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Water issues key to fort's future, environmentalist says

Says fort, community must take responsibility


Sat, 01/28/2012 - 12:01am


By Bill Hess

Herald/Review

 SIERRA VISTA —  While an environmental opponent of Fort Huachuca said he expects the post will not be closed, he expressed continuing concern of the lack of responsibility by post officials and leaders in the civilian community when it comes to water issues.

Co-founder and board member of the Center for Biological Diversity Dr. Robin Silver, a medical doctor, said the amount of money the Army and Department of Defense has spent on the post still lacks any sense of responsibility for damaging the environment.

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Military Update: Amid battles to protect benefits, gays seek equality


Fri, 11/25/2011 - 6:09pm


Tom Philpott

The Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review

The dismal failure by the congressional “super committee” to deal with the nation’s debt crisis leaves the Department of Defense facing automatic $55-billion-a-year spending cuts from 2013 through 2021. This is in addition to defense cuts of near-equal size already planned across the same decade.

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Military Update: DoD to spend $250M repairing on-base public schools


Fri, 09/02/2011 - 8:10pm


By Tom Philpott

On orders from Congress, the Department of Defense is deciding how to spend a first-ever appropriation — $250 million — to upgrade a set of public schools that are in disrepair or disturbingly overcrowded.

The catch is that these schools, though part of local school districts, are on stateside bases and 94 percent of their students are military children.


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Military Update: Dodging LeJeune veteran care


Sat, 07/16/2011 - 12:01am


By Tom Philpott

For the Herald/Review

Advocates for military commissaries are optimistic they can sideline a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee plan that would end subsidies of base grocery stores so the same money could pay for health care of veterans and families exposed years ago to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

But as momentum builds on Capitol Hill to protect shopping discounts on base, prospects dim for passage this year of the Caring for Camp Lejeune Veterans Act (S 277) with its cost of $4 billion over the first 10 years.

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Fort prepares for government shutdown


Fri, 04/08/2011 - 12:04am


By Bill Hess

Herald/Review

FORT HUACHUCA — This morning, leaders on this southern Arizona Army post will meet to discuss actions to take in case the federal government turns off the money spigot.

Post Public Affairs Officer Angela Moncur said exactly how the potential lack of funds to operate will affect the fort is unknown if Congress and the administration cannot reach an agreement on the budget by midnight tonight. However, it would mean that some functions on the fort will not operate based on the directions received from Department of Defense and Army leaders.


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Military Update: Disability evaluation reforms seen falling short


Sat, 04/02/2011 - 12:01am


By Tom Philpott

After a three-year effort by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to improve the process, ill and injured military members still endure a long, complex and often contentious evaluation system when seeking disability ratings and compensation for service-related health conditions.

The process has been made more convenient and even shortened by an average six to eight months under a pilot program jointly run by the two departments and which continues to be expanded to more military bases.

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Military Update: Surprise appointment intrudes on TRICARE fee debate


Sat, 03/19/2011 - 12:01am


By Tom Philpott

Senior Defense officials defended their plan to raise TRICARE Prime fees modestly for working-age retirees at a Tuesday hearing of the House armed services subcommittee on military personnel.

The next day, representatives of military associations testified. Five of them, including one who spoke on behalf of 13 other groups too, said they could accept what would be the first TRICARE fee increases in 16 years. 

The same groups could accept annual adjustments to these fees if the inflation index used were the same one used to set retiree cost-of-living raises.

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Military Update: Military groups divided over bump in TRICARE fees


Fri, 03/04/2011 - 11:05pm


By Tom Philpott

Lawmakers seeking guidance from military associations on whether to support the new Defense Department plan to raise TRICARE Prime enrollment fees modestly for working-age retirees next year, and then to adjust them annually for inflation, will get mixed signals this time around.

Joyce Wessel Raezer, national director of the National Military Family Association, is not alone in calling the fee hikes of $60 a year for under-age-65 retiree families and $30 for individual coverage “amazingly reasonable.”

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Military Update: Military groups divided over bump in TRICARE fees


Sun, 02/27/2011 - 12:01am


By Tom Philpott

Lawmakers seeking guidance from military associations on whether to support the new Defense Department plan to raise TRICARE Prime enrollment fees modestly for working-age retirees next year, and then to adjust them annually for inflation, will get mixed signals this time around.

Joyce Wessel Raezer, national director of the National Military Family Association, is not alone in calling the fee hikes of $60 a year for under-age-65 retiree families and $30 forindividual coverage “amazingly reasonable.”

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Military Update: Military won’t track number of gays who serve


Sat, 02/05/2011 - 12:01am


By Tom Philpott

Department of Defense actuaries can tell you that half of all service members are married. They know that 14 percent of enlisted are women and 11.6 percent are Hispanic. They even know that 20.2 percent of members are Roman Catholic and less than one percent are Jewish. But, they will caution, 19.5 percent claim no religious preference or decline to identify one.

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