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Wreaths across America (WAA) is a na-tional movement to place live wreaths on the headstones of veterans during the month of December to honor all veterans as well as
active military members. The movement plans a wreath-laying ceremony at Camp Nelson on Dec. 15. Camp Nelson has nearly 15,000 graves with more added daily. Wreaths across America has been celebrated there for only a few years. In 2017,
about 1,000 wreaths were sponsored. WAA seeks individuals, families and groups to
contribute as sponsors at $15 per wreath. WAA has set Nov. 23 as the deadline for a check donation and
Dec. 3 for donation by credit card WAA is also seeking volunteers for a variety of task related to the laying of wreaths and surrounding ceremony. Go to our chapter Website:
(http://bluegrassmoaa.org)
for links to forms for wreath sponsorship
and volunteering.
Bluegrass Chapter Annual Business Meeting, Friday, Dec. 7
• Equestrian Woods Country Club, • 107 Clubhouse Dr., Nicholasville • Noon, Fri., Sep. 28; social time, 11:30 • Buffet, $17, usual variety • RSVP Pat Jones NLT Nov. 30 • Agenda: See President’s Corner, p. 2
...for paying your 2019 chapter dues! You can use the handy form on the back of this newsletter and send it with your $25 payment to Pat Jones at the address indicated. Better yet, bring the form and your check to the annual business meeting Dec. 7. OR, you can renew your local membership online. Go to http://www.moaa.org/onlinechapterdues/ for instructions.
THVC director outlines needs for 2018 drive
Thomson-Hood Veterans Center Director/Bluegrass Chapter member MAJ (Ret.) Ben Sweger has announced the unfunded needs for this year’s chapter fund drive: • Purchase of a recliner
lounge chair for use in our Hospice rooms for fami-lies to use when staying
with a veteran who is in his or her final liv-ing hours. This type of chair is a backed lounge chair when upright that can fold into a sleeper-type
chaise lounge for the family member to sleep in in the veteran’s room. Such a chair costs between $2800-$3000.
• A replacement 65” HD flat screen TV for the Washington Neighborhood dining room. The one they cur-rently have is starting to experience major op-erating issues and should be replaced. Such a TV costs in the vicinity of $1000.
“I am offering these two needs for the chapter’s consideration but would expect only one of these two needs to be chosen,” Sweger said. “Thank you again for your support of the THVC veterans.”
Look inside this issue...
DoD/VA medical record interoperability progress — p. 4 Sham ‘financial advisors’ bilk military retirees — p. 4
—
Potential troop impact of Trump’s proposed Defense cuts — p. 6
Retirees must select dental plan by Dec. 10—p.7
Pre-filed vet bills for 2019 Kentucky General Assembly — p. 7
MOAA
As I write this, the election is still more than a week off, but as you read this, the results will have been counted. Since Jan and I are in Europe, I can only comment on our democracy, not on the results. As with every election, there have been winners and losers, but I am reminded of this quote from Eric Felten: “Loyalty is essential to the most basic things that make life livable. Without loyalty there can be no love. Without loyalty there can be no family. Without loyalty there can be no friendship. Without loyalty there can be no commitment to community or country. And without those things, there can be no society.”
Each year we as MOAA members re-mind the newly commissioned officers that they are sworn to “preserve and pro-tect the Constitution of the UNITED STATES.” They are not sworn to support any po-litical party nor any political office holder. As such we will continue to loyally serve the interests of our membership and the interests of the U.S. military, working with those in office to achieve our goals. Many of our goals were not fulfilled in the last Congress and as a result, we have work to do. We also have work to do within the Commonwealth to improve our ranking as a military friendly and support-ive state. So, whether we are working at the federal or state level, we must “never stop serving”.
