities with large numbers of deploying personnel have
hosted ``Family Readiness Days'' to draw families out and
acquaint them with area health and social service providers
including military organizations and family centers.
- FFSCs provide pre-mobilization/pre-deployment briefings to
Reserve and NG units. FFSC at JRB Ft. Worth prepared a booklet
entitled ``Information and Referral for Isolated and Remote
Units and Families'' which was sent out to lists for all known
units in Texas. Family Centers in Texas are members of an
Inter-Service Family Assistance Committee (ISFAC) which
promotes sharing of information and resources amongst all
branches of service members to reach family members of
mobilized troops.
- Headquarters programs for all Service Reserve and Army
National Guard units have established 1-800 numbers and Web
sites where service members and families can access reserve-
specific information, such as on benefits eligibility, etc.
These numbers and Web site addresses are widely distributed by
FFSCs as well as Reserve, National Guard, and Coast Guard
commands. Families may access and receive most services
required (if available) or referrals from any of the Services
Family Centers. Consequently, Navy FFSCs have been very
proactive in trying to work with units and reach families in
their geographic areas.
Senator Chambliss. Colonel Yanello.
Colonel Yanello. Senator, what we have done is similar to
the other Services. However, we also established what we called
a Marine Corps Community Services (MCCS) One Source, which is a
specific organization to take 1-800 number calls and because
reservists live away from the major bases and stations that
give the support services, they can call in at any time and
talk to somebody live; it is not just a recording.
We also go out to the different Reserve stations and give
briefs as the other Services do. But the MCCS One Source is a
24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year service to all
the marines and their families and also to the sailors that
serve with us aboard the bases and stations and throughout the
Marine Corps.
There is not only the service available in the continental
United States (CONUS), but there is also a number for marines
and their families to call who are outside of CONUS that would
direct them to either the Services, the nearest station, and
some of the things that they ask are basically as easy as
``Where is my marine? What are they are doing? I have a flat
tire, I do not know how to fix it.'' Things like that, so that
is the way we take care of, not only the active duty, but also
the marine reservists who serve with us on active duty.
Senator Chambliss. Ms. Murray.
Ms. Murray. Senator, we have had, since Operation Desert
Storm, family readiness offices in our Reserve installations so
that we have actual family support staff at our stand-alone
Reserve installations as well as all our active duty
installations.
The Air Guard has in the last few years also brought on
line staff members to serve as family readiness officers for
their Guard families. We have been total force in our family
support centers on our active duty installations since before
Operation Desert Storm. We will see our Reserve component
members and their families even when they are not called up for
deployment, when they are not activated; so at any time they
can go in and take advantage of all of the programs and
services there on the active duty installation as well.
Our readiness officers in our Reserve component are on
pagers and 1-800 lines. They are available 24/7 around the
clock for any of our Reserve component members who encounter
any kind of issues or have special needs.
We also have a number of Web sites to keep our virtual
community connected. Our Air Force community Web site, Air
Force Crossroads, has gotten so popular that we enjoyed a full
24 million hits for the month of April alone from family
members and members who were going out, seeking information
about benefits, seeking information about how to stay connected
to their deployed family members, how to get kids in school.
There is a whole host of all of our support information on that
Web site.
It has been a tremendous advantage to our Reserve component
families who are truly isolated in some way from the active
duty community by virtue of where they live, so they can jump
right on there and get that kind of information.
We also have the capability to do feedback in terms of,
``Hey, I need to know this, I cannot find it from the Web site,
how do I get an answer?'' We have a Web master who continually
monitors the site so that we can provide that kind of
information as well.
Senator Chambliss. Each of you made reference in your
written statement to surveys that you conduct to assess
satisfaction with quality of life by soldiers, sailors, airmen,
marines, and their families. In its report on the National
Defense Authorization Act legislation, the Senate Armed
Services Committee included a provision noting the importance
of these surveys.
I would like for each of you to describe surveys of
personnel that you rely on within your Service and how
frequently they are authorized to use these tools and what are
the most significant findings that have emerged in those recent
surveys. I will tell you also that our last panel today
includes some folks who have probably filled out those surveys,
so we may get a different perspective from them when they get
up here.
But if you will, again, Mr. Isaacs, let us start with you
and let us talk about the surveys for a minute.
Mr. Isaacs. Yes, sir. We have really two ways to survey at
the department level. We do a formal survey of soldiers and a
separate formal survey of family members that addresses the
totality of the Morale, Welfare, Recreation, and Family
programs, and that is a formal survey that we do every other
year that we run through the normal formal survey process. I do
not have the exact number of how many surveys we send out, but
we get back a statistically significant sample, and that helps
us in formulating future programs.
I think the most effective system the Army has developed,
and has been in place now about 20 years, is the Army Family
Action Plan process, where at installation levels the whole
population of an installation meets with the installation staff
to identify issues of concern.
Things that can be fixed on the installation get fixed by
the installation commander. Things that cannot be fixed get
elevated to, in our context, the major command. Things that
cannot be fixed at that level are elevated further. We meet
annually, and a central committee chaired by the Vice Chief of
Staff of the Army decides which of those issues that the Army
staff should take on. In many cases, of course, it requires
resourcing, and only our Vice Chief of Staff can determine that
an issue is unachievable.
Over a 19-year period, we have had huge success, and all of
that has emanated basically from direct feedback primarily from
family members at installations. Some of it turned out to be
kind of silly policy stuff that we all said, ``Gee, how did
that ever happen''? to major changes in benefits such as SGLI
and dependent dental care and a number of other major
initiatives. We think that is probably the most effective
system we have in place.
Admiral Purcell. Senator, we have a formal survey system as
well. It repeats itself every 3 years from the MWR site. It
covers civilian spouses, primarily, 1 year; surveying the MWR
infrastructure itself another year, and sailors and users on
the active side another year, and that repeats itself
cyclically. That is the major survey that we use to keep in
touch with personnel formally at the major organizational
level. Those survey results have continued to be quite good,
actually.
We also started last year what we have called a ``Family
Summit.'' The first one of those we have done, and it is going
to be a biannual affair. We had 200-plus family members from
all over the United States and overseas, active duty teens,
spouses, and so on, to meet for a 2-week session to talk about
issues, what their perceptions were, what was going well and
what needed work. That effort has been formalized into a number
of pilot programs, five of which are ongoing right now. That
summit is also going to be repeated biannually.
Those are probably two of the biggest vehicles we are using
right now to get hands-on feedback from folks who are actually
using the systems and to determine whether they are satisfied
with the service they are getting in the programs they are
receiving or whether we have problems that need attention.
Colonel Yanello. Sir, we have surveys. The ones we have are
quality-of-life surveys. We had three in the last 10 years
which talked about everything from housing to expectations over
time. In fact, our Deputy Commandant for Manpower, Lieutenant
General Parks, has recently testified on the results of the
quality-of-life survey.
In 2002, we did have our first spouse survey, and one of
the biggest issues identified was separation from their
serviceman.
Also, as I would expect with many of the other Services,
the installation commanders also had open houses where we
invited the participants, actually the people who were
stationed aboard the bases and their spouses to come in and
face to face talk to the commander about what they were or were
not getting in the way of services on the installation. Thank
you.
Senator Chambliss. Ms. Murray.
Ms. Murray. Sir, we have three different formal survey
processes, the first one being the Chief of Staff survey which
is done every 2 years to ask the members what their issues and
needs are.
Then we also have a quality-of-life survey that we do about
every 18 months to 2 years that looks at our specific quality-
of-life agenda items such as safe and affordable housing,
quality healthcare, operations tempo, quality-of-life issues
that we have built into the Air Force quality-of-life agenda.
Then our third survey that we do every 2 years is our
community assessment, where we survey not only members but
family members as well in terms of what are their family and
community issues.
We have just finished the last quality-of-life survey, and
it was a tremendous home run hit for the Air Force in terms of
significant increases in members' intent to remain in the
Service, what they considered fair and equitable pay and
benefits and what their family perceives in terms of the Air
Force being a good place to live and work. So a real home run
hit for us. Again, I think a lot having to do with the support
we received in the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2003.
We are in the process of doing our community assessment as
we speak and hope to have those results finished by the end of
this summer. But all three of those surveys have helped drive
the agenda as we program and look for resources to support our
members and families.
Then lastly, we have a process in the Air Force where at
the installation, major command, and air staff level we have
what is called a Community Action Information Board (CAIB) that
is chaired by the commanders at each level. It is chaired by
the Assistant Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force at the Air
Staff level, and is made up of the senior leadership of each
level of the organization. We start at the installation level,
and family members as well as members of the leadership team on
that installation, identify issues particular to that
installation, and they work at that level to resolve them.
If they believe that an issue is more global than just that
installation, or if there are changes needed in policy, in law,
or in resourcing, they bubble that up to the major command. The
same board structure looks at those issues that have come from
the installation at the major command level. Again, if it is
larger than that, they bubble it up to the Air Staff level
where our Air Staff, our senior general officer leadership for
the Air Force, address those issues.
We have had some tremendous successes in addressing
financial hardship, in reducing our suicide rates, in looking
at issues around domestic violence, and we think it is
probably, of all four of our processes, including our surveys
and our CAIB process, we think it is the one which bears the
most fruit.
Senator Chambliss. I know a lot of people get frustrated
with these surveys, and the first thing they do when they see
them is sometimes just throw them in the trash, thinking that
decisions by your side of the table are not going to really
matter, and are not going to be determined by what is contained
in those surveys. But if I am hearing you right, is it a fair
statement that these surveys do matter and that it is important
for all personnel to fill those surveys out correctly and be
careful because they do make a difference when it comes to your
making decisions on quality of life as well as other issues?
Ms. Murray. Absolutely.
Mr. Isaacs. I would certainly say within the Army, sir,
that we do pay attention to those surveys, and obviously the
greater return on the survey, on those that get mailed out, the
higher validity of the information. We work very hard to make
sure, and a lot of it has to do in the process of how you mail
things to an individual, as opposed to a different way in
keeping up with accurate addresses, but absolutely, we pay
attention to those surveys and the senior leadership reacts to
the feedback.
Admiral Purcell. I would just like to add, Senator, that I
could probably agree with that. We are very concerned about the
response rate, the return rate. We are making efforts to
actually try to personalize this so that the people who
participate in the surveys will get some kind of feedback after
the survey is completed, and that there is a connection between
what you put in and getting some kind of feedback on the
results of what came out of the survey study overall. We hope
to, by doing that, increase the successful feedback and
increase the participation rate because people are going to do
it and there is going to be some kind of response that says,
``Thank you for participating. Here is what we found out, or
here are the results,'' which we also hope that will increase
the participation rate.
Ms. Murray. Senator, if I might add, we were a little
concerned about them throwing surveys away too, so we web-based
it so they cannot throw it away. We have actually gotten
tremendous response rate. Our quality of life survey that we
just finished, we sent out over 100,000 surveys and got a 45-
percent response rate, which is up from the last two surveys
that we have done; they were down in the 30 percentile, but at
45 percent, it is obviously much more than we needed for a
statistically valid sample size. What it tells us is that our
members are actively engaged, and they believe that something
positive will come from their comments in that survey;
otherwise, they would not have responded in the volume that
they did. So we have been extremely pleased with the response
that we are getting, both from our active duty and Reserve
component members, as well as from our families.
Senator Chambliss. Admiral, one of the findings that
emerged from the tragic deaths at Fort Bragg last year was that
the availability of marital and family counseling may be
limited and the attempts to access professional counselors in
the civilian community may be impeded by the restrictions on
the use of TRICARE.
In your written testimony, you note that the Navy is unique
in providing professional counseling services in its Fleet and
Family Support Centers, and I certainly saw this on a recent
visit to Kings Bay last week. Would you please describe the
services that are provided, including the relationship with the
chain of command, and have you found that the Navy can provide
adequately for demand for professional counseling with the
number of employees you presently have?
Admiral Purcell. Yes, sir, I will be happy to do that. We
have a system that is based in the Fleet and Family Service
Centers that offers professionally licensed counseling for a
number of issues. Some of them we call life crisis issues,
whether it is for spouses who are not getting along well or
problems with teenagers. This also involves the FAP program,
the Family Advocacy Program, which involves domestic abuse and
child abuse counseling and treatment.
This system is not connected in the Navy to the medical
department. It is not an issue for a sailor's service or
medical record unless it gets to the level where the counselor
is concerned for the safety of the individual, such as a
suicidal issue and that kind of thing, which would be referred
to a medical professional.
What this system allows us to do is to address day-to-day,
life crisis issues, as well as more significant issues, family
issues particularly, outside the medical and the formal chain
of command, which we think allows families to make use of those
services without feeling that these events are immediately
becoming part of their medical record or becoming part of the
official chain of command.
Unless an incident or a problem rises to the level that
treatment is required, or formal counseling is required, or
domestic abuse treatment is required, the chain of command
would not be involved. We have found that this has been a very
effective vehicle. We also believe that the services that those
folks are getting in terms of life crisis-type counseling would
only be available to them at fairly significant expense in the
civilian community. It is not covered by TRICARE. We estimate
counseling costs between $50 to maybe $100 an hour, depending
on where you live, for that kind of counseling.
So from both respects, in terms of providing a value or
benefit which we feel is not covered otherwise, and in terms of
allowing us to get people into the program for assistance early
on without stigma or the fear that it will be a reflection on
their professional career, these are advantages of the program,
and we are very happy with how this is working.
Senator Chambliss. Colonel Yanello, I appreciate your
reference to S. 783 in your written statement regarding
posthumous citizenship for deceased, non-citizen service
members and their survivors. The ultimate sacrifice made by
Corporal Garibay and Lance Corporal Gutierrez, as well as many
other instances of combat injuries has increased awareness and
our appreciation for non-citizen service members who volunteer
to defend our Nation.
I thought you identified an important issue in your written
statement referring to the CNN effect. With embedded
journalists submitting constant reports from Iraq and realtime
coverage by CNN and all the news outlets, families of marines
clearly needed assistance in understanding how it was affecting
their loved ones. What were some of the typical questions that
came to the Marine Corps as a result of the CNN effect?
Colonel Yanello. Senator, as I said in the beginning, we
had all kinds of queries from the families. What we had done,
as a result, was we went ahead, and the Commandant authorized a
1-800 number for marines, and we have two basic call centers.
We have Camp Lejeune on the east coast and Camp Pendleton on
the west coast, and we have also set up call centers there
staffed by volunteers. Once something appears on the news,
right away that would spark a lot of interest in folks' family
members and loved ones, and they would call with all kinds of
questions such as, ``Where is my marine? How is he? Do you know
if it was him that was hurt or his unit?'' So we take the calls
and send them either to the east coast or west coast.
Now, with respect to the casualty response section, that
kind of information we obviously are not going to let out to
the press until the notification of next of kin is done. As far
as the CNN effect, technology is a dual-edged sword, if I can
say that. It helps to some extent, but I am sure the other
Services may agree that it results in people wanting to know
information right then and there. We have to respect the
family's privacy before we can actually let information out to
the press.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you all very much for your insight
into these issues. I could spend all afternoon giving questions
to each of you, but we have a couple of other panels here.
Thank you very much for being here and for your statements and
your participation in this hearing.
I would now like to ask our next panel to come forward.
With us today is Ms. Linda Heifferon, I hope I am saying that
right, Director for Community Activity and Services at Fort
Stewart; Dr. John Kelly, Program Manager for Community Support
for the Navy's Southeast Region; Ms. Ann Lukens, Director of
the Family Support Center at Moody Air Force Base; and
Technical Sergeant Jerry Thornton, U.S. Air Force, Family
Readiness Noncommissioned Officer at Moody Air Force Base.
Thanks to each of you very much for being here. We have
received your written statements, and we will be glad at this
time to take any comments you would like to make before we
submit some questions to you.
Ms. Heifferon, am I pronouncing that right?
Ms. Heifferon. You are pronouncing it exactly right, sir.
Senator Chambliss. Good. With a name like mine, sometimes
you never know, so I always like to make sure.
Ms. Heifferon. Thank you, sir.
Senator Chambliss. Please proceed.
STATEMENT OF LINDA HEIFFERON, DIRECTOR, DIRECTORATE FOR
COMMUNITY ACTIVITY AND SERVICES, FORT STEWART, GEORGIA
Ms. Heifferon. Thank you. Good afternoon, Senator
Chambliss. It is indeed an honor and a privilege to be here
today before you to discuss the focus and the emphasis the Army
and, specifically, Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield place
on family readiness and taking care of soldiers' families and
children. I have submitted my statement for the record, but
would briefly like to highlight some of the Fort Stewart/Hunter
Army Airfield successful programs and initiatives.
Sir, success does not occur in a vacuum. Without the
support of Congress, the Department of Defense, and the
Department of Army, Hunter Army Airfield and Fort Stewart would
not be empowered to provide family members with the programs,
services, knowledge, and resources to be self-reliant and
successfully handle the many separations, planned and
unplanned.
Supporting the soldiers and families through all stages of
deployment, from pre-deployment through deployment and re-
integration, has been a collaborate effort of the installation
leadership, senior spouses, Family Readiness Group leaders, a
dedicated workforce, and most importantly, a community which
has been incredibly supportive.
The Army had a motto years ago that said ``The Army takes
care of its own.'' That motto has now evolved to ``The Army
teaches its own to take care of itself.'' To that end, our Army
Community Services has had excellent attendance at pre-
deployment briefings, at reunion briefings, Family Readiness
Group and rear detachment briefings, and financial readiness
classes. Additionally, on 25 March of this year, 2003, Fort
Stewart/Hunter Army Airfield stood up its Family Assistance
Center on a 24/7 hourly basis.
Installation initiatives that evolved as part of the
challenges of deployment are a proactive mass media campaign
encouraging spouses and families to stay at the installation.
In conjunction with our Public Affairs Office, Army Community
Services produced a video entitled ``Stay at the
Installation.'' The local communities of Hinesville and
Savannah were also instrumental in promoting this. We also
found that combined Family Readiness Group training along with
rear detachment leaders training was very beneficial because it
gave each group an idea of the role of the other.
One thing we discovered as a lesson from Operation Desert
Storm: communication, communication, communication. We found
that providing communications to our families had to be
executed in a consistent way. Fort Stewart/Hunter Army Airfield
provides various forms of communications, to include Family
Readiness Group meetings, monthly deployment meetings,
executive Family Readiness Group meetings, and installation
battle brief meetings.
Lastly, we had the inception of a crisis support team
comprised of Family Group volunteers, Army Community Service
staff, and chaplains who provided practical, emotional, and
resource assistance in the event of a family crisis.
In order for our spouses to function successfully, the
provision of expanded Child and Youth Services is essential.
Child and Youth Services at Fort Stewart/Hunter Army Airfield
has always provided quality child and youth programs to the
military community. Through all the stages of deployment, Child
and Youth Services has provided expanded hours of operation to
accommodate Family Readiness Group meetings, weekly and monthly
openings for spouses' day out and spouses' night out, backup
family child care for emergency child care. Additionally, on-
site child care was provided for many Family Readiness Group
meetings and activities. These contingency services were
provided at absolutely no cost to the families, and we
gratefully acknowledge and appreciate congressional support and
funding which allowed us to provide those expanded services.
Thank you, sir.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Heifferon follows:]
Prepared Statement by Linda A. Heifferon
Senator Chambliss, it is a pleasure to appear before you today at
this field hearing to discuss families and children. Fort Stewart/
Hunter Army Airfield is a power projection platform and has a heavy
operation tempo. Deployment, training, and field exercises are frequent
and numerous often occurring back to back. The optempo places stress on
families and soldiers. The impact of these stresses can be: domestic
violence, drug and alcohol abuse, financial difficulties, suicides,
fatigue, an increased divorce rate, and a lack of parental involvement
and family cohesiveness. The Army and Fort Stewart/Hunter Army Airfield
must continue to work diligently and be proactive to provide programs
and services to address the issues of being a rapid deployment
installation.
An issue of concern is the use of embedded media. Embedded media
has both a positive and negative impact in relation to deployment. The
positive aspect is the affiliation of the embedded reporter with the
Division and the Units. This offers a positive image of the military
and provides the Nation with a view of the soldier who is committed and
dedicated to defending his/her country. The negative aspect of embedded
media is the reporting of casualties by unit and/or division instead of
utilizing a generic term such as coalition forces. The stress of
watching and learning about casualties not only creates stress, but on
occasion can incite panic in some of the family members.
The other issue involves Family Readiness Group (FRG) leaders. The
FRG leaders feel strongly that a paid FRG liaison position should be
established at Brigade and/or Battalion level to alleviate the stress
currently placed on FRG leaders as a result of heavy operational tempo.
The 3rd Infantry Division (Mech) is comprised of eight brigades
(one physically located at Fort Benning), and four separate Battalions,
with 20,000 soldiers and approximately 33,000 family members. The 3rd
ID is a highly deployable, power projection platform and the largest
military installation east of the Mississippi River. In addition to the
deployment of Active component soldiers, Fort Stewart has taken on an
additional requirement of mobilizing and deploying National Guard and
Reserve soldiers to various locations. More than 13,000 National Guard
and Reserve soldiers have been mobilized and deployed since October 2.
The 3rd Infantry Division looked at lessons learned during the
Bosnia, Kosovo, Africa, and Afghanistan deployments and began to
prepare soldiers and families to prepare for the possibility of a
large-scale contingency operation.
PREPARATION FOR DEPLOYMENT
All units, at Battalion level, coordinated with Army Community
Service (ACS) for deployment briefings for soldiers and family members
alike prior to deployment. ACS staff were accompanied by personnel from
the Finance Office, American Red Cross and the Staff Judge Advocate and
briefed soldiers and family members on the stresses of deployment,
programs and services available, communications availability in the
theatre, finance and money concerns, Red Cross Emergency messaging to
the theater, legal requirements prior to and during deployments, tax
affects of deployments, and mailing restrictions.
During Operations Desert Storm/Desert Shield many families left the
installation and the support personnel were unable to assist and
provide services to these families. As a result of this ``lesson
learned,'' ACS in conjunction with the Public Affairs Office (PAO),
developed and deployed a mass media campaign to encourage the families
to stay at the installation during deployment. Brigade and Battalion
Command Teams were instrumental in sending that message to the
families. The media campaign included a video entitled ``Stay at the
Installation.'' The campaign to encourage families to stay in the local
area was also promoted by the surrounding civilian communities. The
partnership between the local civilian communities and the installation
were instrumental in creating an environment in which the families felt
truly supported.
Smart Books and Battle Books were developed for the FRG leadership
prior to the deployment with in-depth information on support, services
and how to resolve issues. It was a ``Desk Side Reference Guide'' for
FRGs, and had all the written material (finance requirements, Red Cross
message guidance, RDC numbers, how to assist a person in stress, etc.)
in one book. The books were provided to FRG leaders providing them a
ready guide for resource and referral.
ACS personnel conducted numerous trainings for FRG leaders and rear
detachment personnel. These trainings included FRG basic leaders
training for both FRG personnel and RDC personnel (to understand each
others roles and responsibilities), and crisis team training. The
crisis team was developed prior to the Kosovo deployment of 2000. The
training was based on the assumption that deployments can result in
deaths, and FRG roles in causality are unofficial. It was determined
that FRGs and RDC personnel needed to be educated about the casualty
notification process, stages of grief, and the FRG roles in casualty.
ACS, AG casualty, and the chaplains provided this training. This
information and knowledge was used during the Operation Iraqi Freedom
combat, and has been essential in making the difficult process of
supporting families during combat casualties easier for the FRGs.
Training was heavily attended and made mandatory for the Rear
Detachment Personnel. The combined training inclusive of FRG leaders
and RDC personnel resulted in the participants connecting to each other
early in the deployment process.
SUSTAINMENT DURING DEPLOYMENTS
Sustaining families through a deployment can be difficult. The
Directorate of Community Activities and Services (DCAS) coordinated
numerous activities for the families to include ``Spouses Night Out'',
mom and youth aerobic classes, shopping trips, powder puff classes,
Women's Expo, etc. In addition to Morale, Welfare, and Recreation
programs being increased and geared to the families, the education
staff refocused their efforts to the families by opening up the
Leadership Skills Education Program (LSEP), which offers classes in
time management, leadership skills, strategic planning, and computer
skills to family members. Additionally, college class enrollments
increased tremendously. Free and reduced childcare was provided after
hours and one Saturday per month for families who wanted to participate
in the MWR programs. One free night of childcare was provided to each
battalion for the monthly meeting.
The Waiting Spouses group is a program for families whose soldiers
are on unaccompanied or hardship tours, and is coordinated by ACS'
Relocation Program. This group became critical in the support of
families of the ``Shelf Replacement Soldiers''. Because shelf
replacement soldiers were sent where they were needed, based on rank
and MOS, the families usually had no idea what brigade or battalion the
soldier was assigned to. The Relocation Program Manager at ACS took an
aggressive approach in reaching those families and ensuring they were
kept informed and supported by ACS programs.
For families, information is key to survival through deployments.
FRG Leaders and Rear Detachment Personnel were provided constant
information on current events, activities and programs available to the
families. This information was disseminated in a variety of ways to
include email, phone and media print. An Executive FRG consisting of
Senior Level Spouses was formed for the purpose of disseminating
information and rumor control. Fort Benning, via VTC, was included in
the Executive FRG with the Senior Spouses and Senior Command chairing
each meeting. This method of disseminating information proved most
effective.
ACS became the conduit of in kind donations given to the soldiers
and families of the installation. The outpouring was extremely large,
and ACS developed a process to get the product to the families through
the Brigade Rear Detachment Personnel. Donations came from individuals
and corporations across America. Support from the local veterans
groups, churches, businesses and general public was incredible. The
local Military Affairs Committees developed a discount card for
families of deployed soldiers to receive discounts of products and
services, local business provided door prizes to FRGs, and billboards
and marquees of most local businesses had ``We support our Troops''
messages.
Family care plans were validated and in order with primary
guardians identified. There have been no major issues regarding
children of single or dual military during the recent deployment.
REINTEGRATION PROGRAM
An extensive reunion program has been developed incorporating
mental health professionals, social work professionals, chaplains and
medical doctors. Family member briefings, soldiers briefings, couples
classes, single soldiers classes, children classes, mental health
check-ups, stress management and domestic violence classes are given
prior to redeployment and during the reintegration phase. Additionally,
soldiers will be required to report to duty (with liberal leave) for 10
days after redeployment for observation. Commanders will be fully
trained for signs of stress and will utilize installation resources for
referral. The family member redeployment classes have been initiated
and have been heavily attended. Child and Youth Services (CYS) have
provided free childcare for these briefings and the briefings have been
well attended.
Schools
The two Department of Defense Domestic Dependent Elementary and
Secondary Schools (DDESS) on Fort Stewart serve over 1,800 children in
grades K-6. Both schools have a Pre-K program. The curriculum utilized
at the schools was developed and directed by Department of Defense
Education Activity (DODEA). The off post schools in Liberty County are
more than 50 percent military affiliated students. The administration,
staff, and teachers are sensitive to the military lifestyle. Graduation
and curriculum requirements for off post schools are determined by the
State Department of Education. Public middle schools (Grades 6-8) offer
band, chorus, football, dance team, cheerleading, and other enrichment
options as extra curricular activities. The Liberty County middle
schools curriculum also supports the team teaching concept. Both on and
off post schools offer a gifted and talented program, although the
curriculums for both programs are approached differently. The off post
schools also offer exploratory classes for middle school students
(keyboarding, visual arts, etc.).
Both on and off post schools provide excellent special needs
programs for students. Both the local and DODEA school systems go above
and beyond to provide services.
The off post schools have adopted and implemented the No Child Left
Behind initiative. Off post schools also offer additional tutoring
after school and Saturday school for those students who are falling
behind in their studies and need additional help.
School personnel tell us that military parents are significantly
involved in the Parent Teacher Organizations in public schools.
Parental involvement at schools, both on post at Fort Stewart and off
post public schools supporting Fort Stewart and HAAF, has increased
over the last several years due to parent education programs and
information provided by the School Liaison Office (SLO) and other
family support related programs on Fort Stewart/HAAF.
There are no DDES schools on HAAF. Children residing on HAAF are
zoned for Chatham County public schools. Four percent of the students
enrolled in Chatham County schools are military-connected children.
Like Liberty County, graduation and curriculum requirements for Chatham
County schools are determined by the Georgia State Department of
Education. Chatham County schools have a gifted program called SEARCH
(Students Exploring and Reasoning for Creative Environments). Also
unique to the Chatham County schools are the Options Academies. There
are 15 academies in Chatham County. They are designated at specific
schools offering rigorous academic and performing arts programs.
Partnerships have been developed with off post agencies to provide
``tools'' for parents in supporting their children in schools. One such
partnership is Parent University, which is a non-profit organization
operated by parents for parents. Prior to the deployment, parents were
surveyed to determine what courses would be beneficial to them and
their families. Courses were developed based on the parental responses
which included Discipline and the Difficult Child, Preparing Children
for Pre-School, Effective Homework Techniques, Stress Management, and
other courses designed to enhance personal growth and increase
parenting skills. A Parent University session was conducted at the
zoned elementary school for HAAF in April. There was no cost for the
parents to attend the courses and childcare and lunch were also
provided at no cost.
Through the initiation of the School Liaison Program, continuity of
education has improved greatly at Fort Stewart and HAAF. Over the past
2 years ceremonies were conducted at which the Secondary Education
Transition Study (SETS) Memorandum of Agreement and Guiding Principles
were signed and implemented by four school districts (Fort Stewart,
Liberty, Bryan, and Chatham Counties). Local action plans were
developed based on the findings of the SETS. As a result of membership
in the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) the four school
districts received an Interactive Counseling Center with their
membership. This teleconferencing computer system enables counselors
from the losing school to communicate with the receiving school when a
student is in transition. Copies of transcripts, course descriptions,
and other records can be reviewed on screen and faxed to either school.
This is an excellent tool for counselors when they are placing students
in classes.
Professional Development is also provided to school counselors by
the MCEC. The training is at the Transition Counselor Institute and is
conducted in three phases. This training teaches counselors basic
skills to assist students in transition. Subjects include military
lifestyle, deployment, social and emotional issues, etc. Phase I and II
of this training have been offered at Fort Stewart/HAAF for the past 2
years and will culminate with Phase I, II, and III training next year.
All of these processes are in place and are working.
Another key to ensuring continuity and a smooth transition from
school district to school district has been the Youth Action Council,
which involves parents, school officials, and support agencies such as
Child and Youth Services (CYS) and Army Community Service. This forum
addresses the total well being of military youth and those issues that
affect the student's academics as well as their leisure activities. An
action plan was also developed addressing key transition issues, such
as sponsorship, transition labs, transfer of credits, etc. The schools
and school districts are very proactive when it comes to the transition
issues and continuity of education for our military students.
What children see and hear about the war and their feelings about
missing their mom or dad in uniform are genuine concerns. In August of
2002 the SLO and Army Family Team Building (AFTB) coordinator begin
offering classes on the effects of deployment on children to
installation and local area schoolteachers. The training was beneficial
in familiarizing teachers with the impacts of deployment on children
and youth, and acquainting them with the military support resources
available to help build coping skills.
As the deployment progressed and the possibility of casualties was
a reality, it became evident that a more comprehensive training would
be necessary to address the impact of casualty on a child, and how the
school administration and teachers would deal with a casualty and/or
serious incident.
In the early stages of the deployment, the SLO and the Family
Advocacy Program Manager met with the Crisis Intervention Team from the
on post school at Fort Stewart to review their emergency plans and to
identify areas where additional resources were required. From these
meetings, an information paper was developed which outlined
notification procedures and support for children during a tragedy.
Follow up measures were taken to ensure the information reached school
counselors and teachers. Throughout the school year, deployment related
training was provided to teachers/school staff at schools both on and
off post. This training was conducted by staff through Army Community
Service, Social Work Services, and the School Liaison program. In
addition, trainers from the Military Child Education Coalition provided
workshops for school counselors and local Parent Teacher Organizations.
Through these proactive steps, schools were informed and prepared for
situations requiring student support and care.
CHILD CARE
Quality child care is vitally important to soldiers and families
both during peacetime and contingency operations. The Army Leadership
is aware that childcare and youth programs are a readiness issue. If
soldiers are confident that their children are well cared for and
engaged in enrichment programs, it allows them to focus on the mission.
Congress and the White House have recognized the military's program as
``a model for the Nation.'' To ensure high standards and quality
service, Army Child Care and Youth Programs are accredited by the
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the
National School Age Care Alliance (NSACA), the Family Child Care (FCC)
Military Home Accreditation (MHA), and are certified by the Department
of Defense (DOD).
Fort Stewart/HAAF CYS has done an excellent job in supporting
Active Duty, National Guard and Reserve Component families during
contingency operations. CYS programs have been recognized for their
excellence and proactive posture in providing contingency related
programs and activities to reduce the conflict between parental
responsibilities and mission requirements during deployments. CYS is
providing the following programs during current deployment operations:
- Expanded hours of operation for hourly care at the Child
Development Center (CDC) for monthly Battalion level FRG
Meetings.
- Weekly Friday night openings at the CDC for Spouses Night
Out.
- Monthly Saturday openings for Spouses Day Out at the CDC and
School Age Center.
- Expanded hours of operation at the middle school and teen
center on Friday Nights.
- Back up Family Child Care (FCC) homes for emergency child
care when existing childcare arrangements are insufficient to
support mission requirements. Fort Stewart is a pilot for this
program.
- Extended hours, evening, weekend, long term, and hourly care
in FCC homes.
- Hourly Respite Care in facilities based or FCC homes for
special needs children, stress related issues for parents, and
other contingency emergencies.
- Enhanced enrichment programs and activities for middle
school and teens to include boys and girls club activities, 4-H
activities, and once a month family activities.
- Short Term Alternative Child Care (STACC) Sessions for
deployment related activities. STACC sessions are on site
childcare provided at facilities that have met health, safety,
and fire requirements, and the parents are ``on site'' or in
the same facility as the child.
The contingency support outlined above was provided at no cost to
the families. We appreciate congressional support for the funding that
allows the CYS program to provide expanded child care/youth supervision
operations and request this kind of continued support.
The CYS Mobilization and Contingency (MAC) plan has been an
excellent tool allowing the installation staff to customize their CYS
mission support. The ``MAC'' plans include briefings, memorandums of
instructions, after action reports, and planning guidance from previous
deployments. A lesson learned from Operations Desert Storm/Shield was
to ensure family care plans provided by the units for children in CYS
programs were reviewed on an annual basis to ensure plans were current.
During recent contingency operations there were few if any problems
with family care plans being updated or incorrect. The support of
installation leadership in ensuring that family care plans were a
priority, was instrumental in CYS being able to provide contingency
emergency care when needed.
The CYS contingency services provided during deployments provides
soldiers and families with peace of mind, enhancing their well-being,
and quality of life.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you.
Dr. Kelly.
STATEMENT OF DR. JOHN KELLY, PROGRAM MANAGER FOR COMMUNITY
SUPPORT, NAVY REGION SOUTHEAST, NAVAL AIR STATION JACKSONVILLE,
FLORIDA
Dr. Kelly. Good afternoon, Senator. I have also submitted
my written testimony, but I have a few additional comments I
would like to make.
Senator Chambliss. Sure.
Dr. Kelly. First, I want to start by thanking you and your
subcommittee for inviting us to talk about the services that
are available in our Fleet and Family Support Centers. These
centers are located in the southeast region of the United
States to support service members and their families.
As the program manager for the Southeast Region Community
Support Program, I am responsible for supporting Navy
leadership in achieving maximum mission readiness through
services provided though Fleet and Family Support Centers. Our
commands, sailors, and families can and do access a wide range
of programs that focus on adaptation to the special demands of
military career and military family life. Some of these demands
include such things as frequent deployments, frequent
relocations, and the need for rapid response to current world
events.
The core program of the Navy's Fleet and Family Support
system supports our mission of providing deployment support and
readiness, crisis response, and career retention and support to
Navy service members and their families. Under our core mission
capabilities of deployment and readiness, we provide services
and programs related to deployment, relocation assistance,
information and referral, ombudsmen, life skill education, and
new parent support.
Counseling services, family advocacy, victim services,
mobilization, and critical incident intervention programs are
offered in support of our mission to provide crisis response
services.
Finally, we provide transition assistance, spouse
employment assistance, and personal financial management in
support of our career and retention programs.
In general, our FFSCs provide pre-deployment briefs for
Navy service members and their families, mid-deployment
programs for families and ombudsmen, and post-deployment
services to commands upon the return of the squadron or unit.
These services are also provided to members of the Army, Navy,
Marines, and Air Force Reserve units in the local areas. Our
centers also offer return and reunion programs to command while
still deployed. These programs call for our personnel to
actually meet the ship at some designated point and provide
one-on-one counseling services and other skills for living
training that we think are critical for service members'
successful reunions with their families.
As an addition to our standard services, our centers have
also initiated spouse support groups, developed and conducted
highly successful Military Spouse 101 resource fairs, hosted
family days events to provide interaction in families, and also
information to make it readily available to our members and
their families.
In direct support of our military children, our counselors
have visited local schools to educate staff on working with
military families. We are currently working with the Florida
Inter-service Family Assistance Committee on a handbook. This
handbook will be available to school personnel in working with
children from military families. Some of the other products
provided to our service members and their families that
specifically relate to the hardships of deployment and reunions
include such materials as Long Distance Couples, Long Distance
Dads and Moms, Grandparents at a Distance, Children and
Deployment, Kid Deployment Coloring Books, and Welcome Home Mom
and Dad banners.
Our centers have also provided direct support to many of
the reservists who have been mobilized in support of the global
war on terrorism. We have provided relocation information and
assistance to both individual and groups of mobilizing
personnel. Similar demobilization services have been provided
to members who are coming back off of active duty. Some of our
centers serve as repatriation sites and have provided
assistance to families returning to the United States as a
result of family evacuations overseas.
The school district of Camden County has been very
effective in partnering with our FFSC at Submarine Base Kings
Bay. There are 12 schools in Camden County. All of these
schools have been formally adopted by commands at Sub Base
Kings Bay. The FFSC at Kings Bay provided educational materials
on how to talk to children about war and deployment. Local
school counselors use this information to work with students to
better understand the impact and implications of war.
Our FFSC psychologists and school counselors offer special
counseling to students. Many of the schools put together
displays with pictures of parents who were deployed and placed
these displays in the hallways of the various schools in Camden
County.
One teacher actually used her personal funds to purchase
diaries for all of the students and had the students make
entries into the diaries on a daily basis. This allowed the
students to openly express their feelings and emotions in a
non-threatening way.
There have also been many community partnerships in St.
Mary's and Kingsland, Georgia. I will not go into all of those
partnerships, but they have been numerous.
In summary, we have effective and various programs in place
to ensure that the needs of our members and their families are
met and most often exceeded. We continue to assess our
capabilities and make continuous improvement to our programs
and processes to ensure that we are ready to meet the future
challenges encountered in both conventional and unconventional
deployment situations.
It is for this reason, sir, that I stand proudly behind our
motto: ``Service to our fleet, both at home and at sea.'' I
will be happy to respond to questions at the appropriate time.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Kelly follows:]
Prepared Statement by Dr. John R. Kelly
Thank you for inviting me to brief the committee on the provisions
in place at our Navy FFSCs located throughout the southeast region to
support family members of our deployed personnel. As the Program
Manager for the Southeast Region Community Support Programs, I am
responsible for supporting Navy leadership in achieving maximum mission
readiness through services provided at Navy FFSCs. Commands, sailors,
and family members can and do access a wide range of programs, focused
on adaptation to the special demands of military careers and military
family life, such as deployment cycles, frequent relocation, and the
need for rapid response to current world events.
The core programs of the Navy's FFSCs support our mission of
providing deployment support and readiness, crisis response and career
retention and support to Navy service members and their families. Under
our core mission capability of Deployment and Readiness, we provide
services and programs related to deployment, relocation assistance,
information and referral, ombudsmen, life skills education and new
parent support. Counseling services, family advocacy, victim services,
mobilization and critical incident intervention programs are provided
in support of our mission to provide crisis response support. Finally,
we provide transition assistance, spouse employment assistance, and
personal financial management assistance in support of our career
support and retention programs.
In general, our FFSCs provide pre-deployment briefs for Navy
service members and their families; conduct mid-deployment programs for
families and ombudsmen; and offer post-deployment services to commands
upon the return of the squadron or unit. These services are also
provided to members of Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force reserve units
in the local area. Our centers also offer return and reunion programs
to commands while still deployed. This program calls for our personnel
to actually meet the ships at designated points and provide one-on-one
counseling services and other ``skills for living'' training that is
critical to the service member's successful reunion with their
families.
As an augment to our standard services, our centers have initiated
Spouse Support Groups, developed and conducted highly successful
``Military Spouse 101'' resource fairs and hosted ``Family Day'' events
to provide interactions with families and make information readily
available. In direct support of our military children, our counselors
have visited local schools to educate staff on working with military
families. We are currently working in conjunction with Florida Inter-
service Family Assistance Committee on a handbook to be made available
to school personnel in working with children from military families.
Some of the additional products provided to both our service members
and their families that specifically relate to the hardships of
deployment and reunions include materials on ``Long Distance Couples,''
``Dads at a Distance,'' ``Grandparents at a Distance,'' ``Children and
Deployment,'' ``Kid's Deployment Coloring Books,'' and ``Welcome Home
Mom/Dad'' banners.
Our centers have also provided direct support to the many
reservists who have been mobilized in support of the global war on
terrorism. We have provided relocation information and assistance to
both individuals and groups of mobilizing personnel. Similar
demobilization services have been provided to members who are coming
off active duty after their activation period. Some of our centers
serve as repatriation sites and have provided assistance to families
returning to the United States as a result of family evacuations
overseas.
The school district of Camden County has been very effective at
partnering with our FFSC at Submarine Base Kings Bay. There are 12
schools in the Camden County district, all having been formally adopted
by commands at Submarine Base Kings Bay. The FFSC at Kings Bay provided
educational materials on ``How To Talk To Kids About War and
Deployment'' and local school counselors used this information to work
with the students to better understand the impacts and implications of
war. Our FFSC psychologists and school counselors offered special
counseling to students. Many of the schools put together displays with
pictures of parents who were deployed and placed these displays in the
hallways of the school. One teacher actually used her personal funds to
purchase diaries for all of her students who had parents deployed so
the students could openly express their feelings and emotions in a non-
threatening way. There have also been many community partnerships
established in St. Mary's and Kingsland, Georgia, to include
partnerships with the Humana Tricare Office, local child and family
services agencies, the Camden County Tribune Newspaper, the tourism
councils of St. Mary's and Kingsland, the Georgia State Department of
Tourism, and many local real estate offices. These outreach efforts
provide vital information to service members and their families living
in the Camden County area of Georgia.
In summary, we have an effective and varied program in place to
ensure that the needs of our service members and their families are met
or exceeded. We continue to assess our capabilities and make continuous
improvements to our programs and processes to ensure that we are ready
to meet future challenges encountered in both conventional and
unconventional deployment situations. It's for these reasons that I
stand proudly behind our motto of ``Service to the Fleet, Both at Home
and at Sea.''
Senator Chambliss. Thank you, Dr. Kelly.
Ms. Lukens.
STATEMENT OF ANN LUKENS, DIRECTOR, FAMILY SUPPORT CENTER, MOODY
AIR FORCE BASE, GEORGIA
Ms. Lukens. Good afternoon, Senator, and thank you for the
opportunity as well to speak to you. I am known for
succinctness and getting to the point, so I am going to do
that.
First of all, I feel a great weight on my shoulders to be
representing so many of my fellow colleagues in the family
support business. There are so many things that we do that even
with my many years in the field, I just cannot simply remember
all of them. I think to summarize it all, we are a purple
service at Moody Air Force Base. When I say purple, I mean that
there is no uniform color other than that person coming in the
door and that was an emphasis that began in the Air Combat
Command many years ago.
Being in south Georgia, we are very often a surprise to
people who are either retired or reservists or guardsmen that
want to find some place to go. For that reason, we have had to
learn a lot of different systems. Our motto at Moody is
``Mission first and people always,'' and I think that really
does sum it up very succinctly.
We have our success stories. They are probably very small
compared to my sister services here, but we are blessed to have
an extremely active integrated delivery system which is the
final component of the system that Ms. Murray described in her
testimony. That is where the rubber meets the road. That is
where the agencies all work together to take care of our
people, and we have done a splendid job in that area.
We are known to be out at all times of the day and night.
We say goodbye to our folks with hot dogs and hugs. Then we are
there when they come home again, whether it is 2 o'clock in the
morning or 2 o'clock in the afternoon. So we always, sir,
welcome any kind of support for our people because without our
military, we are not going to enjoy the freedoms that we do.
Thank you, sir.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Lukens follows:]
Prepared Statement by Ann Lukens
Good afternoon, Senator Chambliss. I'm honored to appear before you
today and to have the opportunity to present information that will
spotlight Moody Air Force Base's family programs and services that aid
and support our dedicated men and women of the United States Air Force
and their families.
The mission of the 347th Rescue Wing is to organize, train, and
employ a combat-ready force consisting of approximately 4,500 military
and 400 civilian employees. The Wing executes worldwide peacetime and
Combat Search and Rescue operations in support of humanitarian and U.S.
national security interests. Moody also hosts and supports Air
Education and Training Command's 479th Flying Training Group and the
820th Security Forces Group that provides contingency response support
around the world.
Currently, Moody has a total population of approximately 2,000
spouses of military members and 1,800 dependent children. The Family
Support Center also serves the needs of approximately 15,000 military
retirees and their families, as well as a small cadre of Guard,
Reserves, Navy and their families.
Moody personnel have been deployed to Southwest Asia since the end
of the first Gulf War in support of Operation Northern and Southern
Watch and other contingencies. A focus on personal and family readiness
is the cornerstone for unit, group and wing readiness. The reality is
that families of personnel assigned to our installation are expected to
be ready to function without their sponsors at any time, with as little
as a few days notice, and for as long as 179 days. The challenge for
the Moody Family Support Center is to assist airmen and their families
in meeting the highest possible level of individual and unit readiness.
As of 30 Apr of this year, 58.6 percent of the 820 Security Forces
Group; 44 percent of the Operations Group; 38.7 percent of the Mission
Support Group; 30 percent of the Rescue Wing staff; 29.1 percent of the
Maintenance Group; 9.5 percent of the Medical Group; and 9 percent of
the 479 Flying Training Group were deployed away from home station.
Additionally, for several months Moody has been supporting seven
families who were part of the State Department ordered departure from
the Middle East after hostilities began. It goes without saying that
our total focus in the Family Support Center at Moody has been on
family readiness issues and supporting the needs of those families who
are separated by the current contingency.
The Air Force established Family Support Centers in the early 1980s
to meet the needs of families. For nearly 22 years, the Moody FSC has
sought to do just that through various types of needs assessments
targeted to help us understand our community, consultation with
leadership on community issues, individual contact with customers,
educational programs and services, and as the advocate for military
families both on-base and off. Like our military and our families, the
Moody FSC and all other Air Force Family Support Centers have been an
evolving, flexible agency. We believe that it is this flexibility that
has made us strong enough to adapt to the new steady state of
accelerated operations and personnel tempo.
One of the largest stressors on our airman and their families is
deployment. Responding to increasing deployment cycles, the Air Force
established the Family Readiness Program in our Family Support Centers.
When we talk about readiness, often people have a difficult time seeing
how we--the Family Support Center staff--have anything to do with what
``they'' conceive as readiness--launching planes, bombs on target,
search and rescue, etc. However, research shows that there is a very
direct link between ``mission readiness,'' our ability to go to war,
and personal and family readiness. Personal and family readiness refers
to our people and their families being equipped with the skills they
need to deal with the day-to-day demands of military life--whether they
work on the flight line or in supply. People who have financial,
family, or other concerns are just not as well equipped to perform
their duties as people who are not experiencing these kinds of problems
and anxieties. With 45 percent of our airmen in the 25 years or younger
age group, most are definitely dealing with the issues associated with
young relationships, young children, low finances--exacerbated by
frequent moves, underemployment of a spouse, and most certainly
separation of the family unit because of extended deployments. The
programs provided by the Family Support Center help to relieve the
airman from some of the ``tug'' back and forth between the Air Force
requirement for ``Service Before Self'' and the family needs for
``service to us first.''
The Family Readiness program has grown tremendously at Moody under
the leadership of the Family Readiness NCO, assigned in Oct 1997 and
charged with making it work (TSgt Jerry C. Thornton seated here with
me). Readiness is made up of three components--the pre-deployment,
sustainment, and reunion cycle; family disaster preparedness; and
casualty assistance.
Since June 2002, and particularly since January of this year,
predeployment briefings and outreach efforts have increased to provide
a safety net for Moody families, as Operation Enduring Freedom became
Operation Iraqi Freedom.
5,500 individual calls were made by TSgt Thornton and
other FSC staffers to ensure spouses, parents, significant
others and children were aware of the many services available
and how to access help no matter the time of the day or the day
of the week
473 family members attended 16 daytime, evening and
weekend pre-deployment briefings
1,868 Moody personnel received hugs and hotdogs and
cold drinks during at least 35 Personnel Deployment Function
lines
FSC staff planned and executed an old-fashioned BBQ
for 43 Army Guard personnel assigned to backfill for deployed
security forces personnel
The poet John Donne stated that no man is an island. Efforts to
support the community required the commitment of an entire team of
helping professionals--the Moody Integrated Delivery System. The
cumulative expertise and dedication of a team composed of Family
Advocacy and Mental Health specialists; First Sergeants; Health and
Wellness specialists; Chaplains; Childcare and Child Development
experts along with FSC staff ensured success. Every effort was made to
empower Moody spouses so they felt more in control of their lives.
The Extended Duty Care program provided 275 hours of
free childcare monthly.
The staff of the Moody Child Development Center (CDC)
provided free childcare so spouses could attend Town Hall
Meetings hosted by our Wing Commander.
The Give Parents a Break program provided monthly free
child care to more than 50 children at the CDC and 30 children
at the Youth Center during OIF.
Family Advocacy Outreach provided 278 interventions in
the form of support groups, lunchtime seminars, and parenting
classes.
Mental Health professionals made themselves available
at anytime to talk with stressed family members.
The Chaplains spearheaded monthly deployed family
suppers attended by more than 329 spouses and children.
2,721 Hearts Apart family morale calls were placed
through the Moody switchboard by spouses, children, parents,
and significant others.
FSC staffers were available on a 24-hour basis; kept
spouses company while hospitalized for tests; wrapped holiday
presents so every deployed family had presents under the tree;
talked with children having a hard time with parent's absence.
IDS agencies played key roles in the annual Parent
University Program conducted in concert with the local school
systems; a workshop on preparing and supporting children during
parental separation and in cases of trauma was very well-
attended.
The Family Support staff and IDS members were particularly visible
during redeployment festivities during the duty day, in the evening,
and on the weekends. Reunion is presented as the opposite side of the
pre-deployment coin and is often the most difficult part of the
process. Research has shown that education for the family and the
airman on what to expect after a long deployment has a positive affect
on the reunion process. More than 200 individuals attended 9 reunion
briefings during the past 12 months. ACC has developed a very useful
Return and Reunion CD that is provided at many of our deployed
locations, as well as to our family members at briefings. We hope that
you enjoy reviewing a copy of this CD also, Senator. We have also
provided you with some of the education materials that we give to
family members when they attend our deployment or return and reunion
briefings and programs.
During all this activity, we were also deeply imbedded in the
welcome home support process for seven families who been stationed with
their military member in Turkey or in Saudi. All these families were
personally met at the airport by our staff. After meeting them, we did
an initial needs assessment of the family status to see the type
assistance they would require, helped with school issues, ensured they
knew what their Safehaven benefits would be and that they understood
who various points of contact were for issues/concerns, made at least
weekly visits with each family, and reported weekly accountability and
status stats directly to Air Force on each family. We are currently
assisting each family return to their duty station now that the State
Department has terminated the Authorized Departure for those areas. We
are processing waivers for a few families to remain at Moody until the
end of the school year. The services provided in a Safehaven effort is
just other example of how the Family Support staff support the needs of
our Air Force families so that the member is relieved to focus on the
steady state of accelerated operations at a forward location.
In addition to supporting Parent University in our civilian
community, immediately upon declaration of OIF, we contacted the
offices of both local public school superintendents to provide
information on dealing with separation anxiety for their guidance
counselors. The Moody School Board Liaison Committee works tirelessly
to address any issues that can affect the welfare of military students.
We personally met with Valdosta City School System counselors to
discuss specific needs and problems associated with deployment anxiety
of our students.
Senator Chambliss, we would also like you to know that the Moody
Mental Health Clinic data shows a 16-percent decrease in maltreatment
incidents for the last 12 months. Everyone is striving to prevent
domestic violence that results in needless and tragic headlines. We are
hopeful that the education processes we have in place at Moody are
beneficial in this reduction.
The greatest test of the Moody family support system came on 23
March 2003. On that date, six members Rescue Squadrons answering to the
call sign of Komodo 11 made the ultimate sacrifice while on a
humanitarian mission to rescue two Afghani children. The crash and loss
of all souls on-board hit every heart in the Moody community. Under the
leadership of Major Nancy Weingartner, the MAFB Critical Incident
Stress Management (CISM) Team mobilized to be present in every corner
of our community. We closed ranks around six family units while they
awaited the official word about their loved ones. We cried with them;
we listened to memories recounted by parents and friends; we prayed
with them. We are still there for them. No family is left behind at
Moody!
Senator Chambliss. Thank you very much. I understand,
Sergeant, you are not going to make an opening statement.
Sergeant Thornton. No, sir.
Senator Chambliss. We are pleased that you are here with
us, though.
Sergeant Thornton. Thank you.
Senator Chambliss. Dr. Kelly, you mentioned the
availability of your services to the Guard and Reserve on a
local basis and inter-service availability of those services on
a local basis. You heard my question earlier to the previous
panel about whether or not there is any communication to the
Guard and Reserve community. Do you know whether or not, with
regard to the Navy, whether there is communication to the Guard
and Reserve about the availability of these various services?
Dr. Kelly. Yes, sir, there is communication with those
units. In fact, in many of our communities we have partnered
with local television stations to run public service
announcements (PSAs), where service members and family members,
as well, can get information on services that are available in
our Fleet and Family Support Centers. For Navy reservists who
are coming on active duty, there is a mobilization process.
Those individuals actually come through the Family Service
Center and get a formal brief. They bring their spouses with
them. We give them all of the information that is available for
our regular active duty service members. To reach out to those
that are coming from other services, we have partnered with
local television stations to run PSAs to get the word out about
what services are available and how they can access those
services.
Senator Chambliss. You all have extremely important jobs
that are often very challenging, especially given the tempo of
operations in the military over the past several years. You
certainly have a unique perspective regarding what programs
work well and which programs do not work well. You may be in
the best position to know what needs to be done better
regarding family support, and I would like to start by asking
you what in your view are the most important needs of families
and what are the things that simply have to be done right for
our families in times of deployment. Ms. Heifferon?
Ms. Heifferon. Sir, I think that in terms of family
support, one of the most important things is personal
preparedness. We need to do this through training, Family
Readiness Group training, through communication, through
providing classes on encouraging personal responsibility. We
need training classes in stress management. We need training
classes in child management and family relations. We need
support groups, which we have already established, for waiting
spouses and international spouses. Volunteerism in the
community, and involvement in the community are imperative.
We need Morale, Welfare, and Recreation activities to
support the recreational needs, the personal growth needs, and
also the spiritual needs of our spouses and their families.
When I speak of personal growth, I am talking about education
also, and an example I would like to use is that of our
educational center. What we did was we opened up to the spouses
classes in leadership and leadership development and
technology. Any courses that they indicated, anything that
would promote personal preparedness for them. Also one of the
things we emphasized was family activities to bring them
together as a family to encourage that family readiness.
Dr. Kelly. Sir, there are several things that I would
allude to. First, the ability to communicate with all of the
Services and also being able to communicate with a member when
that is appropriate and called for.
The other thing I would say is access to good financial
management. The Navy has done a wonderful job in training our
service members, our active duty members, and giving them the
tools for financial management. What we have also started to do
is to be sure that that same level of training is available for
spouses and family members because, quite frankly, when the
active duty member deploys, most often the spouse who is left
behind has to take care of finances. Quite frankly, in many
instances, spouses are doing it even before the service member
deployed. So having the ability and the skill sets to provide
good financial management for a family is essential.
I would also agree with my colleague in terms of support
groups and putting support groups in place that can take care
of services. I will give you just one example. On many of our
bases where, even though we think, we do a fairly good job of
making sure service members have taken care of the basic
essentials, it still happens when a member deploys, there are
things that go wrong. What we have done is put formal volunteer
groups in place that will help spouses that have been left
behind, doing things such as fixing tires on cars, fixing
washing machines. Anything that goes wrong in the house, there
is a formal volunteer mechanism that is available to help them
with that. Those are the things that I would point to.
Ms. Lukens. Yes, Senator, I also would agree with my
colleagues as far as readiness goes. With Moody being the only
active duty search and rescue base, our people need to be ready
from the time they hit the front gate. It is not unusual, I
would like to say it wasn't, but it is not unusual for folks to
be assigned and within a few days to be tapped for deployment,
and they can be gone as long as 179 days. We have had a number
of those. What that means is that it is important that we
empower the spouses and the family members left behind.
Where we partner a great deal is with our schools. We are
very active with the Lowndes County and Valdosta city school
system, as well as a number of the private schools in Lowndes
County, and we find that they are able to identify children and
families for us who need some additional assistance. We are
very active anyway with the schools, going out and talking with
the guidance counselors.
So as Ms. Murray alluded to, we look at a community
capacity. We cannot possibly do it all ourselves, so our
emphasis is on building what we like to call the front-porch
mentality. When people sat on their front porches, folks would
come over, sit down and talk and thrash out problems. Sometimes
we lose that as we become more urban.
But our intent is to help and educate our other agencies
within and off the base that can help identify people in need,
and then we get those people to where they need to be.
Empowerment is a very important key for this, particularly for
this generation.
In addition, access to information is always a problem. We
do not have that many television stations in town. In fact, we
do not have any really in town, but we do have the Internet,
and very recently Moody was able to launch moodyservices.com
where spouses could access information about what is going on
on base, both our integrated delivery system as well as morale
and welfare services and activities.
So from my perspective, empowerment and access are very
important, along with the beginning of education from the time
they hit the front gate.
Senator Chambliss. Each of you mentioned education. In
civilian life, there is no greater asset to America than our
military kids. They are the ones that we find usually grow up
living in a military community, and a large percentage of them
enlist in the military. We have, basically, three categories of
schools in military communities. At Robins, we have an
elementary school that is a DOD-operated school. I was at Kings
Bay the other day, and there we have a school located on base
that is operated by the Camden County School system but that is
primarily for kids from the base, but the teachers there are
hired by the Camden County school system and are primarily
teachers from out in the community. Then at Moody, we have no
base school; everything is operated by the Lowndes County.
Ms. Lukens. Yes, sir.
Senator Chambliss. Do you find that there are problems that
are unique to these kids, particularly in the elementary school
ages, when their mothers or dads are deployed, particularly in
harm's way like we have recently seen happen? Is there a
difference in the ability of those three categories of schools
to deal with those children's anxieties? For example, if you
have spouses of active duty military, as we have here at
Robins, who are teaching in the schools, are they better able
to handle the anxieties of those kids versus folks who may come
from the outside? Can you shed any light on this one way or the
other? Ms. Heifferon.
Ms. Heifferon. Yes, sir. In looking at the difference in
schools, I think one of the things that the Army has developed
that has really assisted in this area has been the Army school
liaison program to address those issues.
You asked if there are particular behavioral issues with
children in the military when parents are deployed. Absolutely.
There are emotional behaviors that do come through. One of the
things that we have done with the Army school liaison program
in conjunction with Army family team building is we have gone
out into the schools, both on-post schools and off-post
schools, and conducted deployment training. The Army has
developed through its Child and Youth Services a CD-ROM called
``Your Pal CJ'' and it is interactive. It can be utilized with
the children, and it addresses their emotions and their
feelings when moms and dads are deployed.
Part of the school liaison and Army community service
training is to assist those teachers in dealing with the
particular questions that do come up about deployment; some of
the particular behaviors that are expressed, separation anxiety
perhaps, and some of the questions, ``Is my daddy or my mommy
going to be hurt in the war?'' Helping teachers cope with that
is essential, and quite frankly, that is one of the reasons
that that Army liaison program was developed, not only to
assist with these military children in situations like this,
but also to assist those military children in transitioning
from one school district to another, whether they are coming
from another on-school post to an on-school post or coming from
an off-post--on-post to an off-post school. It has been a very
beneficial program for us.
Senator Chambliss. Dr. Kelly.
Dr. Kelly. If you had asked me that same question 10 years
ago, I would say there was a drastic difference in the services
that military schools were able to provide versus schools
outside the gate. I do not think there is that much of a
discrepancy today for several reasons. I know the Navy, and I
think that like many of the other Services we have done a much
better job of partnering with the educational institutions to
be sure that the services are provided.
I will give you just one example. In all of our Fleet and
Family Support Centers, we have our counselors actually go out
to the schools and do staff developments for principals, school
counselors, and teachers in terms of dealing with military
children effectively. We have also found that superintendents
are very much open to hiring military spouses to have that
knowledge on staff in terms of the special needs of military
children.
In the fleet concentration areas of Jacksonville, Mayport,
and Kings Bay, 3 weeks ago we sponsored a workshop that brought
in all school counselors, all school administrators to actually
talk about the special issues facing military children. So I
really think that we have gotten much better at making sure
there is a level playing field.
I have to tell you, though, military children still are
very special and have very special needs. Consider these
children who go from school district to school district every 2
or 3 years, where testing requirements are very different,
where absentee rates are very different, where special
education programs, the requirements for getting into gifted
programs all vary from one school district to the next school
district. Quite frankly, when a military family goes from one
school district to another, they expect the same level of
services from one State to the next State. Lets face it,
however, all States are not equal when it comes to education.
They are very different, and it does present challenges for our
families.
Ms. Lukens. Sir, your question was, are needs different for
military children. During the Gulf War, I was called by the
principal of Nashville Middle School, Nashville Elementary
School, which, of course, is just north of Moody. At that time,
during recess one of our F-16s had flown over and all the
children hid because they were afraid the Arabs were going to
bomb them. What that pointed out at that time was that all
children have fears and all children have needs and that began
a very close relationship with our school systems. In the wake
of September 11, I was on the phone, as was Sergeant Thornton,
with every school in our area talking, not about what military
children needed, but what every child needed to be reassured
that they were safe. That was our first concern. Then to help
them with the process of avoiding the kind of stress reaction
that can, hopefully not, but could, develop into posttraumatic
stress, which, of course, we do not see in our children but we
unfortunately do see in our adult personnel.
Sergeant Thornton. Sir, one of the keys to dealing with
these children in the schools is having an active working
relationship with the school system itself and being down there
with the counselors and letting them know where the resources
are on the base in case they have a problem dealing with these
children. We do see specific problems that are attributed to
deployments, dealing with separation anxiety as Dr. Kelly and
Ms. Heifferon mentioned.
Sometimes these kids do just totally shut down, and the
counselors do not know where to turn, so they will turn to the
Family Support Center, and we will get involved with the kids
and the family to help them out and assist them with this
anxiety.
Senator Chambliss. Ms. Heifferon and Ms. Lukens, very
quickly, this decision by DOD to embed reporters is going to be
discussed for some time, I am sure, to determine whether it was
good, bad, or indifferent. With kids, particularly with the 3rd
ID being as visible as it was being involved in the heavy
firefights day in and day out for weeks at a time, and with our
search and rescue group that had the unfortunate loss of life
in significant numbers, please give me your quick opinion about
whether it had an effect on our children and their ability to
cope, with their parents being deployed.
