Live from Army Family Action Plan Conference, Day 4: Soldier Support II and Medical and Dental II Working Groups

The clock is ticking for the Working Groups at the AFAP Conference as tomorrow marks the final presentation of issues. Today, the Soldier Support II and Medical and Dental II Working Groups focus on each word of their entries.

Medical and Dental Working Group II sits in a room surrounded by work sheets from each of their sessions taped to every wall. The subject: AFAP Issue #22-10: Surviving Spouses’ TRICARE Benefits. The recommendation: Extend TRICARE Prime medical benefits from three to five years for surviving spouses and other adult dependents.

In crafting their recommendation, the group debates the use of the word “eligible” for 10 minutes. Does the word precisely reflect all of the intended demographics? As other word choices are pondered, spouses of Active Duty Soldiers in the working group express the possibility that one day, they too, might be in the position of the bereaved whose fate they are discussing today.

In another room, the Soldier Support II Working Group discusses AFAP Issue #72: Retirement Age for Active Duty Service in Support of the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO). Those around the horseshoe shaped table are wordsmithing their recommendation to credit active service prior to January 29, 2008, towards reduced retirement age.

The working group is allowed only five sentences in which to sum up their formal recommendation. Like those in the Medical and Dental II Working Group, they are having a tough time making every word count.

While the words may be hard to come by, Lt. Col. Robert Hagan, U.S. Army Reserve Liaison Officer with the G1 Army Retirement Services Office and Subject Matter Expert on AFAP Issue #72, paints a picture that sums up his working group’s difficulty succinctly:

“After 9/11, when I was in Iraq,” Lt. Col Hagan said, “I saw a Soldier’s vehicle destroyed by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). She walked out of the vehicle and directed traffic around the site while under attack.”

“How do you convey in five sentences,” Lt. Col. Hagan continued, “that her time doesn’t count toward reduced time for retirement – isn’t valued the same – as Soldiers in Iraq after 29 January 2008?”

Aesop said that in union there is strength. Each working group at the AFAP Conference is benefitting from the combined power of every colleague to create a presentation that answers the call of duty and serves the Army Community.

Follow us here tomorrow for reports on the final day of the AFAP Conference.