“But I will tell you we will do whatever is
necessary to meet the threat. We’re not going
to break, and we’re not going to falter.”
What do you lack? Also, if you want an operational TRICARE Reserve applies to Guard
Seventy percent of Guard and Reserve force you have to keep it healthy. and Reserve families, too.
members are married. So you have to We’ve got to look at how we do that. It does, and it should. When you send
provide incentives that will keep fam- Better medical benefi ts are a readi- a young man or woman to war, the
ilies supporting their citizen-soldiers. ness issue, not a welfare program. last thing they need to worry about is
You’ve got to make benefi ts attractive To not provide that is like having whether their family has coverage at
to the spouse and family members, a high-priced luxury car, and you home. If we are going to take citizen-
so they are willing to put up with the don’t want to pay to change the oil soldiers away from their families and
sacrifi ce of periodic separations. once in a while. employers, interrupt their education,
A second partner is the civilian and put them in harm’s way, they
employer. We need to make sure some Is the new premium-paid TRICARE need to go with peace of mind that
incentives recognize their sacrifi ce Reserve benefit for drilling Guard their families are taken care of. Ac-
and mitigate the ill effects of pulling and Reserve members a big deal? tive duty soldiers’ families are. We’re
employees away for a year every cou- It’s a very big deal. But is it enough? putting Guard soldiers in the same
ple of years. We have never made a se- I don’t know. I can tell you this: It conditions with the same wartime
rious legislative effort in that regard, wouldn’t have happened without hardships and dangers. Their families
and we’re going to have to. Those are Congress being the driving force. For need to be treated no less well.
two legs of a three-legged stool. If ei- that, 460,000 citizen-soldiers and The Punaro commission rightful-
ther fails, I’m not sure citizen-soldiers their families are appreciative. I view ly puts the spotlight on these issues
[will] stay in our organization. it as a readiness imperative. You have and provides a road map for how
to have medical coverage if [you] have we might truly operationalize re-
What new benefits should guard- medical readiness. And without medi- serve components. There are those
members see? Better retirement? cal readiness, I can’t deploy a soldier. who think we don’t need to do this,
Congress has taken steps to recog-
nize the Guard and Reserve are per-
forming missions no one envisioned
for them less than 10 years ago. So
Congress has allowed for retirement
to be paid a little earlier than age
60, based on how long a member is
deployed. It’s almost one day for one
day. That’s fair.
Another initiative worthy of
consideration is transferability
of [Montgomery] GI Bill benefi ts.
Many soldiers have completed their
college education, yet they have
earned a GI Bill benefi t. It would be
good if [the soldiers] could trans-
fer those unused benefi ts to [their]
spouses or children. That keeps the
family on the team.
54 MILITARY OFFICER AUGUST 2008 PHOTO: STEVE BARRETT
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