Ms. Heifferon. Sir, one of the first things we noticed, and
we had a discussion, was the fact that the children were
watching TV. When they were watching TV, the anxiety levels
definitely went up, and, again, the CNN effect and the embedded
reporting was a factor. I think it was a personal decision on
the part of the spouses to decide whether their children could
indeed watch television or limit it. Additionally, we talked to
the spouses about allowing their children to express those
fears.
In our child development centers, one of the things that
was done was to allow the children to draw pictures, to be able
to talk about the fears they have, and to express that anxiety.
Also in our youth programs, in our middle school and teen
programs, support groups were formed. At one of our high
schools in Savannah, our school liaison officer went out and
formed a support team with the teens to talk about the fears
they had. So, yes, it definitely had an impact on how they
reacted to the war. It was like having instant war in the
living room, and they truly needed some outlets to be able to
express their concerns and their fears for their parents.
Ms. Lukens. I would concur with that. One of the very first
things we did in the wake of September 11 was to send out some
information about how to sit down with your child when you are
watching CNN or watching television or televised reports, and
of course that was continued throughout OEF and OIF. I
personally advised the spouses to turn the television off and
go out and take a walk. It probably would be better for
everybody involved.
As you mentioned, we did lose a HH-60 and for the families
who were waiting, it seemed like an eternity for them to find
out whether or not their loved ones were in that crash. There
really are not any words to describe it. As far as the children
go, everything that we do, every component that we have in our
readiness program, also has an application to children. I did
give you a copy of our readiness guide which does include all
that, sir.
Senator Chambliss. Dr. Kelly, no aspect of your work is
more important than assisting in the reintegration of military
members into their families as well as into their communities.
I know we have already heard a little bit about what the Navy
does with respect to that. Would you like to expand on that and
tell us a little bit, particularly in light of what happened at
Fort Bragg last year, which is still fresh in everybody's
minds? Now, as we are seeing the return of sailors, in your
case, to their home ports, what are we doing with regard to
counseling these individuals before they go back into the
homes, back into their communities to try to make sure that we
have done everything we can, from a Service standpoint, to see
that another Fort Bragg situation does not occur?
Dr. Kelly. Thank you for the question. The Navy has had in
place, sir, for about 12 years now, a program that we call our
Return and Reunion Program. I alluded to it in my opening
statement. With the Return and Reunion Program, we actually
send out a team of psychologists and social workers, if it is a
ship situation, they will actually go out and meet the ship.
They have designated time, one-on-one with the service members.
There are a whole range of topics that are discussed.
If a service member just needs one-on-one counseling, that
is available. If the service member is having a first-born
child, born while he is at sea, we talk about first-time dads
and what that really means.
If a service member needs help with financial counseling,
briefings on financial counseling are available on the ship. If
a service member has interest in what is going on back at his
particular location or her particular location, we bring videos
of happenings in the community and the military while they are
away at sea. They are exposed to all of that.
While they are getting that, we have another team of social
workers and psychologists working with the family members at
the installations, giving them the same information so that
when they come back, then they have both been exposed to the
same information.
Another issue that I did not talk about was the whole issue
of intimacy. When you have a service member who has been
deployed for 6 months, and in some instances 9 months with our
Seabees, the whole issue of intimacy takes on a whole separate
meaning. There is a lot of anxiety associated with it, and our
counselors and psychologists talk openly about what to expect
with their first encounters with their spouses when they are
back home. As I said, the spouses back home are getting the
same kind of information.
Quite frankly, with our commands that take advantage of our
Return and Reunion Program, we notice that the incidents of
counseling once the commands are back go down tremendously as
opposed to those that do not take advantage of the Return and
Reunion training. So we think it is a real valuable tool.
Senator Chambliss. Comments from either one of you ladies?
Ms. Heifferon. Yes, sir, I would like to add something. Our
reintegration is very similar to what the Navy is doing, but
the one thing I would like to stress that I think is very
important, once our soldiers are back, they have already
received, concurrently, the same training that we are offering,
the reunion briefing, in-theater and the families have received
it stateside. Once they are back, for approximately 2 weeks, we
have couples training where they come together as a couple
basically after that 2-week reacquainting period is over, and
we address some of the stresses or some of the issues that have
come up. As my colleague stated, intimacy can be one of the
primary issues. Or how to communicate, or the issues with
children, or the fact that you have had two people in charge,
one has been in charge in-theater and then you are coming home,
and here is another person in charge. It is re-communicating,
coming back together as a team, because you have been
separated.
After that, and to 6 weeks into their return, we also send
our family advocacy program manager out into the units to
assess some of the issues that may have arisen, and the
stressors in the family environment that possibly could lead to
some kind of domestic violence incidents. We want to, we really
want to be proactive with that. As you said, to avoid anything
that could occur again or reoccur as it did at Fort Bragg.
I also want to emphasize that we are all aware of that
tragedy and have stepped up in our family advocacy programs in
terms of commander and troop training. One of the things that
we have initiated with the support of our installation
commander, has been, as our commanders and first sergeants come
in, we have expanded our course from anywhere to 4 to 8 hours
training these first sergeants and company commanders to be
looking for those risk indicators that could indicate that
there might be some possible problems. We also give them the
tools and resources to be able to deal with some of those
indicators and who they have to contact.
Ms. Lukens. Sir, from an Air Force point of view, at least
at Moody, reunion and pre-deployment are really just two sides
of the same coin. So we begin talking about reunion as soon as
we finish the sentence on pre-deployment. We also have been
very focused on the issue of domestic violence, and we have
been very successful, as I cited in my testimony, as far as a
decrease in the number or percentage of maltreatment
statistics. I believe that is because we started 3 years ago
investing in our families. Through our IDS, our Integrated
Delivery System, we began offering couple communication
monthly, and we have continued with that, and I think that that
is certainly part of the empowerment that I spoke about
earlier, so that our folks can at least communicate about their
fears. If they need a little help, we are there for them.
Senator Chambliss. Thank each of you very much for your
service to our country, for what you do, and for being here
today to share some insights into problems and the solutions
that you are bringing to those problems on behalf of all of our
service members. Thank you very much.
Now we will move on to our third panel and we would welcome
at this time Ms. Kate Payne, spouse of Captain Matt Payne,
United States Army; Ms. Chrystie Palomo, spouse of Sergeant
Philip Palomo, United States Army from Fort Stewart; Ms. Kris
Edmondson, spouse of Petty Officer First Class Richard
Edmondson, United States Navy from Kings Bay. Kris, it is nice
to see you again in such a short time.
Ms. Edmondson: Thank you.
Senator Chambliss. Ms. Marian Bush, spouse of Captain Jason
Bush, United States Air Force; and Mrs. Semantha Matthews,
spouse of Technical Sergeant Lawrence Matthews, United States
Air Force from Moody Air Force Base.
Ladies, I want to thank each of you for taking time to be
here with us today. You have heard the comments that have been
made here, and we particularly want to talk about the practical
side of what we are doing with respect to services to all of
our military personnel. If any of you have an opening statement
you would like to make, we will be happy to hear from you or we
will proceed just to questions.
Ms. Payne.
STATEMENT OF KATE PAYNE, SPOUSE OF CPT MATT PAYNE, USA
Ms. Payne. Thank you, sir. Good afternoon, Senator
Chambliss. It is an honor and a privilege to have been asked to
participate in today's Senate hearing to address deployment and
reunification among military families. I would like to
introduce myself. My name is Kate Payne, and I am currently
stationed, with my husband Matthew, at Fort Stewart. Since our
move to Georgia, we have had two children, Carmen, age 2, and
Rosa Jean, age 10 months. We have lived in Hinesville for 3
years, and Matthew currently serves as commander of Charlie
Battery, First Battalion, Ninth Field Artillery. He has been
deployed to Kuwait and, subsequently, Iraq since 23 September
2002.
As I share my thoughts this afternoon, it may help to know
that my professional background is in Roman Catholic theology,
an area in which I hold a master's degree. From this
perspective, I consider my role as a military spouse, and
specifically my work in the area of family readiness, as a type
of secular ministry.
Families of soldiers are in need of knowledge, support,
information, and for lack of a better word, fellowship, before,
during, and after a deployment experience. Family readiness is
the means by which our military community provides these
intangible, though certainly necessary, benefits.
From the onset, I must admit this is my first deployment as
a military spouse. My extended family has had minimal military
involvement since the Vietnam era, so my comments today reflect
both my own thoughts and experiences as well as conversations I
have had with other Fort Stewart spouses in preparation for
this hearing. Many of these women are currently experiencing
their second or third deployment in 5 years. Surely these are
the experts, and I am pleased to share their thoughts with you
today.
My primary role of service in the military is as a battery
commander's spouse. For your reference, our battery is
comprised of approximately 100 soldiers, and of these, 40
percent are married. As the commander's spouse, I comprise one-
half of what the Army terms the command team, and provide the
primary leadership for our battery-level Family Readiness
Group. Essentially, Matthew runs the soldier portion of the
battery, and I lead the spouse side of the group.
Battery command is the first opportunity for a military
couple to experience working together for the benefits of ours
soldiers. Our common goal is to provide both soldiers and their
families ample opportunity to become well-prepared for any
contingency that may occur. While my part is one that may seem
simple and straightforward enough, an effective command team
spouse is truly invaluable. When soldiers are home with their
families, the command team spouse works to put into place and
develop effective communication tools, constructing a strong
support network in preparation for planned training exercises
and the possibility of real world deployment.
Just as soldiers train for combat situations, spouses, as
individuals and in the context of family readiness, have the
opportunity to train to be ready to support their soldier as
expert household managers. After all, a soldier with concerns
about his family and their well-being is unable to focus fully
and completely on his mission. He becomes ineffective in his
job and endangers himself and others. By taking the opportunity
to train alongside their husbands, military spouses become the
means by which their soldiers are able to concentrate fully on
the task at hand, get the job done, and return home safely and
in a timely manner.
With the help of educational and support programs offered
by the Army as well as the moral support of other spouses in
the Family Readiness Group, these women learn to survive both
the day-to-day, and the unforeseen, situations that inevitably
arise during a soldier's absence.
As a command team partner, elements of my upbringing and
professional background have served me well, but it has been
the Army's educational and support programs that have made the
most significant difference. Classes offered by Army Family
Teambuilding, friendship, and fellowship provided by the
Military Council of Catholic Women, as well as the practical,
more technical training offered by Army Community Service have
been the most crucial in forming me as an effective member of
the command team.
Not long after we were married, I became aware of the Army
Family Teambuilding program. With various classes offered on
three levels of study, Army Family Teambuilding addressed many
of the questions I had as a new military spouse. Especially as
someone with so little military experience, I greatly
appreciated the opportunity to learn about rank structure, the
organization of the Army, and how to read my husband's leave
and earnings statement, not to mention how to understand him
when he came home from work. Unfortunately, acronyms run
rampant among Army folk, so this was truly an enlightening
educational experience. I was so pleased with the Army Family
Teambuilding program that I eventually became trained as an
instructor. This was an especially rewarding way to utilize my
previous experience teaching at the high school level to
benefit my fellow Army spouses.
Another group which played a key role in my development as
an Army spouse is the Military Council of Catholic Women. As is
often true of spiritually-based programs, these ladies were a
warm, welcoming group offering a variety of worship, study, and
service opportunities. The women I met through the Military
Council of Catholic Women were varied in age and background,
providing invaluable mentoring for me. Through their shared
experience and abundant support, I was better prepared to
accept my growing understanding of military life as one of
significant sacrifice and selflessness. In addition, the
monthly First Friday programs, service activities, prayer and
Bible study offered by the group gave me an opportunity to see
how I could be replenished in the midst of such a sacrificial
lifestyle which often called for my husband's absence.
Since my arrival at Fort Stewart, I have become
increasingly familiar with the formal training offered by Army
Community Service. In preparation for Matthew's command tenure,
we participated as a couple in a week-long training course.
Through this experience, we became the beneficiaries of years
of command experience and were familiarized with the programs
developed in response to real needs expressed by Army families.
Covering everything from self-organization and military
protocol to crisis management, the courses involved in our
training have truly been a benefit to our command. In this way,
the Army has moved from the traditional role of taking care of
its own to the more empowering role of teaching its own to take
care of themselves. These classes have allowed us to know how
best to help the battery soldiers help themselves and their
families. Especially in light of the current deployment, it has
been an honor to share in this developing tradition of
empowerment. Practically speaking, I have seen spouses who had
never written a check in their lives now adeptly managing the
family's finances. Quiet, reserved women who had previously
been afraid to speak their minds have begun to share thoughts
with confidence at our monthly Family Readiness Group meetings.
Admittedly, deployment and separation are significant
hardships. From this difficult situation, however, new growth
has taken hold and watching our spouses blossom has been one of
my greatest pleasures.
As I bring my comments to a close this afternoon, I would
be remiss if I did not draw pointed attention to the essential
role of personal responsibility in my development as a command
team spouse. The Army offers the immensely beneficial programs
I have outlined here, as well as many others, but it cannot be
overemphasized that every military spouse must take personal
responsibility for her own growth and development. Family
Readiness Group meetings are offered on a monthly basis in
nearly every unit at Fort Stewart, and yet many are very poorly
attended. The average for our battery is about 30 percent
attendance, and this during our most intense preparation for
deployment and subsequent departure of our soldiers. To be
frank, I expect our numbers to dwindle significantly with our
soldiers' return.
It is the choice of every spouse to be an active
participant in the Army family or to remain outside this vast
network of support. For many, though, the risk of taking that
first step to attend a Family Readiness Group meeting, return a
welcome call from another spouse in a new unit, or to register
for an Army Family Teambuilding class is just too great. While
these programs are wonderful, the essential person-to-person
contact, the reaching out of one spouse to another, seems to be
the crucial element that makes the difference between a
successful Army spouse and one who refuses to step beyond her
area of comfort.
I have been blessed with many wonderful mentors during my
short experience with the Army who reached out to me as a new
military spouse, offering the benefit of their experience and
an open door to participation in activities and groups where
these women had found strength and support themselves.
I strive to be for others as these women were for me, a
shining example of the hospitality, strength, warmth, and
selfless sacrificial living that is the military spouse. Thank
you.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you.
Ms. Palomo.
STATEMENT OF CHRYSTIE PALOMO, SPOUSE OF SGT PHILIP PALOMO, USA
Ms. Palomo. Hello, Senator Chambliss. It is a distinct
honor and privilege to speak to you today on behalf of the
noncommissioned officer wives about deployment and family
concerns. My name is Chrystie Palomo and I am married to
Sergeant Philip Palomo II, who has been serving in the now-
famous Third Infantry Division in the Persian Gulf since
January of this year. We have lived on Fort Stewart, Georgia
for the past 14 months as our first active-duty station. My
husband was an Army reservist from 1988 to 1996. In November
1991 he was called to active duty in support of Operation
Desert Storm. During that time, I was 20 years old, had an 8-
month-old baby, and had just found out I was expecting our
second child. I knew nothing about the Army except that he wore
a green camouflage uniform that was very hard to iron. At that
time, there was no reaching out to the Reserve families from
the Army.
I remember the threat of him being called to active duty
with his Reserve unit, and I had no idea what I would do if
that were going to happen. Of course, the inevitable happened,
and his unit was activated to serve in Operation Desert Storm.
It was like a tornado came through my life.
My husband had to report every day to Fort Sam Houston in
San Antonio, and one evening he came home and said we had a
mandatory meeting. When we walked into the room, I knew no one.
I was very intimidated by those men in green. All of a sudden
they were talking power of attorneys, wills, things I knew
nothing about. There was no family support or family readiness
groups. I felt very scared.
When it was all done and Philip was on that bus to Lord
knows where, I moved to where my parents lived. I relied
totally on my husband calling or writing a letter. Calls were
very few, and letters were also. I never received a phone call
from anyone other than him. Compared to today, there has been a
vast improvement in communication since Operation Desert Storm,
and my husband has gotten better at writing me.
As a new family entering into the Army, I have found Army
Community Service to be the greatest asset provided by Fort
Stewart. The information provided to us today by Army Community
Service is just awesome. They offer so many avenues for us as
spouses to get involved, to learn more about other programs,
and to take different classes.
I will never forget the first day I walked into Army
Community Service. Our household goods were not going to be
delivered to our house until 2 weeks after we had gotten there.
I was told to go to ACS as they have what is called a lending
closet. When I arrived at that building I was greeted with
smiles and such willing hearts to help me. I received a box
full of necessary household goods on loan for a family of six.
It was incredible, and it was all done with a smile.
The preparation they provided for us as pre-deployment
issues arose was another grand slam. ACS provided an awesome
display of information from every avenue to ease the spouse's
mind. When I found out that Philip was getting deployed to the
Persian Gulf, I felt very prepared for the questions that could
arise upon his absence. They provided all the names and numbers
that I would ever need for any question that needed answered.
During the conflict of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Susan
Wilder invited each Family Readiness Group leader, rear
detachment personnel, and battalion commander wives to a
meeting once a month to brief us on any new information. I
found these to be most beneficial. As a matter of fact, most of
the information that was provided to us in these meetings were
the meat of my monthly newsletters.
Child care issues came up more than once at these meetings,
with a concern about the yearly fee of $30 per household with
children being too much. I had to comment on this as most of
the people present were officers or officers' wives, and they
do have a bigger pay scale than we do. I stood up and said that
although I was the wife of probably the lowest-ranking soldier
in there and I had four children, I am more than sure that if I
could afford the $30 a year, everyone else could, too.
Currently, I am the Family Readiness Group leader for my
husband's unit. We have 128 spouses left here. We have meetings
once a month, and a detailed monthly newsletter is sent out. I
call at least five spouses a week just to check on them. I also
pass information via E-mail.
There have been some challenges I have faced as a Family
Readiness Group leader. Senator, one area of opportunity has
been the flow of information and support coming from the rear
detachment. A more active role was needed to remedy those
areas. Another challenge I have dealt with is customer service
issues on post. While the ACS provides service with a smile,
there are some departments which do not hold this view as
strongly as ACS does. Moving forward with family support and
readiness issues, the Army should focus on improving customer
service and continue to improve upon the variety of existing
services.
A final area to work on is to get units to work harder on
encouraging soldiers to get their spouses and families involved
in what is going on so that in times of deployment it will not
prove to be hard on the spouses, the rear detachment, or other
people that are trying to help them. A lot of what I am saying
lies solely on personal responsibility.
Senator, this has been a great moment, not only in human
history but in the history of the United States. Our men and
women in uniform have done an outstanding job, yet an even
greater job still was the sacrifice made by American families
who lovingly and dutifully continued on with daily living,
ensuring bills were paid, houses were cared for, children were
tended to, and that all things pertaining to domestic matters
were handled. The thought of my husband going off to war, while
difficult, was not overwhelming. I support my husband 100
percent and know how important it is for me to understand my
role in making this a successful deployment. The truth is that
this situation allowed for and proved to be a testing ground
for me and my family. Yes, it was emotionally challenging,
especially when one of my four children, for that matter, all
of them, decided to be out-of-sorts at one time or another.
Nevertheless, I worked through the issues and actually became a
stronger parent and person because of it. I know some families
experienced greater difficulties and challenges than I did, and
my heart and prayers went out to them. For me, now all that
remains is being reunited with my husband and working together
to help him adjust to family life again.
Senator Chambliss, I would like to thank you for allowing
me this opportunity to speak before you and this committee. It
has been an honor. May God bless America and thank you.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you.
Ms. Edmondson.
STATEMENT OF KRISCHELE EDMONDSON, SPOUSE OF MM1 (SS) RICHARD
EDMONDSON, USN
Ms. Edmondson. Good afternoon, Senator. I do not have a
prepared statement, but you do have my biography. I am from
Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, which is pretty much the
mystery of the Armed Forces as far as services goes. We are
called the silent service because usually there is not a lot of
information that goes out about us or what is going on around
our base.
I would like to thank you and the previous two panels
because without you and their caring, our military spouses
would not be able to face the challenges that are constantly
put before us. I do applaud that and I do thank you all on
behalf of all of the military spouses. Thank you very much.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you.
Ms. Bush.
STATEMENT OF MARIAN BUSH, SPOUSE OF CAPT. JASON BUSH, USAF
Ms. Bush. Good afternoon, sir. I, too, do not have a
statement prepared but just a little bit on my background. I
have been involved with and around the military for just over
10 years now. My husband is a personnel captain. My background
is in education. I have taught school in several States,
including in a DOD school. I taught in an on-base school in the
Washington, DC, area to kindergarten children. I have an early
childhood background.
I now have one son that I stay at home with and try to stay
involved in different aspects of what is going on in our base
involving many different child care issues and children and
families, bringing my background, as well as support from
myself.
My husband just took his first deployment. He was gone for
6 months and has just returned home in the last week, and
without the support of these services and these people it would
have been a very difficult time. However, with the different
agencies and programs that were available, we made it through.
I definitely have grown. I have become a stronger person
because of it and I hope that I can lend my support and my
experience to others that will go through it someday after me.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you, Ms. Bush.
Mrs. Matthews.
STATEMENT OF SEMANTHA MATTHEWS, SPOUSE OF TSGT. LAWRENCE
MATTHEWS, USAF
Mrs. Matthews. First, I would like to thank you, Senator,
and the other members of the Armed Services Committee and to
those who have dedicated their professional careers to taking
care of us.
I am so sorry, I am not poised at all like these other
ladies, but I thank you for how you serve me and my family. My
name is Semantha Matthews; I am a wife. My husband is Tech
Sergeant Matthews right there, returning from Operation Iraqi
Freedom just Tuesday. So this is very fresh for me.
I was born into a military family 37 years ago, and then I
joined the military at 20 for an 8-year enlistment, and then I
married military. I have been happily married for 15 years
serving as a military spouse. I guess I am the ideal Air Force
brat, I guess you could say; I am proud to be so, though.
I did know much of what my sisters on this panel have said,
and I am not surprised that much of what we share is not
different. I just commend those who care for us and
particularly these ladies who, unless you have been there, it
is not impossible but it is quite difficult to really
understand what a homecoming is like or what a goodbye is like
or what a nightmare in the middle of the night is like. But it
is worth it. It is worth it.
Senator Chambliss. Mrs. Matthews, you knew what you were
getting into from day one, and it looks like you asked for a
husband even who is sharing this with you. That is a great
story. He is a pretty good camera man, too, I notice there.
Thank all of you all for your great service to our country;
we appreciate that very much. Let me just start out, there are
five of you all here, and I am sure what Ms. Murray said about
the return rate on our surveys is about average, or the Air
Force may be above average. That means that only two of you
ladies returned a survey. Tell us, if you will, whether or not
the surveys mean anything to you? Are we asking the right
questions, getting the right information, and do you feel like
that anything is being done based on the information, you are
providing in those surveys?
Ms. Payne.
Ms. Payne. I am sorry, sir, I have not had the opportunity
to fill out a survey.
Senator Chambliss. Okay.
Ms. Palomo. Nor have I.
Senator Chambliss. All right.
Ms. Edmondson. I have. Yes, sir, I really appreciate
receiving the surveys, whether it be from TRICARE, the Family
Service Center, or even a command survey. They are invaluable.
I have seen action on them in the command, as well as the Fleet
and Family Support Center. I have also acted as a Navy command
ombudsman, which is basically a liaison between the families
and the commands. When we get these surveys, the spouses will
often ask me about it. Is it really worth it? Do we really need
to fill it out? Absolutely, you need to be heard. I help you to
be heard, but they need your words on that piece of paper. So,
yes, they are very valuable and yes, we are being heard.
Senator Chambliss. Okay.
Ms. Bush.
Ms. Bush. I definitely agree with that. Some of the things
that I have heard of why not to fill it out is they are very
long and time-consuming and when you are at home with one, two,
three, four children, that is just not something that takes a
priority. But I also have seen results on them and agree that
it is definitely invaluable, and we just try and encourage each
other to get through it even if it is at midnight.
Mrs. Matthews. I, too, have filled out the survey and I do
believe that where we are today is because those before us have
filled them out, so I just think that part of my responsibility
is to continue on to also fill them out, to take care of the
needs of those who come after us. The needs are constantly
changing. The Air Force is constantly changing. Their job is to
take care of us and meet our needs, and our job is to let them
know what the needs are, so it is very important.
Senator Chambliss. I know that you all appreciate that
deployments and separation from your spouses are unavoidable.
That is part of military life. The purpose of this hearing
today is to discuss how we can better manage those deployments
for you and your families when duty calls.
As we have all heard today, the service family support
centers and service leadership work very hard to make these
deployments as manageable as possible for you and your
families. I would like to know more about what is important to
you while your spouse is deployed. For example, is it the
ability to communicate easily and regularly? Is it the ability
to know where the unit is and when they are scheduled to come
home? Is it having a supportive base community and having your
children taken care of? What are the things that go the
furthest to ease you and your families during the times that
your spouse is gone? Ms. Payne.
Ms. Payne. My first response to your question would be that
I understand that communication, especially in a conflict-type
situation as we have just experienced, is not always possible
and knowledge of where your husband's unit is and what they are
doing is not always safe. So I would say the more we can do to
empower our spouses, the better.
My concerns are not so much for myself. I know that I can
manage my family, but what I am concerned more about is
Matthew's soldiers' wives. Some of them are just not
experienced in the least, and the more opportunity we can give
them to grow, the better.
Senator Chambliss. Okay. Ms. Palomo.
Ms. Palomo. My first reaction to respond to your question
is the mail system. I understand that while in theater, and
while there is conflict going on, you cannot mail to the front
line, and I understand that. My husband is not on the front
line. He is about midways back, which is about right outside of
Baghdad. So, he has not received mail, and the conflict is
over.
Now, I do get to have pretty regular communication with my
spouse. He is in a support command unit, so we do get to speak
with him regularly and correspond on E-mail, but he has not
received any mail in about 3 weeks now, and that is about 10
packages ago and about 35 letters ago. So as far as concerns
are, I think that Fort Stewart is doing an awesome job keeping
all of us informed of what is going on and the programs that we
can put ourselves into to better inform ourselves for anybody
that has any questions. I know lots of women in my neighborhood
do not attend their meetings, and so I am their source of
information for them. So as long as they are providing the
services that they do, we really need to push for the wives to
get involved, but you cannot make it mandatory. So, there
again, it is personal responsibility.
Ms. Edmondson. What is important? Well, definitely
empowering our spouses. In the submarine service, communication
is not an option, or it is one-way pretty much. We have gotten
a slight ability of a little bit of E-mail every now and then,
but that is hit or miss. Therefore, it is very important to
inform the spouses as far as the resources available to them,
may it be the Fleet and Family Support Center, Navy-Marine
Corps Relief Service, Red Cross, informing them and putting
some solid ground underneath them.
Our average age on our base of our sailors is 21 years old.
Our spouses are often younger. They have no military life
experience. They barely have life experience, and they come up
and they are standing on the pier saying bye, and now what?
Where do they go, what do they do? They often do not know
anybody at all because they have just reported. I am a very
strong advocate for the Navy Family Ombudsman Program, and I
believe the Marine Corps has something similar as far as the
key volunteers. I am not sure really about the Army or the Air
Force. But these volunteers, these are actual volunteers that
are there as one point of contact to assist the families. So I
definitely think keeping the ombudsmen program funded is
important, so that the ombudsmen can be trained.
I can take approximately 150 calls if necessary. Hopefully,
I have prepared them so they do not need to make that call, but
this way we have another crew that helps us out, but hopefully
they will call me so these sailors can do their jobs and get
ready to go. Basically, I believe as one of the ladies over
here mentioned, preparation, preparation, preparation is vital.
Let us get these spouses, either male or female, get them ready
to prepare for what is coming up against them.
I think that the Fleet and Family Support Centers and the
other organizations like them are very invaluable, and we need
them there.
Ms. Bush. I agree with the others that communication is one
of the key elements of what is needed during a deployment. My
husband is part of a very small squadron on the base and his
unit that deployed was even smaller. He took a team of four
where he went, and so we did not have the big goodbye or a big
network of spouses, although there are several spouses on base
whose husbands are deployed. As far as his unit, where he is,
there were just two of us. The other two that went with them
were not married.
So, in that sense, I had to step out of my comfort zone and
out of my familiar surroundings and find other spouses to
network with, and that was the greatest thing I could have ever
done. One of the key things that got me through this deployment
was having other spouses with children that met my child care
needs because we could switch off with each other. I had other
spouses that I could talk to to get things off of my chest when
I had a bad day.
Stress is a big part of deployments. You are not only a mom
and a wife, you have the entire household to take care of. Many
of them work, so they are still managing a career. They are
taking care of the children, they are taking care of the
finances. I stay at home with my son, and you would think that
it would be very easy, that I do not have anything to do. But I
was even busier with him being gone, and stress level goes way
high even when you are not doing much because there are so many
things that you are left to take care of.
Some of the things that I dealt with while he was gone was
my 2\1/2\-year-old son was admitted to a hospital for a week,
and I dealt with that alone. My family is not here, so I dealt
with that. Communication was excellent between myself and my
husband during that point. His unit made sure that he was able
to call me as often as he could so that for his benefit he knew
that his son was okay, but for my benefit I could say, we are
going to be okay; he is okay; it will just take some time.
After one of my trips that I went home to spend with
family, I came back home to a hole in my roof, and it had been
after the 2 weeks of rain that we had. So communication was
very important with my Family Support Center and different
people on base. They helped me out. I called them one afternoon
and said, ``My house is full of water and there is a huge
gaping hole in my roof. Who do I call?'' They were absolutely
wonderful at connecting me with the right people for that.
Some of the positive things that came out of this, at Moody
they started a deployed spouse dinner program, and once a month
at our base chapel they offered a free dinner for the spouses
and their families. Not only was it great just to get out and
relax and not have to worry about dinner for that night, but it
was great networking with other spouses and a good release for
the kids because they could go and play there.
Then I also had good communication with the commander of my
husband's squadron. He made sure to call me at least once a
month just to check in and say, ``Hey, are you okay? We are
here if you need us.'' I really did not need to call on them
for anything specific other than what I had mentioned, but it
made me feel good that somebody was thinking about me, and I
had some place to go if I did need it.
Mrs. Matthews. I think before deployment, it is really
important for us spouses to know what to do in case of a
situation like your roof falls in. I think readiness is really
important. I think the Family Support Center at Moody does an
excellent job in that. Over 15 years, we have had several
deployments, four lengthy ones, particularly in the last 6
years since we have been at Moody, and I feel like we have been
fairly prepared to handle those.
During a deployment, it is wonderful, just the activities
that are available. I have a 12-, 10-, and a 4-year-old. We
stay very busy, but being busy makes the time go pretty fast.
So it is nice that the Integrated Delivery System sends out a
calendar of events for the month. I circle them; I highlight
the activities and then we stay busy. That is always great.
I took a car care seminar; I have always been wanting to do
that. Since the last two deployments a different car has broken
down each time. Very expensive repairs at that. So I decided it
is really about time to take a car care seminar, and I did. A
local CMC, it is a Goodyear place down in Valdosta, offered it
to spouses for free, and it was absolutely incredible. I
learned how to do some things I just did not know how to do and
I just took for granted that he would take care of. It was
wonderful, I did still have a car that broke down this time.
But afterward, I guess after deployment I just really think
we need a lot of time off. So I would just say, if the guys
could just have time. They get 2 weeks off, but it takes a week
at least or more for his body to adjust to United States time
zones. We need more than the time that they give us, and I just
think that after serving in a war and serving for 24-hour days,
I am sure some days they just hardly slept and working so
faithfully and so hard, I think they deserve more time off, if
that helps. [Applause.]
Senator Chambliss. We are running out of time here, but I
have to get a comment from each of you about the educational
environment and experience that you have had with your
children. You all come from somewhat similar situations with
respect to non-DOD schools. How do you find that children
overall, particularly your children, react in their educational
environment? Are we doing the right things? Are we providing
the right services? Now that your spouses are coming back, what
are you seeing with respect to counseling that is available or
guidance that is available to our children of these deployed
military parents? Ms. Payne.
Ms. Payne. My children, of course, are very young, so the
service to which I could probably speak most accurately would
be the hourly child care service on post which I use
approximately once or twice a month. The most descriptive or
the clearest way that I could communicate to you the type of
attention that my child gets at the hourly care center would be
relating a story from when she was maybe 10 or 11 months old.
I had taken her in for regular hourly care, and the staff
there will always change your child's diaper before you leave
the center. The woman who changed my child Carmen's diaper,
told me that she had had a temperature of approximately 99.1
degrees, and the child care worker said in her opinion she
thought Carmen was probably teething. I said, ``Thank you very
much,'' and we collected our things and proceeded to leave the
center.
On the way down the hallway the director for hourly care
for infants stopped me in the hallway and said, ``Mrs. Payne,
Carmen had a temperature this afternoon. I think it was about
99; I think maybe she is teething.''
As we were leaving the front doors of the facility, one of
the child care workers who had evidently been with Carmen
throughout the day said, ``Mrs. Payne, I am on my break, but I
want to take time to tell you, Carmen had a fever today about
99 degrees and I think maybe she is teething.''
So the attention to detail that we experience, even as a
family that uses the center very sparingly, is just phenomenal,
and it is very much appreciated.
Ms. Palomo. I can give you some really good examples of the
school system. I have four children. My daughter is 13 and she
goes to school about 15 miles off-post to a middle school,
Midway Middle School. I have three sons, one is in sixth grade,
one is in fourth grade, and one is in third grade, that go to
school on post at Fort Stewart. This is our first example or
first time of going to an on-post school.
As far as through this deployment, I have seen at the
school on post the support there. The teachers are so
empathetic, sympathetic. They have open arms for these
children. If you walk down the halls of Brittan Elementary
School, outside on each door pane, they made a yellow ribbon
out of yellow construction paper, and each one of those
children has their mother or father's name on the yellow ribbon
and it hangs around the door post, so when you enter in that
room they are reminded that their fathers and mothers are
heroes.
Another point is, the day that my husband left, we got
notified at 8:30 on a Monday evening that he was going to be
leaving at 8:30 the next morning. I guess better that way than
the other to be prepared. I kept my children out of school on
the day that he was deployed, I think basically to keep me
together.
When I wrote the note on the Wednesday when they did go
back to school, of course, the ones on post were, of course, do
not even fret; you do not even have to write a note; we
understand, Dad is gone, Dad was leaving.
The one off post, however, did give me a little bit of a
fit in saying that she was not sick, she was not in the
hospital, she was not at the doctor's office. They wanted to
count it unexcused, and I was not going to settle for that
because this is a military community and, I mean, give us at a
little break here.
As far as the schools on post, and the counselor goes
around to the classrooms. They have a counselor for the upper
grades and a counselor for the lower grades, and I only know
the upper grades. She goes around and she makes herself very
open to the children and to the parents to let us know, if you
need me to talk to your child, or if your child needs to talk
to me, or if you need to talk to me.
So I have found with the on post school, that I have
thoroughly enjoyed the openness that they have for the
children. I do not know if it is really so much sympathy that
they have for the kids, but they have more understanding. They
could be civilians themselves, but the children, they have a
lot more attention, a lot more sympathy from the teachers as
far as the moods that they might be in and the teachers
understanding that.
Ms. Edmondson. Senator, if I might step back just a second.
I did just want to relay some information as far as
communication goes. Our Seabee unit, I spoke to a young spouse,
married 2 weeks before the Seabee unit deployed, I spoke with
her this weekend, and she said that the care and the
communication was incredible, that she was being called on a
weekly basis to make sure things were taken care of.
Also, I spoke with a young marine wife who I work with. She
also said that the Marines were also very good about keeping in
touch, making sure they had everything they needed. So I did
want to add that. I am sorry to step back.
But as far as the school goes, let me tell you about the
schools. My children are 12 years old. I have twin girls, and
they are now going into the sixth grade and they have been to
approximately five schools. We moved, on average, every 2
years. That means that we have seen a lot of different school
systems, some good, some not so good. One thing that we would
definitely like to see is a consistency in education throughout
the United States.
Just when you go up to Maine, and then you expect for the
education to be a certain level, and then you are ahead of them
or Tennessee, you just--we are moving throughout the country
and making a transition is very difficult--it is difficult
enough, but then when you find you are either behind or ahead
of the school that you are with, it brings just an immense
amount of challenges to our children. So I think if something
can be done to somewhat regulate it.
Also the standardized testing, I understand the need for
it, but I have found that one thing is very consistent, is that
now the teachers are teaching to pass the test; they are not
teaching to teach. They are teaching to pass the test. I think
that our children are developing holes in education, and I
think consistency would be good there, and I think looking
over--I know this is probably a little bit out of the area but,
sir, consistency would be wonderful, and if we could possibly
review the standardized testing. Yes, our children might know
what is on that test, but do they know anything else? I think
we need to look at that.
Military children bring wonderful things to the schools
that they enter. Life experiences. I know, I am personally from
Kansas, and just the fact that my children have been on a
nuclear-powered submarine, that would just wow me, or in a
plane or in a tank, it is just incredible. Our children have
been all over the world and can bring real insight. I have
talked to my children's teacher and they see this and they
appreciate that.
The schools in our area are wonderful. They work with Fleet
and Family, as well as the parents, as well as the base, to do
whatever they can do to assist the children.
When we were stationed in Norfolk, my husband was on a
fast-attack submarine and was preparing to leave with a battle
group for a 6-month deployment. I have never seen such
outpouring of caring from a community. It was just incredible.
The counselor had support sessions every week. The children
would either write daddy or E-mail. Of course, that was not an
option for our children at the time, but they would take
pictures; they had pictures of the dads up on the door, they
had a tracker with as much as they could track.
I believe that the schools in the military areas are really
adapting to help the children and they work with the parents to
do so. Thank you.
Senator Chambliss. Ms. Bush.
Ms. Bush. Going back to my education background, when I was
a teacher and I worked in the school that was on the base--this
was 6 or 7 years ago--but I was given no training in counseling
or dealing with the children that had parents that were
separated from them.
Being fairly new as a teacher and new to the military, it
was kind of hard, but I guess with time what I realized what
they needed the most was individual attention and just time to
let them do what they needed to do to get through. I guess that
would be what I would take to teachers and schools and
districts now, that even if they get no training, understand
that military children have individual needs and they go
through different things that the other children do go through.
I had a similar experience with my son. This was my
husband's first deployment, but being my son is only 2 years
old and when he went to his Mom's Morning Out program, about a
month after my husband left, it started to kind of sink in with
him, and he got real angry and was very belligerent, and when
asked, ``Do you want to talk to Daddy on the phone today?'' He
said ``No, no.'' He would take it out on other children, and
that was his way of dealing with it, and I had to let the
school know that no, his hitting and that sort of thing is not
acceptable, but understand that this is why he is going through
what he is going through.
One thing that I would like to suggest and like to see more
of made available to military parents is child care for while a
parent is deployed. As I mentioned earlier, it is a very
stressful time on parents and children, and we have a program
at Moody called Give Parents a Break, and it is a program where
once a month the child development center opens its doors to
children under 5 years of age, and there is also a program for
older children. It is a wonderful program. There is no cost
involved with it, and the kids can go there for, I think it is
4 to 6 hours on one Saturday a month, and it gives the parents
and the children a break from each other. It is a wonderful
program.
I would like to see that maybe if funding could made
available for more of that. It is great on Saturdays, but when
you are a parent at home, you have meetings and doctors'
appointments and things like that during the week that you
cannot schedule on a Saturday, so programs where things are
made available during the week to parents as well as children,
and even older children, like I said, there is a program for
older elementary and pre-teen children. We need a break from
each other after 6 months and just to keep that funding
available and increased if possible.
Mrs. Matthews. Senator, I think that one of the people in a
previous panel had mentioned how providing education about what
is going on in the military family life is so important, not
just to the military kids, but also to the other kids, as well.
I thought that was such an excellent point to make.
I guess it was in the last year, one of my oldest son's
friends make a comment, ``See, that's why I hate the
military.'' I thought, ``Oh, that's horrible.'' He is not a
military family, but he associates military with war and death,
and he had heard that we were going into Iraq, and to hear a
seventh grade boy say, ``That's why I hate the military,'' and
I said, ``Certainly you don't mean you hate the military. I
mean, Mr. Larry is military,'' and I had to use that moment to
explain to him. My point is that education is so important in
the schools, not just to the military kids; it is not just
important in the Family Support Center, but them getting out,
and I know that our Family Support Center does do that.
We have career day in Valdosta. I know the middle schools
have that, and our military are a hit at career day. They bring
the helicopters out and their classes are completely full all
the time. We have a school board liaison that meets at Moody
and they coordinate with the different schools, and they do an
outstanding job at working and networking with all the schools
in our area. We have many; we have the county schools of like
12 or 13, and then we have the city schools, but they do a
great job at talking about those needs and those troubles that
come up.
I just want to share one story that Sergeant Dorn shared
with me that I thought was really incredible how they meet the
needs, and he shared about how a troubled mother came in and
said, ``I am having a terrible time with my son.'' He said,
``Well, let us think about what we can do,'' because she did
not want to put her son on the spot and, of course, she did not
want to drag him into counseling or maybe she did. I am not
sure if I got those facts right. But he went and arranged to
have a speaker in that child's classroom, not pinpointing that
child, but knowing that that child was in that classroom,
worked out arrangements to have the military come in and say,
``ask whatever questions you want,'' and that child asked most
of the questions, and he did not realize that they were there
for him.
I thought that is one really creative way that we can meet
the needs of those troubled kids that just do not want to ask
the mom or cannot ask the dad and do not want to talk to a
professional doctor. They are already feeling odd as it is, and
I commend our people at family support for thinking of creative
ways to meet those needs of those kids and at the same time
they were in a class with that troubled child that probably was
sharing with some of those other kids, or maybe he was the
troublemaker in that class, who knows, but at least it was a
really resourceful way of dealing with a problem. I think he
said that she reported that he did well. So thank you for what
you do.
Senator Chambliss. Well, ladies, certainly each of you are
married to true American heroes, but you and every other
military spouse out there are a hero in the eyes of all
Americans. We thank you for the sacrifices you make as well as
for your service to our country in addition to the service that
your spouses provide.
I will tell you, Ms. Palomo, Dick tells me that we have had
previous complaints about that mail service, and it is being
looked into as we speak and we are going to make sure that gets
speeded up.
Ms. Palomo. Thank you.
Senator Chambliss. One thing that I have not heard, which I
am glad I have not heard it because when I was over at Hunter I
heard it a good bit, and that was that your spouses were having
a hard time getting to a telephone; they were having to stand
in lines. Once they got to a telephone the service was not that
great getting to you, and it maybe cut off in the middle of a
conversation, which was only about a 3-minute conversation. I
hope that is getting better. We made some changes and hopefully
are making that a little bit better.
I thank each of you for your willingness to come over today
and to spend some time with us to help shed some light on a
very critical issue. I assure you, just like the surveys, we
are going to take this information back and we are going to
utilize exactly what you all have told us and compile our
information and continue to make positive changes to make life
a little better for you and your families, so we thank you very
much.
Ms. Edmondson. Senator, may I add something really short
here?
Senator Chambliss. Sure.
Ms. Edmondson. Just that these organizations have great
programs. One of the things that we come across a lot at our
base is our sailors are deployed and the spouses have the
children, so they cannot come to our wonderful programs because
of lack of child care. I do not know if any. I know Fleet and
Family Support Center cannot pay for child care, and often MWR
might be overwhelmed with the children that they have, so I do
not know if there can be some extra funding to assist with that
so that our spouses and our sailors can make use of the
programs available to them. Just a side note there that I know
that has come up. So if some kind of funding--and I do not know
the way all that works, but I know that is a brick wall we hit
when it comes time to going to classes.
Thank you, sir. I am sorry.
Senator Chambliss. No, that is quite all right. I
appreciate that additional comment. This has been a rather
lengthy hearing, but I do not know of any more important
subject that we could deal with from a legislative perspective
than to make sure that our families are getting the care and
the attention that they need. I want to thank all of our
witnesses for being here today and providing great insight and
great information to this very critical aspect of our military.
So, I thank you for being here, and know that your words
have been heard and we will incorporate it into our thought
process as we move through this authorization act over the next
2 or 3 weeks. Thank you very much, and this hearing is now
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 3:50 p.m., the subcommittee adjourned.]
ISSUES AFFECTING FAMILIES OF SOLDIERS, SAILORS, AIRMEN, AND MARINES
----------
TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 2003
U.S. Senate, Joint Hearing of the
Committee on Armed Services,
Subcommittee on Personnel,
and
Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions,
Subcommittee on Children and Families,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittees met, pursuant to notice, at 3:30 p.m., in
room SD-106, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Senator Saxby
Chambliss (chairman of the Subcommittee on Personnel, Committee
on Armed Services) and Senator Lamar Alexander (chairman of the
Subcommittee on Children and Families, Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions) presiding.
Armed Services Committee members present: Senators
Chambliss, Dole, Kennedy, Ben Nelson, Clinton, and Pryor.
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee members
present: Senators Alexander and Dodd.
Armed Services Committee majority staff members present:
Patricia L. Lewis, professional staff member; and Richard F.
Walsh, counsel.
Armed Services Committee minority staff member present:
Gerald J. Leeling, minority counsel.
Armed Services Committee staff assistants present: Michael
N. Berger, Andrew W. Florell, Andrew Kent, and Sara R. Mareno.
Armed Services Committee members' assistants present: James
W. Irwin and Clyde A. Taylor IV, assistants to Senator
Chambliss; Christine O. Hill, assistant to Senator Dole; Mieke
Y. Eoyang, assistant to Senator Kennedy; Eric Pierce, assistant
to Senator Ben Nelson; Andrew Shapiro, assistant to Senator
Clinton; and Terri Glaze, assistant to Senator Pryor.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR SAXBY CHAMBLISS, CHAIRMAN
Senator Chambliss. The hearing will come to order. First of
all, let me apologize to our witnesses and to all other
interested parties. Unfortunately, we had to do what you
taxpayers pay us to do, and that is go over and do the people's
business on the floor of the Senate, and it took a little bit
longer than what we expected. I really appreciate your
patience, I appreciate your being here.
This joint hearing of the Subcommittee on Personnel of the
Committee on Armed Services and the Subcommittee on Children
and Families of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions, will come to order. The two subcommittees meet today
to receive testimony on issues affecting families of soldiers,
sailors, airmen, and marines.
The issues we address today are of great importance to
military personnel. While striving every day to be superb
soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, the men and women of
the armed services strive with equal commitment and dedication
to be superb spouses, fathers, and mothers, and the programs
and problems that we consider today directly impact the ability
of our military personnel to successfully fulfill these all-
important roles. The manner in which the Department of Defense
and the Services address family issues may be instructive in
assisting us as legislators in finding ways to help all
American families, so I am delighted that Senator Alexander,
who is chairman of the Subcommittee on Children and Families,
joins me today as co-chairman of this hearing.
I will make a few more comments in a minute. If Senators
Dodd and Nelson come in, we will interrupt our proceedings at
whatever point they may be. We want to go ahead and get
started. I will recognize my long-time good friend and the
chairman of the Subcommittee on Children and Families, Senator
Lamar Alexander.
STATEMENT OF HON. LAMAR ALEXANDER, U.S. SENATOR FROM TENNESSEE
Senator Alexander. Thank you, Senator Chambliss, and let me
also thank the witnesses for waiting while we voted. We're
looking forward to this hearing, and I know Senator Dodd,
Senator Ben Nelson, and others are as well.
Half the men and women in today's military are parents
raising children, and they volunteer for service, they
volunteer for the marriage, we know that, but with such a large
percentage of the Armed Forces' reduced force structure already
deployed in 120 countries, and talk in the newspapers of
staying in Iraq for 5 years, there are even more stresses on
those marriages and on those children.
We know that family readiness affects military readiness.
That's why our subcommittees, as Senator Chambliss said, have
held hearings at Fort Campbell and at Warner Robins and at
Groton. We have basically combined forces between our two
subcommittees, and today we want to look at what we found in
those three field hearings, and talk with you about solutions.
Now, here is the picture that we've found: fewer warriors,
more missions, longer deployments, frequent moves, more
marriages, more spouses working away from home, and more
children, and we're also finding that while our military is
ahead of many segments of society in making it easier for
parents raising children, there's also some work in this area
that needs to be done.
In order to retain and attract a talented volunteer force,
we need to make sure that families' needs are addressed in the
following areas: a reasonable standard of living, a nurturing
environment for children, more opportunities in the supporting
community for the larger number of working spouses, as well as
fostering a sense of security for families during a time of
deployment.
Today, I hope we'll have a chance to discuss some specific
solutions and to get your advice on those. We've read your
testimony, and I look forward to exploring that testimony. For
example, on the standard of living point I just made, on the
bases and posts we visited, housing was being improved, and
where it is that greatly affects morale, but it was disturbing
to see where it was not being improved, and it was especially
disturbing to find that in some cases, housing allowances are
being counted as part of a military family's income, making the
family ineligible for other Federal benefits, and some of you
point to that in your testimony. We'd like to talk about that
more.
On the point of a nurturing environment for schools, about
20 percent of the military families have a child in a post
school, and there's a study going on about whether we ought to
just have all military children in public schools. There is a
recent Vanderbilt University study that shows that while they
cost more, children are learning more in the military schools,
and that the highest scores for reading among African-American
eighth graders in America in schools is in the military
schools, so perhaps we should be learning something from these
schools. We found widespread support for expanding the practice
that's been tried in some Services of giving 11th or 12th grade
students, families with 11th or 12th grade students, the option
of staying where they are assigned so the child can graduate in
that place.
A couple of other areas I'd just mention now, and then I'll
hold my comments until we have a chance to hear more of yours.
In terms of spouses, in your testimony you point out that more
than half, and in terms of the junior enlisted families, more
than 80 percent, of the spouses are working away from or
outside the home. Child care is an area in which the Services
excel, with nationally accredited centers, beautiful centers
which we had a chance to visit, but many families need respite
care, the break a busy parent needs, and many families would
like to expand the family day home network for child care
services. If the Commander in Groton had more flexibility, he
could spend some of the money for preschool care, where there
are vacancies, for infant care, where there's a waiting list.
Finally, the Services are taking a number of steps to
support family readiness with family readiness centers, but
those readiness centers could use a paid director to organize
the volunteers, and the public schools which deal with families
which may have a child move 10 or 11 times during a K through
12 experience need more specialists who can help deal with
that.
Throughout our hearings, and especially when Senator Dodd
and I went to Groton the other day, we talked a lot about
reciprocity, how if you've taken some steps with this with
model programs, but if we could encourage States to recognize
professional licenses as spouses move from one base to another,
that would help. If we could encourage States to recognize that
if you learn Georgia history at Fort Stewart you might not have
to learn Tennessee history at Fort Campbell in order to
graduate on time, or Georgia has a good example of, if
someone's transferred, the student can continue to receive
tuition there at the Georgia universities.
So these are all very important. I was very impressed by
the testimony we heard. There was no complaining. Every spouse
we heard from was very proud of their husband or their wife who
might be serving, but to use one example, today, Major Lee
Medley commands a Chinook helicopter unit. He and his wife,
Gricell, have a 17-month-old daughter. During those 17 months,
he's been in Afghanistan or Iraq for 15 of the months, and when
he was home for 21 days, he was spending most of his time
training.
His wife put it this way, we want to allow our soldiers to
be good soldiers, but they also want the opportunity to be good
husbands and fathers. Our purpose today is to encourage
military readiness, save taxpayers' money, and help children by
making it easier for military parents raising children.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you, Senator Alexander, and the
ranking member on the Subcommittee on Children and Families is
Senator Chris Dodd, who has been a very strong advocate for
just that, children and families. Chris, we appreciate your
hard work, particularly on your hearing at Groton, and any
comments you would like to make, we look forward to them.
STATEMENT OF HON. CHRISTOPHER DODD, U.S. SENATOR FROM
CONNECTICUT
Senator Dodd. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Let me
commend both you and Senator Alexander for your leadership in
conducting these hearings. I think it was a wonderful idea to
bring these two subcommittees together and to work on these
common issues.
Obviously, we don't need to preach to our audience. Most in
our audience do understand that the condition of a person in
the military's family life just has an immediate and profound
impact on their ability to do their job, their military
mission, and if that family life, for whatever reason, is
fragile or in trouble, then the ability of that military
personnel to do their job is also going to be in trouble.
That's as axiomatic as anything I know.
Senator Alexander and I visited the submarine base in New
London, which I've had the wonderful privilege of representing
now for almost 30 years. It was in my old congressional
district for 6 years. I'm now in my fourth term in the Senate,
so we've gone through a lot of work over the years at the sub
base. I'm deeply proud of the facility, installation, and
deeply proud of the people who have served there.
Senator Alexander already knew this, but I think it was
helpful getting up there and having a chance to see and talk to
these people. Even during the most calm, peaceful periods,
those who serve in our submarine services, it's a unique and
difficult service, an all-male service in submarines, gone for
3 to 6 months at a clip, usually a secret mission, which means
that communication with the family is very limited. When you're
away that length of time, and even when you're on shore, the
hours can run 12 hours a day. There isn't a notion when you
come off the submarine and on shore that you're on a vacation,
quite the contrary. So the pressure on families is just
tremendous there, as it is for, of course, any serviceman and
woman who serve, who have families to take care of. It really
is a critical issue if you're going to attract people in the
military, and then critically if you're going to retain them.
A person who goes home at night and faces a family
situation that is not harmonious is not likely to make that
decision to re-up. As much as they may want to, if the family
is unhappy with the conditions, and particularly today, when
there are recruiters outside those gates that will offer them
three and four and five and six times their salaries, benefits,
you're home in the afternoon, we'll help you buy a house, we'll
do a lot of things for you, it's awfully tempting when things
on the home front aren't as strong as they could be. So these
are critically important issues.
For those who want to see our military be as strong as
possible and be as ready as possible, be concentrating and
focused on the mission in front of them, this is about as
essential an issue as you can have in terms of achieving those
goals. I think having the hearings we've had at our various
installations have made that point over and over to us, and
some wonderful ideas, by the way, on how we can possibly
strengthen these conditions.
I was particularly interested in the housing issue. We've
been told by the Defense Department there are some 134,000
housing units that are inadequate. That we ought to be able to
deal with. I can't understand, in this day and age, why we
can't provide the best housing conditions. We may not pay a lot
of money, but that place that you put your family in,
particularly if they're there without you for extended periods
of time, ought to be some of the best housing we can provide
anywhere in this country, and that ought to be a mission for us
to try and achieve that if we can.
I'm so impressed with what the military has done on child
care. I've been raving about it for years. I just wish I could
get the country to adopt the child care standards the military
have. They've really been the model, in my view, and that
wasn't always the case, by the way.
The military did its own assessment of child care,
concluded it was doing a dreadful job on child care, and under
its own initiative completely changed it. As a result, today
it's the best child care offered anywhere, not just in this
country, in the world, and there are some specific issues that
Senator Alexander and I ran into in terms of infant care and
toddler care that I'd like to raise at the appropriate time,
Mr. Chairman, in terms of expectations on how we deal with some
of these questions. But again, particularly when we have
working families, second incomes, husband and wife in many
cases today in uniform, child care becomes an essential
ingredient for those families to have safe, quality child care,
and the military is doing a great job on that front.
Senator Alexander has already mentioned a couple of other
ideas we received, and I want to endorse those, Mr. Chairman,
as ones we might think about. A lot of it may be done just
through encouraging. We're not even suggesting, I don't think,
legislation is necessarily. Some of this might be done by just
encouraging the States to adopt some uniform standards, on
uniformity, so that you don't have duplication of efforts,
particularly in those 10th and 11th grade high school students.
I think this is a major issue, if we could say to these
families, your child reaches that 10th or 11th grade, we're
going to leave you put until they finish that high school.
When you meet families that have moved 17 times in 21
years, 11 times in 12 years, and particularly with children in
the high school years, you could really again force a family
that we'd like to keep in uniform to make a decision to put
their family first and leave an occupation they love, they
truly love.
No one's doing this for the money in the military. If
you're doing it for the money, there's something fundamentally
wrong with you, because that's not the motivation here. It's
service of country, a great job, a wonderful way to make a
commitment and fulfill a duty to one's country, and we ought to
be doing everything we can to eliminate barriers to sticking
with that career choice.
So this hearing is very important, and I'm grateful to you,
Mr. Chairman and Senator Alexander, for bringing us all
together to talk about what we might do as a Senate to be
helpful in this regard.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you, Senator Dodd, and you raised
a good point in that we're not going to necessarily recommend
legislation, but we may have some practical ideas of how to
solve some of these problems, and make suggestions to the
Department of Defense.
Now I'd like to call on my ranking member on the Personnel
Subcommittee, a man with whom I have worked very closely in a
very bipartisan way over the last 6 months, my good friend,
Senator Ben Nelson.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR E. BENJAMIN NELSON
Senator Ben Nelson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Senator
Alexander. I'm sorry to be late. I'm trying to learn how to
dance at two weddings at the same time, not very successfully,
but I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I want to thank
both of you for holding this series of hearings focusing on
issues that affect the families of our soldiers, sailors,
airmen, and marines. I plan to conduct a similar hearing in
Nebraska in September focusing on the education of children of
our military personnel, an important part of the quality-of-
life issues that we're all interested in improving.
I commend you for holding this joint hearing because I
think it will help address the issues of concern to both
subcommittees. I believe that by working together, these two
subcommittees can gain a far more complete picture of the
challenges that face our military families, and this is
particularly important today because of the extensive
commitments that our military forces are pushing our military
families. They're pushing military families to the limit,
because of the long deployments, because of multiple
deployments, and because of the importance of securing the
peace across the world.
Our military makeup has undergone a significant demographic
change since we ended the draft in 1973 and changed to an all-
volunteer force. Before that change, our military was mainly a
conscripted force, which was primarily male, unmarried, and
without children. The composition of the military today,
though, is far more complex. Today, more military members have
family obligations. This has a profound impact on the variety
and the kinds of programs needed to support our military
personnel and their families.
To demonstrate the complexity of the family makeup of our
Armed Forces, let me list some of the different combinations
that we encounter. More than half of the force is married, many
with children. We have dual military couples. In some cases
both husband and wife are in the same Service, and others are
in different Services, but both serving.
In most families only one spouse is in the military.
Normally the husband is the service member, but we also have a
number of families where the wife is the service member and the
husband is the family member.
We also have a number of single parent families, some where
the mother is the single parent service member, and others
where the father is the single parent service member.
Now, the reason I listed all of these different family
configurations is to demonstrate the wide variety of programs
that we need in order to meet the needs that these families
have. Each family makeup has unique needs. We need child care
programs that address the needs of single military parents as
they work unpredictable shifts or are subject to short-term
military exercises or longer-term, short-notice deployments.
We need programs for children when one parent is in the
Service and the other is a civilian working at what we would
refer to very often as a normal job, and we need education
programs that meet the needs of children who relocate every few
years, as my colleague, Senator Dodd, has suggested.
We need after-school programs and summer youth programs for
every age group to provide a healthy environment for military
children, and in addition to programs specifically for
children, the Services provide many other support programs for
families and spouses, and these include deployment and
mobilization support programs, family advocacy programs,
parenting programs, financial management programs, relocation
assistance programs, spouse employment assistance programs,
comprehensive health programs, and probably a whole lot of
other programs I haven't mentioned.
On the Armed Services Committee, the chairman and I have
worked together to improve the benefits for service members and
families to make their lives even better. This year, our
subcommittee mark, which was adopted by the committee and
passed by the Senate, authorized an average pay increase of
4.15 percent, almost a full percentage above the increase in
the employment cost index.
For families of troops fighting our wars overseas, we
increased the family separation allowance from $100 a month to
$250 a month, and we increased combat pay from $150 a month to
$225 a month. We also authorized a high-deployment allowance of
up to $1,000 a month for service members who are repeatedly
deployed, or are deployed for extensive periods of time.
We know that this is not enough, but it's a step, clearly,
in the right direction, so I say thank you, Senator Chambliss,
for allowing me to work so closely with you to improve the
quality of life and service of the service members and their
families. This hearing will give us an opportunity to know more
and to learn the answers to the questions of what more do we
need to do, and what else can we do that would be helpful.
Again, thank you and Senator Alexander for holding this
joint hearing.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you, Senator Nelson. Senator Dole,
thank you for giving deference to Senator Kennedy, who has
another appointment.
Senator Kennedy.
Senator Kennedy. Thank you very much, and I'm particularly
appreciative of your having this joint hearing. Senator Dodd
has been the chairman of our Children's Caucus for so many
years, and I think that this joint hearing could be enormously
important.
I just want to bring to the attention of our members here,
in preparation for this hearing, and to our panel, the
excellent program that I've been briefed on called One Source,
which is the Marine Corps program, which has really an
incredible acceptability within both the Marine Corps and
individual marines.
First of all, it went from usage of 1.6 percent December
2002 to 29 percent. It's 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, 365
days of the year, and the ratings of this program by the
marines and their families are right up through the roof in
terms of, the overall quality is 98 percent, would use it again
99 percent, would recommend it, 98 percent, $1.3 million annual
appropriations, going up to $1.6 million, that's about $5 per
marine, and the range of different issues that the marines were
inquiring about would be. You might well imagine, they were
about parenting issues, about child care, about education, and
about finances generally. That's just some legal issues.
The service, the availability for this was basically across
the range in terms of the marines. It's active duty and family
members; it's the reservists and family members; it has
confidentiality provisions in here, and as I said, it makes as
a goal, a response within 7 days unless otherwise agreed to.
It just seemed to me, in terms of the range, we have the
needs our colleagues have talked about, and we've been involved
in working with others in terms of particularly the Reserve and
the Guard in terms of health insurance, how they have to leave
coverage, and whether we shouldn't help provide the
continuation, and the impact aid, which I know Senator Dole and
I have been particularly interested in, and other issues.
Which I think is justified, if you look through in terms of
these reports, that there's increasing problems with children
whose parents are overseas in terms of discipline in the
schools. In terms of some depression of the children and their
academic achievement in terms of the greater kinds of needs,
what you might expect, so there are recommendations of
additional kinds of support, which I think we ought to try and
be able to find out through all of you what those particular
needs would be within the Services, and to the extent that
there are additional resources, help and assistance, I'd hope
that we could find that out from you. I'll submit some
questions along those lines. Perhaps you might be able to give
some response.
Secretary Molino, I draw this to your attention and the
others as well, and to the committee's attention. I'll file my
comments just with my statement, but it just seemed to me that
it's a contract with a company, Ceridian, but it seemed to me
to just have a high degree of a kind of acceptability and
support by the marines, and is something that I thought was
extremely useful. I'm impressed by whoever got the program
going, and started, and, hopefully, if it's as successful,
there might be parts of it that are as applicable to the other
Services.
I thank the chair.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you.
Senator Pryor, we're glad to have you with us, and welcome
any comments you might have.
Senator Pryor. Thank you, I don't, but I sure do appreciate
your holding this hearing. It's very important. Thank you.
Senator Chambliss. Yes, sir.
Military families have been placed under tremendous stress
in recent years even before September 11, 2001, and the global
war on terrorism, the high tempo of operations affecting
military personnel was a source of great concern. Since
September 11, our active duty, Reserve, and Guard personnel
have performed magnificently in every mission they have been
assigned.
However, the sacrifices made by the military personnel and
their families, the long and continuing separations they have
endured, and the problems in their personal lives resulting
from these realities of military duty must be understood and
carefully evaluated. We must make every effort, working closely
with the Department of Defense and Department of Education,
advocates for families, and the private sector and others to
respond in helpful ways.
As my colleagues know, our two subcommittees have taken
testimony earlier this month in field hearings conducted in
Warner Robins, Georgia; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and Groton,
Connecticut. My expectation today is that we will continue to
gain insight into programs and initiatives of the Services and
of the formulation of the policies at headquarters level, and
also into work that remains to be done on behalf of individual
members and their families.
We have two panels of witnesses today that will testify.
