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From President Keith Walters

Team, as I Iook back on the previous six months several things come to mind: (1) Tricare issues, (2) Retirement Taxes, (3) Attendance at chapter meetings. Healthcare coverage is a big deal to most people and military person-nel are no exception. Although we have outstanding healthcare coverage (my opinion) we should be aware of our options. We currently have two options available to retired personnel: Tricare Prime and Tricare Select. TRI-CARE Prime is a managed care option and a health maintenance organization (HMO)-like program. It generally features the use of military hospitals and clinics and reduc-es out-of-pocket costs for authorized care provided outside military hospitals and clinics by TRICARE network provid-ers. TRICARE Prime is mandatory for active duty service members (ADSMs) and is an option for their family mem-bers and certain TRICARE-eligible beneficiaries located in Prime Service Areas Geographic areas in the U.S. where TRICARE Prime is offered. Prime Service Areas were also built around the Base Realignment and Closure sites. (PSAs) in the U.S. Under a TRICARE Prime option, your health care is managed by an assigned primary care man-ager (PCM) and provided by a military or civilian network provider. Non-active duty enrolled beneficiaries will select or be assigned a PCM. TRICARE Prime PCMs include Mil-itary hospital or clinic, civilian TRICARE network provider within a PSA, primary care provider in the USFHP, de-pending on your location and sponsor status. Whether you receive care in the civilian sector or at a military hospital or clinic will depend on your location and the capacity at near-by military facilities.

July2018 E Connection

Membership is open to anyone who holds, or has ever held, a commission or warrant in any component of

the United States Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, Public Health Service or the National

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and their surviving spouses.

Commissary Update.

All veterans may be able to shop in commissaries and exchanges in the future, if Defense Department officials are successful in pushing their proposal. Officials have asked Congress to allow veterans who haven’t already earned the shopping benefit as retirees, as well as civilian employees to be able to shop in the stores, said Stephanie Barna, special assistant to the undersecretary of defense for person-nel and readiness. The proposal would include an additional user fee of between 1 percent and 5 percent for those non-core groups to be able to shop in the commissary, she said. “But we think they’d still be getting an incredible deal. It also helps, even if only slightly, to distin-guish them from our core group,” she said, speaking Thursday at a forum on Capitol Hill of the American Logistics Association. It’s un-likely the change will happen this year, she said, as members of Con-gress wait to see how things settle out with commissaries during the reform efforts. But officials will continue to push the idea. “It’s some-thing that’s very important to us,” she said, “and it’s something I think ultimately we will achieve.” An estimated 18 million veterans poten-tially could claim such a benefits, but not all of those live near military bases. Here’s how your commissary plans to get back lost custom-ers. Currently, shopping privileges at brick-and-mortar commissaries and exchanges are limited to active duty, Guard and Reserve mem-bers; military retirees; Medal of Honor recipients and 100 percent disabled veterans, and their authorized family members. In May, DoD extended commissary shopping privileges to commissary em-ployees for the first time. In 2017, online exchange shopping privileg-es were extended to all honorably discharged veterans. There have been efforts to expand shopping privileges to more disabled veterans for a number of years. This year, a provision to allow Purple Heart recipients, veterans with service-connected disabilities, former prison-ers of war, and caregivers of these veterans to shop at commissaries and exchanges, and to use morale, welfare and recreation facilities, has been included in the House version of the defense authorization bill. It is not included in the Senate version of the bill; lawmakers will decide whether to include it in the final bill.