BUSINESS MEETING On Dec. 7 (at our re-scheduled meet-ing) we will conduct the business of the chapter. I have been privileged to serve
as your President and I am standing to serve another term along with Tom Lit-tle, Pat Jones and Chris Dolt. We need your support and we need your involvement. The offices of Second Vice president and Secretary are va-cant. I ask you to consider putting your-self forward for either of these offices. A special “thank you” goes out to Jack Whitney and Bob Bellman who have teamed up to manage our ROTC Detach-ment activities. Their support to assist us in this important task is greatly appreci-ated.
ROTC SUPPORT POLICY I will also have a policy for your consid-eration regarding our support to the ROTC Detachments. The gist of the pol-icy is to expand our monetary support by partnering with AUSA which will sig-nificantly increase our ability to provide funding whether it be to scholarships or direct support to the cadet fund. In addi-tion, the policy will devote attention to-ward offering scholarships to rising ca-
dets and not limit our scholar-ships to the senior class. Over-all, I believe you will find the proposed changes to be worth-while. Jan and I are looking forward to our trip which will include a 55-year anniversary for her with her Welsh pen pal, a visit to our former base at RAF Lakenheath and of course Thanksgiving with our son and daughter in law at Naval Sup-
port Activity, Naples. We send you our fondest wishes for a meaningful Thanksgiving and look for-ward to seeing you in December.
President Col. (Ret.) Tom Peters
(859) 329-7320 [email protected]
First Vice President COL (Ret.) Tom Little
(859) 338-3301 [email protected]
Second Vice President Vacant
Secretary/Webmaster/ Newsletter Editor
COL (Ret.) John Shotwell (859) 420-2105
Treasurer Mrs. Pat Jones (859) 271-2606
Sergeant-at-Arms COL (Ret.) Chris Dolt
(859) 494-3452 [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MOAABluegrassChapter
Web: http://bluegrassmoaa.org
MOAA, including the Kentucky Council and the Bluegrass Chap-ter, is an independent, nonprofit, politically nonpartisan organization. dedicated to maintaining a strong national defense and ensuring our nation keeps its commitments to currently serving, retired and former members of the unformed services and their families and survivors. Membership is open to those who hold or have ever held a warrant or commission in any component of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Public Health Service or NOAA and their surviving spouses.
NEVER STOP SERVING. The MOAA Bluegrass Chapter is a Sect. 501(c )(19) tax-exempt veterans organization
Thomas Peters
Lt. Gen. Dana Atkins, USAF (Ret.)
MOAA President/CEO
U.S. forces commenced combat operations in Panama as part of Operation Just Cause on Dec. 20, 1989. Chapter member COL Dave Patton, U.S. Army (Ret.), par-ticipated in that operation and will share his reflections in a presentation at our Jan. 25 meeting. COL Patton was the Provost Mar-shal of the 82nd Airborne Division at
the time. His tenure in that job ran from June 1989-June 1992 and in-cluded leading division MPs in Opera-tions Just Cause, Desert Shield and Desert Storm. “It was without a doubt the best job of my 30-year career,” he said. To provide a brief summary, the operation was significant because U.S. interests in Panama were threat-ened by its dictator, Manuel Noriega, and his Panama Defense Forces, or PDF. Noriega's PDF and militia sym-pathizers were harassing U.S. troops and citizens. Noriega and his cronies were also involved in election fraud, drug dealing and money laundering. U.S. interests that were threatened included thousands of American civil-
ians living in Panama, some 13,000 U.S. troops stationed there at a number of U.S. ba-ses, and, security of the Pana-ma Canal itself, which was a vital shipping lane for vessels transiting the Atlantic and Pa-cific oceans. Planning for Just Cause
started months earlier, under the name Elaborate Maze, a plan for buildup of forces, fighting, if neces-
sary, and post-conflict stability operations, a term then known as na-tion-building. Then in May 1989, as violence in Panama es-calated, President George H.W. Bush or-dered the troop buildup. Operation Just Cause was notable in part be-cause nearly half of the 27,000 participating troops were already based in country. Area surveil-
lance, reconnaissance and even the training could all take place within or near the likely battle space. The operation was an overall success. The attack took place at 1 a.m., and while there were casualties, they were relatively light: 23 American killed and 324 wounded. At least several times that number of PDF were killed or wounded, but the numbers are hard to confirm be-
cause most of the PDF who fought, did so in civilian clothing in order to blend in with the populace. The PDF did manage to cause may-hem when they burned down a large
neighborhood in Panama City, causing a flood of about 10,000 refugees. Operation Just Cause, though big news at the time, soon faded from public memory because shortly after, Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm commenced. De-sert Storm was remem-bered for the use of over-whelming force and joint operability under the command of Gen. Nor-man Schwarzkopf. But those same elements which led to victory were tested earlier in Just Cause.
