Army adjusting retention-control points

Army adjusting retention-control points

Apr 8, 2011
ByGary Sheftick

Photo credit U.S. Army

• SMA says retention-control points to shape force
• STAND-TO!: Shaping the Force
• U.S. Army Human Resources Command

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, April 8, 2011) -- New retention-control points for privates through staff sergeants will take effect June 1.
The retention-control points, or RCPs, decrease the time Soldiers and junior noncommissioned officers can stay in their current rank by an average of three years. These new RCPs will apply to active-duty Soldiers and those in the Active Guard Reserve, or AGR force, officials said.
The change will align RCPs with the Army Leadership Development Strategy, said Sgt. Maj. Dean Drummond, Army senior career counselor, G-1.
One goal of the new RCPs is to motivate Soldiers to "step it up a little" with their professional development so that they can be promoted with their peers, Drummond said.
For instance, he pointed out that the average time it now takes a Soldier to pin on the rank of sergeant is 4.2 years. The old RCP allowed Soldiers to stay an E-5 for up to 20 years of service if they were promotable. That will be reduced to 15 years if they are on the promotion list and 13 years if not.
Beginning June 1, the RCP for privates through privates first class will decrease from eight years service to only five years.
The RCP for corporals and specialists will go from 10 years to eight years of service. Promotable Soldiers in the grade of E-4 will be allowed to stay up to 12 years. For the past three years, they have been allowed up to 15 years of service.
Sergeants will be allowed 13 years and those who have been selected for promotion but have not pinned on their stripes yet will be allowed 15 years of service.
The new RCP for staff sergeants is 20 years of service. Since 2008, they have been allowed 23 years.
There will be no change in the RCPs for promotable staff sergeants through command sergeants major. Promotable staff sergeants and sergeants first class will be still be allowed 26 years of service.
Promotable sergeants first class will be allowed 29 years. So will first sergeants and master sergeants.
Promotable E-8s will be allowed 32 years of active-duty service. Sergeants major and command sergeants major also reach their RCP at 32 years.
The new RCPs are actually expected to have a "minimal effect" on the Army's end strength in the first two years, Drummond said, but he added that will increase in the long term.
Soldiers who reach their RCP will be allowed to serve until their contracted expiration term of service, or ETS, according to a message to all Army activities, ALARACT 020/2011, dated Jan. 25.
Soldiers with an indefinite enlistment will be allowed to reach their minimum retirement date, the message stated. And those with 18 years of service will be allowed to stay on active-duty through 20 years.
The new RCPs do not affect Army Reserve or National Guard Soldiers, not even those who have been mobilized, according to the guidance, only regular Army and AGR Soldiers.

Army adjusting retention-control points

More pay for troops who lose genitals

 

Young: More pay for troops who lose genitals

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Mar 17, 2011 16:21:07 EDT

Benefits rates for service members who suffer traumatic injuries to their genitals are under review by Defense and Veterans Affairs department officials in the wake of complaints from a key lawmaker.

A revision could happen by summer, and might retroactively apply to the increasing number of service members who have suffered blast wounds in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young, R-Fla., chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee — and a frequent visitor, along with his wife, to wards for recovering combat veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. — has been pressing since fall for a review after hearing complaints from victims of the ubiquitous roadside bombs in the combat zones.

“If a man loses a penis, he doesn’t get the same benefits as if he lost a finger,” Young said Thursday at a congressional hearing where VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and members of his leadership team were testifying on the 2012 budget.

“It isn’t fair, and it needs to be fixed,” Young said, describing groin injuries as one of the new signature wounds of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

Young is talking about payments from Traumatic Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance, a VA-provided benefit that pays up to $100,000 to service members suffering life-changing injuries or disabilities.

The program provides $50,000 for the loss of a thumb, but only $25,000 for the loss of reproductive organs — and only if the service members is either hospitalized for 15 continuous days or suffers for a minimum of 30 days from inability to do at least two of six so-called “activities of daily living” — bathing, staying continent, dressing, eating, toileting, and getting into or out of a bed or chair. If the service member does not meet those qualifications, he gets nothing.

VA officials said most service members suffering genital injuries have other injuries, usually to the legs, that make them eligible for larger traumatic injury insurance payments. A double amputee, for example, receives the maximum $100,000 payment.

Young first raised in the issue in November, mentioned it again in a personal meeting with Shinseki in January, and sent VA a letter about the issue last week. He has not been satisfied with the response, said Harry Glenn, his spokesman.

Michael Walcoff, VA’s undersecretary for benefits, said VA and Defense Department officials are trying to decide whether a revision in payments is warranted.

They hope to resolve the question “no later than this summer,” Walcoff said.

Young: More pay for troops who lose genitals - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Soldiers of HHC, 18th CSSB bid farewell to outgoing commander, welcome new

 

Soldiers of HHC, 18th CSSB bid farewell to outgoing commander, welcome new

Mar 2, 2011

By Capt. Jennifer Dyrcz, 18th CSSB Public Affairs Office

Photo credit Spc. Robert Lynds, 18th CSSB Public Affairs)
Capt. Bertalina Villar, the outgoing commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 18th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, hands the HHC guidon to the 18th CSSB commander, Lt. Col. Reed Hudgins, during the company's change of command ceremony in Grafenwoehr, Germany, Feb. 3.

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany - After 24 months in command, seven of which were in Mosul, Iraq, Capt. Bertalina Villar handed the Headquarters and Headquarters Company guidon back to Lt. Col. Reed Hudgins, the 18th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion commander, Feb. 3 during a company change of command ceremony at the HHC motor pool here.
"This is not just a headquarters. This is truly a company. The Soldiers can train and operate on their own," said Hudgins, a native of Reisterstown, Md.
"This has been the toughest, most rewarding job in my military career, and it has been a privilege to command during a time of war," said Villar, a native of Los Angeles, who has been in the Army for 20 years.
The HHC guidon was presented to Capt. Christian Noumba, a native of Boston, Mass., who is coming to the company from 16th Sustainment Brigade.
"Capt. Noumba - you inherit something great, and from the moment I spoke to you I knew you were the man for this job," said Hudgins.
"It is a great honor to be here and assume command of these fine Soldiers standing in front of me," said Noumba.

Soldiers of HHC, 18th CSSB bid farewell to outgoing commander, welcome new

James Fortune & FIYA

 

Stellar Award winner James Fortune & FIYA take gospel to troops

Three-time gospel music Stellar Award winner James Fortune is scheduled to headline Army Entertainment Division's "Lift Up Your Spirit II" tour for troops in Korea and Germany with his band, "James Fortune & FIYA."...READ MORE

The United States Army | Europe News

MP Live-Fire Training

 

Military Police experience first 360 degree, live-fire training in Europe

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany- There is a bitter cold silence between the snow-covered trees and the icy air...MORE

The United States Army | Europe News