First, we will hear from John Molino, Deputy Under Secretary of
Defense for Military Community and Family Policy; Dr. Joseph
Tafoya, Director of the Department of Defense Education
Activity; Colonel James Scott, U.S. Army National Guard,
Director of Individual and Family Policy of the Office of
Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs; and Michael Petrilli,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Innovation and Improvement in
the Department of Education.
We'll introduce our second panel at the time they testify.
I welcome members of our first panel. We have your written
testimony, but we will start with you, Secretary Molino, for
any comments you want to make in summary of your written
testimony.
STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN M. MOLINO, DEPUTY UNDER SECRETARY OF
DEFENSE FOR MILITARY COMMUNITY AND FAMILY POLICY
Secretary Molino. Thank you, Chairman Chambliss, Chairman
Alexander, members of the subcommittees. Thank you for the
opportunity to discuss with you matters of vital and mutual
interest, the welfare of our brave men and women in uniform and
their families. Since I am not sure how long Senator Kennedy
will be able to stay here, let me depart briefly from my
prepared text and thank you, sir, for the endorsement of the
Marine Corps OneSource program.
Just by way of background, when we decided to test that
program we asked the Marine Corps to do it because, of all the
Services, they were less than enthusiastic about testing it,
and we knew, based on their size, that they were the ideal
force that we should test it on. They not only have tested it,
they have literally fallen in love with that program.
The Army has learned from their feedback and has gotten on
board, and is now contracting with that organization. They've
even added an additional service from another organization that
will help out and complement. The other two Services, the Air
Force and the Navy, are considering, based on the feedback that
we're getting from the Marines, the feasibility of moving
forward, but Senator, you're exactly right, we're very enthused
with the potential of this program.
Senator Kennedy. 140 languages, I saw.
Secretary Molino. Yes, sir.
Senator Kennedy. Or at least that's in the print. I'm not
sure, but it's incredible.
Secretary Molino. With only a slight delay they can link
you with someone who speaks one of those 140 languages.
Senator Kennedy. Thank you very much.
Secretary Molino. Yes, sir.
Senator Kennedy. Thank you.
Secretary Molino. Mr. Chairman, I welcome the chance to
share good news with you, news about taking care of people. I
welcome the direct involvement of both subcommittees and, on
behalf of the Department, I am open to your ideas and your
suggestions. We can learn from your observations, from the
hearings in Georgia, at Fort Campbell, at Groton, and the
future hearings in Nebraska and perhaps elsewhere.
In the interest of time I'll be brief and, with your
permission, refer to my written remarks for greater detail.
Those who volunteer to serve our country in uniform expect
to make sacrifices. However, since 60 percent of military
members now have family responsibilities, they must, as we
would expect, give due consideration to the well-being of their
spouses and their children. If we are to keep dedicated men and
women whom we have trained so well, we must ensure that they
and their families are provided with pay, health, education,
and other benefits that provide them with a quality of life
that is, at the very least, competitive with the society they
have sworn to defend.
In the first month of his tenure in office, President Bush
formally directed the Secretary of Defense to study military
quality of life, and expressed clearly his commitment to this
genuine readiness issue. To that end, the Department, in its
new social compact, has entered into a written commitment to
improve life in the military, to underwrite family support
programs, and to work in partnership with families to
accomplish the military mission.
In the decade since Operation Desert Storm, the Department
has worked diligently to ensure that service members and their
families are provided with the best support possible,
especially during periods of mobilization and deployment. We
have sought and employed the best knowledge and tools available
to help military families cope with the demands of frequent
separations and the realities of a vocation in which one or
both parents may be placed in harm's way, in some cases on very
short notice.
In several instances, we have leveraged the power of
public-private partnerships and technology to deliver these
services. The Department has come to rely heavily on its
professional Reserve components. After National Guardsmen and
reservists complete their tours of active duty, it is our
responsibility to ensure that they receive the information,
counseling, and other support they may need for successful
reintegration with their families and transition back into
their civilian jobs.
We are meeting that responsibility. Each of the four
Services has made great strides in preparing service members
and their families for dealing with deployments and
facilitating ongoing contact between deployed members and their
families.
All parents are challenged by the need to satisfy the
competing demands of work and family. That is doubly true for
parents whose work is ensuring that military missions are
successful. The Department is committed to maintaining a high
standard for its child and youth programs, and offering a full
spectrum of services. During periods of deployment, youth
programs take on added significance, especially when parents
are deployed to areas where open hostility may be encountered.
Children are not only stressed by the fear of physical harm
to their parents, but they also lose the benefit of the
guidance, support, and nurturing that parents would provide.
Our 474 youth centers provide safe and secure environments
where military youth can connect with their peers and
participate in recreation and sports programs. I have asked the
Army's Program Manager for Children and Youth, Ms. M.A. Lucas,
to give you more details about these programs. She will testify
as part of the second panel, and will share some good news
about the initiatives regarding services both on and off
installations and in remote areas.
Let me now speak to the issue of schooling for children of
military personnel. After health and safety, perhaps no concern
related to their children's development is as great as parents'
desire that their children attend good schools. The Department
operates an excellent K-12 school system for 106,000 military
dependent students at 224 schools overseas and in 7 States in
the continental United States.
Dr. Joseph Tafoya, director of that school system, is with
us today to provide you with details about the DOD schools and
the children who attend them. However, 1.5 million school-age
children of active duty, Reserve, or National Guard families
attend schools not within the Department of Defense system.
About 600,000 of these children come from active duty
families. It is not unheard of for these students to attend six
different schools before high school graduation. Some have
reported attending as many as 10 or 11. As they move from
school to school, students and their families encounter
difficulties with course transfers, exit exams, athletic
eligibility, and unique graduation requirements.
Recently, we have addressed issues related to the stress
experienced by military dependent children because their
parents are deployed to areas where danger is very real. We are
addressing these issues, working closely with school
superintendents, principals, and educators to increase
awareness and raise sensitivities.
Just as life at our installations changes when troops are
deployed, local communities are also affected significantly
when large numbers are withdrawn from the community. Around the
country, citizens have been generous with their time and their
skills to be good neighbors to military family members left
behind. We are grateful that during deployments over the past 2
years, local business and community service organizations have
felt very connected to military families and have sought ways
to help. Through cooperative efforts with the USA Freedom
Corps, we have been able to channel the volunteerism of many
local businesses and individuals to the families of deployed
personnel who most need assistance.
The Department has resolved to recognize communities that
are particularly friendly to military members and their
families. We are developing a quality-of-life quotient that
will enable us to identify communities of excellence. This
initiative will also enable civilian communities to target
efforts to make their communities excellent places to live,
work, and raise a family.
We are committed to meeting the quality-of-life needs of
our service members and their families. To maintain a modern
military force in a honed state of readiness requires high
morale that is bred of satisfaction with working and living
conditions. We are confident that if we treat our people well,
they will stay with us.
When they retire or otherwise leave active duty, they will
depart with a positive memory of the military lifestyle and be
our best advocates for service by future generations. With
that, the Department will receive an excellent return on its
training investment and ensure that tomorrow's military will be
strong and capable.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify before you
today. I very much appreciate your continued interest in and
support of quality-of-life programs and initiatives that
enhance readiness and benefit military members and their
families.
[The prepared statement of Secretary Molino follows:]
Prepared Statement by Hon. John M. Molino
Chairman Chambliss, Chairman Alexander, and members of the
subcommittees, thank you for the opportunity to discuss with you
matters of vital and mutual interest: the welfare of our brave men and
women in uniform and their families. I welcome this chance to share
good news with you; news about taking care of people.
Those who volunteer to serve our country in uniform expect to make
sacrifices. However, since 60 percent of military members now have
families, they must, as we would expect, give due consideration to the
well-being of their spouses and children. If we are to keep dedicated
men and women whom we have trained so well, we must ensure that they
and their families are provided with pay, health, education, and other
benefits that provide them with a quality of life that is, at the very
least, competitive with what they would experience outside the
military.
To that end, the Department, in its new Social Compact, has entered
into a written commitment to improve life in the military, underwrite
family support programs, and work in partnership with families to
accomplish the military mission. Several new initiatives have
germinated in the nourishing environment created by the recognition
that the military's most valuable asset is its people.
Many of these new initiatives have leveraged the power of public-
private partnerships and technology to deliver services. One that I am
most excited about is an information service available to members and
their families 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year.
Earlier this year, we entered into a contractual partnership to
pilot a program providing information and referral services to marines
and their families. From anywhere in the world, an active duty or
Reserve Marine or family member using toll-free telephone, email or
Internet can communicate with a professional counselor regarding myriad
topics, including parenting and child care; educational services; elder
care; relocation; health and wellness; and financial and legal
information. Communication is confidential and services provided
include a comprehensive array of pre-paid educational materials, such
as books, CDs, and videos. Simultaneous translation in 140 languages is
available, as is assistive technology for low-vision users. Early
reports about this program are very positive and we expect eventually
to make these services available to all military families.
In the decade since Operation Desert Storm, the Department has
worked diligently to ensure that service members and their families are
provided with the best support possible, especially during periods of
mobilization and deployment. We have sought and employed the best
knowledge and tools at our disposal to provide education, training,
outreach, and personal support to help military families cope with the
demands of frequent separations and the realities of a vocation in
which one or both parents may be placed in harm's way; in some cases,
on short notice.
Last October, we issued guidance to the Services outlining the full
array of services and issues to be addressed in deployment support. The
guidance covered responsibilities not only for the period of
deployment, but also for the phases before and after deployment. The
guidance addressed such issues as total force accessibility to
Services, outreach to parents, use of technology, support for high-risk
families, strengthening volunteer unit-based support activities, and
providing comprehensive return and reunion programs.
We established a Joint Services Contingency Planning Group to
assess requirements and resources needed to support the total force
during deployment. The effort was highly successful: establishing a
forum for sharing ideas, eliminating redundancy, and identifying gaps
in programs and services. Partnerships were formed with non-profit
organizations to identify and implement strategies to ensure that
resources and services are made available to those service members and
families that most need them.
Through an important partnership with the Department of Veterans
Affairs, we are working collaboratively with their Readjustment
Counseling Service Centers to provide support for our returning
National Guardsmen and reservists. These ``Vet Centers'' offer broad
readjustment counseling services to our military veterans and their
families. The centers are community-based and located in all 50 States
and the territories. They have a strong track record in providing
valued employment assistance and advice about educational
opportunities, as well as individual and group counseling.
The Department relies heavily on its professional Reserve
components. After National Guardsmen and reservists complete their
tours of active duty, it is our responsibility to ensure that they
receive the information, counseling and other support they may need for
successful reintegration with their families and transition back into
their civilian jobs. Personnel who work at Vet Centers know how to do
that well. Our job is to ensure that our de-mobilizing members are
aware of and linked to this important resource that the Department of
Veterans Affairs offers to our veterans.
I am happy to report that all four Services have made great strides
in preparing members and their families for dealing with deployments;
facilitating ongoing contact between deployed members and their
families; working with all components to integrate and augment support
programs; using technology to provide accurate and timely information;
assuring the viability of Family Care Plans; and developing web-based
resources. Working with commercial airlines, we have even secured
discounted fare options for military members who, on short notice,
needed to transport their children to primary caregivers.
All parents are challenged by the need to satisfy the competing
demands of work and family. That is doubly true for parents whose
``work'' is ensuring that military missions are successful. The
Department is committed to maintaining a high standard for its child
and youth programs and offering the full spectrum of services,
including daycare through family childcare, accredited child
development programs, and school-age care programs. As of December
2002, the military services were providing 176,000 childcare spaces,
using a combination of delivery approaches to maximize availability
within existing resources. We are working to add more spaces each year.
To ensure the continuity of services in unforeseen circumstances,
the military services are expected to have contingency plans in place
so that they can adjust programs and services to meet family needs as
quickly as possible. Additionally, the Services, using emergency
supplemental funds, have begun offering several new or expanded
services, including care for mildly ill children, increased respite
care at rates below normal hourly fees, and care during weekends,
evenings and extended hours.
During periods of deployment, youth programs take on added
significance, especially when parents are deployed to areas in which
armed conflict or open hostility may be encountered. Children are not
only stressed by the fear of physical harm to their parents, they also
lose the benefit of the guidance, support, and nurturing that parents
would be providing to their maturing offspring. Our 474 youth centers
provide safe and secure environments where military youth can connect
with their peers and participate in recreation and sports programs. We
have been able to expand our programs considerably through partnerships
with Boys and Girls Clubs of America, 4-H Clubs and other national
organizations. For example, Boys and Girls Clubs of America has, over
the past year, generously provided over $5.8 million in program grants,
gifts, scholarships and marketing initiatives.
Let me now speak to the issue of schooling for children of military
personnel. After health and safety, perhaps no concern related to their
children's development is as great as a parent's desire that their
children attend good schools and receive a high quality education that
will open the doors to collegiate studies and success in chosen
professions, or satisfaction in the world of work.
The Department operates an excellent K-12 school system for 106,000
military dependent students at 224 schools overseas and in 7 States in
the Continental United States.
However, 1.5 million school-aged children of active duty, Reserve
or National Guard families attend schools not affiliated with the
Department of Defense. About 600,000 of these children come from active
duty families and attend public schools. It is not uncommon for these
students to attend 6 different schools before high school graduation;
some have reported attending 10 or 11. As they move from school to
school, students and their families encounter difficulties with credit
transfers, exit exams, athletic eligibility, and unique graduation
requirements such as formal study of state history.
We are addressing these issues and others related to frequent
relocations through identification and information sharing on a website
(www.militarystudent.org) that will be operational later this summer.
Also, through meetings with school leaders, parents, students and
military commanders, we have found some ``best practices'' to be shared
with other schools and communities. Last year, we published a booklet
titled ``Promising Practices'' and have sent copies to school districts
that enroll our students. The demand for additional copies has exceeded
our supply. We plan now to include the booklet on our website so the
good information it contains will be available universally.
Further, we are working with the Military Family Research Institute
of Purdue University to study the impact that frequent moves or
deployments of one or both parents have on the social, emotional and
educational success of children from military families. Our study will
encompass a cross-section of children from elementary-school through
high school and from all four Services. The results of the study will
enable us to work with schools to develop additional support programs
and teacher training.
Educators, counselors, and mental health workers associated with
public schools are generally not aware of the unique issues and
challenges that confront military dependent students. To be effective,
they must become aware of military child issues and appropriate
interventions.
We have initiated several partnerships to help us address these
issues with educators. We have expanded our partnership with the
Department of Education's Office for Safe and Drug Free Schools to
include work with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network
(sponsored by UCLA, Duke University, and the Department of Health and
Human Services). Together we developed the following information
booklets: Educator's Guide to the Military Child During Deployment,
Educator's Guide to the Military Child During Post Deployment:
Challenges of Family Reunion, and Parent's Guide to the Military Child
in Deployment. The first deployment guide is currently featured on the
Department of Education's website. All three guidebooks will be
available on the DOD website later this summer. We are considering
publication of the booklets to ensure that the information is seen and
used by educators and parents. The Department wants to be a good
partner to local schools and is seeking ways in which we can help
promote excellence in public schools, especially in those schools that
educate our children.
More generally, we know we have a symbiotic relationship with the
communities near our installations. Just as life at our installations
changes when troops are deployed, local communities are also affected
significantly when large numbers of people are withdrawn from the
community. Citizens have been very generous with their time and skills
to be good neighbors to family members left behind. We are grateful
that during deployments over the past 2 years local business and
community service organizations have felt very connected to military
families and have sought ways to help. Through cooperative efforts with
the USA Freedom Corps we have been able to channel the volunteerism of
many local businesses and individuals to those families of deployed
personnel who most needed assistance.
The Department has resolved to recognize communities that are
particularly friendly to military members and their families. These are
communities in which our families would be content to live even if they
hadn't been assigned to that location. We are working with a contractor
to develop a Quality of Life Quotient, and then to evaluate certain
weighted factors. With this, we will be able to rate communities. A few
of these factors are the following: Affordable Housing; Health Care;
Availability of Quality Child Care; Employment Opportunities for
Spouses; the Quality of Schools; Opportunities for Adult and Continuing
Education; and Traffic and Safety. Using the Quality of Life Quotient
as a guide, we will be able to identify Communities of Excellence. This
initiative will also enable civilian communities to target efforts to
make their communities excellent places to live, work and raise a
family.
We are committed to meeting the quality of life needs of our
service members and their families. Our service members have high
aspirations and strong family values. They desire a fulfilling life for
themselves and their families. To recruit the best and brightness, we
must provide an inviting environment. To retain those we have trained
and whose skills we vitally need to keep, we must ensure continuing
challenges and opportunities to grow both intellectually and
professionally. To maintain a modern military force at a honed state of
readiness requires high morale bred of satisfaction with working and
living conditions that make being a part of the military family more
inviting than living outside of it. We are confident that if we treat
our people well, they will stay with us. When they finally retire or
leave active duty, they will depart with positive memories of the
military lifestyle and be our best advocate to future generations. As
such, the Department will receive an excellent return on its training
investment, and ensure that tomorrow's military is as strong,
dedicated, and vital as is today's. Now, more than ever, our national
security and way of life depend on it.
Thank you Chairman Chambliss, Chairman Alexander, and members of
both subcommittees, for the opportunity to testify before you today. I
very much appreciate your continued interest in and support of Quality
of Life programs and initiatives that benefit military members and
their families.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you, Secretary Molino. We have
also been joined by the Senator from New York, Senator Clinton,
and we'd be happy at this time to take any comments you might
want to make.
Senator Clinton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to
thank you and Senators Alexander, Dodd, and Nelson for holding
this hearing on these important topics. I would like unanimous
consent to submit my entire statement for the record.
Senator Chambliss. Certainly.
Senator Clinton. Just very briefly, I want to thank the
panel also for focusing on this range of issues: time away from
children, which we know has a tremendous impact on the
children's attitudes and their feelings, trying to make sure
that none of these inequities that we're now hearing about. We
had an awful example on Long Island where children of two
deployed parents were kicked out of their school after they
went to live with their grandparents, and they wanted to
continue the continuity by sending them across district lines
to continue to go to their same school, and unfortunately, the
district applied the most egregious kind of rule to disrupt
these children's lives further.
We have a lot of issues, and I appreciate very much
bringing these to this hearing. I look forward to working with
the panelists as well as my colleagues to address them.
[The prepared statement of Senator Clinton follows:]
Prepared Statement by Senator Hillary Clinton
Thank you Senators Alexander, Chambliss, and Nelson for coming
together to hold this hearing on this important topic. Thank you to all
the witnesses for testifying.
This issue has long been a priority for me. Throughout my time as
First Lady and now as a Senator, I have had the opportunity to meet
with the families of our men and women in uniform. I have gone to Fort
Drum and other military installations in New York where I have visited
with the families of our soldiers as well as the families of Guard
Members and reservists and to learn about the issues that are important
to them.
It is not often recognized that the families also have to make a
significant sacrifice when a husband, wife, or parent is sent off to
war. These families left behind are serving their Nation like our men
and women in uniform. When both parents are deployed simultaneously or
the children of single parents are deployed, the children make a
significant sacrifice that we cannot ignore.
When I was in the White House, I worked to champion the military
childcare system because it should serve as models for the rest of the
Nation. The military has done a truly exceptional job of providing
high-quality care to meet the unique needs of military families.
Military families often need care at nontraditional hours, including
round the clock care, and, unfortunately, too often cannot afford to
pay the market rate for high- quality care. By offering a means-tested
payment system and a full spectrum of service offerings, from informal
care to child development centers staffed by professionals, the
military has done what the rest of the country has not--make high-
quality care affordable and accessible to all families.
We still have a problem with reservists, who often live far away
from a military base, to access affordable childcare at the hours they
need them, and I hope that this is an issue these committees can work
on together.
I have also been a long supporter of Troops-to-Teachers, which was
started under my husband's administration. I think this program
provides such an exceptional model that I worked to expand it into a
national program during concentration of the No Child Left Behind Act,
and today that program--``Transition to Teaching''--has already
provided $7 million to New York alone. I am pleased that Mr. Petrilli's
testimony focuses on this important program, and I am committed to
continuing to assist our retiring military in pursuing careers in
service.
Despite the Department of Defense's model systems in education and
childcare, I am troubled that finding high quality and affordable
housing continues to be a problem for many military personnel and their
families. Our service men and women cannot successfully complete their
missions if they are preoccupied with concerns over the living
conditions of their families. Sixty percent of the approximately
300,000 housing units are inadequate, and the waiting lists for on-base
housing are often so long that many families wait over a year before
finding permanent housing. Many military families choose to live off
base in search of housing that meets high quality standards. When the
private sector provides a better option, I believe we must provide our
military families with a sufficient basic housing allowance that meets
their needs. I am committed to ensuring that all of our military
families have access to high quality and affordable housing that at the
very least matches the standard provided by the private sector.
I am also concerned about the 20 percent of guardsmen and
reservists who do not have health insurance, and I was pleased to work
with my colleague, Senator Lindsey Graham, to address this problem
introduced the National Guard and Reserves Reform Act for the 21st
century, which will allow these individuals to enter TRICARE and will
offset the costs for low-income people.
This bill was a tremendous step forward, and I hope that it will
survive the conference, which is going on now. Either way, I will
continue to work with Senator Graham to address this critical issue.
In closing, I just want to reiterate how pleased I am that these
two subcommittees are working together on these important issues. As a
member of both subcommittees, I intend to continue to make this issue a
priority, and I look forward to working with all of you to make that
happen.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you.
Dr. Tafoya, we'll move to you, and let me tell the
remaining witnesses that we're going to adhere to a 5-minute
rule on summarizing your statements so we can get to questions,
so Dr. Tafoya, welcome.
STATEMENT OF DR. JOSEPH TAFOYA, DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
EDUCATION ACTIVITY
Dr. Tafoya. Thank you very much, Senator Chambliss, Senator
Alexander, members of the subcommittees. It is my great
pleasure to serve as the Director of the Department of Defense
Education Activity.
As Secretary Molino said, we serve 225 schools, and about
110,000 students around the world, and through our schools
domestically. Our charter says we must provide a quality,
comprehensive education, and it's in that second area where we
have the quality-of-life issues. We must provide especially
children that are overseas, the opportunity to do those kinds
of things they would experience in a normal American school.
We have a quality staff, and we spend a lot of money
orienting staff to the military issues. They become part and
parcel of the communities overseas. They have an opportunity to
be part of that community because of where they live. In our
domestic schools, they live on base and off base and many of
them are spouses, and so we spend a lot of time and effort
ensuring that our teachers and administrators are sensitive to
the needs of the military child and the military family.
We have a strong connection to local commands. You see
examples in my written remarks to you of our efforts to
communicate with parents that are deployed, to get our children
involved, based on the age-appropriateness of their education,
in activities that promote the parents and the child
connection.
We have identified effective counseling and psychology
programs for our psychiatrists to begin to work with kids as
they have needs in our programs. We've been very aggressive in
this area because we feel it's important to address those kinds
of needs of children. Basically our communication with parents
is the key issue, and our philosophy is, it doesn't matter
whether the parent is there or around the world. We need to
communicate with that parent; I think the examples we gave in
my written statement highlight that.
Lastly, because we are a part of the Department of Defense,
and our teachers are in places where the military is overseas,
sometimes they are also in harm's way. Recently, our evacuation
of several of our schools brought home the issue to our own
staff that we need to make sure that those staff members, their
children, and dependents are taken care of as we move them
around the world based on the needs and recommendations of the
State Department.
Lastly, we realize that we have kids only for a short
period of time. I think the recent Vanderbilt study in your
great State, Senator, highlighted the fact that we see mobility
as an opportunity, not only as a challenge, and that we have
kids only for a certain period of time. We need to maximize
their education.
Likewise, at the direction of Secretary Molino and
Secretary Abell, they have directed me as the director to get
more involved in national activities with other State
superintendents, with other districts, where we have high
concentrations of military children to try to, wherever
possible, ease that transition.
Sir, I welcome the opportunity to speak with you today and
take any of the questions that you have to ask of me later.
Thank you, sir.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Tafoya follows:]
Prepared Statement by Dr. Joseph D. Tafoya
Chairman Chambliss, Chairman Alexander, and members of the
subcommittees, thank you for the opportunity to discuss with you the
efforts that the Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA) is
making to meet some of the challenges facing military parents. DODEA is
charged with providing a high quality, comprehensive American
educational program to dependent children of our military members
overseas and in our domestic schools. Part of that charge is to provide
services and assistance that go beyond the basic educational needs of
our students, especially during times of deployment and war.
DODEA accomplishes this on many levels through programs specially
developed and implemented to address all issues that arise when a
parent is deployed. Our teaching staff and administrators are provided
with a comprehensive orientation to issues of deployment as well as to
issues related to the military service of the sponsor. Deployment is a
way of life in the military and DODEA employees understand the impact
that it has on the families and particularly the students they serve.
Just as part of the DODEA mission is to provide instructional
excellence, it is also to maintain continuity and normalcy in otherwise
very anxious times. This not only provides stability for the students,
but also eliminates at least one concern from the minds of active duty
military parents. Active military members should never have to add
concern about their children's progress in school to their duties in
the field. Our first and foremost responsibility is to keep students
focused on their academic development, and DODEA's record of strong
student achievement is reflective of this focus. Students need time to
be children and the daily schedule of school can provide this.
DODEA teachers are highly sensitized to the needs of their students
and their communities. Overseas, DODEA teachers are an active part of
the military community. They have a strong allegiance to the mission of
the bases they serve and have a strong sense of pride in the military
activities of that base. They value the strong partnership they have
with the command and parents who value their work with students. In our
domestic schools, DODEA teachers are part of the larger community
surrounding the base and are also active in supporting the service
members.
DODEA annually identifies programs, materials, and intervention
strategies to assist school counselors and school psychologists in
their daily role of support for and training of staff, students and
parents. In addition to these materials, DODEA ensures that counselors
and psychologists are provided information about resources and
strategies to support students and their families in response to world
situations. Prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom, DODEA researched
materials, programs and intervention strategies to enhance the
resources available to counselors and psychologists. The Crisis
Information Webpage, a link to the DODEA website was designed to help
families, educators, and community members understand how schools would
ensure that children and personnel are safe and secure.
The schools extended instruction to address questions and topics
that are naturally on students' minds during a time of combat, by
initiating special age appropriate activities across the curriculum.
Older students were able to study geography and historical aspects of
the Middle East to develop a better understanding of the culture and
history of the region. Younger students participated in craft
activities that sent cards, cookies, and other touches of back home to
their parents and other deployed members of their community. Patriotic
activities became an even more important part of the school culture.
Lastly, the strong connection to the command was extremely helpful
in addressing the needs of our students. From the very top, commanders
were committed to providing information and a connection for our
students to their deployed parents through Internet connections, video
conferencing activities, and to the Adopt-a-Service Member Program.
Schools became a conduit for a variety of direct and indirect
communication with deployed parents. Students regularly wrote letters,
sent e-mail messages, recorded audio tapes and sent videos produced in
their classes to maintain a dynamic connection with their parents.
A classic example of this was the recent graduation of the 2003
Class of General H.H. Arnold High School in Wiesbaden, Germany. Through
a partnership with parents, contractors, and command, the graduation
ceremonies were broadcast live by satellite to locations in Iraq
permitting deployed parents to be virtual participants in the critical
milestone of their child's graduation ceremony. Events such as these
occurred at a number of DODEA high school graduations. These events
don't happen without the strong partnership and sense of commitment of
the command, community, and staffs at DODEA schools.
DODEA staff and students also faced the need to ``redeploy'' during
the recent military activities in Iraq. Several of our schools were
evacuated due to State Department directives and our staff and students
were faced with leaving their homes. DODEA staff members and their
families were returned to the United States and depending on their
certification were assigned to our domestic schools, reassigned to
other schools in Europe or brought to DODEA Headquarters to work on
curricular issues.
Our DODEA students and their families were given packets before
they left for the designated safehaven. These packets included
transcripts and course work information that would assist in an easy
transition to their new school. Since we were unsure on how long these
schools would be closed, for those students who were seniors, the
packet included the transcript, the course work needed to graduate and
a letter of assurance to the local school district from DODEA that upon
completion of the listed coursework, DODEA would issue a diploma for
that student. With few exceptions, this cooperation between DODEA and
the local school districts went very well.
I thank you for the opportunity to share with you just a few of the
ways that DODEA supports the social and emotional needs of our students
while continuing to focus on our primary mission of providing a high
quality education. Everyone at DODEA feels honored to play a role in
supporting our military families and contributing to their quality of
life. I am proud of the DODEA staff around the world for their
commitment to our parents and students.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you very much.
Colonel Scott, we're pleased to have you and look forward
to your comments.
STATEMENT OF COL. JAMES L. SCOTT II, ARNG, DIRECTOR, INDIVIDUAL
AND FAMILY SUPPORT, OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF
DEFENSE FOR RESERVE AFFAIRS
Colonel Scott. Yes, sir. Good afternoon, chairmen and
members of the subcommittees. I represent the individuals and
families of our National Guard and Reserve components as the
Director of Individual and Family Support in the Office of the
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs.
I'd like to share with you some of the critical challenges
facing our National Guard and Reserve component military
parents, and explain the policies, programs, and partnerships
we've established in the Department to assist them in preparing
for the absence of their military family member, and also for
sustaining them for the duration of that absence, including the
return, reunion, and reintegration resources to reunite them
with their family and to reestablish them in their civilian
jobs and dual military-civilian careers.
This committee has been very supportive of our National
Guard and Reserve members and families, and, on their behalf, I
want to publicly thank you for all your help in strengthening
our Reserve components. Our military personnel and their family
members are extremely grateful.
Our Guard and Reserve perform vital national security
functions, and are closely interlocked with the States, cities,
and towns in every community in America. We have recently seen
reservists called to active duty under the partial mobilization
authority, and since September 11, 2001, nearly 300,000 Guard
and Reserve members and their families have supported the
global war on terrorism.
World events and our Nation's response have presented many
challenges to the men and women who serve in our Reserve
components. We are closely monitoring the impact of that
increased use on our Guard and Reserve members, their families,
and their employers, while taking a proactive approach to
identify and establish new programs, modify and adapt existing
programs and resources, and to expand partnerships in and out
of the Department to enhance our military members and their
families' ability to cope with the challenges of military
service in defense of our great Nation and our communities.
Most of our Reserve component members have full-time
civilian jobs in addition to their military duties, and we know
that civilian employer support is a major quality-of-life
factor for Reserve families. The Department recognizes the
positive impact employer support has on Reserve component
readiness, recruiting, retention, and the completion of the
Department's missions. The National Committee for the Employer
Support of the Guard and Reserve coordinates the efforts of a
community-based, national network of 55 committees consisting
of over 4,200 volunteers in every State, the District of
Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and now
Europe.
Strengthening employer support is a major focus of current
Department planning guidance. It requires the existence of a
strong network comprising both military and civilian employer
leaders, and the capability to provide for communication,
education, and exchange of information.
Despite the increased utilization of our Reserve Forces
since the events of September 11, and the obvious impact that
the call-up of reservists has had on our Nation's employers,
those employers have responded in an overwhelmingly positive
fashion. Later today, this evening, I will depart Washington,
DC, to join my colleagues at the 2003 Employer Support of the
Guard and Reserve Leadership Conference, where many of these
employers will be recognized.
Mr. Chairman, there's a great deal more detail in my
written testimony concerning the programs and policies and
tools that we've established to support our family members.
This concludes my oral statement. I thank you and the
subcommittees' members for the opportunity to testify before
you today, and also for the outstanding support that you've
provided to the military members of our total force, and to all
of their families.
[The prepared statement of Colonel Scott follows:]
Prepared Statement by Col. James L. Scott II, ARNG
INTRODUCTION
Good morning chairmen and members of the subcommittees. Thank you
for the invitation to testify before you today. I represent the
individuals and families of our military Reserve components, as the
Director of Individual and Family Support Policy in the Office of the
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. Today, I will share
with you some of the critical challenges facing National Guard and
Reserve component military parents and explain the policies, programs,
and partnerships we have established in the Department to assist them
in preparing for the absence of their military family member and
sustaining them for the duration of that absence as well as the return,
reunion, and reintegration resources to reunite them with their family
and to reestablish them in their civilian jobs and dual civilian
military careers. This committee has been very supportive of our
National Guard and Reserve members and families and on their behalf, I
want to publicly thank you for all your help in strengthening our
Reserve components. Our military personnel and their family members are
grateful. Thank you.
OASD/RA AND INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY SUPPORT MISSION
The mission of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Reserve Affairs (OASD/RA), as stated in title 10 USC, is the overall
supervision of all Reserve components affairs in the Department of
Defense. The mission of the Individual and Family Support Policy
Directorate in that office is to ensure total force family readiness,
and our goal is to support mission readiness through Reserve component
family readiness.
I take this responsibility very seriously because our Guard and
Reserve perform vital national security functions and are closely
interlocked with the States, cities, towns, and every community in
America. We have recently seen reservists called to active duty under
partial mobilization authority as a result of the terrorist attacks on
the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and western Pennsylvania as well
as continuing their participation and commitment to Presidential
Reserve Call-Ups (PRCs) in Bosnia, Kosovo and Southwest Asia. Since
September 11, 2001, nearly 300,000 Guard and Reserve members and their
families have supported the global war on terrorism. World events and
our Nation's response have presented many challenges to the men and
women who serve in our Reserve components. We are closely monitoring
the impact of that increased use on our Guard and Reserve members,
their families, and their employers while taking a proactive approach
to identify and establish new programs, modify and adapt existing
programs and resources, and expand partnerships in and out of the
Department to enhance our military members' and their families' ability
to cope with the challenges of military service in defense of our
Nation and our communities.
RESERVE COMPONENT FAMILY READINESS AND SUPPORT PROGRAMS
In the post-Cold War era, members of the National Guard and Reserve
are being called to active duty to an unprecedented extent. Indeed, in
recent years we have called reservists to duty involuntarily for
ongoing missions in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Southwest Asia. Today, there
are National Guard and Reserve members serving on active duty in
support of Operation Noble Eagle, Operation Enduring Freedom, and
Operation Iraqi Freedom. Contingency operations challenge our service
members and their families, and demonstrate that mission readiness and
family readiness are inextricably intertwined. We cannot continue to
rely on our reservists, who now comprise approximately half our total
force, if their families are not ready for the stresses and strains of
separations and long deployments.
When mobilized, reservists and their families face unique
challenges and barriers. Reserve families are widely dispersed
geographically and live and work in over 4,000 communities across the
Nation. Often, they do not live near military installations where
family support readiness services are most readily available and they
may not know what services are available. Even when they are aware of
available services, they often encounter difficulties in accessing
them. More often they are in civilian communities with their children
in public and private schools where there may be little experience or
knowledge of the impacts of mobilization and deployment on parents and
children.
The Department of Defense (DOD) is continuing to enhance its
efforts to support Reserve families and children. The Office of the
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs (OASD (RA)) and the
Office of Family Policy (OFP) have formed a strategic partnership to
ensure that National Guard and Reserve family readiness requirements
are recognized and included in all family readiness policy concerns
within DOD. One significant result of this partnership was the
publication of the first Guard and Reserve Family Readiness Strategic
Plan 2000-2005. It provides a blueprint for offering greater support to
National Guard and Reserve families and assisting them in coping with
the stresses of separations and long deployments. The plan set out
specific goals and milestones and we have already accomplished a number
of these. Also, it established a link between family readiness and unit
mission readiness. This plan and the products established as a result
of its implementation are a direct result of partnership efforts within
the OSD staff to include the Office of Military Community and Family
Policy and their Quality of Life, Family Policy, Children and Youth,
Community Support, and Continuing Education offices. Their efforts and
cooperation have allowed us to keep Reserve component families in the
mainstream of current initiatives to support all military families.
Beginning in 2002 the OSD Office of Family Policy, Reserve Affairs,
the Services and their Reserve components, and numerous Federal
agencies have been meeting regularly in a Joint Service Family
Readiness Contingency Assessment Working Group. The group
representatives work to anticipate challenges and disseminate
information during ongoing Operations Noble Eagle, Enduring Freedom,
and Iraqi Freedom. The foundation for support of family members lies in
the preparation and education of professionals and family members alike
well before a reservist is called to active duty or actually deployed.
The ability of Reserve component members to focus on their assigned
military duties, rather than worrying about family matters, is directly
affected by the confidence a member has that his family can readily
access family support services.
We published the 5th Edition of A Guide to Reserve Family Member
Benefits in May 2003, to inform family members about military benefits
and entitlements, including medical and dental care, commissary and
exchange privileges, military pay and allowances, and reemployment
rights. From our surveys of spouses of deployed Reserve component
members, we know that information and communication are essential to
Reserve families. In addition to information concerning their deployed
spouse, family members request information on available benefits,
services, and programs, to include locations of commissaries,
exchanges, healthcare and other facilities. Communication through an
established unit or organizational point of contact is also key. We use
a constant stream of updated information on benefits and entitlements
disseminated through informal e-mailing lists, news releases, and
personal speeches to ensure that Reserve component members and their
families have the most current and accurate information possible. We
are also expanding the accessibility of 1-800 and Internet-based
employee assistance-like programs to include all Reserve component
families. The United States Marine Corps has implemented Marine Corps
Community Services ``One Source'' for all marines and their families,
the National Guard has fielded their ``Guard Assist'' and
``Guardfamily.org'' for the Army and Air National Guard, and we are
working closely with the Naval Reserve and the Air Force Reserve to
establish their programs.
One of the lessons of this and other recent wars is that
effectiveness in combat depends heavily on jointness, how well the
different branches of the military communicate and coordinate their
efforts on and off the battlefield. It is eminently clear that
achieving jointness in wartime requires building that jointness in
peacetime. That includes jointness in mission readiness, family
readiness, and all quality-of-life areas of concern. We recently
published a Joint Service/Total Force Guard and Reserve Family
Readiness Programs Tool Kit. It is a comprehensive guide on pre-
deployment, deployment, and post-deployment information for commanders,
service members, family members, and family program managers. It
contains checklists, pamphlets, and other information, such as benefits
and services available that inform family members how to prepare for
deployment. The Tool Kit is based on ``best practices'' from the field
as identified by the active and Reserve components. As with other
informational products, the family readiness tool kit can be accessed
on the Reserve Affairs website at http://www.defenselink.mil/ra.
DOD guidance on Reserve family readiness is provided in DOD
Instruction 1342.23, which encourages commanders at all levels to
support total force joint-service family readiness efforts in
maximizing regional cooperation, planning, and information sharing. The
Department encourages participation in InterService Family Assistance
Committees at the State and regional level rather than reliance on
single Service or component programs to meet the needs of a divergent
and geographically dispersed force.
Taking care of our mobilized Guard and Reserve members and their
families is a top priority for the Department. While we can draw on our
experience from past call-ups, we continue to examine our policies and
programs to ensure that our mobilized reservists do not feel
disenfranchised and that we have the family support systems in place.
The National Guard has greatly enhanced the Department's ability to
meet family needs by establishing more than 400 Family Assistance
Centers in all 50 States plus Puerto Rico and Guam. Moreover, many of
the Veterans Service Organizations have come forward with initiatives
to support active and Reserve families left behind. One example is the
Veterans of Foreign Wars who provide State coordinators in each of the
States to ensure that volunteer efforts and donations are channeled to
families who have the greatest need for assistance. The Department is
also partnering with the Veterans Administration to ensure that
demobilizing Reserve component members have access to their post-
mobilization and transition counseling benefits through the Veterans
Rehabilitation Counseling Centers across the Nation. The Office of
Continuing Education has worked with our office to provide information
and materials through the Department of Education to all school
districts throughout the United States so that administrators, faculty,
counselors, staff, and parents may begin to understand and address the
needs of children of deployed Reserve members. These include an
Educator's Guide to the Military Child During Deployment and a Parent's
Guide to the Military Child During Deployment and Reunion.
We also recently conducted a childcare summit to determine the
significance of childcare requirements for Guard and Reserve families
when the military member is training at home station and also the
additional requirements when the military member is mobilized and/or
deployed. The summit determined that childcare requirements for Reserve
families vary dramatically between the Services and are largely
determined by the families' ability to provide childcare from internal
resources. Each of the Services have addressed these varying
requirements by conducting pilot programs to assist and expand
childcare services and resources for Reserve component families when
and where needed. These programs have been largely successful and will
likely be embedded in future planning and programming.
EMPLOYER SUPPORT
Since most Reserve component members have a full-time civilian job
in addition to their military duties, civilian employer support is a
major quality-of-life factor for Reserve families. The Department
recognizes the positive impact employer support has on Reserve
component readiness, recruiting, retention, and completion of the
Department's missions. The National Committee for Employer Support of
the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) coordinates the efforts of a community-
based national network of 55 committees consisting of over 4,200
volunteers in every State, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico,
the Virgin Islands, and Europe. ESGR's mission is to obtain employer
and community support that ensures availability and readiness of
National Guard and Reserve Forces.
Strengthening employer support is a major focus of current
Department planning guidance. It requires the existence of a strong
network, comprising both military and civilian-employer leaders, and
capable of providing for communication, education, and exchange of
information. To build this support, we are increasing our efforts to
improve communications between the Department and employers, identify
future actions that will provide some relief for employers when we call
upon their reservist-employees, and strengthen the relationship between
the Department and employers that will enable us to continue to use our
shared employees.
Despite the increased utilization of our Reserve Forces since the
events of September 11, and the obvious impact that the call-up of
reservists has had on our Nation's employers, our Nation's employers
have responded in overwhelmingly positive fashion. Many employers have
extended benefits for their reservists mobilized to support Operations
Enduring Freedom, Noble Eagle, and Iraqi Freedom, provided pay
differential while they serve, continued their civilian health
programs, and given both financial and moral support to their families,
spouses, and children. Our Nation's employers have overwhelmingly
supported our reservists in this war on terrorism, and we are extremely
appreciative of their support to the Nation and to our men and women of
the Reserve components who are supporting this effort.
CONCLUSION
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement. I thank you and the
subcommittees' members for the opportunity to testify before you today
and also for the outstanding support you have provided to the military
members of our total force and to their families.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you very much, Colonel Scott. Mr.
Petrilli, we welcome you and look forward to your comments.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL J. PETRILLI, ASSOCIATE DEPUTY UNDER
SECRETARY FOR INNOVATION AND IMPROVEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF
EDUCATION
Mr. Petrilli. Thank you, Chairman Chambliss, Chairman
Alexander, and the members of the subcommittees. I'm pleased to
be here this afternoon to discuss the Troops-to-Teachers
program. This program provides a powerful option for military
personnel as they retire from service or enter the Reserves to
serve again on behalf of our Nation's children.
My position is Associate Deputy Under Secretary in the
Office of Innovation and Improvement at the Department of
Education. The mission of this new office is to identify,
support, and promote promising innovations in education. We are
especially interested in innovations that bring in highly
qualified individuals into teaching and allow them to obtain
teacher certification with a minimal amount of difficulty.
Troops-to-Teachers is one of those programs, and I am proud to
say that the Bush administration supports this program
enthusiastically.
As you may know, the No Child Left Behind Act requires
States to ensure that every teacher is highly qualified by the
end of the 2005-2006 school year. This is an ambitious goal,
and one that we can meet, but as Secretary Paige has explained,
in order to meet this goal we're going to have to do things
differently.
First, we must raise academic standards for our teachers,
and second, we must lower the barriers that keep thousands of
talented individuals out of our classrooms. The Troops-to-
Teachers program does both.
The brave men and women who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq
and their colleagues around the world represent one of the most
highly skilled, highly trained sectors of our society. Many of
our service men and women possess a command of mathematics and
science, subjects that are critical to our Nation's economic
success in the 21st century, and subjects for which there is a
critical shortage of teachers in our schools. The Troops-to-
Teachers program promotes high standards by identifying and
bringing these qualified men and women and their top notch
skills and abilities into our Nation's public schools.
The program also addresses the barriers that keep many
talented people out of our schools. The hoops and hurdles and
bureaucratic entanglements, and sometimes mindless
requirements, that find their way into State certification
requirements keep countless numbers of potentially wonderful
teachers from ever setting foot inside a classroom. Troops-to-
Teachers cuts through this red tape by placing critical
personnel inside state departments of education, people who
help retiring military personnel negotiate the land mines of
government bureaucracy and certification requirements, and then
connect them to school districts who want to hire them. The
program has also put helpful pressure on the States to open up
their certification systems to alternative routes into the
classroom.
Participants in this program can receive stipends of up to
$5,000 to help them with the cost of certification, or
recruitment bonuses of up to $10,000 if they teach in a high-
needs school. So far, Troops-to-Teachers has placed at least
5,000 new teachers in the classrooms, many of them in the hard-
to-fill areas of mathematics, science, and special education.
Participants are heavily male and heavily minority, providing
more such role models in the classroom. Retention rates have
been very good, and principals are generally thrilled with the
performance of these teachers.
Not surprisingly, the troops hold very high standards for
their students. A 1998 survey found that program participants
believe that all children can achieve at high levels, and that
students' socioeconomic backgrounds should not prevent them
from performing at the highest levels.
Examples abound of military personnel who went on to become
excellent teachers through this program. I included many in my
prepared remarks. Let me just mention one here, Michael Glaze,
who left the Air Force after 19 years to become a third-grade
teacher in Beaufort, South Carolina, and last year was named
teacher of the year of that elementary school. There are many
more stories just like that.
We are convinced that this program is good for America's
schools. We also think it is good for military personnel and
their families as they look for new career opportunities after
their retirement, or during their service in the Reserves. We
at the Department of Education are proud to be a small part of
this program's success.
That concludes my prepared remarks. I'd be happy to answer
any questions that the subcommittees may have. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Petrilli follows:]
Prepared Statement by Michael J. Petrilli
Chairman Alexander, Chairman Chambliss, and subcommittees' members,
I am pleased to be here this afternoon to discuss the Troops-to-
Teachers program, as part of your hearing on the impact of Federal laws
and policies on military families raising children.
My position is Associate Deputy Under Secretary in the Office of
Innovation and Improvement in the Department of Education. The mission
of this new office is to identify, support, and promote promising
innovations in elementary and secondary education. We are particularly
interested in approaches that bring highly qualified individuals into
teaching, including approaches that target non-traditional candidates
and allow them to obtain teacher certification with a minimum of
difficulty. Troops-to-Teachers is definitely one of those programs, and
I am proud to say that the Bush administration supports it
enthusiastically.
The No Child Left Behind Act, passed by overwhelming bipartisan
majorities in both houses of Congress, challenges States to put plans
in place to ensure that every teacher is ``highly qualified'' by the
end of the 2005-2006 school year. This is an ambitious goal, and one
that we can meet. But, as Secretary Paige has explained, in order to
meet this goal, we must do things differently. First, States must raise
academic standards for their teachers to ensure that they are prepared
to teach challenging content to our students. Second, we must lower the
barriers that keep thousands of talented individuals out of our
classrooms. The Troops-to-Teachers program reflects both objectives.
The brave men and women who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, and
their colleagues around the world, represent one of the most highly
skilled, highly trained sectors of our society. Many of our service men
and women possess a command of mathematics and science, subjects that
are critical to our Nation's economic success in the 21st century, and
subjects for which there is a critical shortage of qualified teachers.
The Troops-to-Teachers program promotes high standards by identifying
and bringing these talented men and women, and their top-notch skills
and abilities, into our Nation's public schools.
The Troops-to-Teachers program also addresses the barriers that
keep many talented people out of our schools. Unfortunately, for too
long, States have relied on certification systems that seem to repel
talent, rather than recruit talent. Please don't misunderstand: many
teachers coming through traditional preparation programs and State
certification systems are highly qualified indeed, and we owe them our
gratitude for the work they do with our children. But the hoops and
hurdles, the bureaucratic entanglements, the sometimes mindless
requirements that find their way into State certification regimes keep
countless numbers of potentially wonderful teachers from ever setting
foot inside a classroom. That is a shame. Troops-to-Teachers helps cut
through this red tape by placing critical personnel inside State
departments of education, people who help retiring military personnel
negotiate the landmines of government bureaucracy and certification
requirements. The program has also put helpful pressure on the States
to open up new, streamlined ``alternative'' routes to certification
that take less time, cost less, and are designed specifically for
career-changing adults with lots of relevant skills and experience. (As
I will explain later, however, many barriers remain that keep talented
individuals, including those from Troops-to-Teachers, out of the
classroom.)
With that context in mind, let me lay out some basic facts on how
Troops-to-Teachers operates and what it has accomplished. Beginning in
fiscal year 2002, Congress has appropriated Troops-to-Teachers funds to
the Department of Education; through a memorandum of understanding with
the Defense Department, we transfer that money to DANTES, which handles
day-to-day administration, as it has done since the program's
inception.
Troops-to-Teachers assists eligible military personnel in making
the transition to teaching in public elementary and secondary schools.
To be eligible, in general, a service man or woman must: (1) have
retired from active or Reserve service; (2) have separated from the
Service after 6 or more years of continuous duty and be willing to
enter the Reserves for at least 3 years; or (3) be currently serving in
the Reserves and have at least 10 years of active and Reserve service
and commit to continuing in the Reserves for at least 3 more years.
Program entrants must also hold a baccalaureate or advanced degree,
except that those seeking to become vocational and technical education
teachers qualify if they have at least 1 year of college, at least 6
years of military service in a vocational or technical field, or meet a
State's certification requirements for vocational and technical
education teachers.
The program offers participants counseling, referral, and placement
assistance in moving into their new teaching careers. In other words,
it links military personnel with teacher preparation programs operating
in the States in which they want to teach, and then with school systems
seeking to hire Troops-to-Teachers participants. It provides these
services through 33 State support offices that assist participants with
State certification requirements and employment leads in a total of 44
States. DANTES also provides program information through a network of
military education centers and transition offices, and maintains a Web
page that provides information on job vacancies and includes model
resumes and other information.
Participants can also receive stipends of up to $5,000 to help them
with the cost of certification expenses, or recruitment bonuses of up
to $10,000. Recipients of stipends must agree to teach full time in a
school in a ``high-need'' school district for at least 3 years.
Recipients of recruitment bonuses must commit to teaching full time for
at least 3 years in a school that has at least 50 percent of its
students living in poverty or that has a large percentage of children
with disabilities.
What has the Troops-to-Teachers program accomplished in its almost
10 years of existence? The Department of Education has not yet
conducted a rigorous, scientific evaluation of the program--we have
been involved with it only for the last 2 years--but the data on
program participation and information from available studies are very
impressive. Although, for 5 years, the program did not receive an
appropriation sufficient to provide financial assistance to
participants, Troops-to-Teachers has placed over 5,000 new teachers in
classrooms, and many of them have filled needs that are of the highest
priority in school districts and schools. For instance, some 44 percent
of placements have been in the hard-to-fill areas of mathematics,
science, and special education. Participants are also heavily male and
heavily minority; their presence thus addresses the need for more male
and minority role models in the classroom. Retention rates have been
good; as of 1999, 82 percent of participants who had entered teaching
were still in the classroom. Under the statute, Troops-to-Teachers
participants who receive financial assistance must be placed in high-
poverty schools and districts, which typically have the hardest time
recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers.
These basic statistics are backed up by positive findings from
independent studies of the program. A 2001 General Accounting Office
report found that the official records on participation in the program
may actually understate the total number of military personnel who have
benefited; they count only people who applied formally to the program,
not other personnel who may have taken advantage of the counseling and
placement services available but never submitted a formal application.
A 1998 national survey of Troops-to-Teachers participants by the
independent National Center for Education Information found that
participants had the types of attitudes and expectations that result in
effective education. Participants believed that all children should be
held, and can achieve, to high educational standards and that students'
socioeconomic backgrounds should not prevent them from performing at
the highest levels of achievement. It also found that teachers who had
entered the profession through the program believed that they had
achieved satisfactory relationships with students, parents, and other
teachers, and that two-thirds intended to remain in teaching as long as
they were able to do so or until retirement.
A survey in Texas found that school principals who had hired
teachers through the program rated almost 60 percent of those teachers
``Above Average'' or ``Outstanding.'' They considered program
participants superior to other teachers (with comparable levels of
experience) in such areas as ``contribution to improvement of
performance,'' ``contributions to the school and community,'' and
``classroom management.'' In a companion survey, 89 percent of Texas
teachers who had entered teaching through the program reported that
their last official performance rating was either outstanding or above
average.
The Department's optimism that Troops-to-Teachers can become an
important vehicle for helping to solve the teacher shortage problem,
bringing non-traditional candidates into the teaching profession, and
opening up new methods of training and licensing teachers is bolstered
not only by these reports but also by some of the experiences of
individuals who have gone through the program. To take one example,
Michael Glaze left the Air Force after 19 years to become a third-grade
teacher in Beaufort, South Carolina. Last school year, he was the
``teacher of the year'' at Beaufort Elementary School.
Other examples include 17-year Army veteran Eusabio Bretado who has
taught math and social studies at Desert Hills Elementary School in the
El Paso area. An immigrant from Mexico and a one-time high school
dropout, he has received excellent performance ratings and his students
have performed extremely well on Texas academic assessments. Douglas
Kononos, after 20 years in the Air Force, has embarked on a second
career teaching special education in New Braunfels, Texas. Arthur
Moore, who teaches special education in Baltimore, entered the
profession, after a 24-year Army career, through an innovative
alternative-preparation program operating in that city.
I hope these anecdotes convey to you why we are so excited about
this program. But I must also stress that we do not want to rest on
anecdotes. One of the key objectives of our new office is to determine,
using scientifically based research and evaluation methodologies, what
strategies and interventions in elementary and secondary education
really work, and then try to capitalize on those success stories by
encouraging their proliferation. So we have begun work with the
Department's evaluation offices on the initiation of studies that hold
Troops-to-Teachers to rigorous analytical standards.
Before I finish, I should point out the remaining challenges
confronting the Troops-to-Teachers program, and similar efforts to
place nontraditional candidates in our Nation's schools. In too many
States, certification barriers remain high. Alternative certification
programs--which allow teachers to earn their certification while they
are teaching, and often include intensive mentoring by expert
teachers--are an important step forward. Without them, troops would
have to go back to education school for several years, a luxury that
many men and women with families to support cannot afford. But
oftentimes, these alternative programs are expensive and lengthy, and
merely repackage traditional education school programs into a different
(but still burdensome) arrangement. The Troops-to-Teachers stipends
help with the cost, but many participants in these programs complain
about attending evening classes that they see as adding very little
value to their teaching.
What we desperately need are bold new approaches to certification,
approaches that recognize the knowledge and skills that nontraditional
candidates bring to the table, and approaches that focus more on
results and competencies rather than on process and seat time. The
administration has tried to do its part in recent years by supporting
some important initiatives in this area. For example, we made a 5-year,
$10 million grant to the Western Governors University to support the
launch of its online Teachers College. This virtual college allows
individuals to earn their credentials by demonstrating their competency
to teach through completion of courses or other creditable experiences.
The competency assessments can be completed on line, any time,
anywhere, and, combined with a teaching experience, can qualify an
individual for a teaching position. This program is just getting off
the ground, but imagine the possibilities it holds for the Troops-to-
Teachers program. Military personnel stationed around the world, as
they approach retirement, could take courses on line when off-duty and
make great progress toward full State certification even before they
return to civilian life. Only a handful of States have approved this
program so far, but we hope the rest follow suit soon.
Similarly, the Department has made a 2-year, $5 million grant to
the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence. The
American Board is developing extremely rigorous assessments for new
teachers, both in key academic areas and in professional teaching
knowledge. If these assessments are adopted by States, individuals who
pass them would be considered fully certified, and therefore highly
qualified. Troops-to-Teachers participants could take and pass this
online exam and head straight into the classroom. This kind of
streamlined approach is the best and fastest way to turn our troops
into teachers, but it depends on the willingness of the States to do
things differently.
This concludes my prepared remarks. I would be happy to answer any
questions the subcommittees may have.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you very much. I will tell my
colleagues we're going to adhere to the 6-minute rule on
questions. I will defer until the end, and we'll begin with
Senator Alexander.
Senator Alexander. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for
the testimony. I would like to ask questions about the subject
most of you talked about, which is education. If I had to
guess, I'd think, of the families we've talked to, their first
concern, outside the safety of their military spouse, is that
their children have a chance to have a good education, and the
three areas that I'd like to try to get some reaction to, if we
have time in the 6 minutes, is, one, talk for a moment about
the post schools and what we might learn from them; two, to
inquire about, in how many instances are any of the Services
allowing families with children in the 11th and 12th grade to
allow those children to continue to graduate where they are
rather than reassign the parent; and then third, I wanted to
see if you had any suggestions about how we might help you in
the comments you make about encouraging States to recognize, to
engage in reciprocity, particularly as we get into the
increased testing and someone moves from Arkansas to Tennessee
and has to meet a new set of standards and delay graduation.
I was thinking about this. If I had to describe a school
this way, and say that its students were from families who were
at the lower end of income, whose parents were often and
unexpectedly absent, who moved regularly, sometimes as many as
6 or 8 or 10 times during a K-12 period of time, who had a
significant minority population, who had a number of single
parents, who had an unusual amount of stress at home because
their parents were subjected to the possibility of great
danger, and who were from families where 63 percent of spouses
are working and more than 80 percent of the lower income
members are working away from home, why, you might say I was
painting a recipe for an education disaster. Yet the Peabody
College study of the post schools that you mentioned, the
schools that are on the bases and the posts, and as you said,
serve 110,000 students, is it 20 percent of all of the
students, or 10 percent?
Dr. Tafoya. Excuse me?
Senator Alexander. Ten percent or 20 percent of all the
children of military families are in post schools?
Dr. Tafoya. In post schools, approximately 30 percent of
our enrollment, and we're approximately about one-ninth of the
children. So if you do the math real quick we have about 30,000
students out of the 900,000 that are on post schools in the
United States. Obviously, we have 110,000 worldwide.
Senator Alexander. Okay, so I listed all those potentials
for problems, yet in September 2001, Vanderbilt University's
study of the post schools found that DOD schools demonstrated
high minority student achievement, and high achievement
overall. For example, African-American students in DOD schools
ranked first in the Nation in eighth-grade reading scores
compared to all the States, so I gather we spend more per
student at these schools, but we have at least as many of the
same challenges in these schools as they have in others.
What can we learn from the post schools, first about the
schools that serve at Fort Campbell, the majority of children
go to public schools, not post schools. What can we learn about
those schools, or what can we learn about all of our public
schools from these very successful Department of Defense
schools?
Dr. Tafoya. Sir, we are very fortunate to have the strong
recommendation and support of the commands at these bases.
These DOD schools are their schools. It's a model that
corporate America could take to heart to see that, for
instance, during our parent-conference days, the Services say
to our parents, unless it's a case of a military mission, your
duty station that day is at the school. We have many schools
that have 95 to 100 percent of the parents coming for parent
conferences because that's the expectation of the command that
is there. So we have that ability.
We think in many communities where they have large
employers, if they had that same kind of a program to dismiss
their workers, to say to their workers, you need to take 2
hours, you need to go visit your school, you need to be there
at parent conferences, that high rate of parent activity in the
schools is what sets us apart, but I think there are other ways
that public schools could benefit from that.
In addition, the other issue I'd like to comment in my
brief time here, sir, is that again we spend a lot of money. A
lot of that money has to go for other services. There's a
misconception out there about the amount of money. We're the
only school system that has to actively house our people
overseas, give them allowances, travel their families back and
forth, and so when we actually compare the amount of our budget
that we spend on classroom, we're very close to the national
average.
A lot of these auxiliary costs are what make our people
costs higher. When our teams compete against one another in a
limited six-game football-season schedule, we have teams going
from London to Frankfurt to play football, in buses, so that's
the additional cost we have.
Senator Alexander. While I've got you, what about the idea
of allowing military parents who have a child in the 11th or
12th grade to not be reassigned, so their child can graduate?
Is that practice prevalent in the armed services, and if so,
should it be?
Dr. Tafoya. I'll let Secretary Molino respond to that.
Senator Alexander. Secretary Molino.
Secretary Molino. Senator, it's a policy within the Army
that, unless there are compelling military requirements, those
requests will be approved, and in fact Army statistics show
that only 1 percent of the requests since they instituted that
policy have been denied. That amounts to less than 20 requests.
The Air Force is actively looking at that Army policy and
considering the implementation of a very similar policy. The
Navy and the Marine Corps, at this point, indicate that they
have policies in effect where service members may request
deferment from assignment, and don't feel they need a specific
policy addressing this topic. They do say there is ample
opportunity to request those kinds of waivers.
The most up-front example, however, is the Army, and
they've had wonderful success with it, and it gets very good
feedback from the parents.
Senator Alexander. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.
We have a vote going on, and that's why a couple of
Senators have left, so I'm going to go to Senator Nelson.
Why don't we go to Senator Dodd, if that's all right with
Senator Nelson.
Senator Dodd. I'm going to abbreviate my question. I want
to address child care, if I can. I want to set you up so that
you understand what I'm getting at. You know the history of
this, 1988, serious problems on bases with child care, Congress
stepped in, working with the military, we had 350 percent
turnover rate, low wages, very poor quality. Within 1 year of
the military instituting some recommendations, we went to a 40-
percent turnover rate, which mirrored exactly what was going on
within the Services themselves, just a vastly improved
situation.
We hired 5,700 Civil Service GS positions to improve
training, linked pay, in fact, to training, and just took a
system that was really in trouble and just shot it up and made
it, as I said in my opening comments, the best child care
system in the world.
The question I have for you is, I understand here now we're
about to make some decisions that the DOD and the Army are
doing away with the Civil Service or GS positions, going back
to the pre-1988 level for NAF, or the nonappropriated fund
employees, and I'm very concerned with the cut in these
positions, as they pertain to child care specifically, because
child care, as I mentioned earlier, is such an important
support for military families. It is inconceivable to me that
someone who is out fighting, putting their lives on the line,
is going to have to worry at all about whether or not their
children are getting the kind of care they need.
It's been such a success. I can't think of anything that
would cause a bigger problem than to have people in the
Services worry about whether or not their children are getting
adequate child care. I don't know why we'd want to roll back
the clock to the 1988 direction, if that's the case, and I want
you to address that if you can.
I understand the family daycare system. I'm not opposed at
all to having family daycare, and Senator Alexander and I heard
in Groton some concerns about whether or not they would step
in, but family daycare can't be the system. In fact, most
military personnel if given a choice between a family daycare
setting or a center-based, choose the center-based
overwhelmingly. Given the choice, they prefer a center-based
system, and so I wonder if you might address, Secretary Molino,
what's going on here, and you're going to have a lot of concern
expressed here in a bipartisan way, if we're rolling back the
clock on child care on our military bases.
Secretary Molino. Thanks, Senator. We're not going back to
1988, and we will not accept or tolerate any degradation in the
quality of the child care program that we have. You are
absolutely right, we have the best in the world. We're very
proud of it. Some organizations that were the most critical of
the military child care system are now our biggest advocates,
and give us the highest praise.
What we're looking at in the Civil Service versus NAF,
nonappropriated fund, scenario, is, would that provide the
commander more flexibility vis-a-vis the hiring process? Is
this something the Services want, to give them more ability to
fill spaces that might otherwise go unfilled in the staff
positions?
We don't know if the answer is yes or no to that. We're
looking at it. We're willing to ask those kinds of questions,
but I give you our firm commitment that if there's any
indication that any of these moves would lead to a degradation
of quality, that's a step we're not going to take.
Senator Dodd. You keep us posted on that. I'd be very
interested in how the various Services would react to that very
question. I applaud you for asking the question of them as
well. I'd be very interested in their answers.
[The information referred to follows:]
That is why only one Service, the Army, will evaluate the system
between August 2003 and September 2005. They will specifically look at
such areas as the length of time for recruitment and placement, the
continuation of appropriated fund support, issues related to training,
benefits and health insurance and the review and expansion of the
current child care personnel pay plan. We will, of course, involve all
the Services in any assessment and future decisions.
The second quick question I have for you as well goes to
the issue of infant care and toddler care. I don't want to bore
you with all of this, but we found a situation where in the
child care centers there were no vacancies for the infant care,
and they had a ton of slots open for the older children, and it
seems that under these--they call it a most efficient
organization, or MOE, something's not lining up here right.