An M551 Sheridan outside the Apostolic Nunciature, the Vatican's embassy, during negotiations for Noriega's surrender near the conclu-sion of Operation Just Cause.
COL PATTON
WHO: COL (Ret.) Dave Patton SUBJECT: Operation Just Cause WHEN: Noon, Fri., Jan. 25; social time, 11:30 WHERE: Equestrian Woods Country Club, 107 Club-house Dr., Nicholasville HOW MUCH: Buffet with meat entrees, vegetables, salad, dessert and drinks for $17, gratuity included. RSVP: Please let Pat Jones (contact info on p. 2) no later than Fri., Jan. 18, that you plan to attend and bring guests.
COL Patton in Panama, 1989
After years of good intentions and false starts, the DoD and VA are nearing success in attaining a system that will allow the two bureaucracies to share vet-erans’ medical records. The U.S. Secretaries of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Defense (DOD) have signaled their commitment to achieving interopera-bility between the two agencies by imple-menting a single, seamlessly integrated electronic health record (EHR), according to a recent joint statement. VA Secretary Robert Wilkie and De-fense Secretary James N. Mattis signed a joint statement Sept. 26 pledging that
their two departments will “align their plans, strategies and structures as they roll out a EHR system that will allow VA and DoD to share patient data seamlessly,” according to a press release about the joint statement. “The Department of Defense and De-partment of Veterans Affairs are jointly committed to implementing a single, seamlessly integrated electronic health record (EHR) that will accurately and effi-ciently share health data between our two agencies and ensure health record in-teroperability with our networks of sup-porting community healthcare providers,” the joint statement from Wilkie and Mattis states. “It remains a shared vision and mission to provide users with the best possible patient-centered EHR solution and related platforms in support of the lifetime care of our Service members, veterans, and their families.” The VA and the DoD are both under-taking massive projects to modernize their EHR systems and both departments plan to standardize on Cerner’s EHR. The hope is that this will provide a more complete longitudinal health record and make the transition from DoD to VA more seamless for active duty, retired personnel and their dependents. Once completed, the project would cover about 18 million people in both the DoD and VA systems. The VA signed its $10 billion contract with Cerner May 17 to replace the agen-cies 40-year-old legacy health information system—the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture
(VistA)—over the next 10 years with the new Cerner system, which is in the pilot phase at DoD. DoD began rolling out its EHR modern-ization project, called Military Health Sys-tem (MHS) Genesis, in January 2017 at Fairchild Air Force Base and three other pilot sites in Washington State. The DoD EHR overhaul contract, which was award-ed in 2015 to Cerner, Leidos and others, is currently valued at $4.3 billion. The new EHR system is expected to be deployed at every military medical facility in phases over the next five years.
[Source: Excerpts from article by Heather Landi in Health Informatics, Qct.15, 2018.]
DoD, VA making progress toward medical records interoperability
VA Secretary Wilkie: “The new EHR (electronic health record) system will be interoperable with DoD, while also improving VA’s ability to collaborate and share information with community care providers….”
DOD Secretary Mattis: "We are committed to partnering with the VA to support the lifetime care of our service members, veterans and their families. "This modern electronic health record will ensure those who serve our nation have quality health care as they tran-sition from service member to veteran."
