My Life As A Military Spouse

Substance Abuse and Military Kids

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HAP

A program to help military homeowners caught in the downturn of the housing market can start processing applications Wednesday, sources said, with the scheduled publication of the implementing rules in the Federal Register.

About 4,300 homeowners have already applied for assistance under the expanded Homeowners Assistance Program, which was signed into law Feb. 17 with $555 million in funding. Eligible are people on permanent change-of-station orders, wounded warriors, surviving spouses and those affected by base realignment and closure actions.

Wounded warriors and surviving spouses receive priority in the program, although about 98 percent of the applications received so far have been in the PCS category.

The Army Corps of Engineers, which runs the program, has been increasing staff and preparing to start processing applications. Some service members have said that HAP officials have been doing initial reviews of their applications, asking for more information, to further prepare in advance.

But the primary issue that has held up the program for six months still looms: Homeowners who receive benefits under the expanded HAP will have to pay taxes, and the taxes will be withheld upfront. Recently introduced legislation that would fix the problem and make the benefits tax-exempt is still pending.

For now, the tax requirement will limit the number of people who can be helped, because service members who are “upside-down” on their mortgages — those who owe more on their mortgages than the sale price of their homes — would not have enough money to take to the table to close the sale.

Defense officials have been exploring options that could help these service members.

Each individual’s situation will be different, and service members will have to decide what is best for their circumstances.

If they qualify for the program, those who have already sold their homes at a loss can be reimbursed for part of the loss, minus the tax withholding.

The program is retroactive for those who received PCS orders on or after Feb. 1, 2006.

Homeowners affected by PCS or base closure actions must have purchased homes before July 1, 2006. Additional eligibility requirements will be included in the final rules.

Although there still will be a 30-day comment period on the implementing regulations in the Federal Register, the Corps of Engineers will be able to process applications starting the day of publication.

The tax issue is out of the Defense Department’s hands, and the Office of Management and Budget and the Internal Revenue Service had tried to come up with a resolution. Assistance under the original HAP, created to help those affected by base closure actions, is not taxed. But that tax exclusion was not written into the provision that expanded the program.

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'Coming Home' Part II

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Back Home

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Safe Travels

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Child Care

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On this day.........

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Milblogging Debate Continues

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Sex Offenders and the Military

Nearly a year after the Department of the Navy issued a tough policy barring sex offenders from Navy and Marine Corps bases, the service is struggling to enforce it.

Sex offenders must be identified and banned from all bases unless they receive a waiver, according to an Oct. 7, 2008, memo from then-Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter and a May 27 memo detailing the order.

But identifying sex offenders could require installations worldwide to check their many thousands of servicemembers, civilians and dependents against flawed and sometimes inaccurate sex offender registries.

“We don’t want sex offenders in the Navy and we’re going to do whatever is required to make sure we’re effective,” current Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said Aug. 27 near Yokosuka Naval Base. “In terms of background checks and things like that, I don’t know. It’s an ongoing thing that we’re looking at.”

Winter’s order originally called for the policy to be implemented by last December. For now, anyone applying for on-base housing must sign a form stating whether they or their command-sponsored family members have committed a sex offense.

“The other aspects still remain under review because it’s partly in the discovery phase of how to execute this,” said Capt. William Fenick, spokesman for the Navy’s installations command headquarters in Washington.

No date has been set for when that phase will be complete, Fenick said.

The Army and Air Force don’t have polices that call for sex offenders to be identified and banned. However, base commanders have broad authority to restrict access and housing to any individual.

How to find a sex offender

States run their own registries, but there is no federal registry for sex offenders on an overseas military base.

If a Navy or Marine base wanted to check for a sex crime conviction in a civilian court, it could turn to individual state registries, or to a federal database compiled from the state registries.

Either option has its flaws.

A sex offender living on a base overseas — and in some cases, within the United States — might no longer be listed publicly as a sex offender.

When a sex offender leaves a state, “some [states] keep the offenders on an inactive status, but still posted on their Web sites, while others remove them entirely from both,” said Lori McPherson, a policy adviser with the Department of Justice’s Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking Office, or SMART.

While there is a National Sex Offender Public Web site www.nsopw.gov, it is a collection of state data and not a registry.

Both that site and the FBI’s National Sex Offender Registry rely on reporting by state and local agencies, many of which differ on what information to report and when to do it.

A December 2008 report from the Department of Justice Inspector General found that both the public and FBI databases “are inaccurate and incomplete.”