What's going on?
Secretary Molino. I agree with you, Senator. I didn't react
as skillfully as you did, but I read that example in Senator
Alexander's and Senator Chambliss' op-ed piece that was in the
Washington Times. I don't know the specifics of it. I did ask
the question, and I intend to get into it a little more deeply
to find out the details, because the information I've received
would lead me to conclude that the commander in fact has the
latitude to move money around so that it could apply to infant
programs if they don't need them in the preschool programs.
What must be considered, however, is the fact that a dollar
that buys toddler care, that dollar will not buy the same level
of care.
Senator Dodd. You're absolutely right.
Secretary Molino. It's more expensive.
Senator Dodd. You're exactly right.
Secretary Molino. I don't know if that's the nuance that's
involved here, but I need to find out more about it.
Senator Dodd. Will you let us know about that?
[The information referred to follows:]
However, the commander does have flexibility within budget and
facility constraints.
Secretary Molino. We think the commander has that
flexibility.
Senator Dodd. That would be good. That would make more
sense to me, and you're right, infant care is more expensive
for all the obvious reasons, but it would seem to us there was
something else going on, other than just that. We didn't ask
the simple enough question that we just asked, so I'd
appreciate an answer. If you could inquire about that, I'd
appreciate it.
Secretary Molino. When we get to the bottom of it, we'll be
happy to.
[The information referred to follows:]
While commanders do have some flexibility for adding or changing
space use, what must be considered, however, is the fact that a dollar
that buys preschool care, will not buy the same level of infant care.
Changing the configuration of child development center rooms can
require construction and more equipment and staffing. Often, it is not
economical or practical to reconfigure rooms as the population changes
from year to year.
Senator Dodd. Mr. Chairman, in order to make sure my
colleague gets a question or two in here before the second
bells ring, if I could just submit maybe some additional
questions that have been raised in writing to our panelists
they could respond to, I would appreciate that very much. I
apologize, but I'm offering the next amendment on the floor in
the Medicare bill, and I may not get back, and that's what I'm
concerned about.
Senator Alexander. That will be done.
Senator Dodd. I thank you, Mr. Chairman, immensely, and I
can't tell you how appreciative I am, Mr. Chairman, of your
taking time to come to Connecticut and visit the sub base in
Groton. It meant a great deal to have you up there, and I'm
sorry Senator Nelson couldn't make that trip, but you're
invited any time as well.
Senator Ben Nelson. I'll come back.
Senator Dodd. We're very proud of it. These issues are so
important. I'm glad you understand how important they are. I
know you do, but I can't think of anything we can do that could
be as important as getting these family issues right for
people. I thank both you and Senator Chambliss for holding this
joint hearing.
Senator Alexander. Thank you, Senator.
Secretary Molino. Senator, sometimes we're rightly accused
of keeping our lamp under a bushel, and we welcome the
opportunity to brag a little bit.
Senator Dodd. You should. Some of these things are just
great what you're doing, just terrific.
Senator Alexander. Senator Nelson and Senator Dodd, thank
you for your leadership. Senator Nelson, we have three votes
coming up. I think we have time for you to ask the questions
that you'd like, and then Senator Chambliss will be back and
I'll go vote, so if you'll bear with us we'll keep going.
Senator Ben Nelson. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Dr. Tafoya, the Department of Defense Education Activity as
an office does an outstanding job of operating two separate
educational systems. One for foreign schools, overseas schools
in other words, and one for domestic schools at select
locations here within the United States.
Of course, these schools have an excellent reputation.
You've already heard some of the results of students who are
attending these schools in terms of their outstanding
scholastic performance.
The question I have is, does the Department of Defense have
any activity or any kind of program that might help State
public schools meet those unique needs of military children who
are not able to attend the DOD schools? In other words, you're
not able to provide all the educational activity that's
required by military students, so is there a program that you
might have in mind? It would apply certainly in the case in
Nebraska. It's one of the things that we're going to be seeking
at our field hearing later this year.
Dr. Tafoya. Perhaps Secretary Molino would be better able
to answer that.
Senator Ben Nelson. Would you be better able, Secretary
Molino?
Secretary Molino. I don't know how much better able I'll
be, Senator, but I'll give it a shot. The Department has worked
for sometime--we've recognized this, and as you heard in my
statement the vast majority of our students, military children,
do attend public or private schools. We have collaborated for
some time with major organizations, the Military Child
Education Council, of course, and the Military Impacted Schools
Association, with which I know you're very familiar.
Senator Ben Nelson. Yes.
Secretary Molino. In fact, we're doing what we can to share
best practices and to make superintendents, principals, and
schoolteachers aware of what is involved in being a military
student, and trying to make them more sensitive to it.
We have a Web site that's about to be stood up called
militarystudent.org, which would enable anyone, because of the
dot-org indicator, to tap into that and find out what's going
on with military students.
We have another Web site, militaryteensonthemove.com, which
is keyed to the military student, so he or she can share and
realize that they're not alone in the things they're
experiencing, and you may or may not be familiar with, in
collaboration with the MISA organization and John Deegan, we
published a book called Promising Practices, which is an effort
to share best practices across the Nation. It cites the best
practices that districts around the country have implemented to
make this transition that much easier.
So having said all of that, sir, we are very interested in
learning from anything that comes out of the hearings that you
all plan to have.
Senator Ben Nelson. Thank you. We are anxious to get that
information as part of the public record so that it might be
made available so that others can certainly be aware of it and
appreciate the activity as well.
Because I don't want to miss a vote, at this point in time
I'm going to take a recess until Senator Chambliss or Senator
Alexander return. Well, just in time. Thank you.
Senator Chambliss. I apologize for the interruption again,
but we have three votes in succession, but we're going to try
to keep going, because you've been very patient, and we have
one more panel to go.
Colonel Scott, one question that came up during our field
hearing at Warner Robins was with respect to the reaching out
by local communities, particularly bases in local communities
where local units of the Guard and Reserve had been called up.
A lot of times we know that services are available to
active duty that aren't available to the Guard and Reserve. As
we're calling Guard and Reserve personnel up more and more, we
need to make sure that we're equalizing not just benefits while
on active duty, but while they're off active duty, and we've
been doing that, but when they're on active duty the support
services that are required by active duty are the same kind of
services that the Guard and Reserve need. I would appreciate
your comments on what your perspective is on that particular
issue.
Colonel Scott. Yes, sir. We've been working very closely
with the bases and the posts and the military installations to
ensure that they can meet the surge capability, and, basically,
what we found is that many of our military members and their
families, as you suggested, may live in the communities, but
many of them live away from the communities where these
installations and activities are. The outreach characteristic
is critical in order to provide those services.
What has happened over the last 3 months is that the
National Guard, as the role model and leader in providing
family assistance centers across the Nation to Guard and
Reserve total force personnel, they've established more than
400 family assistance centers across the Nation, the goal here
being that no one would be more than a phone call or a short
drive to be able to get information, referral, and follow-up
activities.
These family assistance centers obviously are not equipped
and resourced to provide services directly, but they are there
to assist the families in identifying exactly what they need
and how they can access it. Again I would refer to the
discussion between Secretary Molino and Senator Kennedy about
the Marine Corps OneSource program. We're working closely with
the Department to ensure that the Reserve components in the
National Guard are also included in those services as they are
provided and contracted for, and that is working very well.
Senator Chambliss. Secretary Molino, is your One Source
program in operation at all Marine Corps bases?
Secretary Molino. It is, Senator. It's active for the
entire Marine Corps, active and Reserve. The Army has picked up
on it, and has let a contract of its own. In addition to that,
with some of the supplemental funding that Congress provided,
we were able to go to Central Command and Special Operations
Command and enable them, across Services, to give it to those
family members who are assigned to those two commands.
Senator Chambliss. To you and Dr. Tafoya, let me address
this question. Another consistent problem that we've seen
service-wide is the fact that some kids are required to pass
history exams in one State, move to another State for their
senior year, and run into a problem with credits because they
don't get credit for that history course or that history exam
they may have taken in Georgia and now they're in Louisiana. In
addition, there are some courses that you may take in one State
and you move to another State and all of a sudden they're not
getting credit for those courses they fall behind in.
Another example of an issue similar to this, although a
little bit different, is what has been addressed in my State,
and that is that any child who now graduates from high school
and enters into a university system school pays in-State
tuition irrespective of whether or not the parents are
subsequently transferred to another State. I think it's a very
positive program.
In those types of situations, are there any ongoing
affirmative efforts by the Department of Education as well as
the Department of Defense towards equalizing this situational,
and solving these problems, and do you have any thoughts about
things that we might do to try to assist you with that?
Dr. Tafoya. First of all, before we could actually go out
to other people and say, here are some solutions, we had to
ensure that we had our own house in order. We were one of the
first groups that was involved in the Army Secondary Education
Transition Study (SETS), where they were looking at transition
issues, to have our superintendents around the world agree to
accept all transcripts, to agree to accept all courses that
students have to ensure that in the Department of Defense
schools we were not presenting obstacles to kids. That's been
resolved.
We have worked closely with Otto Thomas, who also works
with Secretary Molino. We have one of our ex-superintendents,
Dr. McMullen, who was the superintendent at Fort Campbell's
schools, working with local school districts that are around
military bases to assist in that issue of transition to ensure
that superintendents and local boards, according to the SETS
the Army has done and the SETS agreement, they make a
commitment to address just those things you've asked for, that
requirements and courses and State history courses and all
these kinds of things are addressed through the local board and
the local superintendent. I believe there are 125 school
districts now across the Nation who have signed onto that.
So part of our process here is to assist in that. We've
asked our superintendents of our DDESS schools, our domestic
schools to work closely with the surrounding schools in their
community to ensure that is happening. I know Secretary Molino,
through the Office of Educational Opportunity, has addressed
these issues, and he may want to expand on that.
Secretary Molino. I'd like to, Senator, if you'd permit me.
The Department, in addition to what Dr. Tafoya has
mentioned, has sponsored four conferences in areas where
there's a high military density that brought students, parents,
and commanders together with school personnel and school
districts to discuss issues in common. Specific issues were
identified, and we've worked extensively with these leaders and
others to ease the transition for the dependents.
This summer, we'll activate a Web site that links to
schools which our children are most likely to attend so that
the students can communicate with those schools and know what
the requirements are and bring the proper documentation with
them, or in many cases even forward that documentation before
they arrive.
The SETS that Dr. Tafoya speaks of is the Army-sponsored
Secondary Education Transition Study. It looked at the problems
at the secondary education level for students transferring
between schools, that has provided some very revealing
guidance. I cited the booklet to Senator Nelson that we
published in conjunction with the Military Impacted Schools
Association, and we're very optimistic.
What we have found is that some of this is a matter of
miscommunication. Very often what one course is described as on
a transcript is really the same course requirement. It's just
under a different nomenclature, and we're finding that by
breaking down these communication barriers we're having a good
deal of success.
Dr. Tafoya. Sir, if I may add one point about making sure
our house is in order, we've worked very closely with others as
the Department of Education receives the State plans, to ensure
that we are aware of what other States are doing, especially
those States with a large proportion of military children. We
want to ensure that our graduation requirements, once in our
system, are consistent with the most stringent in the Nation.
What we don't want to have happen is have one of our
students leave one of our DOD schools, transfer into the
regular school, and not meet all the requirements. So, as
States up their graduation requirements for additional math,
algebra, geometry, we are doing likewise, because we believe
it's our responsibility to ensure that any student leaving our
school and going back into a regular public school is able to
meet those State standards. We're working very closely with
representatives of the Department of Education and local State
superintendents to address those issues, because we want to
ensure that, in fact, the kids are well-prepared when they
leave our system in terms of course credits and requirements.
Senator Chambliss. Do we have any DOD high schools?
Dr. Tafoya. Yes, sir, we have 57 of them.
Senator Chambliss. Are there any domestically?
Dr. Tafoya. Yes. We have schools at Fort Campbell and Camp
Lejeune. We have another school at Quantico and at Fort Knox.
We have four local schools in our domestic schools. We also
have three in Puerto Rico and one in Guam.
Senator Chambliss. Mr. Petrilli, in your written testimony
you discuss some of the innovative methods to enhance the
process for certifying teachers, including online
opportunities. It seems to have great potential to benefit
military personnel and their spouses who are interested in
teaching. Has the Department of Education explored the
possibility of extending the principles of the Troops-to-
Teachers program to spouses of military members who may need
just this type of assistance to achieve necessary training and
certification?
Mr. Petrilli. Thank you, Senator. We do have several
programs that relate to people who are not in the military. We
have a program called Transition to Teaching, which supports
programs across the country such as Teach for America, that
bring in talented individuals from other fields, mid-career
professionals. Some of those programs do a lot of work online.
We've also supported through a Star Schools grant, Western
Governors University's Teachers College, which is entirely
online, and is meant to be really a national system. They have
now accreditation, and they have reciprocity agreements with 47
States now, so if maybe a spouse of somebody who's in the
military wants to get certified to teach, they could do so
anytime, anywhere, and once they go through that process, that
certification should be accepted anywhere in the country, so
they're working hard on that. We've been very supportive of
those efforts. We'd be happy to continue to do work on that
front.
We are looking at other opportunities right now to support
additional outreach efforts to try to make sure that anybody in
the country who wakes up one day and decides, I'd like to find
out how I could become a teacher and what the requirements are,
to make sure that information is easy to find.
We support a center called Recruiting New Teachers, which
has an online clearinghouse. They're about to do a new relaunch
of their site, and they're going to have a lot more information
about alternative certification to really help walk people
through what's required in all the States to make this happen.
A lot of this comes down to State policies, though, and the
States being willing to look at these alternatives to their
traditional systems. A lot of these troops simply could not
afford to go through the traditional route of going back to
school for several years to take all these additional courses,
so we've really got to make a system that works for them, and
acknowledges all the skills and knowledge that they bring into
this service.
Senator Chambliss. Are you getting the expected
participation in these online training programs?
Mr. Petrilli. Many of them are very new, so you know, at
this point it's in its early days, and we don't know yet, but
all indications are that this is something that's going to be
very popular. Certainly we look to the other instances in
higher education of online learning which are extremely
popular, so we expect that to be the same here as well.
Western Governors University just received its
accreditation about 3 or 4 months ago, so they now can really
ramp up, and we expect to see that in coming years.
Senator Chambliss. Great. Gentlemen, let me thank you once
again for your patience in being here, for your testimony.
Members will have an opportunity to submit written questions to
you. I'm sure that we're going to have some of those so that we
can put some additional information in the record.
Thank you very much for the great job you do for our men
and women, and for our families. We appreciate you. Thanks for
being here today.
Secretary Molino. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Dr. Tafoya. Thank you.
Colonel Scott. Thank you.
Mr. Petrilli. Thank you.
Senator Chambliss. At this time, we'll ask our next panel
to come forward: Dr. Shelley MacDermid from the Military Family
Research Institute of Purdue University; Joyce Raezer of the
National Military Family Association; and M.A. Lucas, Director
of the Army Child and Youth Services.
Ladies, welcome to each of you today. We have already
received your written statements. I compliment each of you on
the quality of your written statement, and they will be entered
into the record. I'd like to give each of you the opportunity
to make an opening statement to summarize your written
statement, and if you will, so we can continue to move forward,
limit that to 5 minutes, please. Dr. MacDermid, we will start
with you.
STATEMENT OF SHELLEY M. MacDERMID, Ph.D., CO-DIRECTOR, MILITARY
FAMILY RESEARCH INSTITUTE, PURDUE UNIVERSITY
Dr. MacDermid. Thank you very much, Chairman Chambliss, and
thank you for your invitation to testify.
My sense of the question that concerns you is, has military
life become so demanding that it's destroying families, and I'd
like to answer with an analogy. Imagine a large-frame home
built beside the sea. It was sturdily built, on a strong
foundation. Over the years, it has withstood major storms,
surviving high winds, dangerous hail, and isolation from the
mainland.
Recently, the storms have been coming closer together and
lasting longer, causing some damage. Less obvious than the
periodic storms is the relentless wash of the waves, which has
gradually eroded the shore and may be getting close to the
foundation of the home. Dedicated and skilled workers have been
doing repairs and preventive maintenance, but it's getting
harder to keep up.
This is the image that developed in my mind as I reviewed
data about military families over time. Deployments and
separations are the storms of military life, the acute
challenges that families willingly face. As I'm sure you know,
the frequency and duration of deployments have been rising for
more than decade.
The waves of military life are the chronic conditions
families repeatedly confront. Frequent moves and long work
hours are two examples. You've heard a lot about moving
already, so let me say a word about work hours. These have been
creeping up the beach. More than half of active duty members
now report more than 50 hours of work per week. High or
unpredictable work hours are associated with negative
evaluations of military life, particularly amongst spouses.
Despite the storms and the waves, military families seem to
be holding strong. There is good news from several studies in
that 75 to 90 percent of families perceive themselves as
functioning with no major problems, even after moves and
deployments. I have seen no clear evidence that military
marriages on the whole have become less stable.
I'd like to use my remaining time to try to do some long-
term forecasting about the weather systems approaching in the
future, based on the data now in hand. First, I think there
might be some issues on the horizon about marriage,
specifically about spouses. Military members are now less
likely to be married when they enter, and increasingly less
likely to marry while they serve, although 2002 looks to have
been an unusually good year for weddings in the military.
To the extent that members want to be married, I wonder if
they will feel that they must leave the military, particularly
if the pool of prospective spouses is uninterested in military
life. For current spouses, I think underemployment, as opposed
to unemployment, may become a larger concern in the future. I
also note that spouses' dissatisfaction with the amounts of
personal time allowed military members took a sharp upward turn
during the 1990s at the same time that members reported more
satisfaction with military life. I wonder what the discussions
are in those homes?
Second, there is much we do not know about reunion and
readjustment. Following the first Gulf War, at least two large
studies found that members' psychological distress was
substantially higher a year or more after reunion than it had
been immediately upon return. The degree to which reunion
programs are based on such findings is unclear. In general, we
know little about the processes of readjustment within families
over time, and especially how different approaches to
intervention stack up. I endorse the goal of broadening access
to family counseling as a basic resource for well-functioning
families, as well as families with more serious issues.
Finally, as I have reviewed the data, I have become
increasingly concerned about depletion. Some researchers have
observed that negative reactions to recent increases in tempo
seem disproportionate. I wonder whether the combination of
rising tempo and long and rising work hours may be eroding
family resilience. Reservists in particular are being called
upon to do more, more often, and for longer periods of time,
but with limited access to the supports originally created with
active duty families in mind. I think that the creation of the
1-800 information and referral service is an excellent step in
the right direction for them.
We still don't know much about how challenges accumulate
for military families over time and with what result.
Independent of my vested interests, I think the creation of the
Military Family Research Institute was a positive step, and
we've been pleased to be part of efforts to address these gaps,
for example with an upcoming study on military families as they
move.
This concludes my statement. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. MacDermid follows:]
Prepared Statement by Shelley M. MacDermid, Ph.D.
Good morning chairmen and members of the subcommittees. I
appreciate very much your invitation to testify. I've been asked to
review and discuss data regarding the well-being of military families,
especially in relation to changes in the demands posed by military
duties. In general, my remarks focus on the Armed Forces as a whole and
not differences among the Services. Also, my comments focus on married
military members, but I am very aware that all members are parts of
families who care and worry about them.
My sense of the question that concerns you is, ``Has military life
become so demanding that it's destroying families?'' I'll answer with
an analogy. Imagine a large frame home built beside the sea. It was
sturdily built on a strong foundation. Over the years, it has withstood
major storms, surviving high winds, dangerous hail, and isolation from
the mainland. Recently, the storms have been coming closer together and
lasting longer, causing some damage. Less obvious than the periodic
storms is the relentless wash of the waves, which has gradually eroded
the shore and may be getting close to the foundation of the home.
Dedicated and skilled workers have been doing repairs and preventive
maintenance, but it's getting harder to keep up.
The home in my analogy represents military families. Deployments
and separations are the storms of military life; the acute challenges
that families willingly face. As I'm sure you know, the frequency and
duration of deployments have been rising for more than a decade (Polich
& Sortor, 2001; Rand Research Brief).
The war on terrorism has placed prolonged demands on military
families in both the active and Reserve components. For example, in
fiscal year 2000 less than 1 in 100 members of the Guard and Reserves
was deployed (2002 Population Representation Report). As of last week,
that number was more than one of every five (Wolfowitz, 2003). While
this may be normal in time of war (Dunning, 1996), it is no less
demanding of families.
I have two additional observations about deployment; first, to the
extent that they are unexpected, prolonged, and violent, hostile
deployments are ``catastrophic'' stressors that are much more
challenging for families than routine events (Peebles-Kleiger &
Kleiger, 1994). Second, deployment is not the only military event that
separates families. Unaccompanied tours of duty and other assignments
should not be ignored as part of the military ``weather system''.
The waves of military life are the chronic conditions families
repeatedly confront: Frequent moves and long work hours are two
examples. With each move, employed spouses who comprise about two-
thirds of the total lose several weeks of work, and children make
educational transitions (Active Duty Survey, 1999; Hosek, Asch, Fair,
Martin & Mattock, 2002), sometimes changing schools multiple times with
a single change of station because of moves to and from temporary
housing. Substantial percentages fall behind or lose academic credit.
The schedule mismatch between children's school days and parents' work
days makes affordability and accessibility of nonparental child care
major challenges, even for school-aged children too young--or teenagers
too old--to be left home alone.
Work hours are another wave in the weather picture, and they have
been creeping up the beach: the percentage of active duty members
reporting more than 50 hours of work per week rose from 46 to 56
percent between 1992 and 1999 (Active Duty Surveys). High or
unpredictable work hours are associated with the perception that work
responsibilities interfere with family life, which in turn is related
to family problems and disagreements, and especially among spouses,
negative evaluations of military life. Soldiers with more predictable
work hours, who feel better informed, or who feel that their tasks are
necessary, well-planned or relevant report significantly lower conflict
and inclination to leave (Castro & Adler, 2000; Durand, Burrell, Stetz,
& Castro, 2003; Huffman et al., 2001). In the future, work-family
conflict may grow as a concern because workers in general have
increased their participation in family life and may be becoming less
tolerant of the invasion of home life by work.
Despite the storms and waves, military families seem to be holding
strong. There is good news from several studies, in that 75 to 90
percent of families perceive themselves as functioning with no major
problems, even after moves or deployment (Orthner, 2002a; Kleiger &
Kleiger, 1994; Marlowe, 2000). In addition, military members' overall
satisfaction with military life has been rising slightly (Active Duty
Surveys, 1985, 1992, 1999). To the extent that deployments are not too
numerous or demanding, and offer personal challenges and professional
opportunities, there is some evidence that they increase members'
willingness to stay--especially members with dependents (Hosek &
Totten, 2002; Huffman et al., 2001). Spouses' satisfaction with their
employment and career opportunities, while still relatively low, rose
during the 1990s, evidence of success of the strong efforts by the
Office of Military Community and Family Policy and others to assist
them.
I know that there has been concern that the percent of married
military members has fallen, but I have seen no clear evidence that
military marriages on the whole have become less stable (MFRC, 2001).
There is some suggestion that deployment may exacerbate the instability
of already-troubled relationships, however (Schumm, Bell & Gade, 2000).
The news is also generally encouraging regarding the possible
connection between deployment and spouse abuse. Overall, substantiated
reports of spousal abuse fell from 1998 to 2002 (Keel, 2003). Recent
longitudinal analyses show that the strongest predictor of post-
deployment violence is not deployment but earlier violence (McCarroll,
2000, 2002).
I'd like to use my remaining time to try to do some long-term
forecasting about the weather systems approaching in the future, based
on the data now in hand.
First, I think there might be some issues on the horizon about
marriage, specifically about spouses. Military members are now less
likely to be married when they enter, and increasingly less likely to
marry while they serve, although 2002 looks to have been an unusually
good year for weddings (DMDC, 2003)! To the extent that members want to
be married, I wonder if they will feel they must leave the military,
especially if the pool of prospective spouses is uninterested in
military life.
For current spouses, I think underemployment, as opposed to
unemployment, may become a larger concern in the future. I know of no
studies specifically on this issue, but in the July 2002 Status of
Forces Survey, 29 percent of active duty members reported that their
spouses were overqualified for their work. I know that spousal
employment is already a high-priority issue for military policymakers,
and continued efforts to expand access to good jobs and to child care
are likely to help.
I also note that spouses' dissatisfaction with the amount of
personal time allowed military members took a sharp upward turn during
the 1990s, at the same time that members reported more satisfaction
with military life. Spouses continue to raise concerns about family
communication during military action (Bell & Schumm, 1999). Anxiety,
pain and anger on this issue come through loud and clear in family
members' contributions to the our web-based deployment diary.
Second, there is much we do not know about reunion and
readjustment. Following the Gulf War, at least two large studies found
that members' psychological distress was substantially higher a year or
more after reunion than it had been immediately upon return (Marlowe,
2000; Wolfe, Keane, & Young, 1996)--the degree to which reunion
programs are based on such findings is unclear. In general, we know
little about the processes of readjustment within families over time,
and how different approaches to intervention stack up. I endorse the
goal, however, of broadening access to family counseling as a basic
resource both for well-functioning families who need help over a hump,
and families with more serious issues.
High percentages of active duty military members continue to report
being unaware of some or all of the family support mechanisms available
to them (Mancini & Archambault, 2000; Orthner, 2002a). I applaud the
efforts of the Office of Military Community and Family Policy to
improve awareness and coordination via the Joint Family Support
Contingency Working Group.
Finally, as I have reviewed the data, I have become increasingly
concerned about depletion. Some researchers have observed that negative
reactions to recent increases in tempo seem disproportionate (Polich &
Sortor, 2001); I wonder whether the combination of rising tempo and
long and rising work hours may be eroding family resilience. Reservists
in particular are being called upon to do more, more often, and for
longer periods of time, but with limited access to the supports
originally created with active duty families in mind--I think that the
creation of 1-800 information and referral is an excellent step in the
right direction for them.
Unfortunately, since DOD has so far conducted relatively little
longitudinal research, especially about Reserve families, we don't know
enough about how challenges accumulate over time and with what result.
Independent of my vested interest, I think the creation of MFRI was a
very positive step and we have been very pleased to be part of efforts
to address these gaps with, for example, the upcoming Military Families
on the Move study.
In conclusion, the military house continues to stand strong, but it
is being tested. The options for policy makers are to reduce the
storms, abate the waves, and devote even more resources to preventive
maintenance and repair.
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Senator Chambliss. Thank you very much, Dr. MacDermid.
Ms. Raezer, welcome back to the Subcommittee on Personnel.
We're pleased to have you once again. I enjoyed your written
statement and look forward to your summary comments.
STATEMENT OF JOYCE WESSEL RAEZER, DIRECTOR, GOVERNMENT
RELATIONS, NATIONAL MILITARY FAMILY ASSOCIATION
Ms. Raezer. Thank you, Chairman Chambliss. I want to thank
you and Chairman Alexander for seeking the military family
input at your recent field hearings, and for your continued
interest in determining how best to support these families as
they support the mission. NMFA thanks Congress for its work
over several years to provide pay, housing allowance, and other
benefit improvements necessary to retain the quality force now
protecting our homeland and waging war against terror.
We also thank you for including that $150 increase in the
family separation allowance in the fiscal year 2003
supplemental appropriations, and in the Senate version of the
defense authorization for 2004, and would hope that that
permanent authority is approved for all service members on
orders away from their families. Whether a service member is
deployed to Iraq, on a ship in the Pacific, or on an
unaccompanied tour to Korea, to the family it's the same thing.
Gone is gone.
Our written statement details many of the pressing issues
affecting families, not just related to deployment, but also to
their daily life, and as we've seen today, all of those things
intersect. We urge you to examine how these issues intersect,
and to ensure that changes made to remedy one problem do not
result in an unintended consequence that creates a problem
somewhere else. As seen in our discussion of military
allowances, our families too often deal with the confusion
caused by unintended consequences of program or policy changes.
Although some service members are coming home, many will be
deployed for a very long time in too many locations around the
world. Others are working those long hours at their home
station to support their deployed colleagues. These service
members need to know their families are as prepared as possible
to handle the stress of deployment, that they can access vital
support services wherever they live, and that's important,
because so many of our families don't live on the installation,
and that the volunteers and family support personnel on the
front line of family support have the backup and resources they
need to assist families over the long term and in crisis
situations.
NMFA congratulates the Department of Defense for
initiatives now in place, and for the heightened level of
support provided during Operation Iraqi Freedom, especially the
joint actions across the Services and the active and Reserve
components.
We believe the level of family support now is higher than
it was in the first Gulf War. What concerns us is how that
level of support will be sustained over the long term.
Like Dr. MacDermid, I also had a weather analogy. My
weather analogy was that dealing with deployment is a little
bit like having a cloud over one's head the entire time. You
have to go about your daily business, but the deployment is
always there, just as the clouds have been over all of us on
the east coast this spring, and so you have to look at both the
daily life and the extra pressure that deployment brings,
because that daily life has to go on. The children need the
quality education, spouses need a satisfying job, health care
has to be available, their homes must be safe and well-
maintained, and the family must be secure financially.
What we are seeing is also that depletion, the fatigue,
military families as they're dealing with the simultaneous
burden of all of this, the deployments, pre-, post-, during
deployment, education issues, spouse career issues, all of that
is made worse, and more unpredictable when families don't have
a consistent source of information or support services.
There are many wonderful support services. Unfortunately,
the level of information and support still varies across the
Services, and across the active and Reserve components, across
units within a single Service. They also depend on where
families live, and whether the service member is deployed as
part of the unit, or individually. Family support
responsibilities are the command's rear detachment of
volunteers, and professional family support staff must be
clearly delineated and standards set so that families know
where to go for assistance, and so that everything does not end
up on the shoulders of volunteers.
Wonderful programs such as the ones referenced here today
don't help if service members and families don't know about
them. Family communication with the service member and the unit
is essential during deployments, but family expectations about
the level of that communication must be realistic so that those
expectations don't actually contribute to the stress.
Some service members deployed to Iraq have been able to
send and receive e-mail and regular mail messages and have had
the opportunity to make weekly morale calls home. For those who
haven't, and there are many, the families are more stressed.
The unknown is always harder to deal with, especially when, as
one service member's mother told us, we keep hearing on the
radio that a soldier has died.
Families don't understand why their service members can't
communicate regularly. Commands must contribute. Commanders
must help service members communicate, and must encourage not
discourage, and demand that their rear detachments communicate
with families, especially if that unit is in a situation that's
on the nightly news, and that includes Guard and Reserve
families as well.
Other witnesses have talked a lot about the school issues.
The schools are on the front line of family support for a lot
of our families, and we hope that the support for schools will
continue, both the DOD schools, and the civilian schools that
educate most of our children.
Service members can't afford to be distracted by worries
that their spouse is having problems with finding a job, that
their children aren't doing well in school, that their disabled
child has lost vital services because of the deployment and the
counting of an allowance. The stability of a military family
and community and the ability of the service member to focus on
the mission rests on the Nation's continued focus on the entire
package of quality-of-life components.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Raezer follows:]
Prepared Statement by Joyce Wessel Raezer
Chairman Chambliss, Chairman Alexander, and distinguished members
of these subcommittees, the National Military Family Association (NMFA)
is appreciative of your interest in the well-being of military families
as evidenced by the scheduling of this hearing and recent field
hearings. Your focus on military families at this critical time sends a
message to those families that Congress is interested in how they are
faring and wants to ensure they have the tools they need to maintain a
stable home life while supporting their service members engaged in the
military mission.
This statement highlights the most pressing deployment-related
concerns, as reported to NMFA by military families and our network of
more than 140 Installation Representatives. It also includes a
discussion of other important issues affecting military families'
quality of life: the education of military children, spouse employment,
relocation, health care, and how military allowances are treated by
other government programs. While attention over the past year has
appropriately focused on deployment-related issues, it is important to
remember that military families' quality of life, and thus their
ability to support the service member's mission, depends on the
interaction of many factors. Service members look to the Nation to
understand the family's quality of life is a readiness requirement:
service members must have confidence their family is taken care of in
order to focus on their military task. Quality of life is not just
about the support provided during deployment, nor just about pay. It is
about having a safe, well-maintained place to live. It is about access
to quality health care without bureaucratic complexities. It is about a
quality education for their children. It is about meeting the
aspirations of a spouse for a career and a couple for a secure
retirement. It is about respect for a job well done.
FAMILY READINESS
Since September 11 active duty members and their National Guard and
Reserve peers have engaged in numerous duty assignments from homeland
security to armed conflict. At the same time, members have continued to
perform ongoing missions in various far-flung areas of the globe.
Deployments produce economic and psychological strain and raise stress
levels in the family. The lifeline of the military family, the military
community, also feels the strain. Family services are important to an
installation not pressured by high perstempo or conflict-related
deployments. They are essential when families are left behind. Family
center personnel, military chaplains, installation mental health
professions and Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs all provide
needed assistance to families. When spouses find themselves as the sole
head of the family, the services available to assist them and their
children are truly lifelines. E-mail, video teleconferencing centers,
and special family activities ease the strains and pains of separation.
But none of these services are without cost. Just as the deployed
service member's readiness is dependent on proper training, food,
shelter, clothing and weapons systems, the readiness of the family is
dependent on accessing needed services. Both must have adequate funding
and staff to ensure a force ready to successfully carry out its
assigned mission.
NMFA is appreciative of actions taken earlier in this session of
Congress to ease the financial burden facing military families as they
deal with deployment by providing an increase for Family Separation Pay
in the fiscal year 2003 supplemental. We strongly request permanent
authority to provide the increase for all service members deployed from
their families, as included in S.1050, the Senate version of the
National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Whether the service member
is deployed to Iraq, on a ship in the Pacific, or on an unaccompanied
tour in Korea, to the family, ``gone is gone!''
Families and Deployment
Lessons learned during the first Gulf War and subsequent operations
on how to support families have resulted in a wider range of options to
assist families, units, and installations in communication and family
support during the most recent deployments. Recent initiatives to
support families include:
Toll-free information lines;
Partnerships with organizations such as the Armed
Forces YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs, and 4-H Clubs to provide
additional youth activities and after-school care;
Increased after-hours child care available at some
installations;
Family readiness materials posted on various
Department and Service Web sites;
Additional Family Assistance Centers set up in
communities dealing with high levels of deployment;
Improved information and assistance for Reserve
component families transitioning to TRICARE;
Family support personnel tasked to obtain family
contact information from service members at mobilization sites;
Increased training and guidance for rear detachment
personnel;
Increased interaction with nearby civilian community
organizations, including schools; and
Improved return and reunion programs to support
service members and families in the post-deployment period.
A program offered by Army Chaplains, ``Building Strong and Ready
Families'' is a good example of innovative family programs and
coordination between commanders and helping agencies. It is targeted at
improving relationship skills and assisting initial-entry soldiers and
their families with making the transition into the military culture. A
clarification on the use of appropriated funds to pay the expenses of
soldiers and their families to participate in these command-sponsored,
chaplain-lead training opportunities was included in the Fiscal Year
2003 Defense Appropriations Act; permanent authority applying to the
active and Reserve components in all Services is included in H.R.1588.
NMFA requests that the Conference Committee include this language in
the final version of the Fiscal Year 2004 NDAA.
Based on what NMFA hears from families, initiatives put in place
since the first Gulf War have enabled them to better cope with
deployment-related demands this time around. There are gaps, however,
as pointed out by the family members at the recent field hearings.
Problem areas include the need for more child care, better
communication with the service member, timely information from the
command, specialized support for geographically-separated Guard and
Reserve families, training and back-up for family readiness volunteers,
and enhanced support mechanisms to deal with crisis situations arising
from long or frequent deployments. NMFA is concerned that installations
have had to divert resources from the basic level of family programs to
address the surges of mobilization and return. Just as the Family
Separation Allowance helps families deal with the increased financial
burdens they face during deployment, resources must be available for
commanders and others charged with ensuring family readiness to help
alleviate the strains on families facing more frequent and longer
deployments.
Family Readiness volunteers and installation family support
personnel have been stretched thin over the past 2 years as they have
had to juggle pre-deployment, ongoing deployment, and return and
reunion support, often simultaneously. Unfortunately, this juggling act
will likely continue for some time as many service members are only now
leaving for deployments of indeterminate lengths. Volunteers, whose
fatigue is evident, are frustrated with being called on too often
during longer than anticipated and repeated deployments. As these
family members--on whom the military depends to help others even while
dealing with their own family needs--expressed to you in the field
hearings, they support the service members' choice to serve; however,
they are worn out and concerned they do not have the training or the
backup from the family support professionals to handle the problems
facing some families in their units. Military community volunteers are
the front line troops in the mission to ensure family readiness. They
deserve training, information and assistance from their commands,
supportive unit rear detachment personnel, professional backup to deal
with family issues beyond their expertise and comfort level, and
opportunities for respite before becoming overwhelmed.
NMFA knows that the length of a deployment in times of war is
subject to change, but also understands the frustrations of family
members who eagerly anticipated the return of their service members on
a certain date only to be informed at the last minute that the
deployment will be extended. The unpredictability of recent deployments
is perhaps the single most important factor, other than the danger
inherent in combat situations, frustrating families today. This
unpredictability extends also to the length of time a family can count
on a service member being home before he or she is ordered for another
deployment. Families who can count on a set return date cope better
than those dealing with an unknown return. Because of the unpredictable
nature of the military mission today, family members need more help in
acquiring the tools to cope with the unpredictability.
To better assist family members deal with the unpredictable, a
clearer delineation of responsibility must be developed on who among
the command, the professional family program staff, or other helping
agencies provides what information, what training, and what support for
families. Although the Services have improved rear detachment
accountability and responsibilities since the first Gulf War, NMFA
still hears of too many cases where rear detachment personnel
supposedly the commander's information connection to families and the
first line of assistance in dealing with the military chain of command
and in facilitating communication with the service member were not
responsive to the needs of unit families, did not provide timely
information to volunteers, or did not even know what resources were
available in the community. Families often express confusion about
where to turn for assistance to the rear detachment, to the
installation family center, or to the new Family Assistance Center set
up in response to the deployment. Unit Family Readiness Group leaders
ask where they are to receive training in communicating with and
supporting other family members and what level of support is
appropriately their responsibility. Because responsibilities are often
not well-delineated, family volunteers frequently feel that everyone's
problems are being dumped on them, even when they do not have the
requisite skills to handle them.
Commanders may recognize these gaps, but often do not have the
expertise or time to train their rear detachment or volunteers in
dealing with family issues, nor do they always know what resources are
available either. Commanders must set the expectation that their rear
detachment personnel assist families when needed and that families are
to be kept informed about what is happening in the deployed unit.
Communication is key in allaying some of the stress associated with a
deployment, especially when the unit is involved in an operation
featured on the nightly news. Frequent communication also dispels
rumors. A capable rear detachment cadre and family readiness volunteers
help to facilitate communication to and from the command and to serve
as the commander's agents in supporting families. NMFA believes that
the responsibility for training the rear detachment personnel and
volunteers and in providing the backup for complicated cases beyond the
knowledge or comfort level of the volunteers should flow to the
installation family center or Guard and Reserve family readiness staff.
Family program staff must also facilitate communication and
collaboration between the rear detachment, volunteers, and agencies
such as chaplains, schools, and medical personnel.
Organizational stovepipes continue to hinder collaboration in the
development and maintenance of strong emotional and mental health in
both individuals and families of the military community. As was seen in
the Fort Bragg, NC domestic violence cases during the summer of 2002,
not all military family members or service members make use of the
counseling and support services available to them. While the TRICARE
mental health benefits are rich by the standards of many other plans,
the program does not have a preventive care component. For TRICARE to
pay for services, there must be a medical diagnosis, thus discouraging
many family members from seeking care. Many members and their families
also believe that seeking counseling services through military programs
may harm their careers or that these services are only intended for
families identified as having problems. The authors of the Fort Bragg
Epidemiological Consultation Report who examined the domestic violence
incidents noted that the various support agencies do not often
coordinate their activities. NMFA strongly believes that better
coordination and communication among all installation helping agencies
as well as with those in the civilian community is imperative to help
families deal with stress and promote better mental health. NMFA also
believes that TRICARE must cover preventive mental health services just
as it covers medical preventive services such as well-baby checks,
immunizations, PAP smears, and mammograms. An emphasis on emotional
health rather than treatment may also make beneficiaries more likely to
seek appropriate services in a timely manner.
National Guard and Reserve Families
As of June 18, 210,256 National Guard and Reserve members were on
active duty. While many of the challenges faced by their families are
similar to those of active component families, they must face them with
a less-concentrated and mature support network and, in many cases,
without prior experience with military life. Unlike active duty units
located on one installation with families in close proximity, Reserve
component families are frequently miles from the service member's unit.
Therefore, unless they pay for their own travel expenses, families are
often unable to attend unit pre-deployment briefings. NMFA constantly
hears the frustrations family members experience when trying to access
information and understand their benefits. The lack of accurate benefit
information and unrelenting communication difficulties are common
themes among Guard and Reserve families.
DOD has developed several key initiatives that address the needs of
Guard and Reserve families. NMFA applauds this effort, but there is
still much to be done. Although the Guard and Reserve have increased
the number of paid family readiness coordinators to assist volunteers
and provide basic information, Guard and Reserve unit volunteers, even
more than many of their active duty counterparts, are still stressed
because of the numbers of families they must assist and the demands
placed upon them. At a minimum, NMFA requests funding for child care to
enable these dedicated volunteers to perform their expected tasks more
efficiently. Funding to enable families to attend pre-deployment
briefings would help strengthen the ties between the units and the
families and the families with each other and assist in ensuring that
accurate information is provided directly to the family members. Guard
and Reserve families ask for standardized materials that are
appropriate to all Services, so that if an Army Reserve family happens
to live close to a Navy installation they would understand how to
access services there. The establishment of a joint Family Readiness
program could facilitate the understanding and sharing of information
between all military family members.
Through our contact with Guard and Reserve families and family
support personnel over the past year, NMFA has heard wonderful stories
of individual States, units, and families caring for and supporting
each other. NMFA is aware of leadership involvement at all levels to
help ease the challenges faced by service members and families. NMFA is
especially proud of the efforts of The National Committee for Employer
Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) as an advocate for the Reserve
component member facing employment issues. ESGR is encouraging
employers to set up their own family support programs and provides
information to employers and to their employees about the legal rights
of Reserve component members. By providing this information in the
workplace, ESGR is helping civilian communities gain a better
understanding of the valuable role the Guard and Reserve play in the
defense of our Nation.
Compensation issues continue to be of paramount concern among Guard
and Reserve families. Some surveys indicate that as many as one-third
of Reserve component members have taken a significant pay cut upon
activation. Families who initially financially prepared for a 6-month
activation now are faced with the devastating monetary consequences of
a 1- or 2-year loss in income. Some small business owners and single
practice professionals are facing the loss of their businesses. NMFA is
aware of the disaster the previous income replacement program created,
but believes that attention must be directed to these problems or
retention of these individuals may become extremely problematic. In
addition, some Guard and Reserve members experienced problems with pay
processing upon activation. This delay in receiving the paycheck led to
overdue payments on bills, and occasional threats to foreclose on
mortgages or to turn the family over to a collection agency. Pay and
personnel systems for activated Guard and Reserve members must work in
coordination so families do not have to deal with bill collectors.
Opportunities Exist for Joint-Service Collaboration
NMFA applauds the Office of Military Community and Family Policy in
the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) for its creation of a
Joint Family Support Contingency Working Group to promote better
information-sharing and planning among OSD and the military Service
headquarters family support staff, including the Reserve components.
NMFA appreciates the invitation to participate in this working group,
an innovative concept that grew out of the successful collaboration in
the operation of the Pentagon family assistance center after the attack
on the Pentagon. The working group understands that most military
families live off-base and is encouraging new ways of helping families
that are not all centered on the installation. NMFA has long promoted
additional outreach into the civilian community by installation
personnel so that family members unable to get to an installation can
still receive needed assistance. The possibility of further incidents
that might prompt restricted access to installations makes this
outreach even more imperative.
Working group discussions have also highlighted just how ``joint''
our military has become and how joint coordination to improve family
readiness makes sense in providing consistent information and in using
scarce personnel and other resources to the best advantage. Because
service members increasingly serve on joint missions or are assigned to
installations not belonging to their parent Service, they need easily
accessible information and support not necessarily tied to one
particular Service. A start in improved joint family readiness support
would be the establishment a common web and phone portal to provide
basic information and referral services. One possible vehicle for
providing this joint information portal and for communicating with
family members and helping them access assistance when needed, wherever
they are located, is being tested by the Marine Corps Community
Services (MCCS). The new program, ``MCCS One Source,'' provides 24
hours a day, 7 days a week, telephone and online family information and
referral, situational assistance, and links to military and community
resources. Since February 1, this service has been available to active
duty and Reserve Marines and their family members. The Army is also
making this service available to soldiers and families at an expanding
list of installations. Employee Assistance Programs such as ``One
Source,'' provide an accessible source of information for service
members and families and, if properly coordinated with other support
services, should allow service family support professionals to devote
more time and attention to supporting unit volunteers and to assisting
families with more complex problems.
Joint-service, community-based support, supplementing the
information and assistance provided through the unit during a
deployment makes sense, especially for Guard and Reserve families
geographically separated from the service member's unit and from each
other, NMFA suggests that DOD strengthen and perhaps formalize
partnerships with national organizations such as the American Red Cross
and U.S. Chamber of Commerce to enlist their assistance through their
local chapters in setting up community-based support groups for
military family members. The groups could include not only spouses and
significant others of all deployed members, no matter what unit or
Service the member is attached to, but also the parents of service
members. Involving local community leaders in setting up these support
groups would address two of the most common concerns expressed by some
of these isolated families: the feeling that they are the only families
in town going through the strain of deployment and the sentiment that
people not associated with the military do not appreciate their
sacrifices.
Child Care
Military child care is another important element in family
readiness. In testimony this spring, Sergeant Major of the Army Jack
Tilley noted that during 2002, 27 percent of enlisted soldier parents
reported lost duty time due to a lack of child care. Deployments
increase the need for child care. Families, where the parents were
previously able to manage their work schedules to cover the care of
their children, must now seek outside child care as one parent deploys.
Guard and Reserve families most often do not live close enough to a
military installation to take advantage of the subsidized, high-quality
care available at the Child Development Center or Family Daycare homes.
Since 2000, DOD has had the authority to increase the availability of
child care and youth programs through partnerships with civilian
agencies and other organizations. The Services set up pilot programs to
take advantage of this authority and obtain more care for children off
the installations; however, NMFA has been informed that less than 10
percent of DOD child care is provided off-base.
To meet the needs of far-flung families, some with limited funds to
pay for child care, DOD must look for innovative ways to provide access
to child care services, tied not to specific locations selected by DOD,
but to what best serves parents and children. Employee Assistance
Programs such as the Marine Corps's ``One Source'' could help families
locate the child care and a DOD subsidy, possibly based on the income
categories used to determine rates at DOD centers, would help create a
more equitable benefit. Another option to help military families pay
for child care would be to make them eligible to contribute pre-tax
dollars to a Flexible Spending Account. These accounts are popular in
many civilian work places and are currently being implemented for
Federal civilians in some agencies.
Military spouses testifying at the field hearings spoke
emphatically about the need for increased child care slots to serve
families of deployed service members. While there may be some increased
need for full-time slots, the greatest need is for hourly care to
support spouses in their roles of family readiness volunteers, to
enable a spouse to keep a doctor's appointment or attend a parent-
teacher conference, or just to provide a well-deserved respite for both
parent and children. Hourly care has almost always been in short supply
at many installations and NMFA is concerned that current funding
levels, as well as those proposed for fiscal year 2004, for the
Military Child Development System may not be adequate to meet both the
routine demands for child care and the increased need due to
deployments. We request additional funds to ensure the provision of the
high quality child care service members and their families need.
Return and Reunion
The Services recognize the importance of educating service members
and family members about how to effect a successful homecoming and
reunion and have taken steps to do so. The Navy pioneered this process
and has been holding reunion briefings on ships prior to homecoming for
several years. The Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force, learning lessons
from recent deployments and the tragedy of Fort Bragg, have developed
online programs and brochures for the service members and their
families. They have also stepped up briefings for returning service
members and, when possible, their families to assist in the return and
reunion process. Information gathered in the now-mandatory post-
deployment health assessments may also help identify service members
who may need more specialized assistance in making the transition home.
Successful return and reunion plans depend on the interaction between
all helping agencies, support from the command, and multiple methods of
getting information and assistance to service members and families.
Return and reunion programs are aimed at both traditional and non-
traditional family units, including single and married service members,
spouses, parents, children, and significant others. The information
spans subjects from finances and division of chores to recultivating
family intimacy and practicing safe driving procedures. The Services
have gone from the old policy of ``if we wanted you to have a family we
would have issued you one'' to sharing guidance on how to reestablish
intimacy with your spouse or significant other after separation. The
one underlying theme with almost all the literature available is to
``go slow'' and develop realistic homecoming expectations. Other
organizations outside the Services, such as the American Red Cross,
offer reunion resources as well.
The question remains, however: how can one access the information?
Returning military units will be briefed as units before they are
returned home, but what about the service members deployed and
returning individually? Information for families is readily available
on a variety of ``unofficial,'' family-friendly Web sites. However,
there are times one needs to know the special code word or the secret
hand shake to navigate or even find the official Service Web sites to
know that Lifelines is the family friendly program for the Navy,
Crossroads is the source for Air Force family information, the Well-
Being tab on the official Army site contains information on family
programs, or that ``One Source'' is available for both active and
Reserve marines. Web information is an easy fix, however. The biggest
challenge is reaching the geographically isolated families, the
families of service members who deployed individually or not as a part
of a unit, or the families with no access to the web. News about
briefings for families should be disseminated as widely as possible. As
NMFA has emphasized before, family briefings would be better attended
if child care and travel expenses were provided. NMFA encourages DOD to
use the same organizations that were so effective during the height of
the crisis--the Red Cross, local chapters of veterans' service
organizations, the Chamber of Commerce--to get the information out to
families in avenues other that the Internet.
NMFA applauds the quality of much of the new reunion information.
It is a great example of ``purple'' information, much of the new
material is not Service specific. In addition, the special attention
paid to the Guard and Reserve returnees and their reacclimation into
the work place enhances the scope of the entire reunion process. The
inclusive way all the Services, active and Reserve components, are
addressed in this literature serves as a model for how information
should be presented in a joint family readiness plan in the future.
Successful return and reunion programs will require attention over
the long term. Many mental health experts state that some post-
deployment problems may not surface for several months after the
service members' return. NMFA is especially concerned about the
services that will be available to the families of returning Guard and
Reserve members and service members who leave the military following
the end of their enlistment. Although they may be eligible for
transitional health care benefits and the service member may seek care
through the Veterans' Administration, what happens when the military
health benefits run out and deployment-related stresses still affect
the family? As part of its return and reunion plan, the Army has
announced it will contract with an Employee Assistance Plan to provide
toll-free phone and Internet access to help returning service members
and families access local community resources and to receive up to six
free face-to-face mental health visits with a professional outside the
chain of command. Unfortunately, we do not have information yet on how
long returning service members and families will be eligible to use
this service.
Ongoing evaluation through surveys of service members, families,
commanders, and family support personnel is essential to capture
lessons learned and determine what initiatives were most effective in
ensuring family readiness during deployments and a smooth transition in
post-deployment. NMFA was pleased that the Senate approved an amendment
to Sec. 1023 of its version of the NDAA that would require DOD to
include an investigation on the availability of support services to
Guard and Reserve families as part of its report on the conduct of
Operation Iraqi Freedom. In formulating any study of family support,
NMFA suggests that questions be included on support and information
provided in all phases of the deployment process: pre-deployment,
during deployment, and return and reunion.
NMFA applauds the various initiatives designed to meet the needs of
families wherever they live and whenever they need them and requests
adequate funding to ensure continuation both of the ``bedrock'' family
support programs and implementation of new initiatives. Higher stress
levels caused by open-ended deployments require a higher level of
community support. The cost of meeting unique family readiness needs
for National Guard and Reserve families must be calculated in Guard and
Reserve operational budgets and additional resources provided. Family
readiness responsibilities must be clearly delineated so that the
burden does not fall disproportionately on volunteers. DOD should
partner with other organizations and explore new means of communication
and support to geographically dispersed families. Innovative ways of
meeting the child care needs of geographically-dispersed families and
the deployment-related surge demand for child care may need to include
a combination of subsidies, the use of information and referral
services, and the option of Flexible Spending Accounts, in addition to
increased slots available in the DOD child development system. As with
other family readiness information and support, return and reunion
programs should be both unit and community-based and should be
facilitated by a collaborative effort of all helping agencies across
the active and Reserve components of all Services. Return and reunion
support must be considered a commitment to service members and families
over a period of several months. Special attention must be provided to
ensure that geographically separated families have access to needed
services, especially following a service member's deactivation.
EDUCATION FOR MILITARY CHILDREN
A significant element of family readiness is an educational system
that provides a quality education to military children, recognizing the
needs of these ever moving students and responding to situations where
the military parent is deployed and/or in an armed conflict. No less
than the stay at home spouse, children are affected by the absence of a
parent and experience even higher levels of stress when their military
parent is in a war zone shown constantly on television. The military
member deployed to that dangerous place cannot afford to be distracted
by the worry that his or her child is not receiving a quality
education. Addressing the needs of these children, their classmates,
and their parents is imperative to lowering the overall family stress
level, and to achieving an appropriate level of family readiness. But
it does not come without cost to the local school system.
Service members want to know that their children's school buildings
are secure, that school district leaders are working with installation
leadership to ensure the safety of children at school and on the school
buses. They want their children's schools to serve as extra eyes and
ears, watching for changes in their children's behavior and academic
performance and ensuring that adequate counseling resources are in
place to assist children in dealing with not only the stress of the
deployments, but also with the fears of unknown dangers at home.
Teachers and counselors now must help the remaining parent answer the
children's questions of ``Why did the military send Dad or Mom away
when we could be in danger here?'' Schools educating military children
must be prepared to help teachers and other staff who are also military
family members deal with the emotions brought on by the combination of
domestic threats and large-scale military deployments. They must often
run programs with fewer volunteers, sometimes losing both the deployed
service members and their spouses who now have more demands on their
time. They must also help ``new'' military children, the children of
members of the National Guard and Reserves, who may be dealing with
deployment for the first time.
NMFA is pleased to report that most schools charged with educating
military children have stepped up to the challenge. They have become
the constant in a changing world and the place of security for military
children and their families. The goal, according to one school
official, ``is to keep things normal for the kids.'' The schools' role
is to ``train teachers in what to look for and deal with what they
find.'' NMFA received many positive stories from parents and schools
about how the schools have helped children deal with their fears, keep
in touch with deployed parents, and keep focused on learning. We have
also heard stories of schools helping each other, of schools
experienced in educating military children and dealing with deployment-
related issues providing support for school systems with the children
of activated Guard and Reserve members. In the process, many schools
have increased the understanding of their teachers and other staff, as
well as their entire communities, about issues facing military
families.
NMFA is appreciative of the support shown by Congress for the
schools educating military children. Congress has consistently
supported the needs of the schools operated by the DOD Education
Activity (DODEA), both in terms of basic funding and military
construction. Congress has also resisted efforts by a series of
administrations to cut the Impact Aid funding so vital to the civilian
school districts that educate a majority of military children. NMFA is
also appreciative of the approximately $30 million Congress adds in
most years to the Defense budget to supplement Impact Aid for school
districts whose enrollments are more than 20 percent military children.
DODEA
Department of Defense schools are located in overseas locations
(DODDS) and on a small number of military installations in the United
States (DDESS). The commitment to the education of military children in
DOD schools between Congress, DOD, military commanders, DODEA
leadership and staff, and especially military parents has resulted in
high test scores, nationally-recognized minority student achievement,
parent involvement programs and partnership activities with the
military community. It is significant to note that the Commander of
USAREUR stated in May that over half of the military members assigned
to USAREUR are deployed away from their permanent duty sites. Imagine
the challenges facing a school system in a foreign country where half
of the student body has an absent parent! DOD schools have responded to
the increased operations tempo with greater support for families and
children in their communities. Most recently, several schools arranged
special satellite hook-ups to allow deployed parents in Iraq and Kuwait
to participate in their high school students' graduations from a
distance. NMFA also appreciates the actions taken by DODEA staff in
easing the transition for students enrolled in DOD schools in Turkey
when they were forced to evacuate prior to the start of the war. DODEA
not only provided families with contact information and educational
records, but also guaranteed that students who could not meet the
standards for graduation or promotion to the next grade because of
their late transition into a civilian school could receive DODDS
diplomas and certification that their work in the DODDS schools
warranted promotion.
While DOD schools have been immune from some of the constraints
besetting civilian schools affected by State and local budget
pressures, military families served by DOD schools have expressed
concerns about DOD rescissions this year that caused cuts in
maintenance, staff development, technology purchases and personnel
support and also forced the elimination of some instructional days in
some districts. While DODEA has experienced Department-wide rescissions
in previous years, this year's was larger than normal, thus making it
more difficult for the system to make the necessary adjustments midway
through the school year. Because the timing of the Federal fiscal year
is out of sync with the school year, NMFA believes this calendar
mismatch may tend to worsen the impact of mid-year Department-wide
budget allocations on the school system and the children it serves.
Transition Issues
Despite the success of the DOD schools in raising achievement
levels, it is important to remember less than 20 percent of military
children attend these schools. The rest depend on civilian school
districts, which often vary in quality and responsiveness to families'
concerns and the demands of the military lifestyle. Military families
move on average every 2.9 years and their children may be at an
educational disadvantage, even by many well-intentioned programs and
rules designed to improve school quality. Military parents applaud
higher accountability standards--they want the best possible
instruction for their children as well as rigorous course offerings.
They do not want their children punished, however, when the various
Federal and State initiatives clash, causing difficulties for mobile
children. Because of varying course standards, school schedules, and
State graduation requirements, military children sometimes lose credits
needed for graduation. Currently, at least 18 States have graduation
requirements linked to performance on State exit exams and several
others are developing exit exams. With the rise of exit exams and
increased graduation requirements, transfers are becoming more
problematic, especially in the high school years.
NMFA believes that the improved accountability measures promoted by
the States and contained in the Federal No Child Left Behind Act will
ultimately benefit all children. In the short term, however, NMFA is
concerned that the reliance on States to determine what tests they will
use to meet the Federal testing requirements, what standards must be
met for promotion and graduation, and how to determine which schools
are making adequate progress will make things more difficult for
military and other mobile children. If one-third of the population of a
civilian school in a military community turns over every year, how can
that school be held responsible for the academic performance of the
children who just arrived? How fair is it to apply sanctions to a
school for gaps in children's learning that occurred somewhere else?
How can children be held responsible for concepts their former school,
which used a different set of curriculum standards, never taught? NMFA
urges Congress as it monitors the implementation of No Child Left
Behind to take into account the issues facing mobile children and the
schools that serve them to ensure they are not unfairly penalized for
circumstances beyond their control.
Impact Aid
NMFA also asks Members of Congress to continue their support of
Impact Aid. A well-funded Impact Aid program enables districts serving
large numbers of military children to approach the level of educational
opportunity available in neighboring, non-impacted school districts
even though they do not have access to the same kind of tax base.
Impact Aid dollars are provided in lieu of lost tax revenue to
districts where the Federal responsibility is the greatest under the
law. The dollars go directly to school districts with no strings
attached. The local community, the people with the greatest stake in
the quality of education in their schools, decides how Impact Aid funds
will best serve the basic education needs of all students.
Military families understand that the Impact Aid program supports
basic education services provided by their local school districts. They
understand the impact the Federal presence has on the tax base of these
local districts and their States. They understand the impact their
children and the transient military lifestyle can have on their local
schools. What they and their civilian neighbors do not understand is
why Impact Aid funds fall short of the levels intended by the creators
of the program or of the amount needed by their children's schools.
Military children, whether living on- or off-base, impose costs on the
district as they move in and out: records must be prepared, evaluations
and testing must be done for special programs, transition labs or
remedial programs may be needed. Military families hold the government,
and the citizens they have sworn to serve and protect, accountable for
living up to their promise to provide a quality education for their
children. The districts have accepted the responsibility to educate
military children; the Federal Government must provide the resources it
has promised to support that education.
NMFA thanks Congress for its continued funding of Impact Aid for
the military children who live off the installation, the so-called
``military Bs.'' Two-thirds of military families live off-base.
Although military families living in the civilian community pay
property taxes to help support local schools, they often do not
contribute to other sources of education funding. States provide an
increasingly larger share of local districts' funding. Many military
members pay no State tax on their military income. They also shop in
military exchanges and commissaries, thus paying no sales tax. Under
the provisions of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Relief Act, they are often
exempt from paying personal property taxes or license fees for
automobiles if they are on military orders away from their home State.
Funding for these children will become even more crucial for school
districts as the military Services increasingly look to the civilian
community to provide more housing for military families. Funding for
military Bs will also be important to districts serving installations
building privatized housing in civilian communities off-base rather
than on the installations. Although developers may pay some taxes,
these revenues may be inadequate, especially during the early years of
the privatization contracts.
DOD Support
NMFA has been pleased with recent comments by DOD officials and
with Department initiatives focusing on military parents' concern about
the quality of their children's schools. In congressional testimony and
in press interviews early this year, Dr. David Chu, Under Secretary of
Defense for Personnel and Readiness, outlined some of the factors other
than mission capabilities that must be considered in the Department's
considerations of installations to be slated for closure or
realignment:
Once we begin the base realignment process, a careful look at
the quality of life of civilian communities where our military
families live is warranted. We owe children a good education no
matter where their parents may serve, as well as good child
care, homes, and spousal career opportunities.
Schools serving military children have been aided by improved
interaction and partnerships with their local installations. The
military Services are, to varying degrees, increasing their
collaborative efforts with schools and their support to military
parents who need information and assistance in becoming more effective
advocates for quality education for their children. The Army has taken
the lead in creating and funding School Liaison Officer positions to
provide an important link between schools, the installation command,
and parents. Well-trained, involved school liaisons have also provided
important information and support for school staff on how to support
children during deployments. Other Services are beginning to hire
school liaisons at some of their installations and, even when they do
not have school liaisons, they frequently provide briefings on
deployment-related issues to school staff.
Cooperation between educators and the military in support of
military children and their schools is also occurring at the national
level; the Department of Education has posted a resource guide for
educators created by the DOD Educational Opportunities Directorate on
assisting children in dealing with deployments. NMFA does wish,
however, the brochure could be a little more visible and accessible on
the Web site! (http://www.ed.gov/inits/homefront/homefront.pdf) Private
organizations such as the Military Impacted Schools Association and the
Military Child Education Coalition have made materials available to
help school districts better support children of deployed service
members. NMFA has also fielded its share of calls from school staff
looking for deployment-related resources and has provided information
in its newsletter and on its Web site.
NMFA is pleased that the military services are responding to
military families' belief that quality education is both a quality of
life factor and a retention issue. We hope that the partnership
programs begun by the Services and local schools, the hiring of school
liaison officers, and initiatives to provide military families with
better information about local schools and to study the problems faced
by military children as they move will continue despite the greater
demands placed on both the military and supporting school districts.
Out of the challenge of working together to develop plans for security
and to move children, school staff, parents, and school buses on and
off installations under security alerts have emerged better working
relationships to address other issues. Service initiatives to
facilitate parent involvement in schools, such as the policy at Fort
Hood, TX and other installations that states a service member's place
of duty is the scheduled parent-teacher conference, help schools and
the children they serve. The Army has addressed the difficulties
students face when moving in their senior year by recently instituting
a Senior Stabilization Policy that enables the soldier to request a
delay in PCS orders so that a rising senior can finish high school at
the current location. Since the policy was implemented 2 years ago, the
Army has received applications from more than 2,400 service members for
stabilization and has approved 99 percent. The biggest complaint NMFA
has heard about this program to date is that other Services have not
yet adopted it! The Army is also the lead agent for DOD on an
initiative to educate States about the problems facing military members
and their families in obtaining in-State tuition status. Heightened
awareness among military commanders and local States about education
issues has also resulted in the creation of reciprocity arrangements,
most notably concerning the high school State history credit, to keep
students from losing academic credit or from repeating similar courses.