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Atlanta MOAA E-Connection Volume XXXI

TRICARE Select On Jan. 1, 2018, TRICARE Select replaced TRICARE Standard and TRICARE Extra. TRICARE Select is a self-managed, preferred-provider option for eligible beneficiaries (except ADSMs and TRI-CARE For Life beneficiaries) not enrolled in TRICARE Prime. TRI-CARE Select allows you to choose your own TRICARE-authorized provider. An authorized provider is any individual, institution/organization, or supplier that is licensed by a state, accredited by national organization, or meets other standards of the medical com-munity, and is certified to provide benefits under TRICARE. There are two types of TRICARE-authorized providers: Network and Non-Network. and manage your own health care. Beneficiaries may re-ceive enhanced TRICARE Select benefits from any TRICARE-authorized provider without a referral. You’ll have lower out-of-pocket costs if care is provided by a TRICARE-authorized network provider. Some services require prior authorization. You can also receive cer-tain services from non-network, TRICARE-authorized providers, but will pay higher cost sharing amounts for out-of-network care. TRI-CARE won’t reimburse you for care received from non-authorized, non-network providers. Under a TRICARE Select option, you pay a fixed fee for care for most services from a TRICARE network provider instead of paying a percentage of the allowable charge. There is a maximum amount TRICARE pays for each procedure or ser-vice. This is tied by law to Medicare's allowable charges.. As men-tioned above, using a non-network, TRICARE-authorized provider results in both a higher deductible and out-of-pocket costs. In over-seas locations, TOP Select is available to eligible ADFMs not en-rolled in TOP Prime and to retirees and their family members. Where the TRICARE network has not been established in an overseas loca-tion, TRICARE Select beneficiaries who receive medically necessary. To be medically necessary means it is appropriate, reasonable, and adequate for your condition. covered services from a non-network, TRICARE-authorized provider will be subject to cost-sharing amounts applicable to out-of-network care. Take command of your health by making informed decisions about your TRICARE benefit. Learn more about your TRICARE options.

Please see page 6 for more information.

Chapter membership recruitment is everybody's responsibility. Vice Pres-ident Jonathan Reeder is spearhead-ing the membership team. Engage COL Quarles (770-289-8724) with potential members and recruitment ideas. We have on-line applications, www.atlmoaa.org and paper copies each board member carries with them Serving always and every-where, the team is a salute away.

Need Chaplain Assistance

Please call COL Dan Holtz, 404-656-2307

AMOAA Membership

Party time, Southside Style! Southside Satellite Social resume in September 2018 Happy Summer 2018! Brad

All of these people who fall into these categories are heroes, have given so much for our country above and beyond even what other service members have given. It’s important to recognize that,” said Rep. Dan-iel Lipinski, D-Ill., who spoke at the forum. He and

Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., introduced the proposal.

Increasing membership continues to be an im-portant and ongoing effort. We continue to follow up with the lifetime members of MOAA in our area that do not have a chapter affiliation. We need everyone’s assistance in reaching out within your own circle of friends to find prospective members interested in vet-erans' issues and sharing camaraderie with like-minded individuals. Please reach out and make one of your friends a member of our group today!

Check out the chapter and MOAA websites below and stay informed.

http://atlmoaa.org/Home chapter website

http://www.moaa.org/ MOAA website

Chaplains Corner

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Independence Day is a national holiday marked by patriotic displays. Similar to other summer-themed events, Independence Day celebrations often take place outdoors. Independence Day is a federal holiday, so all non-essential federal institutions (such as the postal service and federal courts) are closed on that day. Many politicians make it a point on this day to appear at a public event to praise the nation's heritage, laws, history, society, and people. Families often celebrate Independence Day by hosting or attending a picnic or barbecue; many take advantage of the day off and, in some years, a long weekend to gather with relatives or friends. Decorations (e.g., streamers, balloons, and clothing) are generally colored red, white, and blue, the col-ors of the American flag. Parades are often held in the morning, before family get-togethers, while fireworks displays occur in the evening after dark at such places as parks, fairgrounds, or town squares. The night before the Fourth was once the focal point of celebrations, marked by raucous gatherings often incorporating bonfires as their centerpiece. In New England, towns competed to build towering pyramids, as-sembled from barrels and casks. They were lit at nightfall to usher in the celebration. The highest were in Salem, Massachusetts, with pyramids composed of as many as forty tiers of barrels. These made the tallest bonfires ever recorded. The custom flour-ished in the 19th and 20th centuries and is still practiced in some New England towns.[19] Independence Day fireworks are often accompanied by patriotic songs such as the national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner"; "God Bless America"; "America the Beautiful"; "My Country, 'Tis of Thee"; "This Land Is Your Land"; "Stars and Stripes Forever"; and, regionally, "Yankee Doodle" in northeastern states and "Dixie" in southern states. Some of the lyrics recall images of the Revolutionary War or the War of 1812. Firework shows are held in many states, and many fireworks are sold for personal use or as an alternative to a public show. Safety concerns have led some states to ban fireworks or limit the sizes and types allowed. In addition, local and regional weather conditions may dictate whether the sale or use of fireworks in an area will be allowed. Some local or regional firework sales are limited or prohibited because of dry weather or other specific concerns. On these occasions the public may be prohibited from purchasing or discharging fireworks, but professional displays (such as those at sports events) may still take place, if certain safety precautions