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act required the SMART office, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department to develop a system that would track registered sex offenders when they leave or return to the United States.

That system also is a work in progress, said McPherson, though it should improve tracking of military-affiliated sex offenders overseas.

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 1:07 PM 0 comments

SmileShow

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Army COMMUNITY Covenant

The American Legion, a veterans' organization with a membership of 2.7 million men and women, brought nearly 6,000 state representatives, top political and military officials, and Miss America to its 91st national convention in Louisville, Ky., to sign a nationwide Army Community Covenant.

"The leaders and representatives of our armed forces have joined us today to inspire communities across America to continue to create programs and initiatives designed to make life easier for warriors and their loved ones," said David K. Rehbein, outgoing American Legion national commander.

The Army Community Covenant, undertaken to foster effective state and local partnerships to improve the quality of life for Soldiers and their families, has quickly expanded to include all branches of the armed forces, including the Reserves and the National Guard.

"We're in the eighth year of this war, the longest in our nation's history with an all-volunteer force," said retired Maj. Gen. Craig Whelden.

Wheldon is a former commander of the U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center, now re-designated as Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command.

"The secretary of the Army thought this would be an opportunity to engage the American public in their communities and raise the level of visibility of the dedication and sacrifices our servicemembers," Wheldon said.

The Army Community Covenant aims to inspire the leadership in cities, towns and states to develop new or expand existing programs and services that support Soldiers and their families. The signing ceremonies visibly demonstrate the communities' support for military families.

"It's also an opportunity for the military to thank the community for the support they provide," Wheldon said.

Whelden's organization has identified more than 1,500 "best practices," from national initiatives to local programs that offer effective community support for troops and their families.

For example, 35 states provide full tuition to military families for higher education. Many nonprofit organizations also help military families with their financial needs, such as The American Legion's Temporary Financial Assistance program (for families with children who are minors).

Other groups focus on assistance to children and youth who experience trauma and loss, such as the legion-endorsed Operation Military Kids.

Some groups focus on assistance to military families, such as The American Legion Riders and the Patriot Guard, who for years have protected the sanctity of military funerals across the country, and Operation Wounded Warrior, an annual multi-state motorcycle run by the New Mexico American Legion Riders, which supports wounded servicemembers in VA medical facilities across the southwestern United States.

"I'm a legionnaire," Whelden said. "And The American Legion seems to be a very good fit for the kind of support the Army Community Covenant is looking for. The Legion doesn't need to spend any money on this. We're just asking its members to help us with our outreach efforts to the mayors and other civic leaders in their communities."

Many legionnaires, veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, at the convention were already involved in improving the quality of life for Soldiers and their families.

Bill Ferguson, outgoing Alabama state commander, spent nearly 23 years in the Navy, "...because my dad was a colonel in the Army," he remembered with humor. He has been a member of the American Legion for 15 years, with eight of them being active.

"I got active because my son was fighting in Baghdad and I wanted to support him and to make sure the support would be there for him when he got back home," Ferguson said. His son has continued in his father's footsteps by becoming CEO and president of the newly formed Afghan / Iraqi Veterans Organization.

Charles French, a delegate from Georgia, joined the Air Force during Vietnam and has been a member of the legion for 24 years, with nearly eight of those years as an active member.

"It was atrocious the way we were treated when we returned from Vietnam. I don't want to see that kind of treatment happen to our military men and women ever again. That's why the signing of this community covenant is so important to me," French said.

But his resolve isn't stopping there. With the signing of the community covenant and the American Legion's pledge to help their local communities get involved, French said, "I'm going back to Georgia and spread the word through the media.

"Six men from Louisiana, representing the Korean conflict and Vietnam, echoed this support and future commitment for the same reason.

"We didn't get a heroes' welcome when we returned from Vietnam," Frank J. Streva, a Navy man during Vietnam and now the chaplain for the W. B. Williamson Post #1 in Lake Charles, La., said to laughter from around the table.

"That's because you were no hero," Jack Young, a former Soldier during Korea and Vietnam, commented with a smile. The men quickly got serious when talking about their current mission.

"We're involved with enhancing our relationship with younger veterans and the communities where they live," James Jackson, former Soldier, said. "We also run a community baseball program, sponsor a gumbo cook-off and support the Veterans' Day celebration.

"Their hometown Soldiers, who live with their families in the Lake Charles area, are members of the National Guard's 256th Infantry Battalion at Fort Polk, La. They're about to be shipped out for their third tour.