Lastly, NMFA would hope that DOD will begin to request the
supplement to Impact Aid, rather than wait for Congress to add it.
Building this funding into its budget request would signal to school
districts and military families that the Department wants to ensure
better quality in all schools educating large numbers of military
children, not just those in DOD schools. Requesting this funding will
also signal that DOD recognizes that it may need to assist schools with
security, school construction, or special learning programs if the
presence of military children or DOD programs and policies cause a loss
of school funding or increased expenditures that cannot be met through
Impact Aid or other Federal, State, or local programs.
Schools serving military children, whether DOD or civilian schools,
need the resources available to meet military parents' expectation that
their children receive the highest quality education possible. Impact
Aid funding for both on and off-base children and the DOD supplement to
Impact Aid provide needed funds in lieu of lost tax revenue and help
districts meet the additional demands caused by large numbers of
military children. Initiatives to assist parents and to promote better
communication between installations and schools should be expanded
across all Services. Military children must not be placed at a
disadvantage as State and Federal governments devise accountability
measures.
SPOUSE EMPLOYMENT
The ability of a military spouse to be employed and to have career
progression affects both the family's finances and the self-sufficiency
of the spouse when the member deploys. Studies after the first Gulf War
showed that spouses who were employed handled the stressors of the
deployment better than those who were not employed. NMFA anxiously
awaits the DOD report on the status of its spouse employment programs
requested by Congress in the fiscal year 2002 NDAA. While we do not
expect DOD to create a jobs program for every military spouse, it does
need to facilitate the transition of mobile military spouses into
already existing opportunities and to target efforts where spouses are
having the greatest difficulty accessing educational programs or
employment. Sixty-three percent of all military spouses and 87 percent
of junior enlisted spouses (E-1 to E-5) are in the labor force. Very
obviously, the financial health of the military family is significantly
dependent upon the employment of the spouse. Family financial health is
without question a family readiness issue.
The ineffectiveness of military spouse employment programs and
military spouses' own efforts to pursue careers have been a source of
frustration for service members, spouses, and the Department for at
least two decades. This satisfaction was most recently highlighted in
DOD's 2002 Active Duty Status of Forces Survey. When asked about their
satisfaction with spouse employment and career opportunities, only 32
percent of the respondents stated they were satisfied; 34 percent were
dissatisfied. Approximately one-fifth also noted that the loss of
spouse income due to a PCS move had caused a problem for their family.
Because they are more likely than their male peers to have an employed
spouse, female military officers cite an even higher level of
frustrations with spouse employment issues. In the 1997 DOD Survey of
Enlisted Spouses, the majority of spouses in the job market reported
that they had been unable to find a job that matched their experience
and training.
Part of the frustration boils down to numbers and limited
resources. Of the approximately 677,000 military spouses, approximately
60 percent are in the job market. Approximately one-third move each
year, meaning that an average of 135,000 military spouses will need to
find a job each year. Some civilian corporations, when moving
employees, pay private relocation firms up to $1,500 per spouse to help
them find a job in the new location. The sheer numbers of military
spouses make this kind of funding support out of reach for DOD. Service
spouse employment program managers often have several other
responsibilities within the installation family center and thus have
difficulty finding the time to develop contacts with local employers,
provide basic job search training to young spouses entering the job
market for the first time, and help spouses who have been on a career
track somewhere else find appropriate upward mobility at their new
location.
In order to enhance military spouse career progression, NMFA
suggests that DOD should first make improvements in its own Military
Spouse Preference Program to make more Federal civilian jobs available
to mobile spouses. We also hope that any proposed changes in DOD
civilian personnel and hiring procedures expand opportunities for
mobile military spouses to become part of the DOD workforce; we look to
Congress to ensure that military spouses are not placed at a
disadvantage by these changes. Because DOD is increasing the number of
contract positions, NMFA also suggests that Congress expand the use of
Military Spouse Preference to include jobs offered by government
contractors. DOD should continue to expand its nascent partnership
efforts with corporations and other Federal Departments to enhance
training, placement, and career progression for military spouses.
To address the spouse employment dislocations caused by Permanent
Change of Station (PCS) moves, DOD should work with States and
localities to enable military spouses to participate in local
educational and training programs at the same fee structure as in-State
residents, to encourage States to enter into reciprocity agreements
covering trade and professional licenses, and to raise awareness of the
needs of transitioning military spouses. A spouse professional goods
allotment included in relocation weight allowances could help affirm
the importance of a spouse's career or volunteer activities to the
military family. Key in addressing the financial burden placed on
military families when they make a PCS move is ending the reluctance of
many States to pay unemployment compensation to military spouses who
quit their jobs to accompany the service member on military orders. At
a time when family expenses are already high, the family should not be
forced to give up the spouse's income. The inability to collect
unemployment compensation often means that military spouses must take
the first available job at their new location because they cannot
afford to spend time looking for more suitable, career-enhancing
positions. Employers in military communities are aware of this need and
thus tend to offer lower wages to the military spouse.
NMFA looks forward to the release of the DOD spouse employment
report and to increased efforts to enhance military spouse career
progression. NMFA believes that DOD's primary focus related to spouse
employment should be on mitigating the disruptions caused by
government-ordered moves. It should also make the Military Spouse
Preference program more responsive to changes in government hiring
practices. Partnerships with other agencies and employers as well as
coordination with States to promote training and educational
opportunities, address licensure issues, and secure unemployment
compensation for spouses forced to move would also enhance the
financial well-being of military families.
RELOCATION
While progress has been made in easing the difficulties faced by
military children when they enter new schools as a result of their
military parent's PCS orders and initiatives are being developed to aid
military spouses in transporting their careers, military families note
less help in facilitating the actual move process. NMFA is appreciative
of the significant increases in certain PCS allowances authorized in
the fiscal year 2002 NDAA. These are very significant steps to upgrade
allowances that had been unchanged for over 15 years. Even with these
much-needed changes, however, service members continue to incur
significant out-of-pocket costs in complying with government-directed
relocation orders.
PCS household goods weight allowances were increased for grades E-1
through E-4, effective January 2003, but weight allowance increases are
also needed for E-5s and above and officers as well to more accurately
reflect the normal accumulation of household goods over the course of a
career. The frequency of PCS moves coupled with the spotty quality
record of many carriers requires continued improvements to the
household goods movement process, to include a greater emphasis on
measurable accountability standards in the evaluation of carriers.
After a series of pilot programs designed to test improvements to the
move process, DOD is now developing a ``re-engineered'' program
incorporating some of those improvements. NMFA has been informed that
the anticipated roll-out of this new initiative is expected in fall
2004. The new program, called ``Families First,'' is being developed by
a working group made up of representatives of the military Services and
the moving industry. Ironically, the ``Families First'' working group
has sought no input from military families!
This year's DOD request for the NDAA contained a provision to
authorize the payment of full replacement value for goods damaged in
PCS moves. In recent NMFA briefings to family members, this legislative
proposal was the one receiving the highest praise, with the sentiment,
``It's about time!'' Family members have been shocked to learn that,
although requested by DOD, the full replacement value provision was
included only in the Senate version of the NDAA. Federal civilian
employees receive full replacement value reimbursement for goods
damaged in their government-ordered moves. NMFA urges Congress to
provide the same benefit for military families as soon as possible, and
not make it contingent on the implementation of another round of ``re-
engineering.''
NMFA urges Congress to continue upgrades of permanent change of
station reimbursement allowances to recognize that the government, not
the service members, should be responsible for paying the cost of
government-directed relocations. NMFA urges Congress to include
authorization for the payment of reimbursement for full replacement
value of goods damaged in PCS moves and to increase weight allowances
to better reflect the accumulation of household goods over a service
member's career.
HEALTH CARE
After a rocky start over several years, the TRICARE system is
providing most of the promised benefit for most families, particularly
those enrolled in Prime. Changes made in the Prime Remote program for
active duty families and ensuring access to Prime and Prime Remote for
the families of activated Guard and Reserve members have gone a long
way to providing a truly uniform benefit for all families of those on
active duty.
NMFA is appreciative of congressional initiatives this year to
provide additional assistance to TRICARE Standard beneficiaries, to
provide a point of responsibility within DOD to ensure that Standard
beneficiaries receive appropriate benefit information, and to identify
locations with inadequate provider participation in order to encourage
more providers to participate in TRICARE. The Senate proposal to
mandate market area surveys of TRICARE Standard provider participation
will provide DOD and Congress with the information they need to
determine the causes of provider shortages reported by beneficiaries
and to devise a solution to the problem. NMFA notes that these surveys,
as with all surveys of civilian provider participation in TRICARE, must
not only identify participating or network providers, but also whether
or not these providers are accepting new TRICARE patients.
Despite the improvements in TRICARE, NMFA remains apprehensive
about several issues: beneficiary access to health care, the
implementation of a new generation of TRICARE contracts, and the
ability of National Guard and Reserve families to have reasonable
access to care and continuity of care.
Access
Although recent TRICARE surveys highlight improvements in
beneficiary access to care, NMFA continues to field calls from
beneficiaries with access issues. Service members and families enrolled
in Prime are promised certain standards for access to care in providing
appointments, wait times at a provider's office and geographic
availability. Yet the calls we receive tell another story. Even service
members are told by the direct care system, ``Call back next month,
there are no more appointments available now.'' Family members are
routinely not informed that they can request an appointment with a
provider in the civilian sector if access standards cannot be met in
the direct care system. However, IF the member or family member
mentions the words, ``access standards,'' appointments that fall within
the guidelines magically appear. Although deployment-related access
issues at MTFs now seem to have been resolved, NMFA is concerned that
some family members may have been denied access to timely care despite
the promises made when they enrolled in TRICARE Prime. TRICARE was
designed so that care could be provided in a timely manner within the
civilian network when it was not available in the direct care system.
There is no reason, including the deployment of medical personnel, that
access standards should not always be met.
TNEX and other contracts
The next round of TRICARE Contracts (TNEX) would appear to place
significant new levels of authority and responsibility on local
Military Treatment Facility (MTF) commanders. NMFA is concerned this
may actually increase the differences in how beneficiaries access care
rather than make it more uniform. NMFA looks for assurances that the
transition to the new contracts and from the current twelve United
States regions to only three will be managed to cause as few
disruptions as possible for beneficiaries. Because existing regions
will be brought gradually into the newer, large regions, the potential
exists for an education and information nightmare as beneficiaries
moving to a new location try to determine what regional contractor
handles their enrollment, processes their claims, and sets the ``rules
of the road.''
Currently, Managed Care Support Contractors in some regions have
total responsibility for making appointments, and in all regions have
the responsibility for making appointments within the civilian network.
The new contracts would appear to leave this responsibility to the
local MTF commander, either to arrange all of the appointments or to
opt into an as yet unknown national appointment contract. Also, all
current Managed Care Support Contractors are required to have a health
information line. Surveys have revealed that military beneficiaries use
these advice lines at a higher rate than civilians, yet the new
contracts do not require TRICARE contractors to offer them. Instead,
the decision to have one and/or which one to have is left up to the
local MTF commander.
TNEX also appears to blur lines of authority and accountability
rather than strengthening them. Beneficiaries need a clear line of
command and accountability for their problems with accessing care to be
fixed and for their concerns about quality of care to be appropriately
addressed. This oversight also must apply to information about changes
to the benefit or in how beneficiaries access care from the current
method. If changes are to be made, beneficiaries need to be educated
and informed BEFORE the fact.
NMFA is especially worried about what will happen to the resource
sharing arrangements that have provided the staff necessary to optimize
care in the military facilities, thus providing continuity of care for
patients while enabling the system to avoid the higher costs of paying
for care the civilian sector. Resource sharing arrangements made by the
Managed Care Support Contractors at the request of the military
hospital commanders have been a TRICARE success story for beneficiaries
and the facilities. Currently, there are approximately 600 resource
sharing arrangements provided by the Managed Care Contractors in 95
military treatment facilities. They have enabled commanders to keep
emergency rooms open longer hours, staff more operating rooms, operate
additional primary care and pediatric clinics, and maintain access
standards during deployment and summer rotation staffing gaps.
Unfortunately, the TNEX contracts call for current resource sharing
agreements to end immediately on the termination of the old TRICARE
contracts. Although the Services and their MTF commanders will have the
authority under the new contracts to enter into various types of
contractual agreements with providers, NMFA is concerned that the
abrupt termination of existing resource sharing agreements may result
in the loss of valued medical providers familiar with the medical needs
of the beneficiaries they serve and at least a temporary halt to
certain vital services.
Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis, WA, for example, uses
resource sharing arranged by the TRICARE contractor to staff its
pediatric clinic. Resource sharing provides 3.4 physician and 4.4
licensed practical nurse positions, as well as clinic support staff,
enabling the hospital to keep approximately 24,000 patient visits each
year in the facility. When the current Region 11 contract expires next
year, the agreement providing that staff goes away. Imagine the
disappointment of the families who have come to depend on those doctors
and nurses to care for their children when told their hospital no
longer has the means to retain them. Imagine the reaction of a deployed
service member when he or she receives an e-mail from the spouse that
their child's doctor is no longer available because of the provisions
of a ``new and improved'' TRICARE contract.
To protect beneficiaries' continuity of care during the
implementation of the new contracts, NMFA believes that current
resource sharing arrangements should not automatically end with the
expiration of the existing TRICARE contracts. Rather, a plan must be in
place to allow for a bridge period under which the resource sharing
arrangements can be transitioned smoothly from the control of the
Managed Care Support Contractors to the MTFs. The plan's emphasis must
be on ensuring that current providers are retained in order to protect
the relationships they have developed with patients and with the
facilities.
NMFA is also concerned that the transition to the new contracts has
delayed implementation of the important changes in the Program for
Persons with Disabilities (PPWD) enacted by Congress in the Fiscal Year
2002 NDAA. The program to replace the PPWD has been developed and,
according to briefings provided to military association representatives
and at this year's TRICARE Conference, promises a rich benefit and
vital assistance for some of the most vulnerable active duty families.
Members of these subcommittees were instrumental in securing the
legislative changes to enhance this program; NMFA urges Congress to
press for implementation as soon as possible following the start-up of
TNEX. Legislative ``tweaking'' may also be needed to provide a benefit
bridge as service members move from active to retired status until they
can secure needed benefits for the disabled family member in their
local community.
Guard and Reserve Health Care
While the ``rules of the road'' for using TRICARE, particularly
Prime, seem now to be well understood by most active duty and retired
family members, it is another story for National Guard and Reserve
families. Since many of these families do not live near an
installation, most of their information comes in printed form, on the
web or via telephone. In addition, many live in areas where providers
are unaware of TRICARE, as there are few if any other uniformed service
beneficiaries in the area. Lead agents and TRICARE contractors
routinely conduct TRICARE briefings for members of units about to
mobilize; unfortunately, in most cases, families (those who will
actually have to navigate the system) live too far away to attend. If
the service member and family live in a different TRICARE region from
the one where the unit is located, the information provided in the unit
setting may not be the same for the region in which the family actually
lives. Decisions to enroll in Prime, use standard or remain with an
employer provided plan need to be family decisions based on full and
accurate information provided to service members and their families.
NMFA is pleased that the Senate has recognized the distinct health care
information and education needs of Guard and Reserve members and their
families and included a provision in S.1050 to require DOD to create
new Beneficiary Counseling and Assistance Coordinator positions (BCACs)
to assist them in making the transition to TRICARE and guiding them
through the transition following demobilization. These new BCAC
positions will be located at both the Lead Agent offices and at the
MTFs and will be in addition to the BCACs who currently provide
assistance to other beneficiaries.
NMFA has long believed that the approach to meeting the health care
needs of Guard and Reserve members and their families must be flexible
enough to ensure access to care and continuity of care. We believe the
provisions in S.1050, as amended, address most of these issues. The
amendment approved by the Senate would authorize Guard and Reserve
members, for a reasonable premium, to enroll themselves and their
families in TRICARE when not on active duty. Thus, members who
currently have no insurance in civilian life could have access to an
affordable program and would enjoy continuity in both program and care
for the family when the member is activated. Alternatively, the
legislation would authorize DOD to pay the premiums of an employer-
provided private sector plan for the family of an activated Guard or
Reserve member up to the level of what TRICARE would cost DOD if it
were provided to the member and his/her family. This would allow those
with civilian provided coverage to continue with their current plan and
providers.
Defense Health Care funding must be adequate to meet readiness
needs and provide for both the purchased care segment of TRICARE and
the direct care system. Access standards were part of the promise DOD
made to families when they enrolled in TRICARE Prime and must be met.
Civilian networks must be robust enough to support MTFs in meeting the
access standards. Recruitment of TRICARE Standard providers and
education of Standard beneficiaries should be as much a part of the
TRICARE program as are these endeavors for Prime providers and
enrollees. The new round of contracts must provide standardized ways to
access health care across all regions and beneficiaries should have a
clear picture of who can solve their access problems and quality of
care concerns. Families of Guard and Reserve members should have
flexible options for their health care coverage that address both
access to care and continuity of care. In addition, accurate and timely
information on their options and such things as transitional health
care must be provided to the families as well as the service member.
MILITARY ALLOWANCES AND FEDERAL PROGRAMS
As service members were preparing to head to the Middle East for
Operation Iraqi Freedom, NMFA heard from some of the most vulnerable
military families of a large cost being imposed on them because of the
service member's deployment. Disabled family members of military
service members may qualify for Supplemental Security Income (SSI),
based on the disability and on income. Often the SSI payment itself is
relatively small; however, SSI is the gateway to coverage under
Medicaid, which covers some services not covered by TRICARE. When
service members deployed and began receiving deployment-related
payments, they discovered that their disabled child or spouse would
probably lose eligibility for SSI because of the increase in the family
income. Some families actually tried to refuse the extra allowances
because the services provided as a result of their SSI eligibility were
more valuable than the additional pay. One Marine family cited in press
reports, for example, received approximately $400 in additional
deployment allowances, but stood to lose services, supplies, and
medical care for their disabled 3-year-old worth $8,000 a month. The
problem: Social Security counted special pays and allowances as
unearned income when calculating a person's eligibility for SSI, thus
weighting the allowances heavier than basic pay.
After Members of Congress brought this issue to the attention of
the Social Security Administration this spring, Social Security
Commissioner Jo Anne B. Barnhardt issued an emergency regulation,
retroactive to October 1, 2002, to exempt deployment pay received while
the service member is in an officially designated combat zone from the
eligibility calculation for SSI benefits. Commissioner Barnhardt issued
a second ruling on March 27 to exempt Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH)
received by service members residing in privatized military family
housing from SSI eligibility calculations, thus protecting residents of
military family housing once it is turned over to private developers.
Families living in government quarters are more likely to qualify for
SSI than families receiving BAH because the value of the government
housing is not counted toward SSI eligibility while BAH is. When
government housing is privatized, service members, even if still living
on the installation, begin receiving BAH, which is then paid to the
developer as rent in an allotment.
This spring's SSI dilemma highlights a long-standing frustration
for military families: the confusion involved in how and when military
allowances are counted for tax purposes or to determine eligibility for
military and civilian programs. The treatment of BAH alone, as seen in
the following matrix, results in confusion for families and disparities
as they move from one assignment to another and from on-base to off-
base housing. The matrix shows only Federal and DOD programs; many
State programs also have varying rules for treating BAH and other
military allowances.
BASIC ALLOWANCE FOR HOUSING (BAH) AND PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Privatized Military
Value of Government Family Housing (BAH
Program Quarters included on Leave and BAH
Earnings Statement)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)...... Excluded............... Excluded............... Excluded
Food Stamps.......................... Excluded............... Included............... Included
WIC (USDA)........................... Most States exclude.... Most States exclude.... Most States exclude
WIC Overseas (DOD)................... Excluded............... N/A.................... Excluded
DOD Family Supplemental Subsistence Included (adds in Included............... Included
Allowance. amount of BAH service
member would have
received).
National School Lunch Program (USDA). Excluded............... Excluded............... Included
DOD Overseas Student Meal Program.... Excluded............... N/A.................... Excluded
Head Start Program................... Excluded............... Included............... Included
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)... Excluded............... Excluded............... Included
DOD Child Care Fees.................. Includes BAH II (not Includes BAH II (not Includes BAH II (not
geographically-based geographically-based geographically-based
BAH). BAH). BAH)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As can be seen in the matrix, BAH is not even consistently treated
under DOD programs. The eligibility puzzle has grown more complicated
in recent years as the military Services have begun to privatize
military family housing. The promise of privatization is that the
Services will be able to upgrade their housing stock at a faster pace
using private capital than by relying on the military construction
process. By law, when housing is privatized, service members must be
paid BAH. The effect of this provision on family members' eligibility
for certain safety net programs was not known when the privatization
authorities were created. It soon became evident, however. When Army
housing at Fort Carson, CO, was privatized, two-thirds of the families
living on Fort Carson who were eligible for food stamps became
ineligible, simply because they started receiving BAH. The inclusion of
the BAH on their Leave and Earnings Statement (LES) made it appear that
these families' income had increased, even though they were living in
the same house and the BAH was immediately paid out as an allotment to
the developer as rent.
Next, many families found out they no longer qualified for free and
reduced school lunches because of the inclusion of BAH on their LES.
Because the percentage of children on free and reduced lunches is used
as the poverty rate when qualifying schools for Federal title I funds
and certain State school funding, the local school district serving
Fort Carson stood to lose approximately $400,000 in the year following
the privatization. School districts launched a legislative initiative
to restore the status quo so that children would remain eligible for
free and reduced lunches and schools would remain eligible for funding
they needed to better serve their students. The legislative change
exempting BAH received by service members in privatized housing from
eligibility calculations for free and reduced lunch passed as an
amendment to the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002
(P.L.107-171).
Last year's protection of the status quo in determining eligibility
for free and reduced lunches and this year's SSI regulatory change
related to BAH are a boon to families living in privatized housing.
These changes, however, do exacerbate disparities experienced by
military families based on where they live. Often, whether or not
families live on the installation in government quarters or privatized
housing is determined by chance--by the availability of housing or the
size of the waiting list--and not by choice. Young families most in
need of government housing are often forced to seek housing on the
economy because there is not enough junior enlisted housing available
on the installation. Although funding for BAH has improved in recent
years thanks to funding support from Congress, on average, BAH still
does not cover service members' total housing costs. This year, it is
funded to provide on average all but 7.5 percent of out-of-pocket costs
for a housing standard tied to a service member's rank. The standard on
which BAH is based for an E-5 with dependents, for example, is a two-
bedroom townhouse. Service members needing a larger home off-base cover
the additional rental costs out of their own pockets, yet because they
receive BAH, they often have too much income to qualify for Federal
safety net programs. Service members lucky enough to receive either
government quarters or privatized housing on an installation obtain the
appropriate size housing for their family size and, because the value
of their government housing does not count toward eligibility for most
programs, they find it easier to qualify. Families in privatized
housing by law may be charged no more in rent than their BAH, thus
limiting their out-of-pocket costs. So, we have the situation where
families living on base with fewer expenses qualify for additional
support programs while families living off-base with higher housing and
transportation expenses do not.
NMFA urges members of these subcommittees to assist in bringing a
sense of order in how military allowances are counted for Federal
programs to ensure equitable access to these safety net services and to
protect families against disruptions in benefit eligibility caused by
the receipt of deployment pays. No family should have to face the
prospect of losing valuable benefits for a disabled child because a
service member has received deployment orders. Families living off the
installation are often there only because of insufficient on-base
housing, yet endure higher expenses than families living on an
installation. Ideally, therefore, NMFA believes tax free allowances
such as BAH should not be counted under any safety net program, which
is how they are now treated in determining eligibility for the Earned
Income Tax Credit (EITC). NMFA understands that this could increase the
number of military families eligible for some of these programs, but
believes this is justified given the need for equitable treatment of
all service members, as well as the loss of spouse income due to
military relocations and high operations tempo.
Inconsistent treatment of military allowances for tax purposes and
in determining eligibility for safety net programs creates confusion
and disparities between service members based on where they are able to
find housing, and can exact a financial penalty on military families. A
start in correcting this inequity would be to adopt a common standard
in how BAH should be counted in eligibility formulas and to ensure that
the receipt of deployment-related allowances do not cause military
family members to become ineligible for support services for which they
would otherwise be eligible.
NMFA thanks these subcommittees and Congress for your advocacy for
a better quality of life for service members and their families. Just
as the family worries about the deployed service member, the service
member's constant concern is about the well-being of his or her family.
In the dangerous environment in which they must frequently operate,
service members cannot afford to be distracted by concerns at home.
They need to know their spouse has access to information about benefits
and services available, their children are receiving a quality
education, their family can access health care when needed, their
family's prized possessions will arrive at a new home in one piece,
their spouse isn't frustrated by an inability to have a meaningful
career, and that their disabled child has not lost vital services
simply because of deployment or the location of the family's residence.
Assuring the service member that the decision to serve will not
penalize the family is critical to the service member's readiness and
thus to mission readiness. The stability of the military family and
community and their support for the forces rests on the Nation's
continued focus on the entire package of quality of life components.
Military members and their families look to you for continued support
for that quality of life. Please don't let them down.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you.
Ms. Lucas, we're pleased to have you here.
STATEMENT OF M.A. LUCAS, DIRECTOR, ARMY CHILD AND YOUTH
SERVICES, U.S. ARMY COMMUNITY AND FAMILY SUPPORT CENTER
Ms. Lucas. Thank you, sir. Good afternoon. I appreciate the
opportunity to discuss the child care and school transition
challenges facing military parents. The requirement for
military child care and youth programs is quite simply to
support force readiness by reducing the conflict between
parental responsibilities of the military service members and
their unit mission requirements. There's no doubt that the
conflict is there.
Surveys in the Army indicate that soldiers lose duty time
to deal with issues related to youth misconduct and the lack of
available child care. Child care is a workforce issue that
truly impacts readiness.
Other militarily unique factors contribute to the need for
child and youth programs. For example, military families are
younger than their private sector counterparts, and live away
from their own extended families. Young service members have
infants and toddlers, as Senator Dodd noted, who need the very
kind of care that is least available and most expensive off-
post.
Service members generally don't have a standard Monday-
through-Friday, 9-to-5 work week. Likewise, the military mobile
lifestyle, with its frequent relocations, makes school
transitions difficult, especially for our teens. Quality child
and youth programs allow service members to focus on their
mission, knowing their children are learning and are well cared
for in our child care programs and their teens are adjusting
well to new schools. Military child care and youth programs are
an incalculable force multiplier.
In addition to providing our routine child care services
and youth supervision options, to date, this year, in fiscal
year 2003, the Department of Defense Military Child and Youth
Programs have supported military parents with more than 400,000
hours of additional contingency-related child care. We are also
piloting outreach efforts aimed at serving geographically
dispersed active component service members as well as Guard and
Reserve members who are eligible to utilize these services
while on active duty or in a training status.
Our challenge is to sustain our baseline child and youth
programs, construct additional child care facilities where
necessary, develop the infrastructure to stabilize our child
care workforce, and consistently provide services such as
respite care, extended hours care, back-up care, school
transition assistance, care options for geographically
dispersed service members, support youth communications with
our deployed parents, and career potential, especially for our
military spouse employees. These objectives will increase the
availability of military child care in a systemic manner.
The Army has begun the process of implementing the results
of the secondary education study, SETS, that addressed the
challenges that military-sponsored students face when
transitioning from one school district to another. In the Army,
we are implementing two outcomes of this study. First, the Army
has funded school liaison officer positions at Army
installations to provide these transition support services, for
instance, information about graduation requirements and records
transfer and extracurricular activities.
Second, we have established a framework for school systems
called the SETS agreement to encourage and facilitate the
adoption of reciprocal school policies and practices among the
SETS schools. To date, 125 superintendents, representing 129
school districts, which encompass over 2\1/2\ million military-
connected and civilian children, have signed on to make school
transitions easier by giving all mobile children, not just
military-connected children, a level playing field.
A ground-breaking Army personnel process, begun in April
2001, has allowed more than 2,400 soldiers with children
entering their senior year in high school to remain an extra
year at their current duty station. Students are not disrupted,
and can graduate with friends. Clearly, this is the right way
to support our families when possible.
In August 1990, the House Armed Services Committee
challenged the Department of Defense, and I quote, ``to be on
the leading edge of the child care movement in America.'' The
Services responded by making military child care, once derided
by many as the ``ghetto of child care,'' the model for national
child care reform.
Military child care and youth programs are absolutely
essential to the well-being of our military families. Your
committees have been champions of military child and youth
programs for more than 20 years. We believe the Department of
Defense and the military Services have delivered unprecedented,
measurable cost, quality, and availability outcomes documented
by various reports and studies, including GAO and the Rand
Corporation. A May 17, 2000, USA Today quote sums it up: ``the
military is a model of child care efficiency.''
I would hope you would agree that the Nation has received
an excellent return on its investment in military child care.
On behalf of military parents all over the world, I ask your
continued support for our military child and youth program.
Military parents face a variety of challenges every day.
Knowing their children are well cared for should make those
challenges a bit easier to handle.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Lucas follows:]
Prepared Statement by Ms. M.A. Lucas
Good afternoon, Chairman Chambliss, Chairman Alexander, and members
of the subcommittees. I appreciate the opportunity to testify before
you today to discuss the child care and school transition challenges
facing military parents. It is my privilege to represent the Child and
Youth Programs of our armed services and to tell you about our
initiatives that respond to the needs of our military parents.
As the Director of Army Child and Youth Services, I can report that
never have the stresses of military parenting been greater than in this
``post-September 11 world''--nor has the need been greater to assure
our military parents that their children will be well cared for as they
deal with the daily impact of the global war on terrorism. Throughout
these significant challenges, our Military Child and Youth Programs are
also accommodating the needs of our military communities and striving
to meet the ever-increasing demand for unique child care options and
school transition services not found in the private sector.
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
The requirement for Military Child Care and Youth Programs is--
quite simply--to support force readiness by reducing the conflict
between the parental responsibilities of military service members and
unit mission requirements. There is no doubt the conflict is there. The
Army Sample Survey of Military Personnel Spring 2002 data shows 27
percent of enlisted soldier parents who use child care lost duty time
in a 3-month period due to the lack of child care. This reflects a
rising trend, up from 20 percent in 1995 and 23 percent in 1999.
Likewise, a fall 2001 survey showed 27 percent of enlisted soldier
parents with children 13-18 years living with them lost duty time in a
12-month period as a result of dealing with youth misconduct. Clearly
these trends demonstrate the fact that availability of child care and
youth supervision options has an impact on military mission readiness.
There are many military-unique factors that make child care and
youth supervision options a necessity to support our troops, e.g.,
military families are younger families with children away from their
own extended families and neighborhoods; large numbers of infants and
toddlers--the very age group that care is least available for off post;
military duties requiring child care and youth supervision options 10-
14 hours per day including early morning, evenings, and weekends as
well as round-the-clock care--sometimes for an extended period of time;
lack of care options at remote sites and overseas; and large numbers of
parents whose spouses are deployed making them temporarily
geographically single, as well as true single and dual military
parents. Likewise, the mobile military lifestyle with its frequent
relocations makes school transitions difficult--especially for teens.
Quality Child and Youth Programs allow service members to focus on
their missions knowing that their children are thriving in our child
care programs and their teens are adjusting well to new schools.
Military Child Care and Youth Programs are an incalculable force
multiplier.
With the advent of the global war on terrorism, military parents
literally ``go to war'' each day they leave their homes. It may be they
will be gone for a day and return home that night. It may be they will
board a ship and be gone for 6 months. To a child or young person who
sees the reality of this war on the evening news, the fact that his or
her parent--or, in some cases, both parents--must leave every day to
face this threat can be understandably frightening. Military Child Care
and Youth Programs have responded, meeting as many needs as current
resources allow, most recently during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
child care and youth supervision options to support military parents
In a very real sense, Military Child Care Programs also ``go to
war'' whenever our military forces are called upon to do so. Many
installations and bases have Child Care Mobilization and Contingency
Plans that can be activated whenever there is an extraordinary
contingency condition, be it a natural disaster or a war. When these
child care plans are activated, here are some of the things that happen
to benefit military parents, especially parents who may have been
sharing child care arrangements and now will need additional support
while one of the parents is deployed:
Child care options provided are tailored to meet the
current mission requirements, e.g., hours of operation may be
adjusted to support an extended duty day, more hourly care is
available to support unit briefings.
Child and Youth staff identify locations for
alternative child care sites to expand services.
Staff recruitment and background check actions are
expedited to replace those family member employees who return
home during the sponsor's deployment and to accommodate
increase in children served.
Safety and security measures are augmented and may
include the designation of staff as ``mission essential
personnel'' in order to provide child care services for other
mission essential personnel.
Fees are often reduced and extended child care hours
in support of the mission may be provided at little or no cost
to service members.
Today, thousands of Child and Youth employees and Military Home
Care providers are supporting families of deployed troops, often
beginning as early as 4:30 a.m. and going until late into the evening
to support shift workers. Military Home Care providers frequently
provide additional evening hours of care taking the children to ball
practice, choir, helping with homework, and volunteering to coach youth
sports teams whose coaches are deployed. Staff also often work at night
and weekends to provide care during family readiness group meetings and
special events held by the installation to support families of deployed
service members. In short, Child and Youth employees and Military Home
Care providers are making every effort to provide a ``normal'' life to
children who desperately need this support.
It may not sound extraordinary to us, but to the families that are
supported, the efforts of these Child and Youth staff and Military Home
Care providers make all the difference in their ability to cope with
the stress of family separation. Telling, too, is the fact that many of
them are also dealing with the deployment of their own spouses.
Here are some examples of initiatives implemented by the Services
specifically to support the needs of parents during the current
deployments:
The Army offers extended hours care to soldiers using
Child Development Centers and Family Child Care Homes at 85
installations. Many of these locations are providing care for
children of deployed soldiers for up to 60 days in Family Child
Care Homes. This allows these children to stay in a familiar
setting as an alternative to foster care when grandparents or
other family members are unable to care for them while their
parent(s) is deployed. Providers caring for these children
receive special training and oversight. An average of 38,000
hours of contingency related care is provided monthly in these
child and youth programs. Twenty-one thousand of these care
hours are in Family Child Care homes.
The Navy is offering around-the-clock care in Pearl
Harbor and Norfolk regions (where there are large fleet
concentrations) to meet the extended hours need of shift
workers and families of deployed sailors. The Navy is also
creating a group home in each of these regions accommodating
12-18 children, with three shifts available.
The Marine Corps is offering respite care, extended
hours care, and child care during deployment briefings to
support Marine Corps families. Deployment training materials
for children were developed to assist Child and Youth staff and
Home Care providers help children deal with the current
deployment.
The Air Force has expanded their Family Child Care
Program at 70 Air Force bases to help parents when they need
care beyond their regular child care arrangements to include
before, during, and after deployments. Child care services
include extended duty care for parents who work extended hours
or have a shift change or need temporary help. Sixteen hours of
care are offered for each child in families of active duty
military, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve members
returning from deployments of 30 days of more so they can spend
time with spouses and catch up on family duties. An average of
11,000 hours of care is provided monthly through the use of the
Expanded Family Child Care programs.
To this point in fiscal year 2003, through its different
initiatives, Army child care programs have impacted nearly 10,000
families with more than 20,000 children by delivering 231,400 child
care hours beyond ``normal'' operations. The Air Force, Navy, and
Marines are providing comparable support to their families as well. In
total, more than 400,000 hours of contingency related child care have
been provided to military parents Department of Defense (DOD) wide.
Military parents are also concerned about the impact of the global
war on terrorism on their school-age children and teens. All the
Services have held meetings with teens to help develop the kinds of
programs on the installations that appeal to this age group and help
them cope with the changes in their lives brought on by a parent's
absence.
Communication with parents who are deployed is an essential factor
in maintaining well-being in the lives of our children and youth. At
youth centers, where computers with internet connectivity are
available, our young people use e-mail and digital photography to stay
connected.
NEW WAYS OF PROVIDING SERVICES
The global war on terrorism is transforming the way we deliver
child care services to military families, particularly to those not
living on or near military installations. For example, one of our
National Guard bases provided on-site child care to a Marine Corps
Reserve unit located approximately 2 hours away. Although the child
care staff had only 3 days to prepare for the request to provide child
care for a Sunday deployment briefing--it happened . . . much to the
great satisfaction of the Marine Corps unit making the request. By
offering child care to military parents located 100 miles away from the
Child Development Center, the staff demonstrated they were not bound to
delivering service in the ``traditional'' way.
The military Services are piloting numerous outreach efforts aimed
at serving geographically-dispersed active component service members as
well as Guard and Reserve members who are eligible to utilize these
services while on active duty or in training status.
A Memorandum of Agreement between the Army and the
General Services Administration (GSA) permits active duty
patrons to include Guard and Reserve in 23 communities
throughout the country (e.g., Albany, New York and St. Louis,
Missouri) at the same cost as at an Army Child Development
Center.
The Army is implementing several pilot programs to
support monthly weekend drills for Guard and Reserve units and
child care for 12 activated Guard and Reserve Family Support
Groups.
Cooperative agreements between the Army and the Boys &
Girls Clubs of Miami, Florida; Killeen, Texas; Tacoma,
Washington; Silver Spring, Maryland; and Dale City, Virginia,
are allowing the Clubs in these local communities to offer
services to military-connected youth that are comparable to
Army Youth Programs in terms of training, staff supervision,
and predictable programming.
Our Military Youth Programs are receiving strong
support through our ongoing partnerships with the United States
Department of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service (i.e.,
4-H Clubs) and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
In support of Operation Enduring Freedom, Boys
& Girls Clubs all over America have ``opened their
hearts and doors'' to our school-age children and teens
of military families living off-post, as well as to
children of reservists and National Guard. Children can
participate in local Club activities for little or no
cost to their families.
Cooperative Extension Service ``military
liaisons'' in 38 States are supporting military-
connected children and youth through a variety of
outreach initiatives. These State and local 4-H Club
partnerships with Military Youth Programs reinforce a
sense of community for our school-age children and
teens whether they live on or near a military
installation or are a part of the greater community.
Wherever they move, our youth are involved and
connected in 4-H clubs.
We are encouraged by these successes and by that fact that each of
these deployment support initiatives has the potential to be expanded
to additional sites.
a systematic approach
The Department of Defense is working to institutionalize our
``lessons learned`` by establishing an infrastructure to support the
child care and youth supervision needs of our military parents. This
systematic response may range from ensuring we have a cadre of well-
trained Home Care providers who can handle long-term care or respite
care to support that single service member or that ``geographically-
single'' spouse, to guaranteeing extended hours that mirror the
installation duty day at Child Development Centers so that dual-
employed military families can meet their military obligations.
Working parents and service members require a range of baseline
programs to support their child care needs. These programs and services
are vital in ensuring that military parents have reliable child care
options that minimize lost duty time. Normal duty requirements usually
involve Full Daycare in Child Development Centers, Military Child Care
Homes, or Before and After School Programs. Full day operations cover a
range of duty hours usually from 6 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Hourly Care is provided in these same programs to support the
intermittent child care requirements of both working and non-working
parents. Non-working parents who volunteer their time supporting family
programs use hourly care options. Youth Programs provide predictable
options and services during out-of-school time particularly for middle
school youth who are too old for child care and too young to drive or
have a job. Youth programming can include leisure activities, life
skills classes, opportunities to volunteer for community service,
workforce preparation, individual/group sports and fitness activities,
homework centers, and youth technology labs.
Many military parents often need care beyond the normal duty day.
Extended Hours Child Care, usually offered in Military Child Care Homes
on and off post, must be available for children of parents who require
routine evening child care, work unusual or long hours, or have mission
related child care needs that require services over 12 hours a day.
Parents involved in training exercises or temporary duty away from
their home station may require round-the-clock care with specially
trained Home Providers for periods of up to 60 days.
Single parents and parents with deployed spouses find themselves
dealing alone with the stresses of parenthood. Respite Care offers
short-term hourly care to provide them a ``break'' to tend to family
business or take time for themselves. Respite care services, often
offered as part of a child abuse prevention plan, are generally at no
cost to parents for limited periods of time or offered at a reduced
rate.
We believe much lost duty time is due to routine child illnesses
and unreliable child care arrangements. Back-up child care homes are an
option to provide care when routine child care arrangements break down
or cannot be used. Many times it is the service member who takes time
off to be with a child recovering from a cold because the spouse holds
a job with limited benefits and would lose needed income from a day's
pay.
On-Site Group Care, provided in non-traditional settings, is often
used to support command functions, e.g., pre-deployment briefings.
Child care staff come to the event location with mobile child care kits
and ``set up shop.''
We need to institutionalize services such as these to support
military parents who are under constant stress of a high operating
tempo and frequent deployments.
SCHOOL TRANSITION SUPPORT
Just as we are sharing our lessons learned in Military Child Care,
the work the Army is doing in partnership with local school systems is
applicable to ease school transitions for any mobile student.
In 2000, the Army, in partnership with the Military Child Education
Coalition, conducted a study to gain a greater understanding of the
challenges that military-sponsored students face when transitioning
from one school district to another. The findings included student
difficulties with transferability of student records, course grades,
credit hours, and high stakes testing requirements of different States
as they moved from school district to school district. Of course, these
are issues that impact all mobile children and not on just those
children with military parents.
To institutionalize the results of the Secondary Education
Transition Study (SETS), the Army has funded School Liaison Officer
positions at Army installations to facilitate school transitions for
our children. These trained professionals are providing Army families
with consistent and predictable transition support services, e.g.,
improved communication about school calendars, graduation requirements,
records transfer, and opportunities for students to more rapidly
develop social and emotional connections to the new school and
community.
The number of school systems serving children from families of all
branches of the military who are willing to both emulate promising
practices and share ideas that will make the transitions easier
encourages us. To date, 125 superintendents, representing 129 school
districts, which encompass over 2.5 million school-age children, have
signed the SETS Agreement to facilitate the development of reciprocal
school policies and practices to institutionalize processes for school
transitions. The vast majority of the signatory school systems are
stateside public schools, and I am pleased to note that all of our
Department of Defense Dependent Schools and Department of Defense
Domestic Elementary and Secondary Schools are signatories. The Army is
forming a steering committee of superintendents to promote
communications among these school systems and expand the SETS Agreement
process to major school systems supporting military installations. A
web-based ``forum'' will allow all SETS superintendents to network and
share information on promising practices. We are asking local schools
to consider policy changes in order to level the playing field so all
mobile children have the same opportunity for academic success and
smooth school transitions. We are hopeful all major school districts
serving military-connected children will become signatories of the SETS
Agreement so that no child is ``left behind.''
During Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, it
has been clear that SETS school systems are committed to responding to
the needs of our military children. Superintendents, principals, and
counselors welcome information about how to support our children,
including military support services available for their use. Teachers
and counselors are extremely positive and demonstrate a genuine
interest in the well-being of our military-connected children. Because
these partnerships with the local schools were well established prior
to the need for them, the outcomes resulted in a better understanding
among students, parents, and school personnel as mobilization of
soldiers occurred.
School systems who are members of the Military Child Education
Coalition, a private, non-profit organization whose mission is to
address the education needs of children in military families of all
Services, receive an ``interactive counseling center.'' This point-to-
point video teleconferencing computer system enables counselors from
the losing school to communicate with the receiving school when a
student is in transition. Copies of transcripts, course descriptions,
and other records can be reviewed on screen and transmitted real time
to either school. This is an excellent tool for both and parents
counselors.
The Military Child Education Coalition also sponsors a Transition
Counselor Institute series to help school guidance personnel work with
military-connected children. Subjects include the military lifestyle,
deployment, and relocation issues. The Military Child Education
Coalition has trained almost 1,000 educators from 29 States and
overseas through this institute.
Since April 2001, the Army has allowed more than 2,400 soldiers
with children entering their senior year in high school to remain an
extra year at their current duty station. Soldiers may apply to the
Army Personnel Command for stabilization approval 12 months prior to
the start of their child's senior year. Only 21 requests, fewer than 1
percent, have been denied because of the needs of the Army. As of June
2003, 60 requests were pending approval. The Army evaluates the
applications on a case-by-case basis and looks to be able to say
``yes'' to the request.
Families tell us this process works. Students are able to prepare
for post secondary opportunities, go to the prom, and graduate with
friends they made during their high school days. Army service now means
one less sacrifice for families. We are being told we are doing the
right thing.
CONCLUSION
In August 1990, the House Armed Services Committee challenged DOD
``to be on the leading edge of the child care movement in America.''
The Services responded by making military child care, once derided by
many as the ``ghetto of child care,'' as the model for national child
care reform. Indeed, a May 2000 report issued by the National Women's
Law Center entitled: ``Be All That We Can Be Lessons from the Military
For Improving our Nation's Child Care System,'' notes: ``The best
chance a family has to be guaranteed affordable and high quality
(child) care is to join the military.'' Several States are now piloting
the key components of the Military Child Care System, in response to
the language in the Fiscal Year 2000 Defense Authorization Act, Public
Law 106-65, ``Support for Expanded Child Care and Youth Programs
Services for Dependents.'' We believe that this effort, in addition to
improving child care in the private sector, will lead to additional
quality child care options for military parents.
Although military child care programs are acknowledged as a
benchmark model today, we are evaluating our present operations with a
clear view of where we must go in the future while maintaining the key
elements of quality, affordability, and availability that define our
DOD Child Care and Youth Program policies.
Our new challenge is to sustain our baseline Child and Youth
Programs and develop the infrastructure that will allow us to routinely
provide predictable services such as school transition assistance,
offer respite and extended hours care as needed, identify care options
for geographically-dispersed service members, support youth
communications with deployed parents, and facilitate partnerships with
schools and community organizations that will increase the availability
of care for military-connected children. Only by looking at these
options, in addition to our existing baseline programs, will military
parents have sufficient affordable, quality child care and youth
supervision options.
To do so, we must focus our planning on ensuring fee equity for all
patrons regardless of whether they choose care in Child Development
Centers or in Military Child Care Homes; increasing the availability of
off-post care options that are comparable in quality and cost to on-
post programs; stabilizing our child care workforce by paying
competitive wages; and offering career potential--especially for our
military spouse employees--within the Military Child and Youth Program
system DOD-wide, and constructing additional on-post child care
facilities where necessary.
We must also, however, recognize that we are accountable for our
operations and deliver back to military families and to the American
taxpayer the very best and most efficient system that we can. We have
done that and will continue to do so.
Military Child Care and Youth Programs are absolutely essential to
the well-being of our military families. Your committees have been
champions of Military Child and Youth Programs for more than 20 years.
We believe DOD and the military services have delivered measurable
cost, quality, and availability outcomes. These outcomes are documented
by various private sector reports and studies done by the General
Accounting Office, RAND Corporation, our national professional
accreditation status, and media stories. A May 17, 2000, USA Today
quote sums it up: ``The military is the model of child care
efficiency.''
I hope that you would agree that the Nation has received an
excellent return on its investment in military child care. On behalf of
military parents all over the world, I ask your continued strong
support for our Military Child Care and Youth Programs. Military
parents face a variety of challenges every day. Knowing their children
are well cared for should make those challenges a bit easier to handle.
Thank You.
Senator Alexander. Thank you very much, Ms. Lucas, and
thanks to all of the witnesses for your complete testimony.
I've read all of your testimony. I'm sorry I wasn't here to
hear it all. The United States Senate does not run with the
same precision as the United States military.
I have several questions, and just so you know what the
schedule is, the Senators have two or three more votes. I'll be
here for another 20 minutes or so, others will be back, I
think, but probably we'll wind this up, if that suits your
schedules, about 5:30. Is that all right with you?
I would like to first thank you for the completeness of
your testimony. It's a big help to us, and it helps us begin to
get specific with areas of things that we might do. I thought
that I would ask you about some very specific things, and let
me start with Ms. Raezer. Let me start with the housing
allowance. At Groton, or at New London, I guess I should say,
we ran into this, and you mention it here, that in the new
housing that's being provided there is a housing allowance, and
so the sailors are finding on their paychecks a new entry that
says, here is your housing allowance.
Now, that looks good, but one problem, and maybe it was an
unintended consequence, or maybe it wasn't, one problem is that
that makes those families ineligible for some other Federal
benefits, like child care vouchers, WIC payments, perhaps even
food stamps, because previously those housing allowances were
treated as in-kind benefits, and not a part of income. Is that
true? How widespread is that, and if that's true, what should
be done about that?
Ms. Raezer. As we addressed in our testimony, this is a
really big issue. It has been an issue historically because of
the way basic allowance for housing has been treated versus
government housing, the in-kind housing. Value of in-kind
housing for most programs has not been counted toward
eligibility. However, housing allowances which show up on a pay
stub are, so our folks who have lived off the installation, and
remember 60 percent of our folks live off the installation,
have had to deal with this issue for a long time.
It was especially bad when the housing allowance wasn't
covering even close to what it was supposed to cover by law.
These folks were dealing with higher housing costs, higher
transportation costs, they were further away from base
services, and yet they couldn't qualify for free and reduced
lunches for their kids and other safety net programs.
Senator Alexander. They were off base.
Ms. Raezer. They were off base.
Senator Alexander. The basic allowance for housing was
counted in their income.
Ms. Raezer. What's complicating the issue now is that under
the authorities for the privatization of military family
housing, which in one sense is a very good thing, since we're
getting private capital in to fix military housing at a much
faster rate than we can get through military construction.
Senator Alexander. They were pretty good-looking buildings.
Ms. Raezer. Yes.
Under that legislation, it was mandated that service
members in the privatized housing will receive this basic
allowance for housing, which is then turned over as an
allotment to the developer as rent. So you have these folks
sometimes living in the same house, but when the contract goes
into effect with the developer, all of a sudden it looks like
they're making more money, but they lose eligibility for the
programs on which they've depended for extra help.
At Fort Carson, Colorado, when the Army turned over all
that housing to the developer, two-thirds of the families who
were on food stamps went off food stamps, simply because the
housing allowance started showing up on their LES. This issue
has been fixed for some programs for free and reduced lunches,
that eligibility was fixed.
Senator Alexander. When you say fixed, what do you mean?
Ms. Raezer. Well, what I mean is that now with respect to
children living in privatized housing, their parents' housing
allowance is not counted towards those children's eligibility.
Senator Alexander. So that was the solution.
Ms. Raezer. It was legislation attached to the agricultural
bill last year, but it only fixed the problem for those
children and parents--it only really maintained the status quo.
It fixed the problem for the folks in privatized housing. We
still have those folks out in the community who are having
larger expenses who still can't qualify.
Our organization, after looking at this, said it would
really be nice if everybody was treated the same way in terms
of basing allowance for housing. The military child care system
kind of compromises. Everybody has the standard, what's called
BAH-2 counted as part of their income, so it's the same across
the board for everyone.
Right now, as you can see in the chart in our written
statement, it's a mish-mash for some things it's counted for
privatized housing, not for other housing. Some places it
hasn't been readjusted yet for the privatized housing. It's
very, very confusing for our families.
Senator Alexander. I can imagine that there would be a
large cost to the Government and in equity of dealing with
people off-base as well as on-base, and the question would come
up, well, would it be then fair to everyone, including people
who don't have families, that--excuse me just a minute.
Ms. Raezer. Sure.
Senator Alexander. I'm just checking to see if I'd voted.
Ms. Raezer. We're looking for you folks to help us simplify
this.
Senator Alexander. I'm glad to know the problem, and if
you're then considering all families, the question might be,
should that total amount of money just go as a pay raise to the
Services, but I think that's as far as I can take it now, but I
think it's a significant issue, and a larger one than I
thought.
A second question I have to pose to any of you is, can you
be of any help to us in suggesting what we might do to
encourage more reciprocity among States on the issues that make
life more difficult for frequently moving military families,
particularly families with children? There are various models,
and there are various agreements, but I'm wondering if there
might not be an interstate compact of some kind that the
Federal Government might encourage, not a Federal law.
A lot of these are State prerogatives, driver's licenses,
professional licenses for spouses who are accountants, or who
want to work for child care, but maybe there would be some sort
of interstate compact that the Federal Government could help
encourage, and that military associations could then go out and
encourage their State legislators to pass, or is that already
being done?
Ms. Raezer. It's being done in some places. The Governor of
Texas just signed a bill into law that would actually encourage
the State of Texas to look at reciprocity agreements on some of
these issues with other States that have a high number of
military children.
Senator Alexander. It's a law to encourage other States?
Ms. Raezer. Encourage Texas to enter into, to explore
reciprocity agreements with other States.
Senator Alexander. I see. Texas would make its own
agreements.
Ms. Raezer. Yes, and that's the first step, because as you
said, this isn't completely a Federal issue, but I would hope
that Members of Congress could use their bully pulpit to say,
this really is something that is worthy of the States'
attention when you go back home.
One piece that we would ask for Federal help on is just, in
your oversight of No Child Left Behind, to ensure that the
varying State accountability measures that are being developed
to bring the States in compliance with No Child Left Behind
don't unfairly penalize mobile children and the schools that
are charged with educating them.
Senator Alexander. Another role that the Federal Government
might play is, the Department of Defense has lots of resources,
many of the people who were here today have lots of resources
that would assist Governors and legislators in figuring out
what it is they ought to do, so it might be just as simple as
getting a few of the Governors together with some of us and the
Department of Defense and some of you all and in an orderly way
trying to get that going.
Ms. Raezer. It would.
Senator Alexander. Ms. Lucas or Dr. MacDermid, do either of
you have comments?
Ms. Lucas. Yes, sir. I can tell you that the Army has
contacted a number of State legislators asking them to review
their in-State tuition eligibility, especially under the
following conditions, asking them to look at their in-State
tuition for soldiers and family members within the State of
legal residence, the immediate in-State tuition for soldiers
and family members in the State of assignment, and then the
continuity of in-State tuition once established.
The proponent for that within the Army is the Office of the
Adjutant General, and we would refer your question to them for
a more comprehensive reply.
Senator Alexander. I wonder if I might ask you to do this
for the committees, would each of you, if you feel you can,
think about the reciprocity issue and write us a letter when
you are finished, in the next few days, and outline for us the
areas where you think reciprocity would be most useful, and any
other comments you might want to make. Like, some things are
easier to do than others, and you've pointed out that some
things are already being done. I was a Governor one time, and
the Uniform Commercial Code was not adopted by the Federal
Government. It was adopted State by State, and my guess would
be that many States with military posts and bases would rush to
try to adopt some sort of reasonable compact, and once several
States did, that would encourage others to do more, but it
would help us to know, from the families' point of view and
from the military's point of view, what would help the most.
In New London they might say, we have a lot of spouses who
want to be a part of the family daycare network, and it takes 6
months to get certified in Connecticut, and by the time they're
certified, they're off doing something else. They can't wait 6
months.
Dr. MacDermid, did you have anything you'd like to add?
Dr. MacDermid. No, thank you, Senator.
Senator Alexander. Let's talk about child care just a
little bit more. I was very impressed with what's happened in
the child care, child development centers we saw, and Senator
Dodd and I may have a little different emphasis on the family
network. I think that's a pretty good thing. At Fort Campbell
they were saying, we have 65 licensed spouses. My guess is that
many of those are military spouses, which provides an
opportunity for income and care for children, and fulfillment,
and they need perhaps 230 homes.
I heard discussion that we need respite care. The
discussion about flexibility we talked about, but other than
respite care, family network, what other child care issues
should we be thinking about?
Ms. Lucas. Sir, I'd like to talk just a little bit about
the family child care first, because military family child care
providers are, in fact, all military spouses.
Senator Alexander. So they're all spouses.
Ms. Lucas. They are all spouses, but military family child
care is a viable option only if the parent fees are equitable
to the same fees that parents are paying in military child
development centers; and that the home providers receive some
kind of compensatory funding offset, as authorized in the
Military Child Care Act to make up the difference in their
expenses.
Senator Alexander. Now, today, are the home providers not
paid?
Ms. Lucas. They are paid directly by the soldiers and
sailors and airmen and marines. However, the fee policy that
the Department of Defense uses for patrons to pay for care in
their child development centers is not applied to the family
child care homes because the same level of subsidy is not given
to the homes that is given to the child development centers. In
general, a soldier using a military family child care home will
pay about $10 a week more than if he were using a military
child development center.
It's an issue of competing priorities, and the Military
Child Care Program has never been funded for that full
compensatory subsidy so that we can use the same fee policy for
both our centers and our family child care homes.
We see really a steady drain of our family child care
providers leaving for other opportunities. Just in the Army
alone over the last 5 years we've lost some 3,500 child spaces
because providers have left for more lucrative opportunities
elsewhere.
Senator Alexander. Now, they've gone for more lucrative
opportunities?
Ms. Lucas. Well, they would go to work in the child
development center.
Senator Alexander. Oh, you mean you've lost the family
spaces.
Ms. Lucas. We've lost the family child care spaces, so
we've seen a steady decline in the number of family child care
spaces in all the Services over the years. Two years ago, the
Services were asked as part of the conference report to give a
report on what would be needed to help expand the family child
care program, and we did provide that.
Senator Alexander. Any other comments on child care?
Ms. Raezer. Yes. I think it's important to remember we have
a lot of folks who can't access either the child development
center or the family child care homes on an installation,
because they don't live near an installation, or because of
transportation issues. An active duty marine who lives in
Woodbridge and works in the Pentagon probably isn't going to
find the Pentagon child development center all that attractive
for their child because it means hauling them up and down I-395
every day. They need child care at home.
Senator Alexander. It's not attractive, no.
Ms. Raezer. We have a lot of our activated Guard and
Reserve families who cannot access the installations, so there
is this whole big population for whom the installation child
development center or family care homes aren't an option, who
right now don't have a military child care service or benefit,
and they're asking for some kind of help in paying for the
child care that they need.
Senator Alexander. There are many different levels of child
care in America, and many of them are adequate. Some are just
better than others. Is it really necessary that the family day
care home subsidy be equal to what the subsidy would be for the
child development center, or is that just a matter of equity
among service families?
Ms. Lucas. Sir, it isn't that it costs. It actually is less
expensive for us to provide child care in a daycare home.
Senator Alexander. Yes.
Ms. Lucas. So it is a lower amount. The equity that we're
talking about is that the soldier or the service member pays
the same whether they're using a family child care home or a
center, so it is truly a choice and a matter of equity among
service families.
I think, too, we're also concerned about when we refer
military family members, for instance, through community
referral service. It's one thing to refer them, but once you're
out there, they need to have some kind of support so that they
are using child care in the private sector, but again looking
to pay something, if not exactly the same as if they were on a
military installation, but receiving some support for that.
We have a pilot site in the Army right now with the GSA-
accredited centers, more than 100 centers throughout the
country, and as part of the pilot site a service member can use
one of those centers and they will be charged the same as if
they were actually on a military installation, and we think
that has a lot of possibilities for future expansion.
Senator Alexander. That's very helpful.
The hour is late. You've been patient with your time, and
most of the Senators have another vote to cast in just a few
minutes, so I want to thank you very much for the
comprehensiveness of your testimony.
This is the fourth in a series of hearings that we have
had. Senator Nelson will have the fifth. We expect to continue
our spotlight for the foreseeable future on how to help make it
easier for military parents raising children. It would seem to
me that a military, if we had a military child care
certification that we could agree on, that might be one of the
first things States might recognize, making it easier for
families, spouses who are moving families to a new State to
immediately be eligible for that program, if we could get the
compensation part fixed.
So I thank you very much for coming. I look forward to
anything you have to suggest to us on the list of items best
for reciprocity, and if any of the witnesses have any other
information you'd like for us to have, we'd like to receive it
within about a week.
Thank you very much. The hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 5:30 p.m., the subcommittees adjourned.]
ISSUES RELATING TO THE EDUCATION OF MILITARY CHILDREN
----------
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2003
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Personnel,
Committee on Armed Services,
Bellevue, Nebraska.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 1:10 p.m., in
room 100, Bellevue Public Schools/Offutt Air Force Base Welcome
Center, Bellevue, Nebraska, Senator Saxby Chambliss (chairman
of the subcommittee) presiding.
Committee members present: Senators Chambliss and E.
Benjamin Nelson.
Majority staff member present: Richard F. Walsh, counsel.
Minority staff member present: Gerald J. Leeling, minority
counsel.
Staff assistant present: Michael N. Berger.
Committee members' assistants present: Clyde A. Taylor IV,
assistant to Senator Chambliss; and Eric Pierce, assistant to
Senator Ben Nelson.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR SAXBY CHAMBLISS, CHAIRMAN
Senator Chambliss. Good afternoon. The subcommittee will
come to order. The Subcommittee on Personnel meets today to
receive testimony on issues relating to the education of
military children.
It's a great pleasure for me to be here in Bellevue,
Nebraska, today, and I bring you greetings from the
Southeastern Conference, from our Georgia Bulldogs, and our
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets from the ACC. [Laughter.]
Unfortunately, the last time, as I remember, our two
schools, Nebraska and Georgia, met was in the Sun Bowl several
years ago, and you all were happy after the game, and we were
very unhappy. [Laughter.]
It's nice to be here in Nebraska today under different
circumstances. I'm particularly pleased to be here with my good
friend, Ben Nelson. As a freshman member of the United States
Senate, I've had the privilege of chairing the Subcommittee on
Personnel in the Armed Services Committee, and being as my
ranking member, he has been my right hand, my partner in this
all the way through.
The Senate is not always bipartisan, but on this
subcommittee and on the Armed Services Committee, it is a very
bipartisan effort to look after the needs of our men and women
who serve in every branch of our military. I can't be more
proud or happier to have as my ranking member on the
Subcommittee on Personnel, Senator Ben Nelson. He has been a
terrific asset. Plus, he and I have gotten to be very good
friends. I was telling somebody inside, we're going to be
coming back out here because I'm an avid outdoorsman, as is he,
and I want to get some of your pheasant under wraps out here
one of these days.
I was surprised. I have an aunt and uncle who live out in
Lincoln, and my Aunt Florence Anderson is here today. Florence
surprised me by coming here. I was very pleased to see my
mother's sister here. So we have a little bit of a Nebraska
connection there.
I would like to start by stating my appreciation for the
strong advocacy on the behalf of the men and women of the Armed
Forces by Senator Nelson. The Committee on Armed Services has a
strong tradition of bipartisanship, and that tradition could
not be stronger than in the Personnel Subcommittee.
I'm sure Senator Nelson agrees it is essential that the
Subcommittee take advantage of every opportunity to visit
military communities and military personnel and their families
where they live and where they work and hear firsthand from
them about their experiences, concerns, and hopes for the
future as they proudly serve in the Armed Forces.
In early June, we conducted a field hearing very similar to
this at Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Georgia, and
received testimony on issues affecting families of soldiers,
sailors, airmen, and marines. A few weeks later, we joined with
Senator Lamar Alexander's Subcommittee on Children and Families
of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in
Washington, DC, to conduct a joint hearing on these issues.
In both hearings, we focused on various issues affecting
the quality of life of military personnel and their families.
We heard from military leaders in the Services and civilian
officials of the Department of Defense who are responsible for
programs directly serving individuals, families, and the
communities that surround military installations.
We heard about such issues as support networks for family
members of the deployed active duty and Reserve personnel,
availability of child care for military parents, enhancing
spouse employment opportunities, and improving the availability
of counseling services for families in distress.
I was impressed by the programs I heard about and the
dedication of those who serve military families worldwide. More
can be done to ensure the best use of available resources to
support military personnel in being successful parents as well
as successful soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines.