have been taken.

Happy 242th Birthday, America!

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Atlanta MOAA E-Connection Volume XXXI

New legislation in the Senate version of the fiscal 2019 authorization bill attempts to get answers from the Pentagon on whether it makes more sense to permanently station U.S. troops in Europe or contin-ue to use heel-to-toe rotational units to deter Russian aggression on the eastern flank. When asked at the recent Eurosatory defense trade show what makes the most sense on the European continent, the new U.S. Army Europe commander indicated the answer is not so black and white. Basically, “it com-pletely depends,” he said. “It completely depends on the theater and it completely depends on the threat perceived in that theater,” Lt. Gen. Christopher Cavoli told a small group of reporters at the con-ference. “In Europe, it’s challenging,” he said, because there are different views of how serious the threat is and where that threat may grow. “So you have to not set yourself up to be a one -trick pony; you have to set yourself up to be flexible,” he said. Cavoli noted there are permanently stationed units in Europe like the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and the 173rd Airborne Brigade. But the Army has been de-ploying into Europe on a rotational basis armored brigade combat teams for several years. Now, re-tired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, Cavoli’s predecessor as U.S. Army Europe commander, has been a vocal proponent for rotational ABCTs. He said at Eurosatory that “we get more strategic value out of rotation-al forces because when that brigade comes over for nine months, it’s like they are in the field for nine months.” The ABCT receives three times more gunnery training than it would in a year stateside, which means it achieves a higher level of readiness and contributes to refining agile and rapid movement around the eastern flank, Hodges noted.

The U.S. Navy is retooling the career path for surface warfare officers in the aftermath of last year’s fatal guided-missile destroyer collisions. The plan requires more school for new officers be-fore they report to their first ships, institutes a new testing regime through major commands and shapes the career path so SWOs spend more time at sea. The announcement of the new career path comes a few weeks after an evaluation of 164 qualified officers of the deck throughout the fleet that found only 29 of those tested passed with no concerns. The goal of the new plan is to increase the capability and experience of surface forces commanding officers. The changes span all SWO ranks – from first-tour division officers to commanding Officers – in order to increase readiness, proficiency, and competency across the fleet. The revised SWO career path and train-ing continuum helps us continue to develop commanding officers who prepare their teams to sail over the horizon and face any challenge, win, and return home safely. That is the gold standard.”

WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs secretary nominee Robert Wilkie pledged to make that depart-ment more customer friendly and better integrated with outside health care systems without “privatizing” veterans services in a subdued Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Wilkie, President Donald Trump’s third pick to lead the massive VA bureaucracy, said if he is confirmed his priorities would be to improve veterans access to medical care, reduce the backlog of benefits pay-ments, reform the department’s human resources systems and “improve the culture” at VA. “Many of the issues I encountered as acting secretary were not with the quality of medical care but with getting our veterans through the door to reach that care,” he told senators. “Those problems are administrative and bureaucratic … That is where VA must go.” The 55-year-old Air Force Reserve colonel, who currently serves as the Pentagon’s under secretary for personnel and readiness, served as acting secretary for two months following Trump’s firing of former VA Secretary David Shulkin over Twitter for management problems at the department.