"We're holding a deployment ceremony in December," Jackson said. "We'll be feeding over 1,500 family members as we send them off. We might have been called baby killers by some when we returned from Vietnam, but we want to change that kind of attitude by giving back.

"Whelden emphasized this need to change what happened in the past.

"Let's not repeat what happened after Vietnam. Today, these men and women, who were about 10 years old when 9/11 happened, continue to step up and join in the fight with their families left behind. With the help of the American Legion, the hope is that all communities across this nation will also stand up and support those who risk their lives every day for our great nation," Whelden said.

Following a patriotic opening with songs sung by Miss America, Katie Stam, and country music artist Michael Peterson, the Army Community Covenant was signed at the Kentucky International Convention Center by: Adm. Michael Mullen, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander, U.S. Central Command; David K. Rehbein, national commander of the American Legion; and other dignitaries.

"Seeing Adm. Mullen and Gen. Patraeus up there signing the covenant made us feel really important and we're hoping this same feeling of importance about this document, which is a symbol of the work we will continue to do, will be felt across the U.S.," Steva said.

"We all have to contribute and remain committed to this fight (in Iraq and Afghanistan). So what can the average American community do? We're asking everyone to support and care for our veterans and their families back home who have paid dearly with their lives for our freedom," Whelden said.

Since April 2008, 85 communities have signed community covenants, and often the events are an opportunity to announce new regional initiatives or programs to support service members. The Army Community Covenant's goal for 2009 is to have every state, city and town host these ceremonies and pledge their support to Soldiers and their Families.

More information is available here.

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 8:11 AM 0 comments

Military Family Concerns

Defense Secretary Robert Gates emerged from meeting with several military families on Tuesday saying that he would do more to help keep together military parents who have been separated by deployments or assignments, and would ask the White House to provide more training to civilian teachers and counselors of military children.

“A woman and her husband, both in the military, out of the last six years have lived together for 10 months,” Gates said. “And that’s just not acceptable.”

As President Barack Obama addressed the nation’s schoolchildren, the White House also dispatched cabinet members for back-to-school events in their own respective communities.
Gates met behind closed doors with the parents of nine military families at Fort Belvoir, a short drive along the Potomac River from the Pentagon.

The secretary said he would take back to the Cabinet the concerns he heard from parents: that too often they are forced to move their children to new schools, that parents are deployed or assigned apart from each other, and that civilian school teachers are not prepared to deal with the unique stresses faced by military dependents.

“I think that we could use some real help from the White House and the Department of Education in terms of working with local school districts to get training for teachers and counselors who have significant numbers of military children in their schools,” said Gates.

Army Sgt. Laura Moore, 34, and her soldier-husband, Sgt. Michael Moore, 32, told Gates they could use better counseling from off-base teachers.

The parents of four, their eldest was a 14-year-old eighth grader when mom deployed to Iraq and dad was in Afghanistan. Teachers thought their son was a typical problem child.

“They didn’t realize the severity of his problems,” said Michael Moore. “DOD teachers would have probably noticed it.”

Of the 1.2 million military children, all but 85,000 attend schools outside the Defense Department system. And two-thirds of all military children are under age 11.

“One mom in there told me her kids had moved schools four times in the last two years,” Gates said.

The parents told Gates these problems are evident even in Northern Virginia’s Fairfax County, which has one of the nation’s largest and highest regarded school systems.

“More than a few of the parents in that meeting talked about teachers not keeping their personal opinions to themselves,” Gates said. “So you have a child whose parent is deployed and in danger, and at the same time having a teacher perhaps being critical of what they were doing, or the military and so on.”

Master Sgt. Lynette Streitfield, from Spokane, Wash., said that while she was deployed to Iraq in 2006 and 2007, her daughter, then a high school sophomore, had a health teacher spend an entire class railing against President George W. Bush and the war.

“My daughter’s grades, she floundered during her sophomore and junior years,” Streitfield said. “I just don’t think that they had the support element in the schools to help the kids deal with it, as well as, obviously, the teachers that ran amok with their rhetoric.”

Parents, including the Moores, also asked for more on-base schools.

“These parents would love to have schools on post,” Gates said. “Not only teachers and counselors who know exactly what they’re doing in dealing with these kids, but kids who are surrounded by peers who are going through the same thing they’re going through and can empathize, confidence in quality, no long bus rides. They were pretty heartfelt on that.”