Today, we focus on military parents and civilian community
schools and the unique challenges they face in providing the
education of military children. We expect to learn more about
the problems facing civilian communities in responding to the
educational needs of military families. We hope to bring back
to Washington, DC, a better understanding of how Congress can
assist in improving the quality of education given and
received.
We have two panels of witnesses who will testify this
afternoon. First, we will hear from Dr. John F. Deegan,
Superintendent of Schools for the Bellevue Public School System
and the Chief Executive Officer of the Military Impacted
Schools Association. Dr. Deegan is well-known to us in
Washington, DC, for his strong advocacy and unflagging energy
on behalf of military dependents and the community schools that
serve them.
We will also receive testimony from Otto J. Thomas,
Director of Educational Opportunities within the Office of the
Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
Gentlemen, welcome to each of you.
Our second panel will consist of parents of military
children who will share with us their experiences and
suggestions. Additionally, we will receive testimony from
Sheila Murphy, a former director of a Family Readiness Network,
who can speak about issues affecting Reserve component
personnel.
I welcome members of our first panel, and we will begin
shortly, but I would first like to recognize my good friend and
colleague, and what a great host he is, in the great State of
Nebraska, Senator Ben Nelson.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR E. BENJAMIN NELSON
Senator Ben Nelson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is my
pleasure to welcome you to the great State of Nebraska. Today
we planned about as good weather as you could ever expect
anywhere. I'm sure you have good weather in Georgia as well,
but it would be pretty hard to top what we've been able to get
for you today here in the State known for the good life.
I know you are a fan of peaches, and it's a little
premature for us to determine what's going to happen at the end
of the football season, but hopefully the Cornhuskers and the
Yellow Jackets or the Bulldogs will get a chance to meet. I do
remember that game in the Sun Bowl. I was sworn to secrecy as
to the score. [Laughter.]
Perhaps we can get an honorable wager if that were to occur
again.
Seriously, Saxby, I'm very pleased to have you here in the
State of Nebraska, and to congratulate you and thank you for
what you've recognized as an important part of providing for
the military families, and that is to make sure that the
educational opportunities are appropriate for the
circumstances. For holding this hearing here in Nebraska, I am
deeply indebted because here in Bellevue, education meets the
military through the Bellevue Public Schools. What an
outstanding job Dr. Deegan and his staff have done over the
years to make sure that the educational opportunities are
appropriate for the circumstances.
As the hearings have shown, education of our children, and
particularly of military children, can be one of the most
important values that we possess as Americans. Our military
families are no different when it comes to that. They rank
quality education as one of the most important quality-of-life
issues that they face as they serve our Nation. If we can't
provide a quality education for their children, our soldiers,
sailors, airmen, and marines will choose some other vocation,
with an all-voluntary source, even though in their hearts they
would prefer to continue to serve in our military Services.
When we think of military families, most people first think
of Active-Duty Forces. During peace time, we ask our service
members to move every few years, sometimes to other duty
locations throughout the United States, and other times to duty
stations outside the United States.
Most of the time, the military family is able to accompany
the service member as he or she moves from duty station to duty
station. This creates unique challenges for their children, who
move from school to school, and have to adapt to the unique
culture and requirements of each new school system.
During times of conflict, the stresses on these military
families are even greater, particularly when the military
member is deployed to combat zones where their lives are
constantly at risk. Their children at home watch the TV
coverage of our military at work, and they worry about their
moms and dads on the battlefields.
Our National Guard and Reserve families also have unique
educational challenges. It's a dramatic event when mom or dad
is mobilized and ordered to active duty, leaving the family
behind. Many of these ``citizen-soldiers'' serve with the
Active-Duty Forces right on the battlefield, and just like the
children of active duty parents, children of Guard and Reserve
parents watch TV and worry about their parents.
Others are ordered to active duty to other locations, but
the impact on the family is the same. Mom or dad is taken away,
leaving the rest of the family to deal with the problems
compounded by the missing parent. These families turn to family
support groups and local schools for help in dealing with the
practical and emotional needs caused or aggravated by the
mobilization of one or, in some cases, both parents. We need to
understand better what these needs are and how we can help meet
them.
Today's hearing will give us a chance to learn, firsthand,
about the most important concerns regarding the education of
our military children.
I'm delighted that Dr. Deegan is here to talk about what
this school system has done to deal with these challenges. In
addition to his full-time occupation and duties as
Superintendent, as you've indicated, Mr. Chairman, he's also
the CEO of the Military Impacted Schools Association. This is
an added bonus for us here today because, in my view, he is the
Nation's leading expert on Impact Aid, a Federal program that
provides funding for a portion of the educational costs of the
federally-impacted students.
We also welcome Otto Thomas. We appreciate what he brings
to us, as a result of the DOD Impact Aid to Public Schools, and
other educational-related initiatives, including outreach to
public schools and support of military-dependent students
affected by frequent relocations and deployments.
I am also very excited about the second panel. We have
parents of military children from each of the Services. Ms.
Bruce is the wife of Army Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bruce;
Petty Officer Lemasters is our Navy parent; Sergeant and Mrs.
Simon will tell us about their Air Force experiences; and Mrs.
Bruno is a Marine Corps parent who has been very active in her
children's various schools. These parents are able to be here
today to talk about the challenges that they have experienced.
Ms. Sheila Murphy is also going to talk to us today, and
she's going to talk about the Family Readiness Network for the
155th Air Refueling Wing in Lincoln, when it won the Air
National Guard's 2002 Outstanding Family Program.
Mr. Chairman, we have an outstanding array, and without
taking any more time, I'm looking forward to the testimony that
we are able to get. Thank you, again, for holding this hearing.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you, Ben. We'll talk about that
wager the closer we get to the end of the hearing. [Laughter.]
In addition to Senator Nelson, my good friend and the
gentleman that sits next to me on the Senate Intelligence
Committee, Senator Chuck Hagel, has sent a statement. He is
actually over in Germany today and sent a statement which will
go into the record.
Also in my years in the House, I had the privilege of
becoming very good friends with now former Congressman Bill
Barrett, who I served with on the House Agriculture Committee,
as well as your current Congressman here in Omaha, Lee Terry,
who I know is very active regarding the issue of education of
military children, and I think last night, Dr. Deegan, you
presented an award to him regarding his work on Impact Aid.
Dr. Deegan. National award, right.
Senator Chambliss. He and I worked very closely on that
particular issue during my years in the House. So we also have
a statement from Congressman Terry that will be inserted into
the record.
[The prepared statements of Senator Hagel and
Representative Terry follow:]
Prepared Statement by Senator Chuck Hagel
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Senator Nelson, for holding this
hearing in Nebraska today and thank you for your leadership and
commitment to military personnel and their families. Improving the
quality of life for the men and women of the Armed Forces is the best
way to show our support for the important work they do.
Our troops are making tremendous sacrifices in service to our
country. We must not forget that their families are also asked to make
significant sacrifices while their loved ones are away. As students
across the country begin a new school year, many find themselves with
one or both parents deployed overseas or training away from home. We
must be especially attentive to the needs of these families, and to the
education of their children.
As a member of the Senate Impact Aid Coalition, I have strongly
supported efforts to increase funding for the Impact Aid program.
Federal funding for this program ensures that schools serving military
children have the resources they need to provide a quality education to
all their students.
Year after year, military families relocate to new cities and towns
across the country, uprooting their lives without complaint. These
families should have confidence that their children will receive a
quality education wherever they live. Direct funding to schools through
the Impact Aid program makes this possible.
Bellevue Public Schools, and others like it, give parents the peace
of mind they need to focus on their duties as members of the Armed
Forces. For more than 50 years, support provided through the Federal
Impact Aid program has helped more than 1,400 schools nationwide
replace lost local property tax revenue due to a Federal presence.
Last week, I joined a bi-partisan group of Senate colleagues in
signing a letter to House and Senate conferees to the Labor, Health and
Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill regarding funding for
the Impact Aid program. The letter urges conferees to provide an
increase of $50 million for the program this year, the House-passed
level, which would bring total funding to $1.238 billion in fiscal year
2004. Funding for this program is an annual battle that I intend to
continue fighting until we meet our goals of fully funding this
program.
I am glad to know you will hear testimony from Dr. John Deegan,
Superintendent of Bellevue Public Schools, and Chief Executive Officer
of the Military Impacted Schools Association, today. Dr. Deegan is a
true champion of military children and has first-hand knowledge of the
needs of these young people. Also, thank you for inviting Otto Thomas,
Sheila Murphy, and our military families to testify here today.
Mr. Chairman and Senator Nelson, thank you again for your
leadership on behalf of military families, and especially the education
of their children. These individuals are our bravest Americans, we have
a duty to invest in their future and that of their children.
______
Prepared Statement by Representative Lee Terry
I want to thank you for your willingness to examine the issues
facing the education of our military children, and for holding your
subcommittee hearing in my congressional district. Nebraska's Second
District is home to Offutt Air Force Base, which has more than 9,000
military and civilian personnel.
The quality of education for America's military children is one of
my top concerns. We have a responsibility to the men and women of the
Armed Forces that while they are busy defending the Nation, the least
we can do is make certain their children receive a sound education.
One of the best ways Congress can uphold that responsibility is by
providing adequate funding for the Federal Impact Aid program, which
supplies important financial support to public schools near military
bases. Despite the additional number students they must educate, public
schools serving military children face severe limits in their ability
to raise revenue, due to fewer property taxes and provisions of the
Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act. Impact Aid is especially important at
this time when most schools are experiencing cuts in State funding.
Earlier this year, I helped lead the effort in the House to restore
funding for Impact Aid after the administration proposed a $172.7
million cut to the program--already receiving approximately less than
half of its authorized levels. As a co-chairman of the House Impact Aid
Coalition, I testified before the House Budget Committee and urged
Chairman Nussle to increase the program's funding by $50 million over
the previous fiscal year. I also worked with several other coalition
members in urging appropriators to follow the Budget Committee plan.
As a result, the House Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill
(H.R. 2660) includes this increase for Impact Aid, with the funding
level at $1.238 billion for fiscal year 2004. Unfortunately, the Senate
bill contains about $45 million less than the House bill.
I urge the members of your subcommittee to work with Senate
appropriators, to secure the funding level provided by the House. These
funds are critical in our effort to help schools near military bases
provide a quality education for all children.
Of course, there are other means by which we can improve the
education of our military children, such as the DOD's Supplement to
Impact Aid, established to address overall quality of life, readiness,
and retention issues in our all-volunteer service. The extra student
services provided by this program, such as counseling for military
children, are especially needed at a time when one or both parents are
deployed. The program also allows schools near military bases to
bolster safety and security measures, as well as address the needs of
special education students.
School construction funding is another area of concern. Currently,
I am working with Chairman Boehner of the House Committee on Education
and the Workforce to reform the school construction competitive grant
within the Impact Aid program. Under its current formula, the program
allows for disproportionate funding between the two types of school
districts that receive this financial assistance. I have proposed
language to Chairman Boehner that would ensure a more equal system of
funding for schools serving the children of military personnel.
To better address the needs of our youngest military children, I
urge my colleagues in the Senate to support the School Readiness Act
(H.R. 2210)--approved earlier this year by a one-vote margin in the
House. The bill, now awaiting Senate action, would protect Head Start
services for children at Offutt Air Force Base and other military
installations around the country. Without passage of this legislation,
thousands of military children will not receive nutritional assistance,
immunizations, early academics, and other valuable Head Start services.
Finally, it is important that we recognize the bipartisan work of
both chambers on the Fiscal Year 2004 Defense Appropriations Bill (H.R.
2658). This legislation fully funds the average 4.1 percent military
personnel pay raise requested in the budget, and lessens out-of-pocket
housing expenses for our military members. It also provides $128
million for the continuation of increased rates for Imminent Danger Pay
and Family Separation Allowances. These measures will allow military
families to devote more resources to the needs of their children.
In conclusion, I believe we are obligated to ensure that America's
military children receive a first-class education; so the sons and
daughters of our fighting forces are well prepared for success beyond
graduation.
Again, I appreciate your attention to this important issue and
respectfully request that this letter be submitted for the record of
this field hearing. Thank you.
With that, I again want to welcome our first panel: Dr.
Deegan and Mr. Thomas. We thank you for being here today to
share some thoughts with us, and at this time, Dr. Deegan,
we'll start with you for any opening comments.
STATEMENT OF DR. JOHN F. DEEGAN, SUPERINTENDENT, BELLEVUE
PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT AND CEO OF MILITARY IMPACTED SCHOOLS
ASSOCIATION
Dr. Deegan. The opening comment would be thank you so much
to you both and to the staff for choosing Bellevue to hold your
hearing. This is a great honor to the Bellevue/Offutt community
to be able to have Senators and a committee come out like this,
and we're indebted to you for doing that. So thank you very
much for doing that.
I know the members of our Board of Education are very
proud, and a number of those Board members are here today in
support of what we're saying as well. When you mention the
success that I've had in this school district, it's only
because of the Board of Education and the quality work they do.
I would like to begin by saying that the Impact Aid program
is a program that's sometimes hard to describe to people, but I
do have a way that we can go through it pretty quickly.
One of the things about the Impact Aid program is you know
that there is impact in the community; otherwise, there
wouldn't be any aid or help from the Federal Government, so
Impact Aid is really a way for the Federal Government to become
the taxpayer and to help out for all the properties that have
been removed from the tax rolls, and to underwrite to make sure
at least half of the cost of education is picked up by the
Federal Government to help in serving these military children.
So the program has been through a number of things since it
began in 1950, and actually, in the last few years, we've had
great success in being able to increase the amounts of Impact
Aid, and during both of your tenures, we have seen a great
increase in the Impact Aid program which we're really helpful
and thankful for.
I'll talk today a little bit about the Impact Aid program,
and then I wanted to spend a moment just saying that part of
the Impact Aid program is discretionary funding under section
8007 (20 United States Code, Section 7707) for school
construction. I know you'll probably be a bit shocked, but the
program that was reauthorized in 2001 basically set up criteria
that was anti-military and favored other parts of the program.
The basic school construction provision has been left out for
military schools across the Nation, and that is something that
we wanted to be able to address and deal with.
With privatized housing development going on, you'll see
there's an awful lot going on with military houses, and there
wasn't anybody around to look at the programs that were being
affected by privatization, but the Military Impacted Schools
Association went about trying to deal with what were some of
the concerns, the unintended consequences of privatization.
When you go to privatized military housing, all of a sudden the
family, because of how the money is being handled through their
pay stub, they're not eligible for all the income-driven
programs for which they were eligible before. So now we're
going back and we're changing those laws, with your help, and I
think we really do appreciate that very much. We are getting a
lot of those corners turned, and hopefully by Christmastime,
we'll have a lot of those put to bed.
The DOD Supplement to Impact Aid is another program that
you are particularly responsible for in your committee. That
program has been extremely helpful. I can tell you as a
superintendent of schools, I couldn't run the kind of school
district I run for military children without that DOD
Supplement to Impact Aid. It is critical. We have set the goal
for some time to be at $50 million, and I know you try very
hard to get to that number. I took Otto out today and drove
around the community and showed him in schools where we have
made the changes and the things we did to fix windows or lights
or roofs and things like that to take care of our schools on
the base.
All of the DOD money, I can tell you, does not go just
toward taking care of things that nobody knows about. It really
takes care of military children and the places they work and
they go to school.
Also, the last thing I wanted to touch on was a little bit
about military families on the move. I have a packet of
materials that you'll see over there on the side that contain
all the information relative to the issues that I just talked
about. We have some books in there that talk about: How do you
solve problems for a military family on the move, a military
family that might move four times during a child's high school
career, like our new commander coming to this base on the 1st
of November? How do you deal with the seniors? We have a way of
dealing with that in the State, and it takes an initiative and
an attitude to make that different, because there are 50
different States that have State-run systems, and so for you to
solve it out of Washington makes it really tough. There has to
be a program for working with States to help them understand
the importance of that, and people step forward and say, we're
going to take care of that issue, and that's what we try to do
in Bellevue.
This complex that you see is really a product of what the
Federal Government has been able to help Bellevue with as well.
This life-long learning center, as it was put together, we went
after donations, grants, every kind of contribution, in-kind,
donating land. In the end, it was about $5 million of out-of-
town resources that were put into here, plus another $8.3
million to put this complex together. You can see the great
amount of help and support that has come to Offutt Air Force
Base from anybody that's been a partner in this program. We're
looking forward, later in the day, to hear from you at our
dedication this afternoon, because we planned that dedication
right at the tail of this hearing, and hopefully that will go
well.
One of the things that we've been able to do is put
together a short video which shows you a little bit about the
Impact Aid program and captures the essence of what we're
trying to talk about. So at this time, if we could, I would
like to dim the lights and show a very short, about a 6-minute
video.
[The information referred to follows:]
[Impact Aid Video]
April 1, 2001, a Navy surveillance plane is forced out of
international airspace--into harm's way. Its crew is detained on
Chinese soil.
While the Nation watched, the schools were educating their kids . .
. and thousands of other military children enrolled all across the
globe . . . that's our job.
Sound Bite: ``Oh, excellent . . . Good job.'' ``It's important for
them to get off to a really good start.''
``Vanta, did you find another rule. . .'' ``For their parents to
feel comfortable in leaving them here at school. . .''
The schools get a little help making the grade from the Federal
Government.
Sound Bite: ``Even though we are looking at a story, are we
learning something, Trevor?''
Every year $396 million in the form of Impact Aid is put into our
classrooms. This guarantees the sons and daughters of Air Force, Army,
Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard parents a quality education no
matter where their country sends them.
Sound Bite: ``I can't think of anything more important to our folks
. . . particularly when they deploy or go away from home than to have
the feeling that their children are taken care of. One of the most
important things in that regard when you're the parents of school-aged
children is that your kids' future is watched out for . . . that
someone is there to take care of their education. When you are not
there, you want to know that schools are funded properly and provided
what they need.''
That's where Impact Aid comes in. Here's how Impact Aid works:
The schools take a head count of military children enrolled in
their district. That number goes straight to the top. From there, the
Government is supposed to cut a check in place of property taxes owed
the schools for educating military children. . .
Sound Bite: ``It's critical to school districts like this one.''
It's really pretty simple. . .
But can the schools count on the money being there when they need
it the most? One look at history, and you know the answer. Impact Aid
can never be taken for granted.
Sound Bite: ``We had to take an unscheduled break in the spring
because we didn't have the money to meet payroll, pay the utilities. .
.''
It was 1970 . . . bell-bottoms and the Bee Gees were all the rage.
. . Some school districts were learning a lesson in economics they
hadn't planned.
Sound Bite: ``It was a huge shock to everyone. We all assumed that
students had to be educated, so somehow the problem would be resolved.
We never dreamt that we would come to the point where we had to close
school.''
But it did . . . seven school districts serving military children
had to lock the doors--shut down learning for weeks. There was no
reading, writing, and arithmetic because there was no commitment--no
cash from the Federal Government.
The stories didn't end there. Twelve years later . . . school
districts serving Fort Bragg, Camp LeJeune, Langley Air Force Base, and
Norfolk Naval Base had to choose between paying teachers and paying the
electric bill. The Impact Aid checks weren't stuck in the mail. They
weren't even on the way.
Sound Bite: ``I've been in this district a lot of years, and we've
had some real critical times where we had to go back in and make some
major reductions in personnel and other things because of reduced
funding. That's not pleasant.''
That's not exactly what fathers and mothers who make the military a
career want to hear.
Sound Bite: ``We do this because we like to do it.''
Sound Bite: ``How your family is taken care of when you deploy is
tantamount to how well you will perform once you're deployed. We can't
have an individual that thinks things aren't taken care of on the home
front.''
In fact one of the first things that Army Colonel Houston checks
out before settling into a new post is the schools. . .
Sound Bite: ``The well-being of my family is the most important
thing.''
. . .and the service the schools provide.
Sound bite: ``So I'm always concerned with the level of support
that comes in because I know that money makes things happen.''
The money that it takes to put Colonel Houston's kids and military
kids like them through school is roughly $6,400 per year.
Now figure this. The district only gets $2,200 a year in Impact Aid
to educate a military child . . . and that's if the child lives on
base. Off base, the Federal Government's check drops to $400. That's
about $2 a day. Hardly enough to buy books and supplies--not enough to
buy a big mac and a coke.
Sound Bite: ``I think without Impact Aid in some places, we would
not be able to educate our kids to the standards we expect.''
Sound Bite: ``Although Impact Aid improved--I need to give our
Congress credit--the coalition in both the House and Senate have been
wonderful--there has been a commitment--so I do need to give credit for
that. But it is still not to those levels that the original intent when
Congress started this in 1950--we're not to the percentage that they
felt local school districts should receive for this impact, and we
would like to get there.''
Right now school districts get 60 percent of Impact Aid promised by
law. That's why they are always asking for more.
Sound Bite: ``We're not just up there begging. This is for children
and that's really the bottom line of Impact Aid. We often get
distracted with legislation, authorization, appropriations, and the
bottom line is the youngsters living in a school district that is
impacted by Federal Government activity deserve at least a quality
education as their peers at other places. That's our argument. Let's
don't penalize people that are sacrificing for our country. Let's at
least give them an education comparable with other districts.''
You won't see Impact Aid when you walk into classrooms around the
country. Schools everyday quietly go about the business of educating
our children. But know this--without Impact Aid something has to go. Do
you want it to be your school's computers? What about a teacher?
Sound Bite: ``Very good . . . that's where the period goes . . . so
let's put the period up there. . .''
As you can see, the price is too great to pay.
Dr. Deegan. We were hoping that that video, in a synopsis
way, presents the message and the story about Impact Aid and
the need for those dollars.
The program has been coming back and doing better as a
result of recent years of increases in funding, but it just
continues to be critical to anything we talk about here. If we
talk about families moving around, if you start off with making
sure that the school districts and the people that are
responsible for providing those services have the adequate
resources, we think we can get the job done. We thank you very
much.
I would like to note, Senator, that this last summer the
Military Impacted Schools group had a meeting down in Kings
Bay, Georgia, and we had an opportunity to tour the military
base there and walk all the grounds and see the place. We went
over and visited Camden County School District and we visited
with all the people. The Board at Liberty County came down and
met with us, and so we had a great amount of time in Georgia,
and we loved the experience and what had happened there. I know
they look to your support and your leadership greatly, and they
are also members of our organization and do appreciate very
much what you do.
So with that, I'll say there's plenty of information here
to give you a good support, but I think we're talking to people
that know the right story anyway.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you.
Mr. Thomas, we look forward to hearing from you.
STATEMENT OF OTTO J. THOMAS, DIRECTOR OF EDUCATIONAL
OPPORTUNITIES, OFFICE OF THE UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR
PERSONNEL AND READINESS
Mr. Thomas. Thank you. Chairman Chambliss, Senator Nelson,
thank you very much for the opportunity to discuss with you
issues related to the elementary and secondary public school
education of children of military personnel. I very much
welcome this opportunity to share with you news about the
education of children whose parents serve in our armed
services.
I want also to offer thanks to the Bellevue Public Schools
and the entire Bellevue community for both hosting this hearing
and for so generously supporting members of our Armed Forces
and their families.
In the interest of time, my oral statement will be brief,
and I refer you to my written statement for greater detail.
Sixty percent of military service members now have
families. Our members, therefore, have many of the same
concerns about the schools that their children attend that we
all do. However, they have additional concerns because they are
regularly reassigned to new locations and their children must
so often have to adapt to new schools, new communities, and new
friends.
If we are to keep dedicated men and women whom we have
trained so well, we must ensure that when we relocate our
personnel to new duty stations, they can expect that their
children will attend good schools. Also, that the personnel in
these schools will have an awareness and an appreciation of the
unique challenges that face our school-aged children:
Challenges that arise because our children are asked to
relocate so often to schools in different States that have
requirements and practices that vary so much from one another.
For the Department, addressing issues related to school quality
and frequent relocations is an important part of ensuring that
families are provided with an appealing quality of life.
Because information about schools and local practices is so
important to families who must relocate so often, we have
established an Internet Web site that enables students and
their parents to find out about the schools in the vicinity of
their new assignments. The Web site, newly brought up just a
few weeks ago, at www.militarystudent.org, does that and much
more.
Students can enter chat rooms to talk with other students
at schools to which they are likely to move. Students and their
parents can find important information about such subjects as
social and emotional needs, special education needs and
services, incompatible graduation requirements, redundant/
missed entrance and exit examinations, transfer of records, and
extracurricular activities.
Our objective is to reach 1\1/2\ million school-aged
children, and the families of 1\1/2\ million school-aged
children of active duty, Reserve, and National Guard families
who attend public schools not operated by the Department of
Defense. About 110,000 do attend schools operated by the
Department of Defense, mostly overseas, but also in some States
of the union. We are especially interested in making moves
easier for the 600,000 children who must relocate when their
active duty parents are reassigned. We are convinced that we
can help. In my written testimony, I have identified some of
the things that we have done and that we are doing.
I would like to describe our role related to the Impact Aid
program. I must point out that the Federal Impact Aid program
is not the program we manage. That, of course, is managed by
the Department of Education and is funded currently at a little
over a billion dollars. However, since 1990, we have been
provided with a small amount of financial aid that we can
provide to a small number of school districts that are most
affected by the presence of a military installation.
Since 1990, the Department of Defense has been authorized
to provide financial assistance to those school districts that
are heavily impacted by the enrollment of large numbers of,
specifically, military-dependent students. Currently, heavily
impacted is described or defined as 20 percent. That is, for a
school district to be eligible to receive DOD funds to
supplement the Federal Impact Aid payments, the number of
military-dependent students enrolled must be at least 20
percent of the number of students enrolled in that school
district. For fiscal year 2003, $30 million appropriated for
this program was distributed to 118 eligible school districts
in 34 States.
Most recently for the past 2 years, the Department has also
been provided funds to distribute to school districts to assist
them with paying for the costs of services provided to
military-dependent students with severe disabilities. For
fiscal year 2002, we distributed $3.5 million to 47 eligible
school districts, and for the current fiscal year, 2003, $3
million was distributed to 49 districts.
We are committed to doing whatever we can to help satisfy
the desire that military families have to ensure that their
children receive a good education. After health and safety,
perhaps no concern related to their children's development is
as great as a parent's desire that their children attend good
schools and receive a high-quality education that will open
doors to collegiate studies and to success in a chosen
profession, or satisfaction in the world of work.
Our service members have high aspirations and strong family
values. They desire a fulfilling life for themselves and their
families. To continue to recruit the best and the brightest, we
must provide an inviting environment. This environment must
include a wholesome and challenging learning experience for
their children. It must include schools in which no military-
dependent student or, for that matter, any child will be left
behind.
Thank you, again, for the opportunity to testify before you
today. I very much appreciate your continued interest in and
support of the educational opportunities provided to the
children of our military personnel.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Thomas follows:]
Prepared Statement by Otto J. Thomas
Chairman Chambliss, Senator Nelson, and members of the
subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss with you issues
related to the elementary and secondary public school education of
children of military personnel. I welcome this opportunity to share
good news with you; news about the education of children whose parents
serve in our armed services.
Those who volunteer to serve our country in uniform expect to make
sacrifices. However, since 60 percent of military members now have
families, they must, as we would expect, give due consideration to the
well-being of their spouses and children. If we are to keep dedicated
men and women whom we have trained so well, we must ensure that when we
relocate our personnel to new duty stations, they can expect that their
children will be able to attend good schools. Also, that the personnel
in these schools will have an awareness and appreciation of the unique
challenges that face our school-aged children: challenges that arise
because our children are asked to relocate so often and because schools
in different States have requirements and practices that vary so much
from one another. For the Department, addressing issues related to
school quality and frequent relocations of military families is an
important part of ensuring that families are provided with an appealing
quality of life.
The Department's new social compact includes objectives to address
school transition issues of our highly mobile military dependent
children. Many of these new initiatives leverage the power of public-
private partnerships and technology to deliver services. As part of the
Department's presentation before this joint committee in Washington in
July, the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Military Community and
Family Policy, John Molino, identified a contractual partnership
through which we are testing a program to provide information and
referral services to marines and their families. From anywhere in the
world, an active duty or Reserve marine or family member using toll-
free telephone, e-mail or Internet can communicate with a professional
counselor regarding myriad topics, including parenting and child care;
educational services; elder care; relocation; health and wellness; and
financial and legal information. Parents and students are receiving
information about schools and related activities as part of this
information service. Communication is confidential and services
provided include a comprehensive array of pre-paid educational
materials, such as books, CDs, and videos. Simultaneous translation in
140 languages is available, as is assistive technology for low-vision
users. Reports about this program continue to be positive and we expect
eventually to make these services available to all military families.
Because information about schools and local practices is so
important to families who must relocate, we have established an
Internet Web site that enables students and their parents to find out
about the schools in the vicinity of their new assignments. The Web
site, www.militarystudent.org, does that and much more. It is designed
so that various categories of users, such as kids, teens, parents,
special needs families, military leaders, and school educators can go
directly to the information most pertinent to them. They can access
information about important issues, by subject. These issues include
social and emotional needs, special education needs and services,
incompatible graduation requirements, redundant/missed entrance and
exit testing, transfer of records, and exclusion from extracurricular
activities.
Our objective is to reach the families of 1\1/2\ million school-
aged children of active duty, Reserve, or National Guard families who
attend public and other schools not operated by the Department of
Defense. About 600,000 of these children come from active duty families
and attend public schools. It is not uncommon for these students to
attend 6 different schools before high school graduation; some have
reported attending 10 or 11. As they move from school to school,
students and their families encounter difficulties with credit
transfers, exit exams, athletic eligibility, and unique graduation
requirements such as formal study of State history.
We are convinced that we can reduce the degree to which these
factors represent problems for our military dependent children and
their families. We've held meetings with school leaders, parents,
students and military commanders; and have found some ``best
practices'' to be shared with other schools and communities. Last year,
we published a booklet titled ``Promising Practices'' and have sent
copies to school districts that enroll our students. The demand for
additional copies has exceeded our supply. The booklet is now available
on our Web site and we are adding newly found ``best practices''
regularly.
We are working with the Military Family Research Institute of
Purdue University to study the impact that frequent moves or
deployments of one or both parents have on the social, emotional, and
educational success of children from military families. Our study will
encompass a cross-section of children from elementary school through
high school and from all four Services. The results of the study will
enable us to work with schools to develop additional support programs
and teacher training.
Educators, counselors, and mental health workers associated with
public schools are generally not aware of the unique issues and
challenges that confront military dependent students. To be effective,
they must become aware of military child issues and appropriate
interventions.
We have initiated several partnerships to help us address these
issues with educators. We have expanded our partnership with the
Department of Education's Office for Safe and Drug Free Schools to
include work with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network
(sponsored by UCLA, Duke University, and the Department of Health and
Human Services). Together we developed the following information
booklets: Educator's Guide to the Military Child During Deployment;
Educator's Guide to the Military Child During Post Deployment:
Challenges of Family Reunion; and Parent's Guide to the Military Child
in Deployment. The first deployment guide is currently featured on the
Department of Education's Web site. The first and third are available
on the DOD Web site www.militarystudent.com. The remaining one will be
added in the near future. We are considering publication of the
booklets to ensure that the information is seen and used by educators
and parents.
The Department chooses to be a good partner to local schools and is
seeking ways in which we can help promote excellence in public schools,
especially in those schools that educate the dependent children of
military personnel.
Since 1990, the Department has been authorized to provide financial
assistance to those local education agencies (LEAs) that are heavily
impacted by the enrollment of large numbers of military dependent
students. Currently, ``heavily impacted'' is defined as 20 percent.
That is, for a LEA to be eligible to receive DOD funds to supplement
Federal Impact Aid payments, the number of military dependent students
enrolled must be at least 20 percent of the total number of students
enrolled in the schools of that LEA. For fiscal year 2003, $30 million
appropriated for this program was distributed to 118 eligible LEAs in
34 States.
For the past 2 years, the Department has also been provided funds
to distribute to LEAs to assist them with paying for the costs of
services provided to military dependent students with severe
disabilities. For fiscal year 2002, we distributed $3.5 million to 47
eligible LEAs, and for fiscal year 2003, $3.0 million was distributed
to 49 LEAs.
We are committed to doing whatever we can to help satisfy the
desire that military families have to ensure that their children
receive a good education. After health and safety, perhaps no concern
related to their children's development is as great as a parent's
desire that their children attend good schools and receive a high
quality education that will open the doors to collegiate studies and
success in chosen professions, or satisfaction in the world of work.
More generally, we are committed to meeting the quality of life
needs of our service members and their families. Our service members
have high aspirations and strong family values. They desire a
fulfilling life for themselves and their families. To recruit the best
and brightest, we must provide an inviting environment. This
environment must include a wholesome and challenging learning
experience for children from military families. It must include schools
in which no military dependent student or any child will be left
behind.
Thank you Chairman Chambliss, Senator Nelson, and members of the
subcommittee for the opportunity to testify before you today. I very
much appreciate your continued interest in and support of educational
opportunities provided to the children of our military personnel.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you, Mr. Thomas, and, again, to
both of you gentlemen. We will take your full written statement
for the record.
Dr. Deegan, let me start with you. You mentioned that the
State of Nebraska does some particular things for your
children, and this is something that is really unique to all 50
States, and I don't know that we will ever have the same types
of benefits granted by all 50 States to our military children.
In Georgia, for example, we have instituted a new program
with our legislature to allow any military child who graduates
from a State high school to be treated as an in-State resident
for as long as those students remain at any State university,
even though the parents are likely to move within a period of
time. It's proved to be very beneficial and provides a lot of
stability and some help.
So what has Nebraska done to help our military children in
a similar situation?
Dr. Deegan. We have been so focused on K-12 that I haven't
focused on what we're doing after high school. I did see a
recent news article regarding in-State tuition, and I've heard
of other States that are doing that. I think it is our
obligation to work with State legislators to see if we can find
a resolution to that matter.
It seems to me, even though we're 50 different States,
there are some common principles that States may pick up on, so
I think it would be important working with our delegation and
others in leadership to propose that idea to the State of
Nebraska. I think it's a great idea and I think that would be
something we should be doing.
Senator Chambliss. Do you have any particular programs in
the Bellevue system that are geared towards the unique problems
that military children have, particularly with the recent
deployment in Iraq, as Senator Ben Nelson alluded to, the fact
that it's not unusual for children now to see embedded
reporters on TV every night with their moms and dads fighting
in combat.
Dr. Deegan. That's true. As we look across the country,
there are many school districts that are doing this kind of
activity where they're actually providing additional counseling
assistance, working with families, trying to provide support
systems to young children.
In Bellevue, a lot of our work here was because of the
reconnaissance mission at Offutt Air Force Base and STRATCOM; a
lot of our deployments took place before the first shot was
ever fired. So a lot of our people were displaced and mobile
all over the country, all over the world, before the first shot
was fired.
Many of the units now are involved in combat. I know Fort
Stewart, in particular, has lost 23 men as a result of action
over in Iraq and that's happening now. That's happening, and so
the real problem is now.
Some of the issues that we try to deal with in our
particular district are up-front, trying to get kids to talk
about it, but try to create a normal situation for children
because that's one of the things that you don't want to do is
overplay the situation and overplay it for a child. You want
them to have as normal of life as possible, but you want every
possible accommodation made for that child. We do a number of
things with that. We have a full counseling program in our
elementary schools, and we have principals that are really
tuned into that.
Across the country, you will find that each district,
depending upon its mission or its activity at the time, will
approach that differently. I do believe people are really
trying very hard to do those kind of things.
One thing is that it takes money, too. Some of those
resources, not only the attitude about what you're going to do,
but if you want some people, like a crisis team or any
counseling, that does take money. So that's one of the reasons
that we've approached Congress saying, maybe there ought to be
some of that $87 billion, maybe $20 million, given the heavily-
impacted districts, for dealing with some of those emotional
crisis kinds of situations. That's what we're trying to do.
I would tell you that even in our particular district, I
refer to security and safety and all of those issues, but I
would tell you that the DOD Supplement to Impact Aid goes to
the kind of things you are talking about because districts get
this money, and then they are able to spend that money on
whatever they think is necessary in their district. That money
allows you to be able to flex and do different things, so you
might hire counselors, you might put a team of people in place.
So I think there are things being done.
We have some resources to do it, but we could use some
additional resources in that area. I think it's essential that
we do a great job in that area. Creating normalcy is one of the
most important things we could do.
Senator Chambliss. Mr. Thomas, you mentioned the fact that
there are some 600,000 military children who are in the
education system and how critically important this is to those
active duty personnel.
Over the last several years, we have been calling on our
Guard and Reserve more than ever before, and this has presented
a very unique problem to us as legislators in how we deal with
the benefits that are given to our Guard and Reserve members.
The children, oftentimes, can get lost in this. The spouses can
get lost in this process. What is the Department of Defense
doing with respect to looking after these children of Guard and
Reserve members who have been called to active duty to ensure
that they receive the same kind of treatment as our active duty
personnel families?
Mr. Thomas. About 2\1/2\ years ago when the Educational
Opportunities Directorate was established, the focus was
primarily on the needs that we've talked about in terms of the
active duty family members' children moving from place to
place. Because of the timing, with the war coming about,
clearly a need for what was happening to the children of
deployed personnel became very paramount in our minds. We have
done a number of things.
We've contacted and worked with people in the Department of
Education that work with trauma and stress. We have written a
booklet that we are distributing to schools and communities
that have a lot of our children. That booklet, which
essentially addresses the needs, the special and unique needs
of children of deployed parents, is located on the Web site
that I mentioned to you, so it's freely accessible. That work
was done with a lady named Marlene Wong, who is associated with
the University of California at Los Angeles, and is part of a
national stress trauma group. She has worked in the President's
commission dealing with the stresses created by the tragedy at
Columbine High School in Colorado, for example, and at Santee
in California.
Another activity that we've become involved in is that the
Under Secretary of Defense, Dr. Chu, has become very interested
in dealing with what happens to the children of deployed
personnel. The Deputy Under Secretary, John Molino, made a
presentation to the presidents and the wives of the presidents
co-meeting in New Orleans a year-and-a-half ago, specifically
asking these colleges, college presidents, and their wives to
become actively involved in seeking out family members of
deployed personnel to offer assistance in finances, for
example, assistance in counseling if it were necessary,
assistance with the educational planning for their children.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you.
Senator Nelson.
Senator Ben Nelson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Dr. Deegan, because of the significant interest in Impact
Aid in so many school districts across the country, have these
districts come together to share the best-ideas-under-the-best-
practices arrangement? Bellevue shares a lot of its wealth of
educational programs and special-needs treatment with other
schools, but are they sharing theirs in return?
Dr. Deegan. I would say that if you look in the left side
of your packet that I have provided to you, in the large
folder, there are three documents in that packet. One is a
sheet that describes what are the different things that we can
do by building a partnership between school districts. Also,
there is a booklet that talks about Promising Practices, or
best practices, that actually highlights a number of best
practices across the country in the various school districts
that we have been able to collect.
Also, we have the Partnership for a Smooth Transition of
Military Families. We have developed a booklet that describes
for military families how to go about making that move and
making it work real smoothly.
What we've done is taken this booklet and a lot of this
material is on our militaryimpactedschoolsassociation.org Web
site. So we do have a number of materials that are available.
As well as the video that I showed you earlier, there's a
series of videos in there.
So we're trying to take what we believe are the best
practices in Bellevue and share those with many other people. I
think that's how you go about solving your State problems is
people don't just huddle around and say, ``This is what we
think is the best,'' but we take the very best and try to
spread it out. Then what is your idea, what might work in your
State, we put your idea in there, too. So we're trying to build
a repository warehouse of best practices that we can share with
people through our Web site and through these materials.
Senator Ben Nelson. Mr. Thomas, in some respects, it's
easier to deal with the special needs of active duty personnel
children than it is sometimes with the Guard and Reserve
because they're not all located in one particular school
district. They're not in one particular area. They're all
across a State. You mentioned that you are, in fact, interested
in doing some things to make sure that those children are
receiving the similar kind of care. I'm sure that's a daunting
task, given the fact that every school district in Nebraska
might have one or more of those children.
Is there a way to deal with this in a cost-effective way,
to share with teachers and school districts recognizing that it
will be the exception rather than the rule within their
district?
Mr. Thomas. I'd say it is a daunting task, as you've
indicated. First off, we don't have a clear means of
identifying exactly where all of these children are. We are
offering financial assistance through a program that has been
funded in recent years, that I mentioned to you, and even that
program requires that the school district send in an
application to us.
We sent letters to 366 school districts in the country that
were indicated to us by the Department of Education as having
children from military families that have special needs. Of
those 366 school districts to which we sent letters, we
received responses from only 49, and the money that we are
distributing, we are distributing to those school districts
that made the request.
In the case of Georgia, we sent 15 letters; none responded.
In the case of Nebraska, we sent letters to five school
districts; none of which responded.
Now, it's possible that they don't meet the criteria, which
is very complicated for the program, and it may well be, as you
suggest, that because we have the families of military
reservists and national guardsmen so spread out throughout the
country, no single school district may have enough of those
children to qualify.
Senator Ben Nelson. After the hearing, we'll find out the
identity of those school districts and we'll do some follow up.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Thomas. They're in my books here.
Dr. Deegan. I'd offer on that that the Bellevue School
District received one of those letters, and we didn't qualify
either for the special education dollars. That special
education program; actually, I was the one that wrote that
program. They wrote it so very tight and so very strict that we
wanted to see what the numbers would be when we started. They
only problem with that program is I didn't write in a floor to
the program. It should have been at least 20 percent impacted
and then put a floor in before it got going. Then, I think, it
would have been more productive. Also, you had to have two
children that were three times the State average in your
district or five times the national average if it was outside
your district services, so the criteria is very strict and very
tight. We had one child that was expensive, upwards to $50,000
to $60,000, but we didn't have two. We have about 15 percent of
our heavily-impacted children in special education when most
other people have 10 or 11 percent. I think that new special
education program has missed its mark in serving the military
children's needs.
Senator Ben Nelson. If nothing else comes from the hearing,
that might be a worthy point right there to take a look at.
Dr. Deegan. Yes. I think, also, the question about serving
the Reserve and Guard, I think that's a huge issue that needs
to be dealt with. I would like to be able to help in any way
through the Military Impacted Schools Association and through
Otto, if you have ideas, too, or come up with ideas for working
with Guard and Reserve because sometimes the problems we are
talking about don't occur between Liberty County and Bellevue
or between Camden and Bellevue. They occur between Thedford,
Nebraska, or Wahoo, Nebraska, and some other little town that
nobody ever thought of or heard of. The kids are so few in
number that nobody ever gets around to noticing them on the
radar screen, so that family may be sitting there crying and
carrying on, and nobody is there to help them. So how do you
reach out and touch that child? How do you get resources to
that parent? How do you let them know?
I think it's up to the Guard and Reserve leadership to work
stronger on publicizing the Web site he's talking about or
publicizing our Web site. If we can't get the Guard and Reserve
leadership to direct those people toward us, it's hard for us
to find them.
Senator Ben Nelson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Chambliss. Mr. Thomas, just sitting here thinking
while you were talking about the Guard and Reserve issue, that
I don't know whether any study has ever been done, but it sure
would be interesting to know what has happened to the children
of military families versus the general public with respect to
test scores, with respect to post-secondary education; that
would be an interesting issue there. I'm absolutely certain we
would find that military families certainly have a greater
degree of discipline, probably, than the average, normal
civilian family. There are any number of issues relative to
movement that would tend to at least have the opportunity to
affect those children in future years. It sure would be
interesting to know what, maybe, some of those statistics might
reveal.
All right. If there's nothing further, gentlemen, we thank
you very much for being here today.
Senator Nelson is right. Dr. Deegan, if nothing else comes
out of this, that's an issue we need to look at and maybe
review again because we've just gone through the
reappropriating of that Supplemental Aid package, and we may
need to take a look at it before next year.
Dr. Deegan. We'll stand by if there are any questions
throughout the rest of the hearing today.
Senator Chambliss. Great, thank you.
Dr. Deegan. Thank you very much.
Senator Chambliss. I now would like to welcome our next
panel. With us today, we have Ms. Sheila Murphy, whom I have
already referred to. We have Petty Officer First Class Maria
Lemasters, Ms. Kirk Bruno, Ms. Marion Bruce, and Senior Master
Sergeant Thomas Simon and Mrs. Simon.
We thank you for your willingness to come today, and if
each of you will come forward to sit in front of your nameplate
there. What we'll do, we'll start, Master Sergeant Simon, with
you and Mrs. Simon, and we'll move this way, and I don't know
if whether both of you want to make an opening statement or
just one of you, but when you make your comments, if you will
for the record and so that Senator Nelson and I will be aware,
also, tell us the ages of your children and what school they
are currently attending, if you will. So we welcome you.
Sergeant Simon.
STATEMENT OF SENIOR MASTER SERGEANT THOMAS SIMON, USAF;
ACCOMPANIED BY MRS. MICHELE SIMON
Sergeant Simon. Thank you, Gentlemen.
First off, I would like to say thank you for the
opportunity to come forward and talk to you a little bit about
of some of the issues we have. Michele and I don't have a
significant amount of issues. We've been through the military
system for almost 24 years and have grown to know and
understand a lot of the workings of the military system. We
want to thank you all for the opportunity to come forward. We
also thank the Bellevue Public Schools for inviting us.
I've been in the Service for 24 years. My dad was in the
Service, so I am one of those military-dependent kids. I grew
up in the school systems both in the Department of Defense
Dependent Schools (DODDS), systems working as a student at
Ramstein, Germany, and also in a community throughout my high
school career.
We have three boys. Two of them are students at Bellevue
East High School. They are 17 and 16. We have another, almost
8-year-old, a second grader at Leonard Lawrence in local
Bellevue schools.
We're open and ready for questions you have. Thank you.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you both for being here.
Ms. Bruno, welcome.
STATEMENT OF MARIE BRUNO
Mrs. Bruno. Hi. Thanks for having me.
My husband and I have been traveling for the past 19 years.
My husband is in the Marine Corps. We've moved more times than
I could even express: I guess 17 houses in 19 years, probably
14 duty stations. We've moved around quite a bit.
My oldest child is in college attending Cal State San
Marcos in California. She attended seven different school
districts over the course of her 12 years. We were lucky that
she only attended two different high schools: One was DOD, one
was out in California.
My second child, another daughter, she's 15 and attending
Papio-La Vista South High School. She's attended six school
districts and, hopefully, she'll finish here in Nebraska.
I bring a lot of experience with both my kids being in all
the different schools that they've been in. I'm also attending
college here at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), so
I've done a little of the transfer process myself, so I can
give you some input on that as well.
Senator Chambliss. Great. Thank you very much.
Ms. Lemasters.
STATEMENT OF NAVY PETTY OFFICER MARIA LEMASTERS
Petty Officer Lemasters. Good afternoon, Senators. I thank
you for the opportunity to be here today and thank you to your
staff and to the Bellevue School District for hosting this.
I have been in the Navy for 12 years now. I'm married and
have a 6-year-old daughter who is currently enrolled at
Belleaire Elementary. This is her second school. She also
attended school in Cascade, Maryland, prior to us transferring
here. I look forward to your questions today.
Senator Chambliss. Great.
Ms. Bruce.
STATEMENT OF MARION BRUCE
Ms. Bruce. Thank you for allowing me to be here today. I
have been an Army wife for 22 years. We have four daughters who
are now 12, 14, 18, and 20. The youngest goes to Logan
Fontenelle Middle School here. The next one goes to Bellevue
West. The 18-year-old is a freshman at Texas A&M on an Army
ROTC Scholarship. The oldest is a junior at West Point this
year.
We have moved six times during their school years. They've
attended schools in California, Kansas, Nebraska, and Maryland.
Some twice in each State. I do have a longer statement that
I've submitted for the record, and I'm welcoming your
questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Bruce follows:]
Prepared Statement by Marion Bruce
My name is Marion Bruce. I have been an Army wife for 22 years. I
have four children who have experienced six moves since the oldest
began school. We have found an extreme variability in the quality of
schools on or near military posts and bases.
We only experienced 3 weeks in Department of Defense Dependents
Schools in Germany so I cannot comment on them. Stateside, my children
have attended schools in California, Kansas, California, Nebraska,
Maryland, and Nebraska, in that order. I have no handicapped or special
needs children according to most State definitions. However, three of
my four children have been identified as talented and gifted. I will
address their experiences in this area.
From kindergarten through high school, I have found that the
material covered in each grade level is vastly different in the midwest
compared to the coasts. Kindergarten in California is not mandatory and
therefore seems to have no required curriculum. My children experienced
everything from play kindergarten to serious reading instruction at
Fort Irwin, depending entirely on which teacher they happened to get.
California had a policy that a child cannot be made to repeat a grade
unless a parent gives permission. Many parents do not agree and even
the better teachers are forced to teach to the middle of the class so
quality slips more each year. There was no talented and gifted program
at Fort Irwin.
When we moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, I had to borrow a fourth
grade math book for my fifth grader because her class in Fort Irwin had
only gotten halfway through the book. We studied fractions, geography,
etc. every weekend for 2 months until she was caught up. At enrollment,
my third grader was given the option of participating in the talented
and gifted program, based on her standardized test scores from the
previous year. Kansas has a law deeming talented and gifted students as
exceptional students with special needs. They require an Individualized
Education Program (IEP) agreed upon by the teacher, parents,
administration, and the facilitator. There is a gifted facilitator in
every school who runs a challenging program, pulling children out of
class two to four times a week for enriching education. Although my
oldest daughter's kindergarten and first grade scores would have
qualified her for this program, the years of below grade level
instruction in California had taken their toll. However, after 2 years
in Fort Leavenworth's excellent classes, she also tested as talented
and gifted. My third daughter enjoyed a kindergarten focused on
reading, writing, and arithmetic. She participated in the talented and
gifted program in first grade. Life was good.
After 3 years, we were sent back to California. My sixth grader
came home from the first day of school and announced that she had the
same math book. I said ``Oh, you mean the same series. That's good.
Then we know you haven't missed anything.'' She said ``No mom, this is
the same math book I had in fourth grade in Kansas.'' The K-8 Lockwood
School near Fort Hunter Liggett had bought textbooks with all grade
level references left off so that parents and students would not
realize they were a year behind in all subjects except math, in which
they were 2 full years behind. My eighth grader had had pre-algebra in
seventh grade in Kansas. Algebra was not available here. This school
did not have enough textbooks to go around. The students had to share
and were not given homework because the books could not leave the
classroom. Needless to say, there was no talented and gifted program. I
probably don't have to tell you that when intelligent children get
bored they can think of all kinds of things to amuse themselves,
eventually leading to them getting in trouble. Therefore, I arranged
for them to ride the high school bus 30 miles to the next town so they
could walk to a middle school with higher levels of instruction which
just that year began offering algebra to eighth graders for the first
time. An added bonus was that they were able to be in band again and
stayed after school 1 day a week for a small gifted program. I picked
them up every day.
My kindergartener was in a class where she was taught less than she
had been in 3-year-old preschool but liked being with her friends. The
second grader was in a combination second and third grade class doing
all third grade work. Then California offered more money to school
districts that had less than 20 pupils in first through third grade
classrooms. Her class was split up and she was left in second grade
where the teacher assured me she would work with her at her level. A
couple of weeks later we were told that the third grade teachers did
not want this to happen. I explained we were moving again in the summer
and this would not inconvenience the third grade teachers. My daughter
was then given subtraction to do instead of multiplication and told to
start printing again instead of writing cursive. I researched
California laws and eventually took my kindergartener and second grader
out of the public school to home school them so they would not be so
far behind when we moved. In making this decision, I joined many other
military families who home school their children for consistency in
curriculum.
Our next move brought us here to Bellevue. I cannot say enough
about this school system. The grade level and course material is
exactly what they should be learning. My children thrive on the high
expectations, structure and discipline, advanced and advanced placement
classes, talented and gifted program, as well as the many sports,
clubs, music, and JROTC opportunities. My third daughter was allowed to
skip sixth grade and finally felt as if she fit in academically and
socially. My husband was able to extend for a year letting our oldest
daughter attend all 4 years of high school here. She graduated in 2001
and is now a junior at the United States Military Academy, West Point,
NY.
When we got orders to the Washington, DC, area, we accepted housing
at Fort Meade where my second daughter began her junior year in high
school. We had looked at the school Web site, spoken to them on the
telephone, and believed things would go smoothly. We immediately ran
into trouble getting credits accepted. In Bellevue, JROTC is a physical
education substitute with one quarter of health included in freshman
year. My daughter had 2 years of JROTC in lieu of PE. The State of
Maryland requires 2 years of PE plus one semester of health, no
substitutes. JROTC was an elective only. While we tried to figure a way
to add these requirements to her college prep schedule, we were told
that there were only six periods a day instead of seven as we expected.
Then we were informed that all the pre-calculus classes were full so
she couldn't take math this year but that was alright because it was
not a graduation requirement. We finally enrolled her in what she would
have taken in Bellevue except no math and only advanced English instead
of AP. We tabled the PE issue until her credits could be reviewed by
the PE and health instructors. We expected her English class to be
American Literature instead it was speech and debate. Her third year of
science in Bellevue would have been chemistry with higher level math
required to do the associated complicated equations and formulas.
Chemistry at Fort Meade turned out to be a freshman class about basic
chemical processes that my daughter had been taught years ago. Then I
attended curriculum night where the principal's topic was ``What is
accreditation and why do we need it?'' This school was not accredited
by their Regional Accrediting Association.
Meanwhile, the daughter who had skipped a grade was now in eighth
grade. She was 12 and found her classmates to be not only 13 but 14,
15, and 16 years old. Many had been held back several times. She felt
quite ill at ease in this new setting. My fifth grader found the class
work very easy. Private schools were too expensive so we sent for
correspondence courses and began home-schooling once again. This was
not the optimal solution. The course work was rigorous but the girls
missed band, JROTC, clubs, sports, and social interaction with their
peers.
We all wanted the girls to be in a ``normal'' school again. We
discussed moving to Virginia, starting over in yet another school
district, but found incompatible graduation requirements that would
make my ``A'' student have to be in high school 5 years. We therefore
made the painful but necessary decision to split the family up. The
three girls and I moved back here to Bellevue. This school district
accepted the home school coursework. My second daughter lettered in
Academics her senior year, graduated in 2003, and is now at Texas A&M
University on an Army ROTC Scholarship in the Corps of Cadets.
My children have been successful but they have had advantages that
others may not. They are lucky to be intelligent, adaptable, and have
educated parents, one of whom is available to drive to another school
district or home school if necessary. The great discrepancies in State
standards and curriculum are a burden for any child who moves. I
believe national standards are necessary to ensure a quality education
for all children no matter where they live.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you.
Ms. Murphy.
STATEMENT OF MS. SHEILA MURPHY
Ms. Murphy. My name is Sheila Murphy. I don't have any
children, so I don't have any experience from that point of
view, but I grew up with the Army. My father was in the Army
National Guard, and I knew the experience of never having a
vacation. I didn't even know the meaning of that word because
any time from the civilian job was spent going to JAG school or
camp or something else. So I've always had a fondness for the
National Guard.
I had the opportunity to receive the contract to build and
design and implement their family program for the Air National
Guard here in Nebraska, and I took the job on just shortly
before September 11, 2001. So I had a rare opportunity to
really see the impact that is made in the lives of these
civilian families when they suddenly have lengthy deployment in
front of them, and they have to change their lifestyles so
dramatically, and it is a completely different situation in
many areas.
I do have a few things to say about that. I don't know if
you would like me to say that now or if you would rather
continue with the families first.
Senator Chambliss. If you want to, say it now, it may be
that we don't ask the right questions. If you have some
particular points you want to make, let's do it now.
Ms. Murphy. The situation is so different in that the
children are impacted by the departure from normalcy in their
lives on several levels. The decision as to whether or not that
is shared with the community, even to the extent that children
share it with their classmates, their teachers, this is where
we run into problems because it's very subjective.
Some families feel very guarded and as they should be. It
can depend on the mission; their security can be at issue. You
do not want to implement programs that have families, wives,
children announcing to the world: guess what, my father is out
of town, and it's going to be that way for a few months, and
this is where we live. You don't want to do that and you don't
want children subjected to that who aren't used to it.
With the active duty children, that's the framework of
their lives; that's the context in which they live. You take a
Reserve or a Guard child, suddenly they're going to be
subjected to a whole different kind of interaction with the
community, with their peers, with people that, God forbid, may
mean them harm. So you do have to take into account different
security ramifications when we talk about this.
There are stresses on the Reserve or Guard child that are
different on the active duty child in that this is suddenly
something they may not be prepared for. That's something family
programs are working on right now, to do more preparation.
Family readiness means get the family ready. In the future,
hopefully, the family readiness programs across the country
will be able to reach out to the Guard and Reserve families and
have them armed with the weapons that they need to cope if the
separation or deployment should occur. If the child isn't
ready, it can be very stressful, just the separation, the
uncertainty.
Another factor to be considered when dealing with these
children is that often they don't have a definite return-home
date that they can circle on a calendar and depend upon. This
is tremendously impactful in the family dynamic. The
uncertainty about the return home is one of the factors that we
hear about more and more often that really causes problems for
families, so we have to take that into consideration.
So when you have a student that's a Reserve or Guard
student in a classroom, there's probably not a financial
emergency or crisis that is occurring, but there are impacts
that are felt, especially by teenagers, I have found, the
lifestyle changes. Sure, they can pay the bills and pay your
utility bills and buy your groceries and these sort of things,
but you may not be able to have those new tennis shoes that the
other kids have. You may not be able to afford the field trips
that the other kids have. We have to find a way to help with
these things to make sure that this doesn't further add to the
suffering of these kids.
The teenagers often suffer in silence. When a military
person leaves, a man or woman leaves and there's a baby or a
toddler, everyone goes, ``Oh, isn't that heartbreaking. Look,
they have to leave their little one.'' Frankly, the little ones
are a lot less aware of what's going on than the teens, the
adolescents and the teens, who really suffer. We have to
consistently make sure that just because they seem to be adult
and they seem to be mature and they seem to be coping, they're
not overlooked. So that is something that we need to consider
when we implement and design any programs.
Right now, I am no longer with the Air Guard. I have
started a nonprofit corporation called Project Home Front, and
I've seen in the area of family programs that the community
really wants to help. We have a great asset in the American
public that really wants to support their troops, but I think
we all are aware of how difficult it is for the community to
actually share generosity with the military.
I'm trying to facilitate a way for the community to give
things to families, and hopefully, we're just getting started.
Hopefully, we will be able to help with some of the issues that
have been brought up before, like additional counseling
programs, maybe some recreational activities that families
need; it's not a necessity of life, but it sure would be nice.
I think that as far as schools are concerned, what I would
like to see happen is more organized interaction between family
readiness programs and the teachers in the schools. We have an
excellent family readiness program out of the Department of
Defense, that they have just been building it and building it
to be something that is really doing a great job. I have been
very impressed with everything I've seen in my work with them.
I noticed in my own program that there were no protocols in
place when I came on board, who to talk to in the school: you
have to figure out, who do I talk to.
Well, I would like to see some kind of protocols
established where, maybe the guidance counselor or principal or
whomever it is, that there would be people that would be
earmarked in the school districts. It would be the
responsibility of the family program, I think, to reach out to
them because, as you said, how are schools going to identify
the students. If our family program leaders are trained to
identify the students and know who to reach out to in the
school, and if there is some training that's happening for
those educators, it's going to make things a lot better.
We need the educators to be aware of the changes in the
dynamic of the student, and as I say, it's a personal decision.
We may not want this student identified to the rest of the
students, that Johnny's dad is going to be in Iraq for 3
months. We may not want that to happen, but we need
administrators and teachers to be aware, to watch for this
child and to be aware that there are going to be extra
obstacles for that child to overcome.
When a Reserve or Guard parent is called away, family
responsibilities can change dramatically. A child's household
duties can really go up, and teachers don't know. The complaint
I've heard is that the teachers don't know that or don't care
about that. They don't seem to realize that this child has a
lot less time for homework now because he's doing a lot of
things that his father did or she's doing a lot of things that
mommy did. So we need teachers to be aware of that, sensitive
to that.
We need them to be looking out for opportunities when there
may be a financial stress or burden on the family, that they
need to turn to some organization, or at least the educators
need to alert the family readiness group, that this child may
need some help; I don't think they can afford the new uniform;
or all those little things in school that come up to make the
experience all that it should be.
We do not want the children of our military to not have the
optimum experience, so we need to have better communication
facilitated between our family readiness programs and the
schools and both of them taking a share of the burden. It's
just kind of an educational, informational event. I think we
just need to set up a program and keep people in and get them
going on it.
We also need to caution our teachers that they should not
bring their political views into the classroom. There have been
some experiences where a teacher will be lecturing about how
evil war is or how evil this war is, or something in
particular, and start demeaning the troops. Well, that's
somebody's mother or father. They're not only away from home
and in danger, but now they're being demeaned as well. So we
need to make sure consistently that that is not done.
That's all.
Senator Chambliss. Thanks very much to each of you. What I
would like to do is start with the Simons and we'll go to each
one of you, if you'll address this.
First of all, what are some issues or situations that you
know of that you've either experienced yourselves with respect
to your children being children of military parents or that
you've heard other folks talk to you about or mention to you
that have been unique situations that are dictated by the fact
that your children are military children?
Senior Master Sergeant Simons, let's start with you all.
Sergeant Simon. I think the first thing we think about is
going from school to school. We moved here 3 years ago from
Hampton, Virginia, Langley Air Force Base. My oldest son at
that time was an eighth grader getting ready to go into ninth
grade, so when we moved here, ninth grade was where he started.
We volunteered for this assignment because that's a good
transition for my son to go from starting a new school and not
be the outsider. When going from eighth grade to ninth grade,
no matter where you're in the local school district, in a lot
of schools, that's the break between middle school and high
school. That's why we wanted to volunteer and move there.
The problem is I have another son that is 1 year behind him
and he has to make the adjustment of he's now supposedly an
eighth grader and one of the bigger guys in school and he gets
picked on or noticed. Not necessarily picked on, but he gets
noticed because he is the new kid on the block. He's tall in
stature and so he gets noticed very easily. Folks can easily
tell that he's the new kid on the block and easily pick on him
for whatever, not knowing the local policies, or whatever, that
are going on in the school.
Some other things that we noticed that we were concerned
about when wanting to make sure that our kids were in a stable
community, which is the reason we volunteered for Offutt. There
is a big, large weather organization here in the Offutt
community; it can be a stable career move coming here. A lot of
folks can be here for 5 or 6 years. My concern was, I wanted my
boys who are going to high school to be in a stable environment
for their high school because there's a lot of things that we
had concerns about such as sports. Around the community, around
the Nation, if you're not born and raised in the area and
you're subject to moving, there's no way you're going to make
some varsity sports.
Things like grades and the possibility of honors, whether
or not valedictorian and salutatorian. My kid has great grades,
but if he moves from another school district, who knows whether
or not the classes that he's taken are going to make the grade
in another school district, and so our concerns were we need to
keep our guys as stable as possible as much as we can.
That's just the biggest things that we were concerned
about. Our sons are great and they will adjust to just about
anything that goes on, but a lot of the things that she was
talking about with the Reserves are similar for the active
duty. I am on deployment-capable status. If something happens
and they call for a weather guy with my career field, with my
grade, whatever, I'll be going to wherever.
We've talked about that in my family. My boys ask me every
couple of weeks: Dad, what's the chances of your going? Not
just that, but also the possibility of a PCS because I've been
here in the Omaha area for 3 years now. The Air Force policy is
that if you're over 3 years in a certain station, chances are
you're going to move, because unless there is absolutely no
need for your career field, after 3 years on station, they try
to give you a little bit of stability, and then they move you.
I know the Marine Corps and the Army are even worse as far as
stability. We have friends that seem to move every year.
It's just things that the military understands and knows,
that kids growing up in that know. Those are the biggest
concerns that we had was the possibility of sports, their
grades.