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Atlanta MOAA E-Connection Volume XXXI

The Air Force’s effort to add more airmen especially maintainers ― is beginning to allow it to fly more sorties, Air Combat Commander Gen. Mike Holmes said, the Air Force is still working to get the newly-minted maintainers with a skill level of 3 experienced enough to become 5-levels. “We are seeing that our units are starting to be able to fly more, and fly better because of those people coming in,” Holmes said at a breakfast briefing Thursday with reporters in Washington. “We’ll continue to work to train those folks, and part of what it takes to do that is to have time to train them.” The Air Force struggled for years to close a devastating shortfall in its maintenance ranks, that at one point was as large as 4,000 airmen. Late last year, that gap closed to 200, and Air Force leaders expect it to be entirely elimi-nated this year. Holmes told reporters that units that once had holes in their maintenance career fields are seeing those slots filled. But the hiring boom has left the maintenance career field lopsided, with too many 3-level apprentices ―“brand new people right out of tech school ... that need time to train and experience,” Holmes said ― and not enough 5- and 7-level journeyman and craftsman main-tainers. Holmes said 5-levels can do more complex and unsupervised work on airplanes.

As the 2018 hurricane season opens, the international maritime community recognized the Coast Guard for its ef-forts last year to restore safe marine navigation in waterways hit by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. The mem-bers of the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities selected the Coast Guard for its best practices award during its quadrennial conference. A leader in the employment of electronic aids to navigation, the Coast Guard maintains more than a quarter of the eATON in use around the world today. IN-TERNATIONAL RECOGNITION Based in Saint Germain-en-Laye, France, IALA is no-profit, international tech-nical association that brings together Aids to Navigation authorities from 80 nations, as well as numerous industrial members who provide ATON services or technical advice.During the IALA Conference's general assembly, the United States was re-elected to the IALA Council, which is IALA's governing body and responsible for approval of all IALA guidelines and recommendations. "It is an honor and privilege to be a part of the leadership team that will lead IALA into the future," said Coast Guard Capt. Mary Ellen Durley, chief of the Office of Navigation Systems and the designated U.S. councilor to IALA. "The maritime industry is going through a stage of rapid technological ad-vances, and I look forward to IALA addressing these challenges over the next four year work plan." Coast Guard ATON personnel serve on IALA committees and contribute to the organization's aim to ensure that seafarers are provided with effective and harmonized aids to navigation services worldwide to assist in the safe navigation of shipping and protection of the environment. In addition to making presentations and chairing various panels, mem-bers from the U.S. delegation were also appointed to positions on IALA's e-Navigation Committee and Aids to Navi-gation Requirements and Management Committee.

Marines are assisting coalition and partner force operations to clear remnants of ISIS fighters from northeastern Syria, but Corps officials refuse to comment on the ongoing operation or number of Marines deployed to the war-torn region, citing operational security. Photos of the secretive Marine mission were accidentally posted to the De-fense Department’s imagery and photo distribution website known as DVIDS on June 22 and subsequently pulled down following questions from Marine Corps Times about the status and purpose of the Corps’ participation. “Unfortunately, the Marines do not answer questions while their troops are still on mission — which is why the im-ages you archived are no longer available,” Army Col. Thomas F. Veale, a spokesman for Operation Inherent Re-solve, told Marine Corps Times in an emailed statement. “One of our subordinate units published those shots on DVIDS, not knowing the Marines’ policy, and we pulled them down for force protection considerations and to honor the Marines’ policy. U.S. Marines play a pivotal role in supporting Operation Roundup, a Syrian Democratic Forces led military offensive aimed at destroying the last strongholds of ISIS in Syria,” the removed DVIDS photo caption reads. The latest anti-ISIS operations in Syria, dubbed Operation Roundup, were launched in early May following a brief pause in ISIS clearing operations from U.S. backed Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.On June 3, SDF forces backed by the U.S.-led coalition went on the offensive in Dashisha, an ISIS stronghold for the last three years locat-ed in northeast Syria.