The VA is adding more protections to strengthen aging veterans from scammers who target their pensions and push them to apply for benefits they aren't eligible to receive. Known as “pension poachers,” the scammers pose as “advisors” who then try to make an easy buck by selling elderly vets unnecessary financial services and products they don’t need while convincing them to apply for VA benefits they proba-bly will never see. The regulations that went into effect last month guarantees the “Aid and Attendance” benefit for pensions
will stay out of the hands of crooked financial planners. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) commended the move by the VA. “These chang-es are long overdue but a welcome step forward in the fight to protect our veterans from greedy scam-mers,” he said in a state-ment. “It is imperative that veter-ans who need this benefit have access.”
The issue was brought to Wyden’s attention after a 2012 undercover investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified more than 200 organizations nation-wide that advised potential pension claimants to go after unnecessary benefits, and charged the targets as much as $10,000 along the way. VA regulations include a
provision from Wyden that re-quires a three-year glance at an appli-
cant’s financial history when applying for the pension. In extreme cases, the VA rejected the targeted veterans for the benefit, but only after the poachers tucked away the assets in places that aren’t easily assessable money-wise. This type of dishonest business-guiding can impact a senior vet’s ability to qualify for Medicaid and other government assistance pro-grams. [Source: conectingvets.com by Matt Saintsing, Oct. 22, 2018 ]
Sen. Wyden
The first USS America, authorized by the Continental Congress in 1776, wasn’t completed until 1782, the larg-est warship yet built in the new nation. The legendary admiral (then CAPT) John Paul Jones was slated to command the 74-gun ship, but Congress decided to give the America to King Louis XIV to re-place a French ship destroyed in Boston Harbor where it had arrived to support the American patriots.
The second Navy ship to bear the name was actually built by the Germans and launched in 1905 as the troop transport Amerika. At the beginning of WWI, before U.S. involvement, the Amerika was docked in Boston Harbor to avoid seizure by the British Royal Navy. She was seized by the U.S. when our country entered the war and converted to a U.S. transport ship, the USS America, carrying 40,000 troops to France to fight the country that built the ship. The vessel would also transport U.S. forces to battle during WWII, but by then refitted under a different name.
The third USS America (CV-66) was an aircraft supercarrier launched in 1964 as part of the Kitty Hawk class, an improvement over the Forrestal-class vessels. She deployed several times to the Mediterranean during Middle East crises, three times to the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War, and later to the Persian Gulf during Opera-tion Desert Storm and to the Adriatic Sea sup-porting the NATO implementation Force in Bos-nia and Herzegovina for Operation Joint Endeav-our. Over the objections of former crew members, the Navy chose the carrier as a live fire test and evaluation platform in 2005. She was destroyed in a controlled scuttling off the coast of Cape Hatteras, the largest American warship ever de-liberately sunk.
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F-35B
President Trump's recent call for a five percent cut across every federal de-partment includes the Defense Dept. What does all of this mean for service-members and retirees? Potential reduc-tions could mean:
•A military pay raise for fiscal year 2020 that is below the Em-ployment Cost Index
•Another possible push to re-duce the calculation for Basic Allowance for Housing (especially with regard to dual military couples)
•And increases in TRICARE fees for beneficiaries.