They also have friends, as Dr. Deegan and Mr. Thomas talked
about. My kids have been in eight different schools in their
high school grades, at least the senior one has. The second
grader is going to continue, hopefully, in the next 5, 6 years,
once I hit 30 years, I'll have to retire, and he'll have his
high school years pretty much stable.
As far as finding new friends, finding a new community,
when we moved here in the Bellevue area, we started living in
base housing, started school in Bellevue East High School. Then
a year later we moved to off-base housing. We live right in the
middle of Bellevue West School District, but my kids decided
they wanted to stay with Bellevue East because even if they
couldn't drive, it was incumbent on Michele and I to get them
to school, especially when they were younger, but even if they
can't drive, they still wanted to continue with their friends.
They thought it was more important to have their school
friends than to be away from their friends in the local area
when they are off and out of school. Their school friends are
the most important things in their lives, and they wanted to
have some kind of stability that way. No telling whether or not
Mom and Dad would move again, but they wanted to stay with
their friends as much as they can.
Another thing that has been mentioned is whether or not the
kids want to be noticed. The kids do not want to be noticed,
that they are military kids and that they're different from
anybody else out there. My sons do everything they can to fit
in: Wear the same grungy clothes, baggy pants, everything that
they can to fit in. [Laughter.]
But they don't want the parents to come up to them in their
school with a uniform on because it shows that they are
different from everybody else. They want us to stay away, and I
can respect that. They want to be noticed as students, not as
military students or not as somebody else that has a potential
for moving 3 years from now and then their friends back away
from them because I don't need to get to know you because
you're leaving in a year, or something like that.
Senator Chambliss. I'm curious. You, being the son of
military parents, do you have any recollection of going through
this same process as a youngster?
Sergeant Simon. It was a family decision, but the main
reason I thought about us moving here to Omaha was because of
the stability. When I was halfway through my junior year, my
dad moved from Germany to a farm in North Dakota 2 years before
he retired. I swore to myself I would never do that to my kids
because, first off, I go from a school that's 1,500 students in
my class, just in my grade alone, down to a school where I had
six. That's a big difference. [Laughter.]
There's a lot of differences in the possibility of
scholarships, whether it's athletic or academic, a lot of
different career possibilities all of a sudden get pushed down
to almost nil because nobody notices you. You're out there on a
farm, farmland doing all kinds of different things; whereas, 2
years before, I was in a large town being able to be part of a
large community. Things were happening for me, and then we
moved out to this farm where I thought I was at the end of the
world. So that's the biggest thing that I remember about
growing up in high school.
I also went through eight different schools. What I always
thought was neat, especially up until I got to junior high
school, we were able to live in Alabama, North Dakota, Germany
twice, we lived all over the place. I thought the opportunities
to move around and see things were great, but by the time I got
into high school, I wanted to stay in high school and be with
my friends because traveling wasn't cool anymore. The coolest
thing in the world was to be with my friends and notice what
kinds of other things were going on in life besides my
following my dad around.
Senator Chambliss. Ms. Bruno.
Mrs. Bruno. He hit the nail right on the head. My kids have
moved quite a bit as well, and at one time they liked to travel
with us and go all the different places that we went, but as
they got older, they didn't want to go out with us. They don't
want to go out to the zoo with Mom and Dad. They want to go
hang out with their friends. Stability has always been really
important to my husband and I as far as the high school years,
we knew that this was going to happen.
Fortunately for us, for the oldest child, we were able to
keep it to two high schools. The last 2 years were at the same
high school. It would have been nice to have 3 years at the
same high school for the oldest, but 2 years was good. I think
we're going to be lucky and get the second child through 3
years here.
One of the reasons we came to Offutt instead of going to
the Pentagon was we knew we would be here for 3 years. My
husband could have gone to school and he opted out of the
school so we could stay in one place for my daughter, so
education has always been the focus for us.
Whenever we move to a different area, we research the
schools. We look to see what's the best school district for our
children, and that's how we decide where we're going to live,
whether we'll live on base or live off base.
Unfortunately with both kids, we've had some problems with
transferring credits in high school because each school
district has a different criteria for graduating. The oldest
child, she was lucky. She gained 3 credit hours. The younger
child lost three, so she has to go to summer school somewhere
down the line. She's not looking forward to that. So some of
those issues have been covered already that you know that those
are the problems.
The biggest hurdle I came across last year was that my
husband was in Kuwait due for orders this year. My daughter was
starting to apply at colleges, and we didn't know where to
apply; we didn't know where we were moving. So that was a huge
problem because you want in-State tuition and that was
difficult.
I established residency in California, so she applied to
California schools. She applied for Virginia schools, Nebraska
schools, schools around Florida just so that she could be in
and around us if that's what she chose to do, but $250 worth of
application fees was expensive, and we didn't know where our
residency was going to be. So I'm glad to hear that Georgia is
going to allow kids to have an in-State tuition status.
I'm not sure if I understand that correctly. Does that
apply to anybody in the military, or is it just people that are
stationed in Georgia?
Senator Chambliss. No. It applies to anybody that graduates
from a State high school while their parents are in the
military stationed in Georgia.
Mrs. Bruno. Yeah. It's difficult, though, because we didn't
know where we were moving next and we would have liked her to
stay in the same State as us.
Now, she chose to stay in California, maybe because it was
the most familiar thing that she had just encountered. She
stayed right in the same area where she went to high school.
Luckily for me, I established residency in California so that
she was able to stay and get in-State tuition. But it would
have been nice for her to be able to apply anywhere and just
know that she would get in-State tuition whether we moved there
or not.
I think that would be a great service to the military, to
allow at least for public schools. I know the private
universities might not have that same option, but to allow the
military to apply to any college and have in-State tuition, I
would think that there would be some kind of rule where you can
transfer your residency to that State so that they felt at
least they were getting some kind of money for education. But I
think that's a huge problem. We just didn't know where we were
going to move next, so I'm glad she stayed where she did.
Luckily for me, I've been taking college classes since high
school, over 22 years of college classes along the way, and the
military has addressed those kinds of things. The University of
Maryland had taken all of my credits from Rutgers University
and University of Nebraska at Omaha and just transferred
everything that I had as far as through the military, all the
schools that I've attended, using the military education
system. So that's been wonderful, so I'm really pleased with
that.
The other thing I was really pleased to hear was back in
January, I don't know if you've heard of One Source. It's a
pilot program with the Marine Corps and it has been very
helpful for relocating and finding different schools in
different areas. I know a lot of the other Services are
familiar with the One Source because I think it started with
the Reserve program, if I remember correctly, and it's used
with the Marine Corps currently. I'm really hoping that it
spreads to all the other Services because it's a wonderful
program and resource for the military.
That was all I had to say.
Senator Chambliss. Okay. Petty Officer Lemasters.
Petty Officer Lemasters. Thank you, gentlemen. A number of
people have mentioned different support groups and advocacy
groups out there, and one of the sailors that I spoke with
mentioned a group called Military Coalition that's out in San
Diego, and they were working aggressively trying to get the
high school credit hours to transfer and things along that
nature, so that may be a benefit for coordination with as well.
My daughter is only in the first grade right now, but one
thing that I found for the younger children that's been helpful
for us is to have a good before and after school care program
available at the school for families where both spouses work.
That's been an enormous benefit for us, and luckily, Bellevue
School District has a wonderful before and after school
program.
Bellevue's reputation preceded it before we even got here.
Numerous people that we talked to before moving here, as well
as after we've been here, had nothing but positive things to
say about the Bellevue School District and we also have the
same feelings with that.
One concern that one of the sailors that I had talked to
mentioned was regarding the sports programs at Nebraska. The
Nebraska Schools Athletic Association apparently has a 180-day
waiting period for students that transfer either interstate or
intercity transfer before they can participate in that
particular school district's sports programs.
With the military student, that becomes exceedingly
difficult and is somewhat unfair to the student if they're
coming from out of State due to a transfer and then they can't
participate for the first half of the school year that they're
there or even until the next school year if they transfer
during the middle of the school year to be able to participate
in the sporting programs. So if that's something that could be
looked into, that might be of interest for the panel.
That's all I have. Thank you, gentlemen.
Senator Chambliss. Before you leave that, I wonder if that
is something unique to Nebraska. Is there a chance anybody
mentioned that that had happened in any other State?
Petty Officer Lemasters. Not that I'm aware of, sir. It's
possible, but Nebraska was the State that was cited to me on
that.
Senator Ben Nelson. Dr. Deegan is shaking his head. He
might have some enlightenment.
Dr. Deegan. I'm not sure of the exact situation.
Senator Chambliss. Dr. Deegan, would you stand up?
Dr. Deegan. Excuse me. I'm not sure of the exact situation,
but I believe that any military family that comes in, the day
they get here, they can begin to participate and take part in
sports. The issue becomes whether you can transfer from one
school to another and I think that's the waiting period that
people get into. But actually, a military family moving into
the area can begin sports that very day, but I think it's the
transfer issue. It has to be an agreement between the two
districts before they can play. Sometimes the district doesn't
want to lose their best players so they'll say, no, we're not
going to agree to that, so it's a competition between
districts. Actually, for new military coming in, they can play
the first day they're here.
Senator Chambliss. Okay. Ms. Bruce.
Ms. Bruce. The biggest problem that we have run into over
the years is moving from the middle of the country to either
coast. We found that the schools in Kansas and Nebraska are
quite a ways ahead, curriculum content, for each grade than
California or Maryland where we were stationed. The most
glaring example is when we moved from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas,
to Fort Hunter Liggett, California. My sixth grader came home
the first day of school and said, Mom, I have the same math
book. I said, ``You mean the same series, that means you
haven't missed anything; that's good.'' She said, ``No, Mom,
this was my fourth grade math book in Kansas.'' They were 2
years behind in math and a full year behind in all the other
subjects. They had textbooks with no grade references on them
so the people that lived there didn't know, but military moving
in and out did know. They also didn't have enough textbooks to
go around. The kids had to share, so there was no assigned
homework. Numerous other problems.
I ended up home schooling two of my kids that year and put
the two middle schoolers on the high school bus so they could
go 30 miles to the next town and attend a middle school that
had algebra for the eighth grader, a decent curriculum, a small
talented and gifted program, band. None of which was available
in the other school.
Lots of problems trying to transfer one of my daughters
during high school. It's a little bit easier when they're
younger, but still if they're 1 or 2 years ahead or behind,
when they get to a new school district, kids end up skipping
grades or repeating grades. My oldest was lucky enough to be
here 4 years in high school. She's the one that got into West
Point.
Two years ago we moved to the Washington, DC, area. We took
housing at Fort Meade. I had tried to call, look at the Web
site. Administrators don't tell you that their school is not a
good fit for your child or it's not as good as where you came
from. We arrive and certain credits aren't accepted, other
things have to be substituted. You do the best you can and
enroll them and then you find out even the class content is
different. Chemistry, there's a junior class which requires a
higher level math to do all the formulas and equations. The
chemistry there was a freshman class, basic chemical process.
English was speech and debate there, and here it is American
literature; completely different content.
Once again, we home schooled for a year. We didn't like
that. The kids miss all the activities. They don't get
leadership positions. They don't get the sports and activities
that you put on a college application.
I managed to get the correspondence courses for my high
schooler from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, high
school correspondence, and worked with that, so when we decided
to split up the family, leave my husband in Washington, DC,
bring the other three kids back here to a decent school system,
they accepted those credits. She was able to have a great
senior year, lettered in academics here and did get into a good
college. It's been an effort every time we moved, whether to
home school, whether to drive them to a different school, what
programs were like.
They're lucky. They're smart. Three of them have been
identified as talented and gifted. They have parents that are
educated. They have a mom who can stay home, do home school. A
lot of other kids don't have those advantages. They're stuck
with whatever is outside the gate when they move.
I would love to have national standards. I've talked to
many families that say that in the military. I don't know if
that's reasonable. I think a lot of the perception is we don't
want the Federal Government telling us what to do in our local
school district, but anybody that moves, not just the military,
has to deal with widely different curriculum. The perception
is, there's a perfectly good public school outside so we don't
need a DOD school here on our post as well. But we all know
that there's no such thing as perfect. Anything good is not
realistic in some places.
Mrs. Bruno. I've seen a lot of home school children more so
recently.
Ms. Bruce. They're not home schooling because of religion.
They're home schooling because of consistency in curriculum.
Mrs. Bruno. Exactly.
Ms. Bruce. They want their kids to go through and know that
they're not missing anything or repeating anything.
Mrs. Bruno. We've also had the experience of the same book
2 years in a row two different course titles, same book, so
that's hard and it can be very difficult.
Ms. Bruce. Very difficult.
Mrs. Bruno. You can't get around it.
Ms. Bruce. My husband comes from Texas, and he's never
changed his residency for 27 years, and we still had to fill
out a 5-page questionnaire on when he entered Texas, does he
still have his driver's license there, does he vote there, et
cetera, and have it notarized in order for my daughter to get
in-State tuition down there. So that's another concern people
have brought up to me.
I know at least five other families that have split up for
their kid's senior year of high school, sent their kid to
boarding school, sent a child home from Germany to Kansas to
live with the ex-husband because the school didn't mesh. There
was no consistency.
Mrs. Bruno. I think high school, by far, was the hardest
time.
Ms. Bruce. Yes.
Mrs. Bruno. When they were younger, it was easier; they
adjusted. We supplemented at home. As soon as we hit high
school, for both of them, it was a totally different ball game
on different issues, a lot of different curriculums.
Senator Chambliss. Ms. Bruno, Senator Nelson and I are
familiar with One Source, and I hadn't thought about this
aspect of it, but does One Source attempt to address this
problem, because this is a common problem that I'm sure all of
you, if you hadn't experienced it, you're going to experience
it the older your kids get. Does One Source attempt to address
that?
Mrs. Bruno. They have counseling for kids; the kids can
call themselves.
Senator Chambliss. If you're going from Marine Corps
Logistics Base (MCLB) in Albany, Georgia, to Offutt, is there
anything on that computer system, on the web page that will
tell you what curriculum is used?
Mrs. Bruno. Not only do they have a Web site, you can call
up on the phone and speak to a person. You don't get a
recording. They will do all the research for you as far as the
school districts, give you all the statistics for grades, give
you the demographics if you're interested in that. It's a
wonderful source, and if people use it, I think it will be
wonderful for the military.
I know friends that were moving to a new area, and they had
preschoolers, and I don't know if you've experienced preschool
waiting lists but they can be very lengthy, if you want to get
your child into a good preschool. I referred a friend with a
key volunteer network and readiness group last year, and I
referred several people over to this One Source, and they would
actually do the legwork and find out where the preschools were
and what it entailed, how to get on the list, what's the
cutoff, or how much it costs. They'll do all of that research
for you so you don't have to sit there on the phone for hours.
They'll do it all for you and call you back. They'll call you
back or they'll e-mail you. So it's a great program and I
really hope it's utilized and it spreads throughout the Service
because I think it's going to help a lot.
Senator Chambliss. Another question, and I'll just throw
this open to any of you who have had the experience and you
might shed some light on it: DOD versus non-DOD schools. Do you
find more consistency within DOD schools if you transfer? Is
there less consistency? Is there a difference in the
atmosphere? Are your children, because they're with military
children day in and day out, do they seem to be better off, do
better in school versus being in civilian school? Anybody care
to comment on that particular issue?
Mrs. Bruno. I've never had two DOD schools together. We've
gone from Department of Defense school to a public. However, my
children adjusted better in the military school system because
all of those kids have the similar circumstances. They're all
moving regularly. They tend to know what each other is thinking
when they move.
When you move into a public school system, it seems that
the military kids kind of come together as well. The civilian
kids just kind of push them away a little bit. It's really
difficult for them to form friendships with the civilian kids
because they just don't understand where they're coming from,
so they tend to. I'm not saying my kids have never had civilian
friends, but they tend to stick together with the military
kids. I guess it's just because they have similar interests.
Sergeant Simon. My son has never attended a DOD school that
I can remember. I know when I did, eighth through tenth grade,
I attended a school over in Ramstein, Germany, and I always
thought the education that I received from the DOD school was
at least equal to any of the education that I received anyplace
else.
I know at times DOD schools have been dinged and dinged
hardest for the level of education they provide, but when I
PCS'd back to North Dakota, I was at least at equal to if not
above the education level that I had had, because some of the
classes that I had were maybe not the same classes or even the
same textbooks, but they were very comparable with the courses
I had taken previously, and I was taking those as an eighth or
ninth grader, sometimes, and they were being offered to me as a
ninth or tenth grader.
Mrs. Bruno. I guess my older daughter was in school in
Rhode Island, and they have a pretty good curriculum in Rhode
Island. When we moved to Yongsan, Korea, she had the same
textbook for eighth grade and then she had the same textbook
for ninth grade. So I don't know. I guess that can happen in
any school district, so I don't necessarily say it's a
Department of Defense problem. I think it's just there's
different curriculums in different States.
Senator Chambliss. Senator Nelson?
Senator Ben Nelson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
First, I want to thank all of you for sharing your personal
experiences with us.
Sergeant Simon, you came because of the schools, but I
thought perhaps you came partly because of the weather as well.
[Laughter.]
Sergeant Simon. I would like to take credit for that, but I
think it was more the chaplains than the weather guys.
[Laughter.]
Senator Ben Nelson. We thank the chaplain in that regard.
Ms. Murphy, having had so much experience with the Guard
and Reserve units, do you have any thoughts from your
experience what the recent deployments, what affect those
deployments might have on the children of Guard and Reserve
members?
Ms. Murphy. I think that as the deployments have gone on
since September 11 and since our activity in Iraq, we have a
different problem now. I'm seeing that a lot of kids, there's
no distinction now between war time and peace time. There's no
time that these kids feel that they can totally relax. They're
starting to key into a climate of global terrorism and starting
to feel that even if their parents are on peace keeping
missions somewhere where there is not supposed to be combat,
there is still danger. So what I've noticed is the stress is
becoming more consistent and it's not peaking in a lot of the
lives of these kids, but it's a consistent level of stress. I
think we have to maybe look at our counseling programs from
that point of view and see that for the older kids we address
it that way. For the younger kids, they don't make any
differentiations. They see military people in combat and
instantly it's their families. I do think we need to step up
some counseling.
However, that said, I think that we always have to remember
that when we approach all of these programs, we have to prepare
for stress and prepare for problems in the lives of our
families but never design things so that we invite it. I should
have been worried about that. Now, I am. So we have to remember
that. We always have to be very supportive in our tenor, in the
words, in the ways that we choose to communicate with the
families, to tell them that we're there if they come, if they
need us, that we know that they're strong and capable people.
That especially goes for the kids, too. Kids will reflect what
you give them.
Beyond that, I think the overriding thing that I believe we
need is to keep expanding and developing our family readiness
programs and linking them more to the schools because in my own
program, as I built it and set it up and was soliciting
information from the families and information from the military
members in trying to assess their needs and build programs to
face them, the school had so many people in so many different
areas, that dealing with the schools is really a daunting task
for Guard and Reserves. They're going to need some help, and
they're going to need some protocols and a lot of cooperation
on that, but I think that is right now because of the gap that
I see.
Senator Ben Nelson. I want to congratulate you for your
work already as Director of the Family Readiness Network for
the 155th Air Refueling Wing.
Ms. Murphy. Thank you.
Senator Ben Nelson. It received the National Guard's 2002
Outstanding Family Program award and if you can continue your
work in readiness to reflect that kind of outstanding output
and have the excellence associated with it, I think our Guard
and Reserve units will be better served. It certainly helps us
to understand what we can do to help in that regard.
Ms. Murphy. Thank you very much, Senator.
Senator Ben Nelson. Thank you.
Sergeant Simon. Sir, one thing I would like to mention,
also, is Dr. Deegan mentioned that there was a Web site. Mr.
Thomas also mentioned a Web site. In this information age,
there are tons of different information that are available. I
would like to push, if we could, the Family Support Center.
Most military bases, whether it's Army or Navy, have a Family
Support Center that should be able to provide a lot of that
information.
I've been over to our Family Support Center and some of the
things are out there as you travel from base to base, and a lot
of the same programs are there, but it depends on how active or
creative the director of the Family Support Center is on
whether or not some of the information is out there.
I'd just suggest to Dr. Deegan to continue to work with the
Family Support Center in Offutt and just get a lot of the
information out there, because a lot of us are going to
continue to move on to different assignments. We're going to
continue to have stress in our lives. If we can find one place
to go to, instead of having to go through a network of 15
different friends, because it depends on which friend you're
talking to on whether or not you're going to get the right
information, if we could get the Family Support Center to be
that one center for each base, post, Army installation and we
can maybe get the information and be a little bit less
stressful, because it's the parents that are going to have to
go out and get that information.
The kids may have a lot of stress in their lives, but
they're not going to tell anybody about it. They're not going
to go surfing the web to find information about what the
schools are for the next place. They're not going to try to
find the information about what the community is like, what
activities there are to do in another community. It's the
parents who have to go look, and if we can keep the Family
Support Center focused in the process, we need to do that.
Mrs. Bruno. I think one of the things that the One Source
Web site or community was trying to do is do just that, to link
each base's family readiness program to their Web site. I found
it a wonderful program, and if it goes, I would be really happy
for the military. I think it would be a great program for all
of the Services, because they were providing links for us. If
we called them or if we went to the Web site, it would provide
us links to the family readiness organizations. So it is one
place that I think would be a great start. I don't know if it
will continue, but I really hope it does.
Senator Chambliss. It is a program that Senator Nelson and
I have keen interest in and has been developed through a
hearing that we had in Washington, DC, with all of the
Services, and it's a program that seems to be working.
The one thing that we have been concentrating on,
particularly in this session of Congress because of the Iraqi
situation, that's given it even an higher profile, and that is
trying to make sure that we do a better job of allowing you to
do a better job of dealing with these kinds of issues.
Master Sergeant Simon, it may have been of concern to you.
I know it was of concern to your parents and you coming along,
but times were different then, and kids were different. We all
know that our children are much brighter than we were coming
along. They have different interests and different assets that
they're able to use. Thank goodness a computer works the same
way in Korea as it does in Omaha, Nebraska, but that doesn't
account, it doesn't make up for the difference in textbooks and
other day-to-day things that, gee-whiz, you have to put up
with.
My dad was a minister and we moved five times. I went to
five different schools, so I share some of those same problems.
But you folks know that as long as you're in the military,
these are going to be continuing problems.
I think Senator Nelson will agree with me. I can't tell you
how much we appreciate you all coming in and baring your soul
with us today. I assure you, we're going to take this
information back to Washington and try to incorporate your
thoughts and your ideas into some overall programs, along with
what we've heard in other parts of the country.
We're working very closely with Senator Lamar Alexander of
Tennessee and Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, who are the
chairman and ranking member on the Education Subcommittee
within the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, to
try to develop some programs that will allow a smoother
transition for our military children because we don't want
there to be that difference. We never want your kids to have to
think about them being in a little different situation from the
civilian kids when they're in a civilian school.
We just appreciate very much your being here today and
sharing these ideas with us.
Master Sergeant and Mrs. Simon, I need to tell you all, it
sounds like you have a couple of young men coming along that
are great athletes, and we have Robins Air Force Base.
[Laughter.]
Great school systems and we'd love to have them, so we may
find a weather station that needs your talent. [Laughter.]
Senator Ben Nelson. I think we'll get your tour of duty
extended here. [Laughter.]
I might mention one thing. About the equalizing the tuition
for in-State purposes for someone who begins their college in
Nebraska while finishing high school here, we have two State
senators here. I never want to pass the ball off if I can run
with it, but in this case, I think I have to pass it off. We
have State Senator Nancy Thompson here and State Senator Paul
Hartnett was here earlier.
This area is in their district, and I think it would be an
excellent topic for them to take back to the Nebraska
Legislature to take a look at what Georgia is doing and see
what some other States are doing because it can--switching from
University of Nebraska at Omaha to University of Nebraska at
Kearnly to University of Nebraska at Lincoln or to one of the
State colleges in Nebraska could present a challenge that is
not currently being handled in a way that it is being handled
elsewhere. I haven't thought about it until it came up as a
result of this get-together. So I appreciate that opportunity
and always want to hand the ball if I can't run with it, and
this is a local issue, primarily.
Senator Chambliss. Yes, it is, and you're absolutely right.
There are a lot of other things like this and some thoughts
that you all have come up with today, and you stimulate some
ideas in my mind and I know in Senator Nelson's that we're
going to be able to take back. From a practical aspect, this
was not a difficult thing to do, for the Georgia Legislature to
do.
It was not difficult for Senator Nelson and I to agree that
our Guard and Reserve folks ought to have use of the commissary
and exchanges. I mean, when we're calling on folks, we just
need to do those kinds of things to attract you, to retain your
families, because even though it's your spouse, we know that
this is a military family situation.
So we're going to continue to work to make life better for
you, and again, I appreciate very much your testimony here.
To Mr. Thomas and Dr. Deegan, we thank you very much for
being here to give us your thoughts and your ideas on the
issues that we have discussed.
With that, this hearing will be adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 3:00 p.m., the subcommittee adjourned.]
ISSUES AFFECTING FAMILIES OF RESERVE AND NATIONAL GUARD SOLDIERS,
SAILORS, AIRMEN, AND MARINES
----------
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2003
U.S. Senate, Joint Hearing of the
Committee on Armed Services,
Subcommittee on Personnel,
and
Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions,
Subcommittee on Children and Families,
Chattanooga, TN.
The subcommittees met, pursuant to notice, at 10:08 a.m. in
the Drill Hall of the National Guard Armory, 1801 Holtzclaw
Avenue, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Senator Saxby Chambliss
(chairman of the Subcommittee on Personnel, Committee on Armed
Services) and Senator Lamar Alexander (chairman of the
Subcommittee on Children and Families, Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions) presiding.
Armed Services Committee member present: Senator Chambliss.
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee member
present: Senator Alexander.
Armed Services Committee majority staff member present:
Richard F. Walsh, counsel.
Armed Services Committee minority staff member present:
Gerald J. Leeling, minority counsel.
Armed Services Committee staff assistant present: Michael
N. Berger.
Armed Services Committee members' assistant present: Clyde
A. Taylor IV, assistant to Senator Chambliss.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR SAXBY CHAMBLISS, CHAIRMAN
Senator Chambliss. Good morning. This joint hearing of the
Subcommittee on Personnel of the Senate Committee on Armed
Services and the Subcommittee on Children and Families of the
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will
come to order.
It is a pleasure to be here in the National Guard Armory
Drill Hall with my long-time good friend and now my colleague,
Senator Lamar Alexander, of the great State of Tennessee. I
can't be here without telling the people of Tennessee what a
great job you did in sending both Senator Bill Frist as well as
Senator Alexander to us in Washington. Senator Alexander and I
are classmates together. It is one of the more experienced
classes of freshmen in the United States Senate, and he is
certainly at the top of that class. He has been my good friend
for many years. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to
serve with him and a privilege to be able to get around the
country, as well as hold hearings in Washington, to work on an
issue that we have a common interest in, not just from a
legislative standpoint, but also from a very personal
standpoint. We are both extremely interested in what we are
going to be talking about.
Our previous joint hearing took place in Washington, DC, on
June 24 and it gave us the opportunity to gain important
insights into the Department of Defense programs and the
service that is being provided to military families. It is
always beneficial, however, to travel to great communities like
Chattanooga and visit military personnel where they live and
work and hear directly from them about the challenges they
face.
In addition to that joint hearing, the Subcommittee on
Personnel of the Armed Services Committee, which I chair,
previously conducted two field hearings. The first on June 2 in
Warner Robins, Georgia at Robins Air Force Base. It focused on
issues affecting families of active duty military personnel and
included testimony from a panel composed of spouses of Army,
Navy, and Air Force personnel deployed in support of Operation
Iraqi Freedom.
Our second subcommittee field hearing was conducted on
August 7 in Omaha, Nebraska at Offutt Air Force Base. The
principal focus of that hearing was on education, impact aid,
and the challenges that civilian communities and civilian
school systems face in serving military families with school
age children. In Omaha, we heard from a panel consisting of
parents, including a Navy first class petty officer, an Air
Force chief master sergeant and his wife, and the spouses of
active duty Army and Marine Corps officers whose children had
attended many different schools, both civilian and military
schools within the Department of Defense system. These parents
gave us a better understanding of the difficulties they and
their children had faced in moving from school system to school
system during the course of their careers.
Today our focus is on families of the National Guard and
Reserve personnel. We understand that while striving each day
to be superb soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, many
guardsmen and reservists strive with equal commitment and
dedication to be superb spouses, parents, and providers to
their children. The programs and problems that we consider
today directly impact the ability of our guardsmen and
reservists to successfully fulfill these all important roles.
Families of mobilized National Guard and Reserve members
have been placed under tremendous stress in recent years. Even
before September 11, 2001, and the global war on terrorism, the
high tempo of operations affecting both active duty and Reserve
military personnel was a source of concern. Since September 11
our active duty, Reserve, and National Guard personnel have
performed magnificently in every mission they have been
assigned. However, the sacrifices they have made, the long and
continuing separations they have endured, and the problems in
their personal lives resulting from these realities of military
duty must be understood and carefully evaluated. We in the
Senate must make every effort, working closely with the
Department of Defense, the Department of Education, employers
in the private sector, and advocates for families in all walks
of life to respond in helpful ways.
My expectation today is that we will continue to gain
insight into the programs and initiatives of the Services, into
the formulation of policies at the headquarters level, and also
into work that remains to be done on behalf of individual
members and their families.
I am delighted that Senator Alexander, Chairman of the
Subcommittee on Children and Families, joins me today as co-
chair. I am pleased to be back in the great State of Tennessee,
having graduated from the University of Tennessee 1 or 2 years
ago. [Laughter.]
It is a real pleasure for me to have the opportunity to be
back here, but a special pleasure to be here in the presence of
my good friend, Senator Lamar Alexander. At this time I will
turn the microphone over to him for any opening remarks he
might have.
STATEMENT OF HON. LAMAR ALEXANDER, U.S. SENATOR FROM TENNESSEE
Senator Alexander. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
It is a pleasure for me also to serve with Senator
Chambliss. As he said, we have been friends. We have a common
border between Georgia and Tennessee, particularly in southeast
Tennessee. All the way down to Atlanta we have a lot of common
interests and common opportunities to work on.
I am especially glad to be here with Senator Chambliss
because he has been a leader from day one on the issue of
military families raising children. He has been a tireless
advocate on their behalf. He is Chairman of the Personnel
Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee in the United
States Senate, which has been a very active subcommittee this
year under his chairmanship. He was recently awarded the
Military Coalition's 2003 Award of Merit for his work in
strengthening the TRICARE system to support the healthcare
needs of our troops and their families.
No time of the year reminds us more of our loved ones than
this time of the holiday season. It is an emotional time. So it
is appropriate that we spend some time in December talking
about military families, because many of them are separated
this holiday season. Their loved ones are away defending us.
This hearing, as Senator Chambliss said, is part of a
series of hearings that Senator Chambliss and I, Senator Dodd,
and Senator Ben Nelson have held in different parts of our
country to focus on the broader issue of military parents
raising children. Today we want to especially focus on families
of National Guard men and women and members of the Reserve.
The hearings have already had an impact. Here are just a
few. We learned about the Defense Department's exemplary
programs on child care and also some ways that child care could
be improved. In responding to the needs for troops to visit
their families, Congress and the President have provided
funding this year, so troops on a 2-week leave through the
revived R&R, rest and recreation programs, can have travel
expenses covered when they fly home. That is in the process of
being implemented now.
We addressed combat pay by increasing the families'
separation allowance. Families have additional needs during
times of deployment which costs a little bit of extra money.
This $250 a month makes a difference, and Congress has funded
that this year.
We in Congress have also addressed health care concerns of
soldiers and their families. Senator Chambliss especially has
been in the leadership on this issue. The Department of Defense
authorization bill included $400 million for this year so that
when reservists are called to active duty they become eligible
for TRICARE coverage. Additionally, when reservists return from
active duty, instead of having TRICARE coverage for only 60
days reservists will be covered for up to 6 months.
Finally, during our earlier series of hearings the issue
was raised of soldiers and families losing certain benefits
such as Headstart when they begin receiving extra combat pay.
It wasn't really the intention of Congress to penalize members
of the armed services by giving them extra money, but that was
the effect of it. The Headstart legislation recently passed by
the Senate HELP Committee included a provision pertaining to
this Headstart eligibility problem. As our soldiers are away
fighting to defend our freedom, it is our responsibility to
make sure we help in taking care of their children. The fact
that they are receiving combat pay because they are working in
dangerous situations should not adversely affect their
children. Therefore, I proposed language to the Headstart
reauthorization bill ensuring that a military family otherwise
eligible for Headstart would not lose its eligibility because a
member of that family is receiving combat pay.
Today we are shifting our focus slightly. As I mentioned
earlier, up to this point we have focused mainly on families of
active duty troops. Today we are talking more about families of
Reserve and National Guard. The American troops serving in
Operation Noble Eagle, Operation Enduring Freedom, and
Operation Iraqi Freedom, more than 300,000 are from the Reserve
and National Guard. This is mostly since September 11, and this
includes those men and women who have gone to Iraq, who have
gone to Afghanistan, and the large number of Reserve and Guard
men and women who have been called to staff the bases while the
active duty people have gone overseas. In Tennessee since
September 11, more than 6,200 troops from the Reserve and Guard
have been mobilized, including 644 troops from here in the
Chattanooga area at last count. So it is important that we
consider their needs.
Some of the needs of Reserve and Guard men and women are
different. When a reservist is deployed on a full-time military
duty he or she is not only away from their family, but also
from his or her regular job, a job which would normally provide
income to the family, as well as important benefits like health
care coverage. Because the families of reservists do not tend
to live in military communities such as those that live on or
near Fort Campbell, Reserve families do not have access to the
same support network for needs like child care, counseling, or
even just getting news about their loved ones. So we have a lot
to learn today and two great panels of witnesses to help us do
that.
Since 1997 we have had what we like to call a fully
integrated armed services. We think of our active duty and our
Guard men and women and our Reserve men and women as all part
of the same unit more than we did before. That means if we are
going to expect more, we are going to have to give more. One
example would be in terms of the numbers of troops going
overseas, I heard one report that pointed out that over the
next few months there would be about 100,000 service members
coming back from Iraq and about 100,000 going over. About 25
percent of those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan today are
Reserve and National Guard and the number who will be serving
with this 100,000 or more going over will be higher than that.
I look forward, Senator Chambliss, to learning today, and I
look forward to the questions. Chattanooga is especially an
interesting place for us to talk about reservists and
guardsmen. One of the most impressive stories coming out of
Chattanooga has been the seven fathers and sons who are a
member of the same Army National Guard artillery unit. The last
time I checked, they were all at Fort Campbell. Seven fathers
and their sons all serving together in the same unit. Some of
them were preparing to go to Iraq. I imagine they have by now.
That is just one indication of the tremendous patriotism and
volunteer spirit that exists in the Chattanooga area, which is
something we are very proud of with our National Guard and
Reserves.
Senator Chambliss. You are right, it is fitting that we be
here. You and I have a very good friend in the Mayor of
Chattanooga, Bob Corker, who has done such a great job here. We
appreciate Chattanooga hosting this, particularly Colonel
Robert Harris, the brigade commander here at the armory. We
appreciate you and all of your staff for the great work you
have done in making this armory available to us today.
While he could not be here today, I also want to recognize
my ranking member, Senator Ben Nelson, who is from the great
State of Nebraska. Senator Nelson and I, just like Senator
Alexander and Senator Dodd on his subcommittee, have just a
great working relationship. These committees are bipartisan
committees because we are not here talking about Republican
issues or Democratic issues. We are talking about quality of
life issues for our military men and women and their families.
Senator Nelson has just been such a strong advocate as the
ranking member of the Personnel Subcommittee on Armed Services
for families, as well as for the active duty members. I regret
he could not be here, but he is certainly here in spirit.
We have two panels of witnesses who will testify this
morning. First, we will hear from Dr. John Winkler, the Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs (Manpower
and Personnel); and Colonel James Scott of the Army National
Guard who serves as Director of Individual and Family Policy
within the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Reserve
Affairs. We will also receive testimony from Bob Hollingsworth,
the Executive Director of the National Committee for Employer
Support of the Guard and Reserve. He will testify about vital
work he does working with private sector employees and
employers.
Our second panel will consist of an Army reservist who has
served in southwest Asia; the spouse of a guardsman who was
mobilized earlier this year; the family programs coordinator
from the Tennessee Guard; and an employee of the Chattanooga
Police Department. Senator Alexander will introduce these
witnesses upon conclusion of our first panel.
I welcome the members of our first panel. Your written
testimony has been entered into the record, but we would be
pleased to hear from you now with respect to any comments you
wish to make summarizing those written statements. So Dr.
Winkler, why don't we start with you.
STATEMENT OF JOHN P. WINKLER, Ph.D., DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY
OF DEFENSE FOR RESERVE AFFAIRS (MANPOWER AND PERSONNEL)
Dr. Winkler. Good morning, Senator Alexander and Senator
Chambliss. Thank you for inviting us here to Tennessee to share
some of our thoughts with you.
I want to start by acknowledging the support that your
committees in Congress have given to our National Guard and
Reserve members and their families. Your support has
contributed to the increasing effectiveness of family readiness
and quality of life programs for our military personnel.
As Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and
Personnel, I am responsible for the full range of manpower and
personnel issues within the Office of the Assistant Secretary
of Defense for Reserve Affairs. This includes, along with
Colonel Scott, our Directorate of Individual and Family Support
Policy that's in our office. In that capacity, I am keenly
aware of the importance of family readiness and also how much
our families contribute to supporting the total force mission
of our Armed Forces.
In my prepared testimony, I shared some of our points on
what the Department sees in terms of Reserve family readiness
and quality of life issues, as well as some of the critical
challenges facing National Guard and Reserve component military
parents. I describe policies, programs, and partnerships we
have established in the Department to assist families in
preparing for the absence of their military family member and
sustaining them for the duration of that absence, as well as
the return, reunion, and reintegration resources to reunite
families and reestablish Guard and Reserve members in their
civilian jobs and in their dual civilian/military careers.
As you both mentioned, we have recently seen reservists
called to active duty under the partial mobilization authority
as a result of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center,
the Pentagon, and western Pennsylvania, as well as continuing
their contributions to Presidential Reserve Call-ups in Bosnia,
Kosovo, and Southwest Asia. Since September 11, according to
our latest accounting, nearly 325,000 Guard and Reserve members
and their families have supported the global war on terrorism.
This includes about 6,300 citizen soldiers from the State of
Tennessee.
World events and our Nation's response have presented many
challenges to the men and women who serve in our Reserve
components. Contingency operations challenge our service
members and their families and demonstrate that mission
readiness and family readiness are extremely intertwined. We
can't continue to rely on the reservists who now comprise about
half our total force if their families are not ready for the
stresses and strains of separations and deployments. We are
closely monitoring the impact of increased use of our Guard and
Reserve members, on them, their families, and their employers
while taking a proactive approach to identifying established
new programs and modify existing ones.
The mission of the individual family and support policy
directorate in my office is to ensure total force family
readiness. Our goal is to support mission readiness through the
Reserve component family readiness programs. Colonel Scott, to
my right, is the director of that office. Now he will share
some of the specific programs we have implemented to support
our total force members.
Thank you.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you, Dr. Winkler.
Colonel Scott.
STATEMENT OF COL. JAMES L. SCOTT II, ARNG DIRECTOR, INDIVIDUAL
AND FAMILY POLICY, OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
FOR RESERVE AFFAIRS
Colonel Scott. Yes, sir. Good morning, Senators.
Today, I would like to share with you some of the critical
challenges facing National Guard and Reserve component military
members and their families and explain some of the policies,
programs, and partnerships we have established in the
Department to assist them in preparing for the absence of their
military family member and sustaining them for the duration of
that absence as well as the return, reunion, and integration
resources to reunite them with their family and to reestablish
them in their civilian jobs and their dual military civilian
careers.
The good news is we have received positive feedback on how
joint and cross component initiatives can improve the overall
ability to deliver services to members and their families. One
example has been the Military One Source, a confidential
service that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This
is an employee assistance type program that is available to the
Services as a total force program for all members and their
families. Another example is the partnership that our office
has formed with the Secretary of Defense's Office of Family
Policy in order to approach family readiness issues from a
holistic perspective.
Guard and Reserve families are widely dispersed
geographically and live and work in over 4,000 communities
across the Nation. Often these families do not live near
military installations where family support readiness services
are most readily available and they may not know what services
are available. Even when military families are aware of
available services, they often encounter difficulties in
accessing them. They are in their civilian communities with
their children in public and private schools where there may be
little experience or knowledge of the impacts of mobilization
and deployments on parents and children.
The Office of Educational Opportunity has worked with our
office and in collaboration with the Department of Education to
provide information and materials that appear on both the
Department of Defense and Department of Education Web sites,
that enables administrators, faculty, counselors, and staff in
school districts throughout the United States as well as
parents, to begin to understand and address the needs of
children of deployed Guard and Reserve members. These products
include an educator's guide to the military child during
deployment and a parent's guide to the military child during
deployment and reunion.
The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Labor last
July signed a memorandum of understanding which provides the
framework for a broad range of continuing and new partnership
efforts between the two departments to ease reentry into the
civilian workforce and ensure military skills are translated
into civilian employment. This agreement will also strengthen
the Department of Labor's efforts to support returning
reservist job searches, expand employment infrastructure to
support military spouse employment, and encourage corporate
America to hire returning reservists and military spouses.
Significant results of our partnership are the publication
of the first Guard and Reserve Family Readiness Strategic Plan,
2000 through 2005; Publication of a Fifth Edition of a Guide to
Reserve Family Member Benefits in May 2003. This guide provides
family members with information about military benefits and
entitlements including medical and dental care, commissary and
exchange privileges, military pay and allowances, and
reemployment rights. I have provided copies for your staff this
morning for each of you.
We also publish the Joint Service Total Force Guard and
Reserve Family Readiness Programs Toolkit, a comprehensive
guide on pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment
information for commanders, service members, family members,
and family program managers. The toolkit is based on best
practices from the field as identified by active and Reserve
components. As with other informational products, the toolkit
can be accessed on the Reserve Affairs Web site at
www.defenselink.mil/ra.
Veteran services organizations have come forward with
initiatives to support active and Reserve families. The
Department is also partnering with the Department of Veterans'
Affairs and other agencies to ensure that demobilizing Reserve
component members have access to their post-mobilization and
transition counseling, and we recently conducted a child care
summit to determine the significance of child care requirements
for Guard and Reserve families when the military member is
training at home station and also the additional requirements
when the military member is mobilized and/or deployed. These
efforts and cooperation have allowed us to keep Reserve
component families in the mainstream of current initiatives to
support all military families.
Another concept that has been emphasized by both the
Department and the Services is expanded outreach. Outreach
means delivering services into the communities and increasing
awareness of existing programs to those families that live far
from military installations. The National Guard has been a huge
player in expanding this outreach. National Guard family
programs are almost everywhere and are supported by a State
family program coordinator in each State and territory.
Additionally, the National Guard has established over 400
family assistance centers in communities all over the Nation.
The Tennessee Guard is a strong player in this effort, and I
think you will hear from Major Ward a few more details about
that program here.
Over the past few months, they have opened 17 family
assistance centers with 20 full-time contracted workers.
Typically the centers cooperate and coordinate with existing
units' family readiness groups to assist their families by
providing answers and serve as a resource for solving problems
at the lowest possible level. The family assistance centers are
a very valuable resource, and they are able to provide a more
comprehensive approach to family support, which results in
enhanced family satisfaction and readiness.
The family support offered by the Guard is available to all
military families, regardless of component or Service. We have
received feedback that indicates that this expanded outreach
has contributed to more families being better prepared for the
challenges they face. Often when we do not hear complaints, we
know that family readiness programs are working quite well.
The Department advocates a 100-percent contact goal for all
families. We realize that this goal is worthy but it is also a
moving target. Constant attentiveness must be maintained to
connect all families with the family readiness network.
We also launched another Web site,
deploymentconnections.org, emphasizing joint readiness for
service members, families, parents, spouses, and children. One
of the lessons of Operation Iraqi Freedom and other recent wars
is that effectiveness in combat depends heavily on jointness,
how well the different branches of the military communicate and
coordinate their efforts on and off the battlefield. It is
eminently clear to us that achieving jointness in war time
requires building that jointness in peace time.
Providing the necessary resources for our mobilized Guard
and Reserve members and their families is a top priority for
the Department. While we can draw on our experience from past
call-ups, we continue to examine our policies and programs to
ensure that our mobilized reservists do not feel
disenfranchised and that we have the family support systems in
place that they require.
Your committee and Congress have been very supportive of
our Guard and Reserve members and families and on their behalf,
I want to publicly thank you for all your help in strengthening
our Reserve component. Our military personnel and their family
members are very grateful.
Senators, this concludes my prepared remarks. Thanks to you
and your fellow Members of Congress for having us here to talk
with you today. We certainly appreciate it.
[The joint prepared statement of Dr. Winkler and Colonel
Scott follows:]
Joint Prepared Statement by Dr. John D. Winkler and Colonel James L.
Scott II
Good morning Senator Alexander and Senator Chambliss. Thank you for
inviting us here to Tennessee to share some of our thoughts with you.
As the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs
(Manpower and Personnel), and with Colonel Scott as the Director of
Individual and Family Support Policy in our office, I am keenly aware
of the importance of family readiness and also how much our families
contribute to supporting the total force mission of our Armed Forces. I
also want to acknowledge the support your committee and Congress have
given to our National Guard and Reserve members and their families.
Your support has contributed to the increasing effectiveness of family
readiness and quality of life programs for our military personnel.
The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve
Affairs has a supervisory role in the Department of Defense for
National Guard and Reserve issues and has been an advocate for all
seven Reserve components. Noting that we have about 160,000 Reserve
component members currently mobilized in support of Operations Iraqi
Freedom, Enduring Freedom, and other contingencies, this is a very
important role. I am responsible for manpower and personnel issues
within the Reserve Affairs, serving as the principal staff assistant
and advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs
for all manpower, personnel, compensation, and medical matters.
Today, I will share some points on what the Department sees in
terms of Reserve family readiness and quality of life issues as well as
some of the critical challenges facing National Guard and Reserve
component military parents. In addition, I will also explain the
policies, programs, and partnerships we have established in the
Department to assist families in preparing for the absence of their
military family member and sustaining them for the duration of that
absence, as well as the return, reunion, and reintegration resources to
reunite families and to reestablish Guard and Reserve members in their
civilian jobs and dual civilian-military careers.
We have recently seen reservists called to active duty under the
partial mobilization authority as a result of the terrorist attacks on
the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and western Pennsylvania, as well
as continuing their participation and commitment to Presidential
Reserve Call-Ups in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Southwest Asia. Since September
11, 2001, nearly 310,000 Guard and Reserve members and their families
have supported the global war on terrorism. Approximately 4,400
citizen-soldiers from the Tennessee National Guard have been called to
support this global war. Currently, Tennessee is providing nearly 3,000
Guard and Reserve members from communities all across the State
including Alcoa, Boliver, Camden, Chattanooga, Columbia, Dickson,
Dresden, Elizabeth, Jackson, Johnson City, Kingsport, Knoxville,
Lebanon, Lexington, LobelviIle, Millington, Murfreesboro, Nashville,
Oak Ridge, Ripley, Smyrna, and Tullahoma. Each of these members and
their families are a vital part of their communities, and are making
critical contributions to preserving the peace and freedom of our
country and the world.
World events and our Nation's response have presented many
challenges to the men and women who serve in our Reserve components.
Contingency operations challenge our service members and their
families, and demonstrate that mission readiness and family readiness
are inextricably intertwined. We cannot continue to rely on our
reservists, who now comprise approximately half our total force, if
their families are not ready for the stresses and strains of
separations and long deployments.
When mobilized, reservists and their families face unique
challenges and barriers. Guard and Reserve families are widely
dispersed geographically and live and work in over 4,000 communities
across the Nation. Often, these families do not live near military
installations where family support readiness services are most readily
available and they may not know what services are available. Even when
military families are aware of available services, they often encounter
difficulties in accessing them. More often they are in civilian
communities with their children in public and private schools where
there may be little experience or knowledge of the impacts of
mobilization and deployment on parents and children.
We are closely monitoring the impact of the increased use on our
Guard and Reserve members, their families, and their employers while
taking a proactive approach to identify and establish new programs,
modify and adapt existing programs and resources, and expand
partnerships in and out of the Department to enhance our military
members' and their families' ability to cope with the challenges of
military service in defense of our Nation and our communities.
The mission of the Individual and Family Support Policy Directorate
in my office is to ensure total force family readiness; and our goal is
to support mission readiness through Reserve component family
readiness. The military of the 21st century is a total force military,
and the Department realizes this fact. Our total force is easy to
recognize when we look at the mix of active and Reserve members that
make up the joint forces that are serving across the globe on any given
day. We are making a push to broaden the total force mindset to the
benefit of the overall force. We are obviously better than we were 20,
or even 10 years ago, but we are still working towards closer
integration in quality of life and family readiness programs and their
impact on mission readiness.
The good news is that we have received positive feedback on how
joint and cross-component initiatives can improve the overall ability
to deliver service to members and their families. One example has been
the ``Military One Source,'' a confidential service that is available
24 hours a day; 7 days a week. This is an Employee Assistance Program
that is available to the Services as a total force program for all
members and families. Also, the Secretaries of Defense and Labor just
last July signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which provides the
framework for a broad range of continuing and new partnership, efforts
between the two departments to ease re-entry into the civilian
workforce and ensure military skills are translated into civilian
employment. This agreement will also strengthen the Department of
Labor's efforts to support returning reservists' job searches, expand
employment infrastructure to support military spouse employment, and
encourage corporate America to hire returning reservists and military
spouses.
Another example is the partnership my office has formed with the
Office of Family Policy in order to approach family readiness issues
from a holistic perspective. Colonel Scott, my Director of Individual
and Family Support Policy, and Meg Falk, the Director of the Office of
Family Policy, are the co-chairs of the Joint Family Readiness Group
that meets quarterly to discuss high-level policy issues with the
family program managers of all the Services and their respective
Reserve components. These offices illustrate examples of teamwork in
preparing policies and programs because we know it is beneficial to
begin with a total force perspective.
Another significant result of this partnership was the publication
of the first Guard and Reserve Family Readiness Strategic Plan 2000-
2005. It provides a blueprint for offering greater support to National
Guard and Reserve families and assisting them in coping with the
stresses of separations and long deployments. The plan sets out
specific goals and milestones and we have already accomplished a number
of those goals. Also, it established a link between family readiness
and unit mission readiness. This plan and the products established as a
result of its implementation area direct result of partnership efforts
within the OSD staff to include the Office of Military Community and
Family Policy and their Quality of Life, Family Policy, Children and
Youth, Community Support and Continuing Education offices. Their
efforts and cooperation have allowed us to keep Reserve component
families in the mainstream of current initiatives to support all
military families.
Another concept that has been emphasized both by the Department and
the Services is expanded outreach. Outreach is one cornerstone of the
Department's new ``Social Compact,'' in that future programs take aim
at the two-thirds of the military population that resides off base, as
well as National Guard and Reserve members and families. Outreach means
delivering services into the communities and increasing awareness of
existing programs to those families that live far from military
installations. The National Guard has been a huge player in expanding
outreach. National Guard family programs are almost everywhere and are
supported by a State Family Program Coordinator in each State and
territory. Additionally, the National Guard has established over 400
family assistance centers in communities all over the Nation. The
Tennessee Guard is a strong player in this effort. Tennessee has opened
17 Family Assistance Centers with 20 full-time contracted workers.
Typically, the Family Assistance Center workers cooperate and
coordinate with the existing units' Family Readiness Groups to assist
families by providing answers and as a resource of solving problems at
the lowest level possible. The Family Assistance Centers are a very
valuable resource. They are able to provide a more comprehensive
approach to family support, which results in enhanced family
satisfaction.
The family support offered by the Guard is available to all
military families, regardless of component or Service. We have received
feedback that indicates this expanded outreach has contributed to more
families being better prepared for the challenges they face. Often when
we don't hear complaints, we know that family readiness programs are
working well.
However, we are aware that not all families are being reached. The
foundation for support of family members lies in the preparation and
education of professionals and family members alike, well before a
reservist is called to active duty or actually deployed. The ability of
Reserve component members to focus on their assigned military duties,
rather than worrying about family matters, is directly affected by the
confidence a member has that his family can readily access family
support services. This is why the Department advocates a 100-percent
contact goal for all families. We also realize that while this goal is
worthy, it is also a moving target. Constant attentiveness must be
maintained to connect all families with a family readiness network.
Most of this work is conducted at the battalion/squadron level and
below, and it is often volunteers that do the work. They do a
tremendous job! There are isolated families who are not reached, but
there are also dedicated people working on reaching them. It also helps
us to be able to come to a forum such as this and tell the story. In
addition to family program managers, the unit commander, the service
member, and the spouse all have a responsibility in making family
readiness a reality. Family readiness is not something that just
happens. It takes multiple parties at all levels to build a robust
network. Support for unit-level programs is the key to building a
network based upon personal contact. The Department is a strong
supporter of the family programs managed by each Service and their
Reserve components. Furthermore, we seek to implement policy that will
support efforts being made at the unit-level.
Moreover, many of the Veterans Service Organizations have come
forward with initiatives to support active and Reserve families left
behind. One example is the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which provides
coordinators in each State to ensure that volunteer efforts and
donations are channeled to families who have the greatest need for
assistance. The Department is also partnering with the Veterans
Administration and other agencies to ensure that demobilizing Reserve
component members have access to their post-mobilization and transition
counseling benefits through the Federal Occupational Health Services
and the Veterans Rehabilitation Counseling Centers across the Nation..
The Office of Educational Opportunity has worked with our office, and
in collaboration with the Department of Education, to provide
information and materials that appears on both the Department of
Defense and Department of Education Web sites that enables
administrators, faculty, counselors, and staff in school districts
throughout the United States, as well as parents, begin to understand
and address the needs of children of deployed Reserve members. These
include an Educator's Guide to the Military Child During Deployment and
a Parent's Guide to the Military Child During Deployment and Reunion.
We also recently conducted a Childcare Summit to determine the
significance of childcare requirements for Guard and Reserve families
when the military member is training at home station, and also the
additional requirements when the military member is mobilized and/or
deployed. The summit determined that childcare requirements for Reserve
families vary dramatically between the Services and are largely
determined by the families' ability to provide childcare from internal
resources. Each of the Services has addressed these varying
requirements by conducting pilot programs to assist and expand child
care services and resources for Reserve component families when and
where needed. These programs have been largely successful and will
likely be embedded in future planning and programming.
We also published the 5th Edition of ``A Guide to Reserve Family
Member Benefits'' in May 2003. This guide provides family members with
information about military benefits and entitlements, including medical
and dental care, commissary and exchange privileges, military pay and
allowances, and reemployment rights. I have copies available for each
of you today. The Department funded the printing of 696,000 copies of
this booklet to allow every family of a deployed or potentially
deployed Guard or Reserve member to have their own personal copy. From
our surveys of spouses of deployed Reserve component members, we know
that information and communication are essential to Reserve families.
In addition to information concerning their deployed spouse, family
members request information on available benefits, services, and
programs, to include locations of commissaries, exchanges, healthcare,
and other facilities. Communication through an established unit or
organizational point of contact is also key. We use a constant stream
of updated information on benefits and entitlements disseminated
through informal e-mailing lists, news releases, and personal speeches
to ensure that Reserve component members and their families have the
most current and accurate information possible.
The Department's path is one of continuous improvement in family
readiness and quality of life policy and programs. We need strong
family readiness and complementary quality of life programs that are
built for the long term. The global war on terror will not end tomorrow
and neither will America's global responsibilities. Deployment and
mobilization are realities in the current strategic environment.
Therefore, it is critical that we set realistic expectations for our
families and build a foundation of readiness that they will maintain
throughout a military career. This is accomplished by making
information available to and through the chain of command, facilitating
open communication, and supporting families throughout all phases of
the deployment cycle.
We have also launched another Web site,
``deploymentconnections.org'' emphasizing ``Joint Readiness for Service
Members, Families, Parents, Spouses, and Children.''
One of the lessons of this, and other recent wars, is that
effectiveness in combat depends heavily on jointness--how well the
different branches of the military communicate and coordinate their
efforts on and off the battlefield. It is eminently clear that
achieving jointness in wartime requires building that jointness in
peacetime. That includes jointness in mission readiness, family
readiness, and all quality of life areas of concern. We recently
published a Joint Service/Total Force Guard and Reserve Family
Readiness Programs Toolkit. It is a comprehensive guide on pre-
deployment, deployment and post-deployment information for commanders,
service members, family members, and family program manager. It
contains checklists, pamphlets, and other information, such as benefits
and services available that inform family members how to prepare for
deployment. The Toolkit is based on ``best practices'' from the field
as identified by the active and Reserve components. As with other
informational products, the family readiness tool kit can be accessed
on the Reserve Affairs Web site at http://www.defenselink.mil/ra.
DOD guidance on Reserve Family Readiness is provided in DOD
Instruction 1342.23, which encourages commanders at all levels to
support Total Force Joint-Service family readiness efforts in
maximizing regional cooperation, planning, and information sharing. The
Department encourages participation in InterService Family Assistance
Committees at the State and regional level rather than reliance on
single Service or component programs to meet the needs of a divergent
and geographically dispersed force.
Providing necessary resources for our mobilized Guard and Reserve
members and their families is a top priority for the Department. While
we can draw on our experience from past call-ups, we continue to
examine our policies and programs to ensure that our mobilized
reservists do not feel disenfranchised and that we have the family
support systems in place.
CONCLUSION
Your committee and Congress have been very supportive of our
National Guard and Reserve members and families, and on their behalf, I
want to publicly thank you for your help in strengthening our Reserve
components. Our military personnel and their family members are
grateful.
Senators, this concludes my prepared remarks. Thanks to you and
your fellow Members of Congress for having me here to talk with you
today. Once again, thank you for all you do for the men and women of
our total force military and their families.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you, Colonel.
Mr. Hollingsworth.
STATEMENT OF BOB HOLLINGSWORTH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL
COMMITTEE FOR EMPLOYER SUPPORT OF THE GUARD AND RESERVE
Mr. Hollingsworth. This is just an absolutely exciting time
in America today, and the fact is that you all have been so
kind and generous to bring us out here so we can have another
opportunity to tell America about the wonderful things that are
going on as we prosecute the war on terror. It certainly is a
privilege today to have the honor to come and give you all some
information about what we at the Employer Support of the Guard
and Reserve (ESGR) perceive to be really a good news story in
today's employer support across America.
In my prepared statement, it was pointed out that our vital
mission in ESGR is the sustainment process of the global war on
terror. ESGR focuses on the employers of America's Guard and
Reserve to ensure that they clearly understand their
obligations under the Uniformed Services Employment and
Reemployment Rights Act, which we commonly call USERRA.
The global war on terror will require our deep and enduring
commitment. Indeed, 46 percent of the manpower of the total
force is shared manpower, shared with America's employers,
large and small, public and private. This inextricably links
America's employers to our national defense.
ESGR and its 4,200 volunteers across the Nation continually
focus on our employer outreach mission. We act as the
Department's early warning relative to employee support. We are
a vital communications link, directly relating to retention.
We look at it in terms of a three-legged stool. The
priorities in an individual guardsman and reservist's life.
There's the family, his obligations to his employer, and his
obligations to his country. Oftentimes, we reverse those
priorities and we put the call for the Nation to be number one
and sometimes the family slips because they go off to do the
things that their country calls them to do. In the middle of
this, the employer is a key part of this three-legged stool,
and we understand that we have a vital part in ensuring that
that third leg of that stool remains intact.
Through our symposium initiatives, we bring employers
together with senior Department officials to discuss and help
resolve issues. Communication is a vital link in our success.
So far, the most significant issue expressed is expectations.
When will the guardsmen and reservists go, how long will they
be gone, and when can we expect them to return?
Many employers across this great Nation continue to provide
beyond the requirements of USERRA. They provide pay
differential, they provide extension of insurance benefits, and
they form family support organizations within their own
corporations.
ESGR's award program recognizes employers. Their
significant contributions were just recognized by President
Bush at our Secretary of Defense Freedom Award banquet that we
held in Washington in relationship with our strategic partner,
the Chamber of Commerce. Simultaneously, as the President
signed a proclamation indicating that the following week would
be dedicated to America's employers, we did that throughout all
States in the union, throughout all 50 States on 1 day. It was
an historic event in our Nation recognizing the vital role that
these employers play in our national defense.
ESGR continues to be the key problem solver. We want to be
known as the go-to organization as these issues arise. We
aggressively pursue programs that educate, that continue to
allow them to understand their vital link in our national
security.
Some of our corporations have just been magnificent. Just
to name a few: Home Depot, Sears, Verizon, General Motors,
Boeing, hundreds of municipalities that employ guardsmen and
reservists as policemen, firemen, and EMS folks throughout our
country.
Just to give you one little example of a company called
Merritt Medical, their CEO personally put up a huge amount of
money for the guardsmen and reservists in his organization that
says if there are any problems, you can draw on this particular
money to help you through your financial crisis. The same
situation occurred from the Board of Directors. They also sent
out a letter to all their suppliers and said if you want to be
a supplier for our organization, your human resource policies
will be exactly the same as ours. For the folks that are their
vendors that can't afford, because of the size of the company
or whatever the situation might be, to provide that pay
differential for those guardsmen and reservists, to extend
those medical benefits, his parent corporation Merritt Medical,
provides them the financial resources in order to do that.
Those are the really neat stories that are occurring throughout
our country today to show the support of our Guard and Reserve.
ESGR will continue to aggressively work to ensure that this
global war on terror is supported by America's employers.
In conjunction with our strategic partner, the Department
of Labor, which also really works with us in the enforcement
part of the USERRA, I think we have seen some real successes
during this last couple of years of mobilization and
demobilization.
Thank you so much for your continued support of our
organization and its mission because it does remain a critical
aspect of retention of our guardsmen and reservists. We have a
Web site that is esgr.com, that employers, family members, or
any other interested people throughout America can go to to see
what some of the issues are. In addition, if you want to
contact us with any particular issues, you can call our toll
free number at 1-800-336-4590.
Thank you again for the opportunity to be here today. It is
an exciting time in America.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hollingsworth follows:]
Prepared Statement by Bob G. Hollingsworth
It is indeed an honor and privilege to address this esteemed body
of Senators regarding the critical role of the National Committee for
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR). The events of
September 11 fundamentally changed our way of life. ESGR has never been
faced with a more challenging and critical mission.
Our Reserve components are serving a Nation at war. This war
requires that all elements of our national power be applied in a broad,
unyielding and relentless campaign. This campaign will take time and
will require our deep enduring commitment.
The success of the Nation's defense depends on the availability of
highly-trained members of the ``total force.'' Currently 46 percent of
that total force is shared with our Nation's employers.
Under the auspices of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Reserve Affairs, ESGR has the very important mission of gaining and
maintaining active support from all public and private employers for
the men and women in the National Guard and Reserve as defined by
demonstrated employer commitment to employee military service.
ESGR is a nationwide network of volunteers operating from the
Office of the Secretary of Defense. ESGR ensures employers understand
their vital role in national defense and informs employers and their
Guard and Reserve employees alike of their rights and responsibilities
under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act.
This act is commonly known by the acronym ``USERRA.''
The military draft ended in 1972 and a presidential proclamation
formed ESGR that same year. ESGR was originally composed of a small
number of volunteers from the business and military community led by
James Roche, Chairman of General Motors.
The Department of Defense realized that with an all-volunteer
force, support from employers and communities would be instrumental in
maintaining Reserve component recruitment and retention. ESGR was
created to obtain this much-needed support and to promote the role of
our Guard and Reserve Forces.
Today, ESGR's national headquarters is located in Arlington,
Virginia. A joint staff of uniformed service professionals administers
ESGR services and programs in support of the 55 State committees
consisting of more than 4,000 volunteers located throughout each State,
the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and
Europe.