For those in public schools, Gates said he anticipated California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger soon would sign a bill joining an interstate pact among schools that allows easier transfer of course credits and graduation requirements. Once that state joins, 81 percent of military kids will fall under the pact, he said, easing at least one burden of military life.

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 8:02 AM 0 comments

'Warrior Mind Training'

Not long ago at Fort Bragg, N.C., the country's largest military base, seven soldiers sat in a semi-circle, lights dimmed, eyes closed, two fingertips lightly pressed beneath their belly buttons to activate their "core." Electronic music thumped as the soldiers tried to silence their thoughts, the key to Warrior Mind Training, a form of meditation slowly making inroads on military bases across the country. "This is mental push-ups," Sarah Ernst told the weekly class she leads for soldiers at Fort Bragg. "There's a certain burn. It's a workout."

Think military and you think macho, not meditation, but that's about to change now that the Army intends to train its 1.1 million soldiers in the art of mental toughness. The Defense Department hopes that giving soldiers tools to fend off mental stress will toughen its troops at war and at home. It's the first time mental combat is being mandated on a large scale, but a few thousand soldiers who have participated in a voluntary program called Warrior Mind Training have already gotten a taste of how strengthening the mind is way different - dare we say harder? - than pounding out the push-ups.

Warrior Mind Training is the brainchild of Ernst and two friends, who were teaching meditation and mind-training in California. In 2005, a Marine attended a class in San Diego and suggested expanding onto military bases. Ernst and her colleagues researched the military mindset, consulting with veterans who had practiced meditation on the battlefield and back home. She also delved into the science behind mind training to analyze how meditation tactics could help treat - and maybe even help prevent - post-traumatic stress disorder.

Rooted in the ancient Samurai code of self-discipline, Warrior Mind Training draws on the image of the mythic Japanese fighter, an elite swordsman who honed his battle skills along with his mental precision. The premise? Razor-sharp attention plus razor-sharp marksmanship equals fearsome warrior.

The Samurai image was selected after careful deliberation; it was certifiably anti-sissy. "We took a long time to decide how we were going to package this," says Ernst, who moved to North Carolina in 2006 and teaches classes at Fort Bragg as well as Camp Lejeune, a Marine base near the coast.
"There are a lot of ways you could describe the benefits of doing mind training and meditation. Maybe from a civilian approach we would emphasize cultivating happiness or peace. But that's not generally what a young soldier is interested in. They want to become the best warrior they can be."

The benefits of Warrior Mind Training, students have told instructors, are impressive: better aim on the shooting range, higher test scores, enhanced ability to handle combat stress and slip back into life at home. No comprehensive studies have been done, though a poll of 25 participants showed 70% said they felt better able to handle stressful situations and 65% had improved self-control.

The results were intriguing enough that Warrior Mind Training has been selected to participate in a University of Pittsburgh study on sleep disruption and fatigue in service members that will kick off early next year.

For now, success is measured anecdotally.

On patrol in Iraq two years ago, John Way would notice his mind straying. "Maybe I should be watching some guy over there and instead I'm thinking, 'I'm hungry. Where's my next Twinkie?'"
With privacy at a premium, he'd often retreat to a Port-A-Potty to practice the focusing skills he'd learned from Ernst at Fort Bragg. "To have a way to shut all this off is invaluable," says Way.

The importance of the mind-body connection is being acknowledged at the highest levels of the military. The West Point-based Army Center for Enhanced Performance (ACEP), which draws on performance psychology to teach soldiers how to build confidence, set goals and channel their energy, has expanded to nine army bases in the past three years since the Army's chief-of-staff praised the program.

"The Army has always believed if we just train 'em harder, the mental toughness will come," says Lorene Petta, a psychologist at Fort Bragg who works for ACEP. "A lot of times with this population, because they're so rough and tough, they tend to say, 'This is too touchy-feely for me. No thanks.' But we talk about the importance of being a good mental warrior too."

Free to members of the military and their relatives, Warrior Mind Training classes are offered at 11 U.S. military installations and veterans centers across the country; an online option opened up this spring. At Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in California, for example, Warrior Mind instructors prep elite Navy SEALS candidates for Hell Week, when potential newbies are vetted in a 5 ½-day sleepless trial of physical and mental endurance.

Beefing up the brain for combat is one aspect of the training; another is decompression. If one day you're dodging snipers in Iraq and the next you're strolling the aisles at Wal-Mart, Warrior Mind Training techniques can ease the transition.