Defense News reports the new top-line defense budget will be $700 billion, not the $733 billion that the Pentagon had been planning for most of the past year. The new topline number is down from the $716 billion approved in the FY2019 defense budget. DepSecDef Pat Shanahan on Oct. 26 indicated that this will not be a one-year blip, but rather part of a flattening of budg-ets. At the Military Reporters and Editors News Conference, Shanahan said, “When you look at the $700 billion, it's not just
for one year drop down, [or] a phase, it's a drop and then held constant over the future years defense program, a five-year projection included in every budget.” Congress will have the final word in the outcome of the FY2020 defense budget, once the administration's proposal hits the Hill early next year. As a new Congress will be seated, no outcome is certain. Also requiring congressional action in FY2020 are the reductions that would
come with a return of the mandated se-questration cuts required under the 2011 Budget Control Act. Without further legislative action by Congress, these re-ductions will also directly impact the FY2020 defense budget. All of this portends that after two years of sustained growth in the defense budget, there will now be proposed reductions and cutbacks to defense spending and pro-grams. This means that reductions will have to be found and those cuts can often start with pay and benefits. Earlier this month, MOAA reported the Employment Cost Index could be driving
another big pay increase in 2020, but MOAA needs members to keep up with developments and stay engaged as the administration's FY2020 budget takes shape and the proposal goes to the new 116th Congress sometime in early Febru-ary. Look for future MOAA updates and be ready to take action when asked. It will take a concerted advo-cacy effort by all MOAA members
and MOAA's coalition partners in order to stave off the potential cuts to hard earned pay and benefit pro-grams as the FY2020 defense budget takes shape over the coming months.
“When you look at the $700 billion, it's not
just for a one-year dropdown[ or] a phase,
it's a drop and then held constant over the
future years defense program, a five-year
projection included in every budget.”
— DEP SEC DEF PAT SHANAHAN
While MOAA has made great strides in influ-encing Congress on key issues affecting service-members, retirees and their families, several key pieces of legislation remain unresolved. Here are several of them:
S 66: A bill to amend title 10, United States
Code (USC) to permit certain retired members
of the uniformed services who have a service-
connected disability to receive both disability
compensation from the VA for their disability
and either retired pay by reason of their years
of military service or Combat-Related Special
Compensation, and for other purposes.
S 143: A bill to amend the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986 to allow a credit against income
tax for amounts paid by a spouse of a member
of the Armed Forces for a new
State license or certification
required by reason of a perma-
nent change in the duty station
of such member to another
State.
S 339: A bill to amend title 10, United States
Code, to repeal the requirement for reduction
of survivor annuities under the Survivor Benefit
Plan by veterans' dependency and indemnity
compensation, and for other purposes.
HR 303: A bill to amend title 10, United
States Code, to permit additional retired mem-
bers of the Armed Forces who have
a service-connected disability to
receive both disability compensa-
tion from the Department of
Veterans Affairs for their disability
and either retired pay by reason of
their years of military service or combat-
related special compensation.
HR 333: A bill to amend title 10, United
States Code, to permit retired members of the
Armed Forces who have a service-connected
disability rated less than 50 percent to receive
concurrent payment of both retired pay and
veterans' disability compensation, to extend
eligibility for concurrent receipt to chapter 61
disability retirees with less than 20 years of
service, and for other purposes.
For MOAA guidance on contacting
legislators on the issues go to the
Legislative Affairs Take Action page at
http://takeaction.moaa.org/app/write-a-
letter?3&engagementId=488877.
OPEN ENROLLMENT: NOV. 12-DEC. 10
Though the 2019 General Assembly
doesn’t convene until January, a couple
of bills have already been pre-filed af-fecting retirees and veterans:
BR 276, pre-filed as “AN ACT relating
to an exemption of income taxation for
military pensions.” It would amend state
law to exclude U.S. military retirees' pen-
sion income from income taxation for
taxable years beginning on or after Jan.
1, 2021. It would require reporting by
the Dept. of Revenue and amend the law
to include the reporting within the infor-
mation that can be provided to the Leg-islative Research Commission.
BR 7, pre-filed as “AN ACT relating to
property taxes for veteran service organ-
izations.”
It would create a new section of state
law to allow any veteran service organi-
zation that is exempt from federal in-
come tax under Section 501(c)(19) of
the U.S. Internal Reve-
nue Code to be exempt
from all city and county property taxes, if cer-
tain conditions are met.