Now, more than ever, ESGR's services and programs are educating
employers and community leaders about the important role they have in
our Nation's security. Indeed, without employer support of the Guard
and Reserve, nearly half our uniformed service members would not be
available to conduct the global war on terror. America's employers are
inextricably linked to our national security.
We have a number of innovative initiatives to facilitate the
accomplishment of our mission. ESGR ombudsmen mediate misunderstandings
between employers and Guard and Reserve members. We have over 540
fully-trained ombudsmen throughout the Nation. They are doing an
absolutely superb job providing information and counsel related to
compliance with USERRA.
To modernize our capability to handle the increased volume of calls
coming into our headquarters, a call center operation was developed to
efficiently handle employer and employee queries related to USERRA.
This center was established in conjunction with the USN Call Center in
Millington, TN.
This single entry point for all calls allows the center to collect
the necessary data to track and categorize cases from beginning to end.
ESGR ombudsmen respond to nearly 2,000 inquiries per month, both by
phone and email. Associated software allows management of cases to
focus other ESGR efforts to specific markets. Seventy percent of all
calls are handled by providing information to address the caller's
issues. Approximately 25 percent requires informal mediation. Less than
5 percent of our total calls result in referrals to the Department of
Labor for action. Despite the fact that there have been more guardsmen
and reservists called to duty in the war on terrorism than during
Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield, there have been far fewer
complaints during this current deployment. This is particularly
significant because the guardsmen and reservists called up for the war
on terrorism have been serving much longer than the forces called up
during Operations Desert Storm/Desert Shield.
Employers recognize their importance in our national defense after
being educated by ESGR. They are then motivated to publicly sign ESGR
statements of support. The statement of support is a meaningful and
symbolic way for an employer to recognize the sacrifices made by
employees who are guardsmen and reservists. Employers across the Nation
show their appreciation for the sacrifices their guardsmen and
reservists employees make by offering such benefits as salary
differential pay, extension of medical coverage, and establishing
family support networks within their companies.
To date, thousands of employers and more than 1,200 chambers of
commerce have signed statements of support. The President of the United
States and governors from all 50 States also signed statements of
support or proclamations as well. On November 14, 2003, ESGR
coordinated a simultaneous signing of governor and presidential
proclamations.
Another helpful program is entitled, ``Patriot Award.'' Guard and
Reserve members can recognize employer commitment by recommending them
for a Patriot Award. The award then becomes the basis for consideration
in selecting individuals and companies for higher-level awards.
The Secretary of Defense employer support freedom award and the
home front awards are the pinnacle awards in ESGR's employer
recognition program. These awards recognize the Nation's top employers
who have provided outstanding support to their National Guard and
Reserve employees. Employers are judged based on corporate actions,
which go above and beyond the requirements of the law in support of
Guard and Reserve employees.
President Bush underscored the vital role of our Nation's employers
by saying, ``When employers support our Guard and Reserve members, they
are helping to advance freedom and democracy around the world.''
Employers are also encouraged to attend ``Boss Lifts.'' Boss Lifts
are essentially field trips enabling employers to see firsthand the
leadership, performance, technical training, team building, and
organizational skills in tactical demonstrations. Boss Lifts inevitably
lead to a sense of pride and urgency for employers to ensure company
personnel policies are conducive to employing and retaining members of
the Guard and Reserve. In all these services and programs ESGR promotes
and fosters a spirit of patriotism that fulfills and exceeds the
requirements of the law. Boss Lifts are also a great source of
obtaining volunteer support for ESGR committees.
Guardsmen and reservists have rights and responsibilities just as
employers. Our efforts are primarily stateside but we have deployed an
ESGR team to Central Command's area of operations to further awareness
of ESGR services and programs among deployed troops. The team conducts
briefings at key sites informing incoming and outgoing Guard and
Reserve members about their USERRA rights and responsibilities.
DOD recognizes the sacrifices that all our citizen soldiers, their
families, communities, and employers continue to make in support of the
global war on terror.
Our men and women are performing magnificently around the world.
Are there employer problems? Yes! ESGR is the DOD agency that provides
solutions. Let me share a couple of letters with you.
Most Calls Require Information Only Or Informal Mediation:
ESGR ombudsmen intervened recently in a company's alleged
``termination'' of an employee while he was on duty in Southwest Asia.
Once involved in the mediation it was determined that the company was
applying the term, ``termination'' when in fact they were treating the
individual as if he were on furlough. The company immediately changed
their policy and will now place all military members in a `military
leave of absence' status during their full term of military service. As
a side note--it was discovered during our discussions that the company
was already exceeding their requirements under USERRA by offering
differential pay and other benefits for a 6-month period. Further
discussions with our ombudsmen have resulted in the company extending
these benefits through the duration of an employee's military
mobilization.
Unfortunately a small fraction of our inquiries must be referred to
the Department of Labor for resolution. One such example came to us
from a large city's comptroller office.
The service member was in a management position with approximately
56 employees reporting directly to him. The service member was
mobilized and upon demobilization, he was not placed in a comparable
position (the law requires placement in a position of like-seniority,
status, and pay). He was placed in a cubicle, with no telephone and no
employees reporting directly to him. His supervisor has made derogatory
comments in the past concerning his military duty. Our ombudsman spoke
with the comptroller as well as the city attorney, and their position
remained the same. They refused to place this service member in a `same
status' position. The service member had documentation showing the
supervisor counseled him about being ``gone too much'' for military
duty. Once it was absolutely clear that the employer was not open to
the informal mediation services that ESGR could provide, we recommended
that the service member contact the Department of Labor Veteran's
Employment Training Service representative in their area. They have the
authority under USERRA to receive complaints, investigate, seek
voluntary compliance and, upon the request of the complainant, refer
cases to the Department of Justice or the Office of Special Counsel for
possible litigation.
We Frequently Enjoy Victories and Occasionally We Receive Thanks and
Praise:
A service member writes, ``Gentlemen, this email is to express my
gratitude to a woman in your employ. Had it not been for the swift
actions of Barbara Leonard, I would most likely be jobless at this
point in time. In my opinion, Barbara is nothing short of a guardian
angel. She has protected me; she has advocated on my behalf, and for
that I will never forget her or your office. I do not have the words to
express how I feel. I can only hope that you will convey to her
personally and in front of her peers my family's elation. I hope she
has the same smile with her all day that I carried when she won my job
back for me. I know it doesn't seem like much but for a dad who has two
growing girls who depend on him, who has recently been deployed two
times in 1 year, and has a wife who suffers from serious health issues
this victory is like winning the lottery. The past 3 months have been
filled with much worry for all of us here in my house. Although I know
the battle with my employer is not over . . . it's very nice to have a
friend in your corner for once. Thank you all so much for what you do
for us up there. You are truly the unsung heroes. We will never forget
what you have done for us.''
Our strategic partner, the Department of Labor, Veterans Employment
Training Service, continues to provide education and counseling for
both employers and Guard and Reserve members and is quick to act when
our mediation efforts fail. ESGR's focus is to ensure employers
understand the law so our Reserve component members can focus on their
mission.
When I ask employers what we can do to sustain their patriotic
support, they state to ``just give us an expectation of when they will
depart, how long they will be gone, and the date they will return to
the workplace.'' Senior DOD leadership realizes that if you lose the
employer, you lose the guardsmen and reservist. If you lose the
guardsmen and reservist, you lose the force. If you lose the force, you
lose the war. ESGR is providing a critical service to ensure that
America will win this war and rise to any new threat that our guardsmen
and reservist are called to meet.
Increased reliance on the Guard and Reserve will continue to stress
employers. ESGR efforts to reach the over 600,000 employers of Guard
and Reserves take on a greater significance. Currently less than $7 a
year per guardsman and reservist is budgeted to ensure employers
support remains high. Your continued fiscal support is appreciated.
Esteemed members of the committee, I thank you for your future
support.
Senator Chambliss. Bob, thank you very much for your always
great work on behalf of our employers and our Guard and
Reserve.
The CEO of Home Depot, Bob Nardelli, was in Washington to
receive the Employer Support Freedom Award that you just
alluded to at the White House. I happened to be with him that
night and there was no more excited man in the United States of
America than Bob Nardelli that day. He is proud of the work
that Home Depot does with respect to encouraging his employees
to be active Guard and Reserve personnel when called upon. It
is a great program, we appreciate your encouragement and
support.
Colonel Scott and Dr. Winkler, there is a lot of anxiety
out there today among our guardsmen and reservists and in
particular their families about the repetitive call-ups that we
have seen over the last several years. There is particularly
some anxiety about the fact that there may be a one in six
call-up. I know you two gentlemen are not primarily responsible
for making the decision on who is called up and when, but I do
know that you are participants in the ongoing discussion about
that issue.
Could you all enlighten us and maybe alleviate some of the
concerns that are present among guardsmen and reservists and
their families relative to what is ongoing relative to this
issue?
Dr. Winkler. Yes, Senator, thank you for bringing up the
issue.
I think I want to start by stating that from the
perspective of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, we are
also concerned about the degree to which Reserve component
members may be called up too often. I believe, the Secretary of
Defense, Secretary Rumsfeld, has expressed similar concerns
that he thinks perhaps we have some balances and some
rebalancing needs to be accomplished and perhaps shifting some
of the workload and demand away from heavily taxed Reserve
component capabilities.
The one in six rule that you have alluded to is a planning
construct that the Secretary asked the Services to use in
reviewing their overall force structure and capabilities with
the idea of using it as, if you will, a force sizing construct.
In other words, if you can foresee a demand on certain Reserve
component capabilities that would exceed the need to call up a
given individual more often than one in every 6 years, that is
an area of your force structure that needs to be reviewed and
examined in terms of whether there are alternatives other than
relying on Reserve capabilities for that. That does not mean
there is a plan to use people 1 year out of every 6, it is just
sort of a mark, that you can use to review your force structure
allocations of capabilities and then see where you may have
excess demands that need to be addressed.
Overall, we think our policy is reflected well in our
mobilization personnel policy which really emphasizes judicious
use as a guiding construct for utilization of Reserve component
capabilities. Reserve component members should be called up
only when absolutely necessary for the shortest period required
and be allowed to return to their homes and families as soon as
possible. That principle should guide the Services as they
employ their various respective forces.
Senator Chambliss. Colonel Scott, do you want to add
anything to that?
Colonel Scott. No, sir. I think Dr. Winkler addressed that
very well based on the Secretary's guidance and the Services'
transformation policies as they look to the future programming
for troop requirements.
Senator Chambliss. Dr. Winkler, Colonel Scott, you are
responsible for the formulation of family support policy for
OSD and the Services and clearly you monitor performance.
However, the execution of family programs, including providing
necessary employees and resources, remains in the hands of
installation commanders.
What measures do you use in monitoring the implementation
of personal readiness, community liaison, and family support,
and what means do you have to ensure that necessary community
support resources flow to National Guard units, and just as
importantly, the quality of services being provided is
sufficient?
Dr. Winkler. Let me begin, but I think that Colonel Scott
can provide a great deal of additional information on that.
I think from the perspective of the Department, Senator, we
are responsible for overall policy, setting guidance,
oversight, assuring resources. In that regard, I would say part
of our charge is to be aware of and to identify problems as
they arise and then effect solutions to those problems. Now,
the tools that we use at the Department level, obviously we try
to maintain a very active network of communication throughout
the components, throughout the family support arena, so that we
are aware of what is going on, and if issues are beginning to
bubble up we try to become aware of it as soon as possible.
We will use whatever other tools we can. Studies and
analyses, for example, in order to try to keep our finger on
the pulse. We recently completed a survey of Reserve component
spouses, the results of which are shown on our Web site, for
example, which for our purposes tends to highlight emerging
problems or areas of concern that we would then in turn try to
work with.
Colonel Scott. Other programs have been put into effect to
help us monitor, in addition to the surveys, that communication
network that Dr. Winkler referred to. I spend a great deal of
time in the field, as you do, and work with individual families
to attempt to identify systemic issues. Our oversight policy
responsibility is to advise, assist, and through partnerships
and associations, make sure that the correct policies are in
place.
It is the parent Services and the parent Reserve components
that actually provide those products and services. We have
assisted them, as I mentioned, with several tools and
additional programs, the most significant of which is the
partnership program that we have established most recently with
the Department of Labor and the Department of Education. That
has actually been effected through that partnership with the
Secretary of Defense's Office of Family Policy. We established
that partnership in 1999 and they are the ones that assisted us
in putting the strategic family plan together for Reserve
family readiness. It is through those associations and networks
and partnerships that we do most of our work. We do publish
formal guidance. We have regular meetings. Immediately after
September 11 and the closure of the Pentagon Family Assistance
Center, we called all of the Services and Reserve component
family program managers together and established what we call
the Joint Family Readiness Program Working Group. Through that
working group, we find out what their program requirements are
and try to identify resources to assist them in implementing
those programs. That is where the Military One Source program
came from, the employee assistance program that is available 24
hours, 7 days a week. That is currently being implemented. It
was piloted through the Marine Corps, currently being
implemented in the Army, and we are working with the Air Force
and the Navy to get their programs in place.
Senator Chambliss. Programs that OSD and Services have
initiated to support active duty families are impressive. But
what about community support for National Guard and Reserve
personnel? Chattanooga, Tennessee, is not Hinesville, Georgia.
Hinesville has a great community support program for Fort
Stewart, but here we have an armory where men and women from
all over southeast Tennessee as well as north Georgia come to
serve in this unit, and many of these individuals do live far
from the bases where family support centers are located.
What initiatives have OSD and Services taken to open up new
lines of communication and support to the spouses and children
of deployed guardsmen and reservists, and how much of this
mission is supported by the Reserve components themselves, and
what kind of collaboration do you think is needed between your
office and the service Reserve chiefs?
Colonel Scott. Just as I mentioned, Senator, we put that
Joint Service Family Readiness Program Working Group together
and they are the ones that are emphasizing the community
outreach program. There have been a number of programs
implemented. We have always had the 1-800 telephone numbers,
but we put more emphasis on marketing and communicating that
information to the individual families out in the communities.
This is just as true for the active component as it is for the
Reserve component. Now 60 percent of active component families
live out in the communities, they do not live on the bases any
more. That is an extreme hardship for young families that
cannot afford two cars and the military member has to use one
to go to work and sometimes the spouse has to work. It just
creates real challenges for them. So we are trying to put
emphasis on that community outreach and many of the Services
are actually requiring their full-time active component civil
servants that work on an installation to establish community
outreach store fronts, actually get out into the communities so
that they do not have to go onto the base to access the
services.
We have used other programs in many creative ways. Some of
the contracted funds that were provided for supplemental
support the families because of the contingency forces that
were being deployed. One of the Service's Reserve component
family program hired three contractors and the only thing that
these three contractors did for the first 3 months was make
sure that they had either personal or telephonic contact with
every member that either had been deployed or was currently
deployed.
In addition, there is a very large electronic network
through e-mail systems. I participate in this myself, and every
time I go out in the field and visit with folks either in the
family program business or just family members, I pass my card
out and ask them if they want to get the most current news, let
me know via e-mail. I put them on what I call my family issues
mailing list and when information from Congress, information
from Capitol Hill, information from ESGR comes out that might
be important to those folks, I send those messages out
electronically immediately when they hit my desk. I can tell
you quite honestly that in spite of all of the other programs
that we have implemented, we get more positive feedback on that
information and communication hot line, if you will, than we do
on any of the other programs. People really appreciate being
communicated with and having current important information
available to them rather than having to wait for it to filter
down through the paperwork process, which is extremely slow.
The electronic capability has really made the most difference.
That deploymentconnections.org Web site is a collaborative
effort between the Department of the Navy, OSD, our office, and
the other Services, and that was actually designed and
implemented by members of that Joint Family Readiness Program
Working Group that I talked about. We spent about 3 months
designing it, another 2 months implementing it, and it has been
up and in operation with everything from news banners to
interactive networks for the ability of what we will call chat
rooms and live communications from the Reserve component
chiefs, the Reserve component program managers. Their senior
enlisted advisors have town hall meetings. It is really quite
an impressive operation.
Senator Chambliss. Mr. Hollingsworth, I am impressed with
what you have been able to accomplish on what by any standard
would have to be said to be a shoestring budget. I am
interested in how you allocate your resources and how you would
spend any additional money or allocate any additional funding
if you had that funding.
Mr. Hollingsworth. Yes, sir. As we did our strategic
planning and we looked at just that very issue, how do we
allocate our resources, we realized that there are some
external factors that we can't control that we have to
continually react to. We figured we had to have some type of
contingency that allowed us to do that. We have a certain
amount of contingency money that we set aside so that if there
are some special issues that come up, we have to really develop
some other methodology of doing something we have not done
before. We have that little contingency set aside to do that.
Primarily we resource about 75 percent of our dollars to
employer outreach programs, and those things are where we reach
out in the community and touch those employers. The reason we
have been so successful in taking the money that we do get from
Congress and make it as effective as it is is because our
program is basically volunteers. We have about 4,200 volunteers
throughout the Nation and territories and Washington, DC, and
then of course the committee that was formed last year in
Europe because we realized that there were some employer needs
over there.
But those are the vital links to making our mission
successful, those volunteers. That is why we are so efficient,
because these people, these men and women across America, are
so dedicated. It just amazes me every single day when I see how
much time and effort these volunteers put towards coordinating
those employer issues out in the community.
Our ombudsman program is an important part of this. We are
currently developing some ways as the early warning system
within the Department of Defense, that we can predict trends as
to what is happening in the employer community. We have never
really had an electronic capability to track those things, so
we have committed some of our resources to developing an
information technology capability so that we can track these
issues that do come up from employers and guardsmen and
reservists from cradle to grave.
Our goal in those things is if a guardsman or reservist
calls up with an issue or an employer calls up with an issue to
our ombudsman, we want to have that completely put together in
3 days, and in 10 days if there are some extenuating
circumstances where it requires a lot of coordination. We find
this is the case, because there are always two sides to any
story. That is where our ombudsman and our volunteers really
find out that they have to spend a lot of time, because if an
employer calls up with an issue, we go to the Guard and
Reserve, and we look at those folks there. We look at the
command. We get the command involved in what the situation is
and how it may have developed based on what has happened in the
local Guard and Reserve unit, and we go back and forth as a
mediator to try to resolve these issues.
I can tell you that I was just over at the Department of
Labor the other day with Secretary Chao, and she presented us
with a nice certificate of appreciation for the things that we
have done to coordinate their efforts with our efforts, because
the more successful we are at the ESGR, the less work they have
to do. If we can mediate all these caseloads that come up, that
means we do not have to refer them to the Department of Labor.
She pointed out from looking at the statistics in Operations
Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and the numbers of guardsmen and
reservists that were mobilized there and the number of issues
that had to be dealt with by the Department of Labor that
litigation is down significantly from what it was then. It was
something like about a 26 or 27 percent decline in their
caseloads, and they attributed that directly to what our
volunteers in ESGR are doing.
Another way we allocate some of the resources is to try to
get the employers out to the Guard and Reserve units so that
they clearly understand what a valuable asset they have to
their particular organization, because now that they can see
that this young man or young woman brings to them leadership
and additional technical skills. They have a worldwide vision
because of their requirements to be informed about things in
the military. They are disciplined. They are physically fit.
They are just a different breed. They suddenly realize as they
get out and look at their guardsman and reservist taking those
leadership roles at a very young age, they have a new
appreciation for that. So that has been a very successful
program for us.
We also go out throughout the communities and take some of
those resources to put on symposiums. That is where we get with
the community leaders, with the local employers in the
community, and we find out and pulse them as to what their
issues are with the use of the Guard and Reserve. That is where
we find out exactly where we need to focus our other efforts,
and then we provide the information back to the Department so
that they clearly understand what it is causing in the employer
community.
So those are some of the really vital things that we do
that as we go out into the community and in our employer
outreach program. We examine HR policies for the companies. If
their HR policies are not compatible to supporting the
guardsmen and reservists, then we provide them with some of the
good things like Home Depot has and they say ``gosh, I never
thought about this.'' We find it is a communications thing. So
it is about spending our money and our resources to do the
outreach and to get eyeball to eyeball, develop those
relationships within the community.
Senator Chambliss. Great, thank you.
Senator Alexander.
Senator Alexander. Thank you, Senator Chambliss. I have
enjoyed the discussion.
I wanted to compare some of the information that we learned
in our earlier hearings discussing active duty personnel with
the different status of Reserve and Guard families. For
example, in active duty families for families with children,
there is a plan on file for what happens to the children if the
parent, who might be the only parent, or in a few cases, both
parents, are deployed. Does the same sort of plan exist for
Reserve families with children?
Colonel Scott. Yes, sir, it does. Our Department of Defense
instruction and the Services regulations mirror that
requirement in the Reserve components and the Guard as well as
the active component. That is a result of the partnership with
the Office of Family Policy. One of the things that we try to
do in every case where we possibly can, we make the regulations
and requirements parallel for the Reserve components with
consideration of course that the Reserve components are unique
because they are community-based as opposed to being active
duty installation based.
That requirement is just exactly as you described it for
the Reserve components for single parents and for dual military
parents. We have different varieties of dual military parents
in the Reserve components. We find we have one active-duty
spouse and one Reserve component spouse who also has a civilian
job. Sometimes we find that a Navy reservist is married to a
National Guard member, but the requirement is exactly the same.
Senator Alexander. Now we found in the hearing that I held
at Fort Campbell that worked pretty well for most families, but
there were some problems because some active-duty members of
the Armed Services had not taken that requirement as seriously
as they should have, and then when they were suddenly ordered
to go to Iraq, there was really no plan for the child.
I would expect that might be a larger problem with Reserve
or Guard families because the expectation of being called up is
less. Or am I wrong about that? I'm just guessing. My question
is has there been a bigger challenge with Guard and Reserve
families because unquestionably not many families in Guard and
Reserve expected they would be called up for training for 6
months and to go to Iraq for 12.
Colonel Scott. I believe that may have been true prior to
Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm but since Operations
Desert Shield/Desert Storm, we find very few instances in the
Guard and Reserve components where the family care plan is not
properly managed. That family care plan is actually a command
requirement, and the commander or his representative is
required to review and test that family care plan on an annual
basis and make sure that it is updated and it is part of the
mobilization processing as well.
Senator Alexander. Thank you. One of the most impressive
benefits that we found, both at Fort Campbell, Senator Dodd of
Connecticut and I went to Groton to the naval base there, and
we found that the Services have made exemplary process in child
care. Some of the child care facilities on base are among the
best in the country. Anyone would be happy, feel fortunate to
have a child there.
We found in a number of cases that the Services were doing
an increasing amount of child care off the base or in the homes
of, say, a spouse of a service person, who might care for two
or three or four or five children, and that provided a source
of income for the family and good reliable care for the
children. Still, there were some areas in which child care
could be improved on active duty.
Now what about child care for Reserve and National Guard
families? In a way, child care would be an even bigger
challenge for a family who might not have been as prepared to
be called up and who might be away from a post or a base.
Colonel Scott. Sir, I am glad to report that I have good
news, and I have better news.
We most recently conducted our child care summit that I
mentioned in my testimony, and what we found out is that Guard
and Reserve child care requirements run the spectrum from no
child care requirements to, as you suggested, very complicated
where we have dual spouse employment and a military member who
used to be called the shadow child care for emergency
situations, the spouses would back each other up. The Air Force
was the first to include the Air Guard and the Air Force
Reserve in a pilot program where they provided additional funds
to offset additional child care requirements for Guard and
Reserve members. What they found out was that most Guard and
Reserve family members actually do a pretty good job, and it is
only in those extreme situational requirements where they run
into emergency requirements that they had not anticipated and
they have to rely on those additional resources.
The thing we have to understand about Guard and Reserve
families is that they are basically community-based. They are
civilians, and they know how to live their lives, and they know
how to take care of their families. I will use what I commonly
refer to as the snug rule. Normally, everything goes quite
well. We are there to provide resources and programs for Guard
and Reserve that we call the emergency net, and it is for those
situation where they had not anticipated requirements or had
not anticipated problems or challenges, that we try to put the
bulk of our resources. Our objective is to make and to allow
and to assist Guard and Reserve families to be self-sustaining,
get them ready in advance, and then when they have a problem,
have the resources in place that they can call upon to assist
them.
The better news, and this is an active duty story, I was
with Secretary Molino last week and we visited Norfolk Naval
Air Station and Navy Base and they have constructed right next
door to their child development center a secondary facility
that is based on a home living environment that operates 24
hours, 7 days a week to address some of those problems that you
heard in your earlier field hearings where a child care center
might only be open from 6:00 in the morning until 6:00 in the
evening and for the military members that work second or third
shift or 12 hour operations or in some cases 24 hour
operations, it just did not meet the requirement. So the
Department has piloted this program, and I can tell you that it
sent chills up and down my spine when I walked in because I
thought I was in an expanded home. It is just beautiful. They
have a capacity of 54 children on a 24-hour basis. They
currently had 41 children registered, because it has only been
open for about 3 weeks and they are expanding that capability
by three children a week for those that need it.
Senator Alexander. Thank you. I have two other questions
and then I think we will get on with the next panel, if that is
all right, Saxby.
I am just curious, there are 530 guardsmen or reservists
currently activated from the Chattanooga region, I am told. I
am wondering, is this a typical number? Compared with other
areas of the country, is this a larger number compared to the
population? If there are areas of the country that are more
heavily impacted than others, have you done any thinking about
how to help the families or the communities in a regional way?
I guess I am trying to focus specifically on are there some
areas more impacted than others, and if so, are you doing
anything special for those areas, and is Chattanooga one of
them?
Dr. Winkler. I do not know on a percentage basis whether
Chattanooga or the State of Tennessee, for example, where it
compares to the others.
My general impression is that the demands on Reserve
component capabilities and people being mobilized is spread
across the country, really basically rooted in where the units
are. In that regard, as we go forward and as Army National
Guard enhanced brigades are going to be assuming duties in
Iraq, those States, like North Carolina, that field the
enhanced brigades are likely to see a greater impact. We will
definitely pay close attention to these instances and see if
problems emerge, and be proactive.
Colonel Scott. Actually we already have paid attention to
that. One of my conversations with the National Guard family
program director had to deal with that very issue. The 400
family assistance centers that I mentioned that the National
Guard have established are allocated based upon troop demand,
and they are very flexible. Because they are operated by
contractors and managed by each of the State family program
coordinators and those coordinators are managed by the National
Guard family program office, they monitor and look out to the
future to see where the troop requirements are going to be
pulled from. They allocate those resources for those family
assistance centers based upon densities of families that will
be left after their military member departs.
I mentioned that Tennessee has had 17 family assistance
centers. We have some States that have had as many as 20.
States such as New York, North Carolina, Texas, and California,
where we certainly have drawn on more troops to meet the
requirements, we allocate more resources.
Senator Alexander. My last question would be for any of the
witnesses. One of the privileges I had as Governor was being
commander in chief of our Guard. We felt that it was the best
in the country, and there is a tremendous spirit among
Tennessee guardsmen and women. They knew why they were there,
and they were ready to go if they were called.
One hears in the news reports of stories of guardsmen or
reservists being called up for 6 months of training, and being
sent for a year's duty in Iraq, and my question is has the
increased deployment of guardsmen and of reservists in our
armed services affected reenlistment? Can you tell anything
about that at this stage?
Dr. Winkler. Yes, I can address that because that is
something we watch very closely. To this point in time, we have
not seen problems emerging with respect to attrition exceeding
expectations. Generally all Reserve components have met their
end strength goals. We obviously have to continue to watch this
very closely going forward and at the first indication of
problems be prepared.
I would just add, however, that as we look backward, our
general experience has been that as members of the Guard and
Reserve have become more and more incorporated into the total
forces missions over the 1990s, we did not see a drop off in
terms of people leaving the force. We believe that what is very
important for Guard and Reserve members is that they have
meaningful missions, that we manage the force well in the sense
of setting realistic expectations and sticking to those
expectations. Guard and Reserve members rise to the challenge,
and in fact, it is good for morale and good for retention to be
involved in meaningful missions.
At the same time, there are limits. We are aware of that,
but what I think we see today is a very high spirit among
members of the Guard and Reserve who have been called to duty,
and so far, it is reflected in the force sustaining itself.
Senator Alexander. Thank you. Thank you very much. Senator
Chambliss, do you have anything else to say to this panel
before we bring up the next panel?
Senator Chambliss. Dr. Winkler, with reference to your last
answer to Senator Alexander's question, that is the key as I
see it to where we need to go in the future and the things that
we need to be thinking about. He struck right at the heart of
the issue. You stated in your opening statement that we must
relieve the stress on families.
I know Lamar and I both have talked to active-duty members
of the Guard and Reserve who have been called to active duty.
They love what they are doing; that is what they signed up for,
just hoping they would have a chance to go to an Iraq to carry
out their duties. But it is those mothers and fathers who are
left behind with those children that are feeling the stress. We
do need to make sure that we are doing everything
legislatively, and obviously that is a goal of these hearings.
So we appreciate your professional testimony and the great
work all of you do. Thank you very much.
Colonel Scott. Thank you, sir.
Dr. Winkler. Thank you.
Senator Alexander. I would now like to ask the second panel
to come forward, please.
Thank you for being here. We will move right along. Our
goal is to end our hearing by noon, so we have another 45
minutes. The second panel gives us an opportunity for a more
local focus on what is happening here in Chattanooga and this
area as well as in our States of Tennessee and Georgia. I would
like to introduce our four panelists and then we will ask each
of them to say whatever they would like. I have the statements
that you sent in before and Senator Chambliss and I have both
read those. So you are free just to comment on those if you
would like to. Then we can get into a back and forth on
questions. Whatever you are most comfortable doing.
Major Scott Hardin, United States Army Reserve, has a
distinguished career, 17 years of commissioned service, many
decorations, currently assigned as environmental engineer with
the 416th Engineering Command, Detachment F, Facility Engineer
Center Southeast. He served in Operation Desert Shield,
Operation Desert Storm, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has
just come home after 11 months and 15 days in Qatar. Welcome
home. A native and resident of Chattanooga, graduated from the
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. In civilian life, he
works for U.S. Express, Incorporated.
Major Terry Ward, Tennessee Army National Guard, 16 years
commissioned service, 30 years total military service, many
medals. Assigned to the State Family Program Coordinator at
Headquarters, State Area Command, Tennessee National Guard in
Nashville, a graduate of Salisbury State College in Maryland.
He resides in Nashville.
Lieutenant Larry Schroyer, Chattanooga Police Department.
During his military career, Lieutenant Schroyer has earned
numerous Federal awards and decorations for leadership. He
retired in August 2000 was placed in retired Reserve with 21
years of active and Reserve service, retired with a Federal
recognition as a field grade officer, in the rank of major. In
his civilian life, he has effectively transferred his military
law enforcement experience to the police department. He has
attained many professional distinctions there. Welcome,
Lieutenant, and thank you for being here.
Ms. Denise Lindsay, thank you for coming. She serves as the
Battalion Family Readiness Group Representative for 1st and
181st Battalions. Since 1988, she has worked as a real estate
agent and currently is with GMAC Realty Center. Her husband,
Dennis, who has been in the military since 1986, was mobilized
during Operations Desert Storm and Enduring Freedom. Ms.
Lindsay resides in LaFayette in Georgia. How do you say it? Do
you say LaFayette?
Ms. Lindsay. It is LaFayette.
Senator Alexander. We say things like that a different way
in Tennessee. LaFayette, Georgia. Denise and Dennis have been
married 30 years; they have two sons and four grandchildren.
Thank you very much for being here, each of the four of
you. Starting with Major Ward, why do we not just move right
down the line, and Senator Chambliss and I look forward to
hearing whatever you have to tell us about Reserve families and
guardsmen and women and the impact of their service. What
should we know?
STATEMENT OF MAJOR TERRY WARD, TENNESSEE NATIONAL GUARD
Major Ward. Yes, sir. Thank you, Senator Alexander and
Senator Chambliss. It is an honor and a privilege for me to
appear before your subcommittee to testify today on the
importance of providing family assistance centers and other
benefits to the spouses of deployed soldiers in our great
State.
Sir, first I would like to give you some totals of the
Tennessee Guard, particularly those that have been affected by
these recent mobilizations and that we have experienced in
Operations Enduring Freedom, Noble Eagle, and Iraqi Freedom.
Since September of last year, the Tennessee Guard, Army and
Air, have deployed over 4,400 men and women. Currently, we have
1,307 soldiers who are overseas and 380 on duty in our Nation.
We also have an additional 385 men and women who are in alert
status, and we anticipate additional requirements in the coming
year.
Senators, these numbers represent a substantial number of
soldiers who, for the most part, were very accustomed to their
former existence as a Guard soldier. That former existence
being the required one weekend a month and a 2-week annual
training. Now that these dedicated guardsmen and women are
being challenged with a larger piece of our Nation's defense
package we must also recognize that their families are now part
of that deployed status as well. These deployments are putting
a high degree of stress on the families that are left behind,
but I am not sure that you are aware that this type of stress
is unique to the Guard and has different features to its
nature, especially in comparison to our active component
counterparts.
Our post covers, as you know from your prior service as our
governor, 41,220 square miles. An active component post is
typically measured by acres. Our soldiers and airmen come from
every imaginable corner of our post, sir. Some of these
soldiers have been in service with the Guard for over 30 years.
I am sure you are aware of the number of years an active
component soldier is typically assigned to a unit is about 3
years before they are moved to another unit. These Guard
soldiers have brothers and sisters, sometimes sons and
daughters, that are in their unit with them, and are proud to
be there. Their spouses do not even know that a commissary
exists, nor would they want to drive the 6 hours to go to that
commissary. That is an important thing, sir. The nature of our
Guard is quite different in many ways, as you well know.
Sir, since last spring, Congress took a substantial leap
forward in recognizing some of the differences between the
active component and the Guard and that was accomplished by the
funding of our family assistance centers. As we have heard
earlier, sir, we have 17 family assistance centers open across
our State and over 20 workers. Their sole purpose is to provide
services to families of soldiers and airmen and to provide a
dedicated, committed worker who works with the concerns of just
the families. We now have a person who is there to work those
concerns from start to finish and someone who is knowledgeable
about the military and knows how to fix things that are wrong
and when to refer a problem to a higher person.
Sir, my family assistance centers are taking on the role of
being a one-stop shop for all concerns whenever they possibly
can.
I would also commend the Department of the Army, sir, for
their forward approach in the deployment cycle support model
that they have recently adopted that deals with joint
deployment phases, as we heard Dr. Winkler comment about
earlier. This initiative resulted in a new program that you
have funded called ``Army One Source,'' and if you are not
familiar with that, sir, somebody from Buck Snort, Tennessee,
would be able to call One Source and within 20 seconds have
someone answering the phone and talking to a real person
without going through the press one sequence of phone calls,
and be able to deal with real concerns. If this individual
needed child care, then they would be able to have referral in
that community for qualified child care. If they had a concern
about their returning spouse who might be acting a little
different than they expected, then this source will also be
able to provide counseling for the Army component through a
professional health care worker, mental health care worker.
That is a great initiative to be able to offer that in
conjunction with the TRICARE benefits that the returning
soldiers would have as well. So that is a substantial leap
forward, sir.
Equally, this source will also be available on the
internet, so that spouses can go in when they have the ability
and be able to converse with someone in perhaps a chat room or
with an individual that has a Masters in social work, a person
with a Master's degree, and be able to communicate with those
people on a one-to-one basis. So that is quite a substantial
leap in the benefits that we do provide.
This commitment to improve the quality of life for the
active component and the Guard has the foundation to be an
excellent resource for all families, sir.
Sir, I also commend your efforts to provide health care to
our traditional members to improve their quality of life. This
initiative offers a great potential to our many self-employed
soldiers who were finding health care costs beyond the point of
affordability, and as was referred to earlier, that is a
substantial benefit.
The largest problem that I have experienced is the lack of
communication between Guard soldiers who have been activated
and fall under an active component commander and the Guard's
traditional National Guard chain of command. This failure to
communicate is evidenced in most National Guard families'
ability to be able to tell what is happening with their
soldiers and what the future may or may not hold.
In today's cell phone-rich culture that we live in, the
Guard is often looked at as not having any knowledge, sir,
basically clueless as to what is happening with our soldiers
who are deployed. Many spouses resent being told that their
soldiers are part of the big Army now or the active component
and that we have no control over anything that happens to them
while they are gone. Although that is the truth, the spouses do
not like to hear that and that most certainly undermines our
credibility and creates animosity towards the Guard's role in
the deployment picture.
The second item is in our future role in our Nation's total
defense package. It appears that we are just seeing the tip of
the iceberg for the many future deployments with quite possibly
a very minimal amount of time between a deployment, coming
home, and then being redeployed. I do not believe that is the
intent of the Guard for us to take on the part of the active
component force.
Other concerns many spouses are concerned with is the
impact that that would have on their soldiers when they return,
of course with their employment, and with their family life as
well.
Sir, subject to your questions, sir, this concludes my
briefing and I thank you on behalf of the families and the
soldiers of the National Guard for this opportunity.
[The prepared statement of Major Ward follows:]
Prepared Statement by Major Terry S. Ward
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is an honor and a privilege for me to
appear before your committee to testify today on the importance of
providing Family Assistance Centers and other benefits to the spouses
of deployed soldiers in our great State.
Sir, first I would like to give you some totals of the number of
Tennessee Guard soldiers that have been affected by the recent
mobilizations we have experienced in support of Operations Enduring
Freedom and Noble Eagle.
Since September of last year, the Tennessee Army and Air National
Guard have deployed over 4,400 men and women. Currently we have 1,307
soldiers who are overseas and 380 on duty in our Nation. We also have
an additional 385 men and women on an alerted status and we anticipate
additional requirements into the coming year.
Senator, these numbers represent a substantial number of soldiers
who, for the most part, were very accustomed to our former existence as
Guard soldiers. That former existence required one weekend a month and
a 2-week annual training. Now that these dedicated guardsmen and women
are being challenged with a larger piece of our Nation's Defense
Package, we must also recognize that their families are now part of
that deployed status as well.
These deployments are putting a very high amount of stress on the
families that have been left behind. But I am not sure that you are
aware that this type of stress is unique to the Guard, and has
different features to its nature, in comparison to our active component
counterparts. Our post covers 41,220 square miles of our great State,
where most active component posts are separate communities within
themselves that are typically measured in the number of acres they
cover. Our soldiers and airmen come from every type of imaginable
corner of our post. Some of these soldiers have been in the same unit
for over 30 years. I am sure you are aware of the number of years an
active component (AC) soldier is typically assigned to a unit. This
Guard soldier has brothers who are members in his unit, and their sons
and daughters are too. Their spouses do not even know what a commissary
is, nor would they want to invest a 6-hour drive to use it, if they
could. The nature of our Guard is quite different in many ways from
that of our active component brethren.
Last spring, our Congress took a substantial leap forward in
recognizing some of the differences that exist between the AC and the
Guard and Reserve. That was accomplished in the funding of Family
Assistance Centers for our deployed units.
Currently we have 17 Family Assistance Centers open across the
State, and we employ 22 workers. Their sole purpose is to provide
services to the families of soldiers and airmen and to provide a
dedicated commitment to working the concerns of our families. We now
have a person who is there to work concerns, from start to finish, and
someone who is knowledgeable about the military and knows how to fix
things that are wrong, or when to refer the problem to another
professional. Sir, my FACs are taking on the role of being a one-stop
shop for all concerns, whenever they possibly can.
Sir, I would also commend the Department of the Army for its
forward approach on the Deployment Cycle Support model they have
adopted that deals with the Joint Deployment Process Phases. This
initiative has resulted in the new program you have funded that is
titled ``Army One Source (AOS).'' AOS offers the opportunity for any
soldier, AC, Guard, Reserve, any where in the world, to call or contact
them on the Internet, and have a professional counselor help them with
anything they have a concern with. This will be very beneficial to all
of my families that have a deployed soldier and offers another tool of
assistance to my FAC workers, in helping their families. This
commitment to an improved quality of life for the AC and the Guard and
Reserve has the foundation to be an excellent resource for our
families.
Sir, I also commend your efforts to provide health care to our
traditional members, to improve their quality of life. This initiative
offers great potential to our many self-employed soldiers that are
finding health care costs almost beyond the point of affordability.
CURRENT ISSUES
Sir, the largest problem I believe we are experiencing is in the
lack of communication between our Guard soldiers who have been
activated and fall under an AC command and the Guard soldier's
traditional National Guard chain of command. This failure to
communicate is evidence the most the National Guard ability to tell the
families what is happening with their soldiers and what the future may
or may not hold. In today's cell phone rich culture, we (the Guard)
often look like complete idiots who are clueless as to what is
happening to our soldiers while they are deployed. Many spouses resent
being told that their soldiers are part of the AC now, and we have no
control over anything that happens to them while they are gone. This
most certainly undermines our credibility and creates animosity towards
the Guard's role in the deployment picture.
A second item is in our future role in our Nation's total defense
package. It appears that we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg of
many future deployments, with quite possibly, a very minimal amount of
time at home between deployments. Sir, I do not believe the original
intent of Guard was to make it an Active Force. Equally, this seems to
be a fear that many spouses are concerned with, considering the impact
it will have on the soldier's employment requirements and his or her
family life too.
Sir, subject to any further questions, this concludes my briefing.
I thank you on behalf of the families and soldiers of the Tennessee
National Guard for your dedication and commitment to improve their
quality of life.
Senator Alexander. Thanks, Major Ward, that is very helpful
and candid and very useful. We look forward to the questions
too.
Ms. Lindsay.
STATEMENT OF DENISE LINDSAY, 1ST AND 181ST BATTALION FAMILY
READINESS GROUP REPRESENTATIVE
Ms. Lindsay. Thank you, Senators, for the privilege to
appear before you today to speak on behalf of the importance of
the family readiness and support program. My intention is to
provide an overview based on my years of experience as the
spouse of a soldier who has been mobilized twice; once to serve
in Iraq and Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm and
recently for Operation Enduring Freedom. I am also his
battalion volunteer leader here in Chattanooga for the 1st and
the 181st.
National Guard and Reserve families are special. When a
spouse, parent, or child joins the Guard, the family members
will also be impacted, regardless of whether their soldier is
deployed or at home. Our family readiness groups exist in
peacetime to provide a framework for self-help and support that
becomes critical to the unit's success upon mobilization.
Our active-duty counterparts also have family readiness
groups for this very same reason. However, as you well know,
the challenges we face in the Guard and Reserve are unique.
While active duty soldiers' families live on or near their
assigned bases and are immersed day in and day out with
military life, our Guard and Reserve often have little or
sometimes no experience with the military. While the active
duty family's focus is entirely upon being ready should their
soldier be called up for active duty for a long period of time,
the reservist family's focus is on jobs and family activities,
while living their civilian life. Our families do not live
close necessarily to the place where our soldiers train. In
fact, we are spread out over several States.
It is important for family readiness group volunteers to be
active and to get to know one another during peacetime, to
maintain the framework of support that families will need
during a mobilization and a deployment. Good groups with active
volunteers during peacetime become a strong, cohesive group
upon mobilization. Units that are created from scratch during a
deployment are often the dysfunctional ones, because they have
not had time to get to know and trust each other and to work
out conflicts.
I serve as a volunteer leader, because I have seen the
importance of this group first-hand and have taken part in
helping families with their emotional and physical needs. We
are there to help with the business end also of when we welcome
a new member into our group. We have had our fusses and our
fights just like any family, and unfortunately that is what is
remembered sometimes. It is the day-to-day stuff of life that
does not make the news that makes our job fulfilling.
We provide assistance and support to relieve the burdens of
deployed commanders, first sergeants, and the soldiers
themselves, because our goal is for us to help each other take
care of matters at home, so our soldiers can focus on their
jobs. We do not want them worrying about who their wife is
going to call if the car breaks down or if there is enough food
in the house.
When my husband was mobilized this past March, my neighbor
and good friend volunteered to come and help make yellow
ribbons and make phone calls, and she said something that I
think is very relevant. She said she could volunteer to work to
do whatever needed to be done but she could never really be a
part of our group because she was not living it. She was not
living every day knowing her husband was about to leave to put
himself in harm's way. We are a special family and we share
unique, special circumstances.
In closing, let me just stress the importance of the family
readiness group by saying that we consider ourselves a vital
part of our Nation's Guard and Reserve units and we consider
the Guard and Reserve components a vital part of our Nation's
military. I just want to thank you for allowing me to express
my opinions to you today.
Senator Alexander. Thank you, Ms. Lindsay.
Major Hardin.
STATEMENT OF MAJOR SCOTT HARDIN, UNITED STATES ARMY RESERVE
Major Hardin. Yes, sir. Good morning, Senator Alexander and
Senator Chambliss and distinguished members of the
subcommittee. Thank you for coming to Chattanooga this morning
with your busy schedules and giving me the opportunity to
discuss my role over the past 2 years as an Army Reserve
officer. I would also like to thank the Reserves for allowing
me the opportunity to tell my experiences during my deployment
during Operation Enduring Freedom.
First, I would like to thank my wife, who is in the
audience today, Susan, and my son, Eli, and the rest of my
family for the support and sacrifices they have made while I
was deployed to the Middle East, and continue to make at the
times I am away from them to perform my duties as an engineer
officer in the Army Reserve. Without their outstanding love and
support, I would not be able to perform this important service
to our country, which is one of the main reasons why I stay in.
As a member of the Army Reserve, it is a special honor for
me to spend some time today representing my fellow soldiers
presently deployed within the United States and the ones that
are deployed in harm's way during the holiday season. They are
fighting the global war on terrorism and the quest for freedom
in the countries of Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Their
presence is a testimony to our military's will to stay the
course and accomplish this important mission. To these brave
men and women who are about their duties, my prayers, my
family's prayers, and the prayers of a grateful Nation hope for
a quick and safe return to their families.
As events of September 11 and the aftermath unfolded, we in
the military knew it was just a matter of time before the call
would come. It was not a matter of if, but when, we would get
the call. Just as emergency workers responded to the Twin
Towers, my unit was also prepared to perform its mission. The
facility engineer group is headquartered in Chicago, and I am
assigned to a detachment in Southeast Center in Decatur,
Georgia. Our peacetime mission is facility management,
maintenance, and environmental compliance issues. Our wartime
mission includes this with the addition of developing forward
bases within an area of operation, developing a master plan,
and overseeing its construction.
My detachment was alerted on 1 March 2002 and activated on
March 15. We deployed to Fort Stewart and deployed to Kuwait on
April 6, and we were prepared to go to Afghanistan. To our
team's surprise, we were routed to the country of Qatar, Camp
Obsolea in a little known site that was to become Central
Command (CENTCOM) Forward.
We set up the first Directorate of Public Works in the camp
and prepared for CENTCOM's deployment in October. Our team
oversaw $25 million in construction in a 10-month period. We
designed and built dining facilities, recreation facilities,
lodging, and life support systems on the camp. We built the
headquarters for CENTCOM and the coalition headquarters. We
even built General Frank's office and the media center for
General Brooks to give the now famous daily briefings you saw
every day during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
On January 17, 2003, our unit was replaced, and we returned
to Fort Stewart, returned home on 1 March 2003, 15 days short
of being on active duty for 1 year.
I look forward to answering your questions and providing
one small voice representing the soldiers in the Army Reserve.
Senator Alexander. Thank you, Major Hardin.
Lieutenant Schroyer, it is interesting to me you are from
the police department. My impression after going to Fort
Campbell was I was not sure Fort Campbell could operate if it
were not for the Chattanooga Police Department, there were so
many people up there. I hope some time in this discussion we
can talk a little bit about how the police department copes
with that, with so many people being called up. So thank you
for being here.
STATEMENT OF LT. LARRY SCHROYER, CHATTANOOGA POLICE DEPARTMENT
Lieutenant Schroyer. Thank you, sir. As a member of the
Tennessee Guard, I would like to thank you and your committees
for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the city of
Chattanooga, and also the Chattanooga Police Department, to
discuss some programs that we have implemented and also some
concerns that we have.
The Chattanooga Police Department currently has 36
employees who serve in the active Reserves and the National
Guard. We currently have four sergeants and seven patrol
officers who are serving on active duty. The city of
Chattanooga and the Chattanooga Police Department are very
proactive in their support of the employees and their
respective families serving in defense of the United States.
This administration currently ensures the employees and
families are retained under our insurance plan while on active
duty, provides supplemental pay to offset any cut in pay an
employee may sustain when ordered to active duty, ensures that
families of military personnel are kept abreast of any changes
in pay or benefits, allows activated personnel to draw on
accrued personal leave time any time, and supplements the pay
and benefits of military personnel with 15 days paid military
leave.
Mobilization of military personnel employed by the
Chattanooga Police Department does have the potential to
drastically impact services we provide, if all were mobilized
at one time. To date our department has been able to
successfully manage to shift personnel to fill vacated
positions by activating employees and has done so without any
loss of the excellent services we provide to our community. Our
department does have concern and interest in obtaining Federal
funding to offset city expenditures if available, and would
also request that the military be able to provide more advance
notice on orders of employees who are about to be mobilized.
I would also like to thank Mayor Bob Corker, who is not
present, and also the personnel director with the city of
Chattanooga, for all the support that they have given members
of the military, because I can tell you that in the past, 15 to
20 years ago, it was not always that way. But they
unequivocally support all of our military personnel and their
families.
This concludes my brief, and I will answer any questions
you might have, sir.
Senator Alexander. Thank you very much.
In the active-duty Army, a lot of attention is paid to
helping families with reintegration, when a military man or
woman comes home after a long time away, we have learned over
time that re-entry into the family is a little more complicated
than it looks. Is there being attention paid to the same issues
for guardsmen and women and reservists?
Major Ward. Yes, sir. As soldiers return they go through a
briefing, a demobilization briefing. There are chaplains that
are provided that do a one-on-one briefing, also counseling
with those individuals. Obviously, there's going to be a
limited amount of time that is available based on the number of
soldiers that are going through that briefing. But if anything
is identified, then they go back and they will spend more time.
We are also told that when they come back that we are to watch
them and to advise the spouses that if anything unusual is
occurring that they can go back and have resources made
available to them for that special counseling as well. I would
say with the TRICARE benefits, that with your extension now to
6 months of benefits, that would be an additional service that
we could provide to them in the event that their lives were
just not back in control.
Senator Alexander. Major Hardin, you have just returned
after a long time away. What is your report about morale of our
reservists and national guardsmen and women especially, and
about their reenlistment prospects?
Major Hardin. I think overall the morale of the troops is
very good. I know being away from family members is not a very
good thing, but overall, I think the morale is very high. As a
former commander of units before and being deployed for
Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield and coming back with
the unit, I do not see retention is that big a problem right
now, because most people who are in the Reserves or National
Guard, a lot of them get in for the educational benefits, to go
to school. Most of them are in it for the love of the country.
In my unit it was a smaller unit, 15 men and only 7 got
activated and went over. No problem at all. In fact, in most of
our units that are deployed now, I do not see anybody coming
back and getting out of the Service or the Reserves.
Senator Alexander. Ms. Lindsay or Major Ward, do either of
you have any comment to make on morale or reenlistment? You
both see it from a little different vantage point.
Major Ward. I will defer to you first.
Ms. Lindsay. It is an adjustment and it is not only an
adjustment for the families and the soldiers, but almost even
for the community as well. We were so excited when Dennis came
home from Operation Desert Storm that, of course, we were
planning this big party, and everybody wanted to see him, and
we never thought that might not be the best thing for him until
I went through this class that was sponsored by the Family
Readiness Program that said do not do that. Give them time to
adjust to being back with family. Then the adjustments we went
through, taking care of everything while they are gone, and to
be sensitive to turn back over the duties that they had before
in the family to them and how that whole process works. So I
think that even during Operation Desert Storm, the Guard was
doing a really good job of letting us know what to expect. I
think it is even better now, because they are even more aware,
more sensitive to the needs of the entire family.
Major Ward. Sir, I would share with you that I have had
some concerns voiced by some spouses, perhaps more
disappointment in the lack of communication that is not coming
from the theater, coming back through the chain of command
about events that are going on with their families. Recently
you have become aware that a few of our units were extended for
an additional 6 months and just the timeliness and all, the way
those orders were generated and that information came down
created some disappointment on the side of families. I hear
from the spouses, and we realize that spouses vent well. Some
of them have told me, and I do not want to speak for the whole
Guard, but their intent is to try to persuade their husband
that he does not need to be quite so actively involved in the
future. Now I just share that with you. I do not have any
statistical data for that. But I am hearing that there is
intent to end their service.
Senator Alexander. Before I go to Senator Chambliss, let me
ask each of you a question. I will start with Lieutenant
Schroyer in a minute. A question that I asked at Fort Campbell
when we were talking about active-duty families and their
children. If you could wave a magic wand and do one thing that
would make it easier for the families of reservists or national
guardsmen and women, what would that one thing be?
Lieutenant Schroyer, may we start with you?
Lieutenant Schroyer. Yes, sir. I really cannot think of
anything that could be done that has not already been
implemented through our personnel director, Donna Kelly. As I
stated before, things are so much better, the cooperation, the
benefits, the information that is provided. I would consider
our personnel director and her office to be the civilian
equivalent to an employer support group for the officers that
are on active duty now, sir.
Senator Alexander. Thank you.
Major Hardin.
Major Hardin. I would think that the Army, the Reserves,
and the National Guard, it has come a long way with the family
support group that they sponsor. Maybe a little bit more
programs. Basically the family support group, it all depends on
what the unit puts together. It is what you can have all these
neat programs and stuff, but basically it is the wives and the
spouses that get together and form a bond and that is what
really pulls the soldier through his deployment. So I think it
is very important to have a real strong family support group.
Senator Alexander. Ms. Lindsay.
Ms. Lindsay. I agree with Terry Ward wholeheartedly. It is
communication. We must communicate better. There is confusion.
Our husbands leave here as a member of the 181st under the
196th, and then they are under a different brigade, and we do
not understand that exactly. Then we do not know who we get our
information from, so we wear him out. We just need more
communication. We want to know what is going on. We want to
know where they are and how they are doing, and we want to know
how to reach them if we need to. I know there are emergencies
and that kind of thing. But I do believe that communication is
our biggest need.
Senator Alexander. So when they are not on active duty,
then it is Major Ward and others who are with him who have the
information about where they are and what they are doing and
what is expected and that is where the answers come from?
Ms. Lindsay. Right.
Senator Alexander. When they are activated, they are turned
over to other commands and that is confusing to the families
who are accustomed to calling Major Ward and getting an answer,
and they do not know who the other major is to call, I guess.
Ms. Lindsay. It is an entirely different chain of command,
and we do not know. We want accurate information and timely
information. That is really what we want more than anything. I
think having timely and accurate information and communication
would stop some of the rumors, and it would stop some of the
disagreements and the frustrations. It is when you are
frustrated that you become angry, when you do not know what is
happening.
Senator Alexander. Yes.
Ms. Lindsay. As long as we know what is going on we can
deal with it.
Senator Alexander. Major Ward, if you had a magic wand,
what would you do?
Major Ward. You provided it, sir, in the Army One Source
that I referred to, the telephone number and the internet.
Senator Alexander. Oh, yes.
Major Ward. That in a way was a magic wand to connect
families with each other and with the military and to provide
services to them. I am very pleased obviously with what you
have done there through funding that program, sir.
Senator Alexander. That is helping you with calls from
spouses who cannot get an answer? You tell them to call Army
One Source?
Major Ward. No, sir. What I tend to do is just communicate
that that it is there and allow them to decide when they want
to call. They need to know that that option is available for
them and that it is a resource for them to be able, in a
confidential way, to seek out something as simple as child
care, or if they are thinking of suicide, or if the soldier
comes home and is acting weird, and they think suicide is a
solution, that there will be a professional person that can
help them immediately and not go through a series of interviews
and go through all this stigma that is attached with admitting
that you are having some problems and thinking through
problems.
Senator Alexander. How quickly does someone actually get a
real person when they call Army One Source? Do you go through a
lot of buttons and recorded calls?
Major Ward. No, sir. They are saying that within 20 seconds
you should speak to an actual voice, a person who is going to
interact with you.
Senator Alexander. Thank you.
Senator Chambliss. Thank you. Very interesting testimony
from all four of you. Thank you for your enlightenment to us.
Pressing on a little bit with One Source, of course the
Marine Corps is where we initiated that program, and we had
some testimony out at Offutt relative to One Source and what
they are doing there, and it is really a tremendous asset. I am
certainly pleased to see the Army moving forward. I know with
the Navy and the Air Force we are going to take that on in
short order.
Do you have a Web site for One Source yet in the Army?
Major Ward. Yes, we do.
Senator Chambliss. The reason I asked that, I will just
give you a quick anecdote. I remember one lady told me that she
was being transferred to another base, and she pulled up the
One Source Web site for the Marine Corps and, she was able to
decide where they wanted to find off-base housing, because she
knew because of that Web site what school delivered the type of
education that she wanted her children to have. It was neat
that she could pull all of that up, in addition to the location
of hospitals and recreational activities, as well as shopping.
I think that is a huge asset. It really brings it home to all
of our service men and women as to what they can expect when
they come to a new location.
Ms. Lindsay, you have heard the testimony of both this
panel as well as the previous panel, relative to information
that is available to you. I am sure there are things that you
thought of because you have been there. Your neighbor was
exactly right. None of us can appreciate the role that you
serve in. We do emphasize from the standpoint of teamwork that
it is family teamwork and you are a part of that team.
Could you give us some information maybe relative to things
that you know from a practical experience standpoint that we do
not provide that maybe we ought to be providing, or are there
things that we do provide that are of particular benefit to you
that we ought to do a better job of promoting and educating our
men and women about?
Ms. Lindsay. I am sure I will think of something on my way
home. But the family assistance center I think has been
invaluable, because it provides a consistency that we did not
have before, because our groups are all volunteer leaders.
Their husbands get transferred, they go out. They retire, we
get new ones in, and they have to be retrained. We did not have
that consistency, that one place or that one source that kept
an eye on the whole picture. So the family assistance center, I
think, really does that. It is one place with a consistency and
a source of information that we can go through no matter the
transfers and no matter the retirements. So I really think that
has been a big deal and it is very timely.
Senator Chambliss. How old were your children when your
husband was deployed to Operation Desert Storm?
Ms. Lindsay. They were teenagers during Operation Desert
Storm.
It was more difficult having children at home than during
this last mobilization when they were gone, because it is just
more difficult having children at home and you are doing it by
yourself, as well. I believe the younger the children and the
more children you have, the more difficult it is to try to do
it by yourself.
Senator Chambliss. Yes. One issue that has come to the
forefront relative to military children, particularly in this
last conflict, this is the first time we have seen embedded
reporters on site in Iraq.
Major Hardin, I might address this to you. How old is your
son, Eli?
Major Hardin. He will be nine in a couple of weeks.
Senator Chambliss. Okay. You were in the midst of the
conflict, and Eli was looking at the news, I assume every
night, and seeing some pretty tough stuff on television. How
did he fare, and were there any services provided by the Army
that were available to your wife relative to the needs that Eli
might have as a result of what he saw or what he heard in
school or how he was treated by his friends?
Major Hardin. Actually, Senator, I was fortunate that I
came home January before the conflict started, so I was gone
the year before. With an 8-year-old in the house, we watched
the news. I had friends over there during the conflict, and are
still over there now, and we watched, and we explained stuff.
He had questions. All children are going to have questions like
those. I think he had a better understanding of what was going
on, because I was home and understood I had already done my
time, and somebody else was over there doing it.
As far as the services that the Reserves have, there's
something that was sent out about 2 weeks ago that I received
at my house. It was an interactive CD that the Reserves had
sent out. We heard a lot about what the National Guard is doing
for their soldiers, but this is something that the Reserves
sent out. General Helmly was concerned about the reservists
being deployed. His initiative was we will not be deployed
maybe once in every 5 years and trying to get the force
structure to change so there are not so many skilled sets out
of the Reserves needed on active duty. My wife, I, and Eli sat
down and watched it. It was interactive, and it had a thing for
the kids to go on and draw and they could send e-mail to their
parents, Christmas cards and things like this. So the Reserves
are very proactive in what they are trying to do with family
support and helping the deployed soldiers these days.
Senator Chambliss. Mr. Schroyer, you have been on both
sides of this. You were active in the Reserve military for 21
years, I believe, before going with the Chattanooga Police
Department, and now you are looking at it from an employer's
standpoint. What assets from both sides of the picture that you
are able to see have we done a good job with, and where do you
see deficiencies relative to the current system of activating
our men and women in the Guard and Reserves?
Lieutenant Schroyer. Hopefully I can answer your question
adequately. Based on what I have heard today, as I have said
before, the work that you and the other Senators and the
committees are performing to support members in the Guard and
Reserve is just totally overwhelming. I cannot tell you how
much that is appreciated, not only by me looking at it as a
prior service member, but also representing the police
department. I hope I am answering your question.
Also, as to what I have heard are the concerns that not
only our department but any other business, but especially a
police department or fire department would have in regard to
future mobilizations, I am sure there will be more of them
coming up next year. The more people that we have that we lose
that are mobilized, it affects the quality of services that a
police department or a fire department can provide to the
community that they represent. That also takes into effect the
terrorist activities that may be anticipated in the future. But
at the same time, we gain from knowledge that these individuals
bring back from the units that they served with.
As I stated previously, we have not been impacted so badly
yet that it has affected our service to the community. If all
of our members were all activated and mobilized at the same
time, we do have some contingency plans that are going to be
put in effect, such as recalling retirees to come back to work,
volunteers, and other civilian volunteers to come and assist
us, so that we can shift and allocate our personnel where they
will be necessary.
I do not know if that totally answers your question but
hopefully it will, sir.
Senator Chambliss. Let me just say to each of you how much
we appreciate your being here today.
It has been very important to provide enlightening
testimony to us. On behalf of the President and every member of
the United States Senate, the Vice President who is the
President of the Senate, how much we appreciate the
contribution that each one of you, as well as your colleagues,
have made to winning this war on terrorism.
Without your contributions, both on the civilian side and
the military side, we would not be winning this war, but thanks
to you we are. We appreciate you very, very much.
To my good friend, Senator Alexander, thank you for hosting
us here in Chattanooga. It has been a pleasure, as always, to
be with you and be a part of this hearing. Thank you.
Senator Alexander. Thank you, Senator Chambliss. It is a
practice we ought to continue. There are a lot of mutual
interests between Georgia and Tennessee in this direction, and
Chattanooga is doing so well right now. It is a joy to work
with the leadership in the community here.
I want to echo what Saxby said about your service, Ms.
Lindsay, and that of your husband and to the families who
support you. We are all proud of you, and we are grateful for
it. We are proud of our Tennessee National Guard, of our
reservists in Tennessee, the rate at which they volunteered.
For most of them it is an unexpected responsibility. Most of
the guardsmen I know would not have expected to serve this
long, this often, and this quickly. But most of the guardsmen
and reservists I know are prepared to do it and proud to do it.
Senator Chambliss and I will continue our work to try to
identify those areas where we can be more supportive. We have
heard today about child care; we have heard about clearer
communications; we have heard about setting expectations, so
families can make plans; we have heard about the family
readiness centers and how helpful they have been; and we have
heard about the challenges that are presented when a police
department or a sheriff's office which has within it exactly
the kind of men and women who we might be glad to have
activated, suddenly finds more people activated than they can
handle and the question whether there is a Federal
responsibility there to make it easier for the Chattanooga
Police Department, for example, to be able to continue to do
its work at home while some of its members are doing work
overseas. That would be true here, true in Bradley County, and
wherever that concern might arise.
It has been a very useful hearing. Thank you for your time.
I want to especially thank the University of Tennessee at
Chattanooga for the use of their sound system and the technical
help we have received.
Senator Chambliss, do you have anything else?
Senator Chambliss. I do not think so.
Senator Alexander. If not, the hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12 noon, the subcommittees adjourned.]