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States that currently tax military retirement

benefits:

Georgia has a provision for any retirement in-

come including military retirement pay. Taxpay-

ers who are 62 or older, or permanently and

totally disabled regardless of age, may be eligi-

ble for a retirement income adjustment on their

Georgia tax return. Up to $35,000 ages 62-64

and $65,000 for 65 and older. The following

states do not exempt any portion of military re-

tirement from their state income tax: California,

Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Is-

land, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.

Finally, attendance at chapter meetings. We

have averaged about 20 people at the chapter

meetings over the last six months. I don’t know if

it’s the format of the meetings, the location of the

meetings, or the speakers at the meetings. What

I do know is we have over 200 members and we

must do better. I plan to spend the summer

reaching out to chapter members just to say hel-

lo and introduce myself. If you have any sug-

gestions please send me, 1st VP Shirley Quarles

or 2nd VP Jon Reeder your suggestion. We are

looking at locations throughout the Atlanta metro

area to host our monthly luncheons since we

have members living in all four quadrants. The

challenge is to find places that can seat 20 – 30

people and keep the cost below $30 per person.

This is harder than I thought it would be. We

want to have an enjoyable dining experience as

well as a professional venue. Once again, I wel-

come any suggestions.

Atlanta MOAA E-Connection Volume XXXI

On-Site Sale in Marietta July 12-14, 2018,

1901 Terrell Mill Rd, Suite 200

Marietta, GA 30067.

Hours: Thu & Fri - 9:00 AM—5:00 PM

Sat - 9:00 AM –12:00 PM.

AMOAA Board of Directors Meeting September 15, 2018, 1130-1300 Fidelity Bank 3490 Piedmont AVE, Atlanta, GA 30305 All members are welcome

Continual Veterans Discounts

AT&T 15%

Freddys Hamburgers 10%

IHOP 10%

Home Depot 10%

Lowes 10%

Chick-Fil-A 10-20%

AMOAA Luncheon

The chapter will resume our monthly luncheon

schedule is September 2018, enjoy your sum-

mer break

Stay safe,

Keith

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Atlanta MOAA E-Connection Volume XXXI

AMOAA Sponsors

2018 Georgia election timeline General Primary Run-off Date July 24, 2018 General Election Date November 6, 2018

Major 2018 MOAA and GAMOAA Events

July 2018 Level of Excellence application due to MOAA

July 11-12, 2018 GAMOAA Spring Meeting,

Warner Robins, GA

September 7-8, 2018 MOAA Regional Conference

Columbia, SC

September 14-16, 2018 GAMOAA Annual Conference

Carrollton, GA

Oct 30 - November 2, 2018 MOAA National Convention

Phoenix, AZ

2018 Dues

Membership Renewal

The Atlanta Chapter of MOAA

P.O. Box 468531

Atlanta, GA 31146

Please complete all items

NAME: _____________________________________ RANK: _____________ BRANCH OF SERVICE: ________________

STATUS: ( ) RETIRED ( ) ACTIVE ( )RESERVE ( ) NATIONAL GUARD ( ) FORMER OFFICER ( )WIDOW

DATE COMMISSIONED:__________________________________ SPOUSE:_______________________________________

HOME PHONE_____________________________________E-MAIL______________________________________________

ROTC Scholarship/Award Fund

AMOAA’s Scholarship program for JROTC Cadets who are college-bound high school seniors needs your support. When you renew your

annual membership, please include an extra $10—whatever you wish to give towards this worthy program.

Annual Membership renewal $20

JROTC/ROTC Scholarship/Awards Contribution $__________

Total Enclosed: $___________

Your donation will support a enduring leadership legacy for our county's future leaders, thank you! Please keep this form for your tax de-

ductible donation.

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Atlanta MOAA E-Connection Volume XXXI

Atlanta Chapter of MOAA, Inc

PO Box 468531

Atlanta, GA 31146