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Troops may face inflated drug costs under Tricare, lawmakers say
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Air Force Times, Approved, National

Troops may face inflated drug costs under Tricare, lawmakers say

By Karen Jowers | Air Force Times A bipartisan group of 24 congressional lawmakers is questioning whether the Pentagon’s pharmacy contract may be driving up drug costs and limiting access to medication for Tricare beneficiaries, while overcharging independent pharmacies and taxpayers. The lawmakers are concerned that the Defense Health Agency has decided to retain Express Scripts as the sole pharmacy benefit manager for Tricare, the military insurance system serving 9.6 million troops, retirees and their families. In a letter sent Wednesday to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Lester Martinez-Lopez and DHA director Army Lt. Gen. Telita Crosland, the lawmakers questioned whether Express Scripts may be using anticompetitive tactics to overcharge Tricare. Express S...
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VA chief of staff stepping down from leadership post after 8 months on the job
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Air Force Times, Approved, National

VA chief of staff stepping down from leadership post after 8 months on the job

By Leo Shane III | Air Force Times Veterans Affairs Chief of Staff Kimberly Jackson on Friday announced she will step down from the leadership role next month, creating another vacancy at the top of the department. Jackson has served in the role for only eight months, but had previously served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for force readiness at the Pentagon since the start of President Joe Biden’s presidency. The chief of staff role at VA serves as the top advisor to the secretary and deputy secretary. In a statement, Jackson said she is stepping down to spend more time with her family. “It has been an honor and a privilege to serve alongside the dedicated women and men in the Department of Veterans Affairs in our mission of ensuring veterans and their families...
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Air Force’s top leaders urge unity, patience in face of changes
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Air Force Times, Approved, National

Air Force’s top leaders urge unity, patience in face of changes

By Rachel S. Cohen | The Air Force Times Four months after Air Force leaders rolled out a slew of initiatives aimed at readying troops to compete with China, they’re grappling with the most difficult part of change: turning ideas into reality. As the service hashes out the details of its future force, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvinand Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force David Flosi are urging airmen to stick together and trust the process. “I have been through many chief of staff transitions and watched how the Air Force is trying to find its way forward,” Allvin said in a joint interview with Flosi in early May. “Sometimes you don’t need a new thing; sometimes you just need to follow through on the old things.” READ THE FULL STORY AT THE AIR FORCE TIMES...
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Dwindling number of D-Day veterans mark anniversary with plea to recall WWII lessons
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Approved, denvergazette.com, National

Dwindling number of D-Day veterans mark anniversary with plea to recall WWII lessons

By JOHN LEICESTER, SYLVIE CORBET and DANICA KIRKA | The Denver Gazette As young soldiers, they waded ashore in Normandy through gunfire to battle the Nazis. On Thursday, a dwindling number of World War II veterans in a parade of wheelchairs joined a new generation of leaders to honor the dead, the living and the fight for democracy in moving commemorations on and around those same beaches where they landed exactly 80 years ago on D-Day. The war in Ukraine shadowed the ceremonies, a grim modern-day example of lives and cities that are again suffering through war in Europe. The break of dawn eight decades after Allied troops landed on five code-named beaches — Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword — started the day of remembrance by Allied nations now stand...
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D-Day anniversary shines spotlight on ‘Rosies’ who built WWII weapons
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Air Force Times, Approved, National

D-Day anniversary shines spotlight on ‘Rosies’ who built WWII weapons

By Sylvie Corbet and John Leicester, The Associated Press (via The Air Force Times) When the 5,000th B-17 bomber built after Pearl Harbor rolled out of its Boeing factory, teenage riveter Anna Mae Krier made sure it would carry a message from the women of World War II: She signed her name on it. Now 98, and in Normandy, France, for this week’s 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, Krier is still proudly promoting the vital roles played by women in the June 6, 1944, invasion and throughout the war — including by making weaponry that enabled men to fight. Krier was among millions of women who rolled up their sleeves in defense-industry factories, replacing men who volunteered and were called up for combat in the Pacific, Africa and Europe. The women had thei...
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Last WWII veterans converge on Omaha Beach for D-Day and fallen friends
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Air Force Times, Approved, National

Last WWII veterans converge on Omaha Beach for D-Day and fallen friends

By John Leicester, Sylvie Corbet, and Danica Kirka, The Associated Press | Air Force Times Under their feet, the sands of Omaha Beach, and in their rheumy eyes, tears that inevitably flowed from being on the revered shoreline in Normandy, France, where so many American young men were cut down 80 years ago on D-Day. Veterans of World War II, many of them centenarians and likely returning to France for one last time, pilgrimaged Tuesday to what was the bloodiest of five Allied landing beaches on June 6, 1944. They remembered fallen friends. They relived horrors they experienced in combat. They blessed their good fortune for surviving. And they mourned those who paid the ultimate price. They also bore a message for generations behind them, who owe them so much: Don’t forget what...
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Air Force dangles big bucks, expands eligibility for retention bonuses
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Air Force Times, Approved, National

Air Force dangles big bucks, expands eligibility for retention bonuses

By Courtney Mabeus-Brown | Air Force Times Thinking about reenlisting? Eligible airmen in critical jobs can now nab bonuses of up to $180,000, up from $100,000 in previous years, for agreeing to stay in the service. Seventy-three career fields are eligible for selective retention bonuses in fiscal year 2024, up from 51 the previous year, the Air Force said in a recent release. The new list adds airmen like air traffic controllers, cyber defense superintendents and aerospace physiologists, and is retroactively effective as of Oct. 1, 2023. How much money someone can receive depends on how long they opt to stay in uniform and their experience level. Airmen are capped at earning up to $360,000 in selective retention bonuses over the course of their career, and can elect to take the m...
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Podcast delves into the legacy of D-Day to commemorate 80th anniversary
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Approved, National, Stars & Stripes

Podcast delves into the legacy of D-Day to commemorate 80th anniversary

By Stars & Stripes As the 80th anniversary of D-Day approaches, a World War II Foundation podcast is taking a look at the invasion of Normandy. The special episodes of “Front to the Films” feature host retired Army Col. Tom Rendall, as well as guests Keith Nightingale and Joey Ivanov, discussing D-Day, its aftermath and the ongoing impact of the military operation. The first episode centers on Operation Overlord, the Allied effort to drive German forces out of occupied parts of Western Europe. READ THE FULL STORYAND LISTEN TO THE PODCAST AT STARS & STRIPES
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Korean War Army Col. Ralph Puckett, 97, recipient of Medal of Honor, lies in honor at Capitol ceremony
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Approved, National, Stars & Stripes

Korean War Army Col. Ralph Puckett, 97, recipient of Medal of Honor, lies in honor at Capitol ceremony

By STEPHEN GROVES | Stars & Stripes Congress gave one of its highest final tributes on Monday — a lying in honor ceremony at the Capitol — to Ralph Puckett Jr., who led an outnumbered company in battle during the Korean War and was the last surviving veteran of that war to receive the Medal of Honor. Puckett, who retired as an Army colonel, died earlier this month at the age of 97 at his home in Columbus, Ga. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2021, the nation’s highest military honor, seven decades after his actions during the war. The lying in honor ceremony at the Capitol is reserved for the nation’s most distinguished private citizens. Only seven others have received the honor, and the latest, in 2022, was Hershel W. “Woody” Williams, who was the last surviving Medal of...
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