"It's kind of like a reset button," says Erick Burgos, a military paramedic who takes classes at Coronado. "It's a time-out for you to take a break from the chaos in your life."

If the Army's new mental-toughness initiative, set to kick off in October, is to be successful, it needs buy-in from the people it plans to train. It can be a tough sell. At Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, in N.C., Adam Credle, who teaches military, law enforcement and Coast Guard personnel how to drive boats equipped with machine guns really fast, has encouraged his students to try out the meditative techniques. So far, he's been rebuffed, though he continues to try to persuade them to give the discipline's central exercise a chance. The mental focusing technique is called deep listening and it sounds super-simple but - unless you're accustomed to meditation - it requires exquisite concentration.

To help develop this skill, Warrior Mind, relies upon music. The idea is to listen, really listen, to the wail of the guitar or the staccato tap of the drums instead of letting your mind wander. In athletics, this concept is called being in "the zone."

As with anything, practice makes perfect, which is reassuring for rookies - like me - who find it next to impossible to rein in their thoughts at first. During the course of one five-minute song, I thought repeatedly about whether I'd remembered to lock my car and turn my cell phone to vibrate. And, because I'm a reporter, I thought about what everyone else might be thinking about, which, if they were doing it right, should have been nothing at all.

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 10:02 PM 0 comments

Servicemember Questions Sought

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Conference Kick Off

With personal assurance from the nation’s first lady that President Barack Obama is committed to military families, more than 1,500 people participated as the Defense Department’s Joint Family Readiness Conference kicked off here today (Tuesday) by Army Gen. Carter Ham and his wife Christi.

Tommy Thomas, the Defense Department’s deputy director of military community and family policy, read a letter from first lady Michelle Obama in which she thanked the group for its support of servicemembers and pledged continued support.

“Our armed forces and their families have done their duty and we are grateful as a nation, and we must do ours to provide them all the support they need,” Thomas read from the letter. “They do not complain about their sacrifices, but we all can help lighten the load. The president is committed to doing just that.”

In the day’s keynote address, Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, commander of U.S. Army Europe and 7th Army, said that while the military’s core values haven’t changed since he was a young soldier living in Italy with his family, support programs surely have, and they must continue to do so.

“We have to change,” the general said. “Our services are now well over 50 percent married. Servicemembers are getting married at a younger age. We’re enlisting more and more married servicemembers and their families.”

The military realizes that it may enlist soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, but in many cases, it retains families, Ham noted. Retention helps to ensure a high state of military readiness, he added.

“We do need to continue to create programs that equip our families and servicemembers with the knowledge to take care of themselves -- programs that highlight life skills,” Ham said. “Building systems of support, as this conference is focused on, is exactly the right concept.

“I challenge all of you at this conference to identify and address the problem areas as you discover them,” he added. “Together, in this room, there are centuries upon centuries of experience that can be harnessed to develop innovative ways to improve the quality of life for our families and our servicemembers, and to improve the readiness of our joint force.”

The general’s wife, Christi, highlighted some of the programs that are of high interest to servicemembers and their families and are among the topics being discussed throughout the three-day program.

Greater access to health care -- especially behavioral health care -- for all servicemembers and family members and easing the transition from military medical care to the Veterans Affairs system topped her list. But no less important, she added, are employment issues and career options for spouses, the amount of time servicemembers spend at their home stations between deployments, and school transition issues for the children of military families.

She also advocated strengthening programs to help children cope with repeated deployments.

The day’s message may have been serious, but the Hams delivered it with a lighthearted flair. Mrs. Ham briefly caught the audience off-guard when she admitted to “marital difficulties.”

“When some folks find themselves at a podium in a sizeable audience,” she said, “they also find themselves making some kind of disclosure about their marital challenges. Finding myself here at this podium and in front of this amazing crowd, I’ve decided I should probably do the same.”

“For decades now, I have been involved in a relationship outside of our marriage,” she told the group, “but it has proven to be wonderful, worthwhile, important, and rewarding. My involvement during this time has been with Uncle Sam, and it has been an incredible relationship.”

Over time, she said, Uncle Sam has listened to her and other military spouses and slowly has brought about change to meet their needs.

Those needs will be thoroughly discussed over the next two days, and any suggestions for improvement will certainly make it to Uncle Sam’s ears, the general’s wife promised the group.

Her husband’s parting words encouraged attendees to remember the servicemembers and their families who are at the “core of everything we do.”

“Surely we can -- I would say we must -- do our best for them everyday,” he said.