For detailed lan-
guage on pre-filed bills
visit the Legislative
Research Commission
Web page at http://
www.lrc.ky.gov/
For nearly 90 years, MOAA has amplified the voices of servicemembers, ensuring they have access to the bene-fits they've earned through their ser-vice. New board chair Adm. Walter Doran, USN (Ret), plans to move that mission ahead full steam. “We need to stay
on course and not let go of anything we've already accom-plished,” said Doran, incoming chairman of MOAA's board of directors. Doran, a long-time Life Member of MOAA, will take over as the chair-man of the board on Nov. 2 at MOAA's annual meeting in Phoe-nix.
Doran served as the Com-mander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet (CINCPACFLT)
from May 2002 to July 2005. He is cur-rently Raytheon’s Asia President. He will take the reins from Gen. John J. Sheehan, USMC (Ret), who has served for the past two years.
MOAA installs new Board Chair at national meeting in Phoenix
Adm (ret) walter doran New moaa chair
PRE-FILED BILLS
On Nov. 12, military retirees will begin se-lecting a new health plan through the Federal
Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Pro-gram (FEDVIP). Uncle Sam will not pick a plan
for you.
Retirees who have the TRI-CARE Retiree Dental Plan
administered by Delta Dental must enroll during the open
season to avoid losing dental
coverage Jan. 1. Enrollment, which can be done online or
on the phone, ends at mid-night Eastern on Dec. 10.
Retired uniformed service members and their families
who are eligible for the old Tricare plan are
eligible to enroll in FEDVIP. FEDVIP offers retirees 10 choices for dental
coverage and four vision carriers. Retirees can make a plan selection and en-
roll online (https://tricare.benefeds.com/
InfoPortal/indexAction) or over the phone (877-888-3337) from Nov. 12 until Dec. 10. The
same phone number can be used by retirees to request a plan comparison from a customer
service representative, but offi-
cials said retir-ees must contact
plan carriers directly for spe-
cific details.
A special com-parison chart
and FEDVIP guide is included
in Novem-ber's Military Officer magazine.
Information on plans has been mailed to
homes of eligible beneficiaries, officials said, with a second letter in transit and set to arrive
by the beginning of open season. Defense Health Agency (DHA) officials en-
courage beneficiaries to select plans in a timely
manner. They expect the final week of open season to be the busiest.
To deal with the anticipated surge, officials have 1,400 customer service representatives in
11 locations across all time zones. They will
monitor peak times for phone calls and adjust staffing as needed.
There are some costs associated with FEDVIP. In exclusive provider
organizations (EPO) and health
maintenance organizations (HMO), the retiree has a fixed copayment
for a specific service. An HMO plan also will have an office visit copay-
ment for each dental visit. There is also a monthly premium for FEDVIP
dental plans. In most cases, depending on
eligibility and available funds and/or allot-ments, FEDVIP will set up an allotment auto-
matically with the pay provider to pay for FEDVIP premiums, post-tax. From article byAmanda Dolasinski, MOAA Staff Writer
Mrs. Pat Jones 1660 Atoma Drive Lexington, KY 40511
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
Last, first, middle name: Rank: National MOAA member no:
_______________________________________ _________________ _____________________________
Spouse name: Email address:
________ ______________________________ _______________________________________________________________
Date of birth (month/day): Street address – city, state, Zip code:
_______________________________________ _______________________________________________________________
Month/year entered service________________ Month/year separated_____________________________________
Phone number: ________________________ Cell number: _____________________
Military status (circle all that apply): Active Duty Drilling National Guard/Reserve Retired
Separated honorably ROTC (1 year free) Widow(er) (no charge)
Branch of service (circle one): USA USMC USN USAF USCG NOAA USPHS
Want to make a donation? General use: $________ Vets: $_______ ROTC scholarships: $_______
Total enclosed: $________________
Bluegrass Chapter, Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) New Membership/Membership Renewal/Donations
Please complete this form and your dues check ($25) payable to: BGMOAA. Mail the form and check to our return address.
Membership (new/renewal)=$25; widow(er)s free
