Washington Perspective -- Defense Authorization Bill, Medals, TA

Today the House and the Senate meet in conference to hammer out the details of the 2012 Defense Authorization bill. There are quite a few “people issues” to be determined. The military coalition has weighed in on a number of them. See our letter here: http://www.afa.org/PresidentsCorner/WashingtonPerspective/2011/FY12_NDAA_TMC_Cover_letter.pdf

Here is the matrix of all the issues [warning: 17 pages]: http://www.afa.org/PresidentsCorner/WashingtonPerspective/2011/FY12_NDAA_TMC_Matrix_for_Conferees.pdf

Note that the Air Force Association and the Air Force Sergeants Association do not support the creation of a Unified Medical Command. Lot’s of reasons for that. We believe the needs of each Service are best handled by the Service, rather than putting all medics into one command. Also note that AFA and AFSA were alone in this view. Note AFA’s and AFSA’s asterisks are on the last page.

Secondly, we joined an Amicus brief making it a crime to falsely claim to have been awarded a medal. You can see the brief here [warning: It’s 64 pages in “legalese”]: http://www.afa.org/PresidentsCorner/WashingtonPerspective/2011/United_States_v_Alvarez_amicus_brief.pdf

Finally, yesterday I sent a letter to Sec Panetta urging a temporary delay in the issuance of the DOD memorandum of Understanding for the Military Tuition Assistance program – in order to assure maximum participation by post-secondary education institutions. You can find the letter here: http://www.afa.org/PresidentsCorner/WashingtonPerspective/2011/TA_letter.pdf.

For your consideration. Mike

Michael M. Dunn
President/CEO
Air Force Association