Military Community and Family Policy

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Government & You E-News

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FLU Updates

August is National Immunization Month, and a senior Navy medical official encouraged servicemembers to be up to date on flu vaccines during a “Dot Mil Docs” interview yesterday on Pentagon Web Radio.

“Anyone that is active duty should receive a vaccine,” said Navy Capt. Neal A. Naito, director of clinical care and public health at the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. “We need to protect our servicemembers as they go about protecting our country.”

As early as next week, military treatment facilities will start receiving the flu vaccine and will start rolling out their campaigns to encourage people to be vaccinated. Not all facilities will receive their vaccines at the same time, Naito noted, so beneficiaries should watch for local information.

The flu vaccines come in two types of formulations, Naito said: a nasal-spray vaccine made with live, weakened flu viruses that do not cause the flu, and the so-called "flu shot," an inactivated vaccine containing killed virus that is given with a needle.

“There is no reason to avoid the [vaccinations] because of the two different formulations,” Naito said. “The needle technology these days is so great that it is almost pain-free getting these injections.”

Naito added that the seasonal flu vaccines may provide some slight protection against other influenza viruses such as H1N1, but he encouraged beneficiaries to get the individual shots for other strains as well. Vaccinations for H1NI and other infections can be received at the same time, he noted.

Navy Medicine has been in the forefront of flu surveillance activity for many years, Naito said. The Naval Health Research Center, part of the Defense Department’s Global Emerging Infections System, picked up the initial presence of H1N1 flu in the United States in April and continues to monitor areas where influenza viruses typically show up first to protect the health of servicemembers and their families, he said.

“The reason why we are starting this seasonal influenza vaccine campaign early is because of the national strategy,” Naito said. “The government asked manufacturers to make the seasonal vaccines early so that they then could also manufacture adequate stocks of the H1NI vaccines. So it’s key to get the seasonal vaccine as early as possible, which allows us to roll out the H1N1 vaccines more efficiently.”

Getting your vaccinated early helps not only the individual, but also the community, Naito said.

“Immunization remains the primary method of reducing seasonal flu illness and its complications,” he explained. “Seasonal influenza can be a disease that is problematic for people and can be severe.”

Navy Medicine will monitor the seasonal influenza virus carefully over the coming weeks and months and will be proactive in developing contingency plans to address any public health issues, the captain said.

“The health and well-being of all our beneficiaries is our highest priority in Navy medicine,” he said.

Related Sites:

"Dot Mil Docs" on Pentagon Web Radio

All military personnel will be vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus, and the vaccine will be available to all military family members who want it, a Defense Department health affairs official said today.

The H1N1 vaccination program will begin in early October, said Army Lt. Col. (Dr.) Wayne Hachey, director of preventive medicine for Defense Department health affairs.

The vaccine, which has been licensed by the Food and Drug Administration, will be mandatory for uniformed personnel, Hachey said. "What we want to do is target those people who are at highest risk for transmission," he said.

Health-care workers, deploying troops, those serving on ships and submarines, and new accessions are at the top of the list. "Any place where we take a lot of people, squash them all together and get them nice and close and put them under stressful conditions will get the vaccine first," he said.

The department will use the usual seasonal flu vaccine distribution chain for the H1N1, Hachey said, noting that while the mass H1N1 vaccinations are new to the general population, the process for vaccinating against seasonal flu is old hat for the Defense Department. "We've been doing this for decades," he said. "The system is tried and true.

"The department initially will receive 1 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine, and another 1.7 million doses later in October.

Officials don't know yet whether people will need one dose or two, Hachey said. "The assumption right now is that people will need two doses, 21 days apart," he said. "That may change.

"FDA officials still are studying H1N1 and the vaccine, and the results should be known by the end of the month.

Seasonal flu vaccine already is available, and the Defense Department will begin giving those shots shortly, Hachey said. "That has been our message to immunizers: to try and get as many people as they can immunized against the seasonal flu early," he said.

Guidelines for giving priority to family members will follow those for the general population, Hachey said. The Department of Health and Human Services is buying millions of doses of the vaccine.

"Installations are going to register with each state as an immunizer," Hachey said. "They will tell how many people they care for. This includes dependents, retirees and so on.

"The Centers for Disease Control will place the order and will ship the vaccine where needed. Family members will have multiple opportunities to get the vaccine, whether at Defense Department medical facilities or off post, Hachey said.

posted by LoveMyTanker @ 10:40 AM 0 comments