Army Leaders End AFAP Conference With Focus on Family Input

The Army Family Action Plan Conference ended today, and delegates left with a clear message and mission from top Army leaders: the input of Families is critical to improving the Army’s quality of life, and every AFAP delegate must send this message loud and clear to their installations and units.

“The AFAP process has given the Army a great impetus to drive Family programs for two decades,” said Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey, who spoke on the importance of the Army’s program to identify and prioritize issues that impact the lives of Soldiers and Families.

Gen. Casey told the delegates from across the Army that Family issues rank among senior leadership’s top priorities for the Service in 2010. “Continuing to sustain our Soldiers, Families and Civilians will be a major focus for us,” he said. The sustainment effort will include making the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program available to Family members and Civilians to build their resilience, teach them coping skills and improve their performance in order to better meet the challenges the Army faces with repeated deployments and stresses.

Sustaining Soldiers and Families also means injecting continued energy into the Army Family Covenant to assure that the Army meets its commitment to provide Soldiers and Families a quality of life commensurate with their service. “I’ve charged Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch of Army Installation Management Command with re-energizing the Covenant,” Gen. Casey explained, “and we will fund the Covenant from the Army’s basic budget and not from supplemental funding.”

Other elements of sustaining Soldiers and Families, Gen. Casey said, include transitioning Wounded Warriors to the next phase of their lives after they are injured, as well as strengthening the Army’s Survivor Outreach Services program.

“AFAP,” Gen. Casey observed, “is essential to sustaining Soldiers and Families. It’s a proven program that’s had a huge impact on Families, andAFAP enables me to talk with folks on the ground to know what’s going on,” he said.

Secretary of the Army John McHugh told the delegates, “Army Families are at the core of the readiness and the effectiveness of the Force. It’s the good work of Army Families and Spouses that implements the programs the Army provides. I really believe the saying, ‘The stronger the Family, the stronger the Army.’”
Maj. Gen. Reuben Jones, commanding general of the Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command, sent the delegates home with a charge to take their AFAP Conference experience back to their installations and units. “Tell them what the Army’s doing for Families,” he urged. “Tell them how important the input of Families is to the Army. Most important, tell them that Army leaders are engaged and listening.”