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care, and issues of privacy, safety, respect, and dignity continue to be major concerns particularly for the newer generation of fe- male veterans who, in many cases, are mar- ried or have caregiver responsibilities. Today, women make up 8 percent of the total veteran population — a figure that will double in the next 10 years. In the health care system alone, the VA expe- rienced a 20-percent increase in women seeking VA care last year. Because of the interest in these issues


and Shinseki’s intent to make the agency more veteran-centric, the VA announced it would hold a Women Veterans Summit in 2011, a year earlier than planned. MOAA is pleased the VA actively is ad- dressing the needs of female veterans.


Meet MOAA’s


New Lobbyist Military spouse joins team.


M


OAA’s new deputy director of Government Relations for Spouse and Family Issues is


Kelly Cotton, the spouse of an active duty Marine Corps captain and a mother of two children. She previ- ously served as a family readiness officer for the 26th Marine Expedi- tionary Unit at Camp Lejeune, N.C. She moved to the Washington, D.C., area when her husband was assigned to MCB Quantico, Va. MOAA is excited to gain Cotton’s instal-


lation-level experience supporting families who are bearing the brunt of national war- time sacrifice; Cotton fully shares MOAA’s passion for making sure our country does the right thing by these families. Her expe- riences will prove invaluable in pushing our spouse and family initiatives on the Hill.


3 8 MI L I T A R Y O F F I C E R O C TO B E R 2 0 1 0


We’re thrilled to welcome her to MOAA’s lobbying team.


Familiar


Mistakes Cutting compensation programs is rash.


W


hen it comes to military personnel readiness, history shows we’re a nation of slow


learners. We tend to demobilize after wars and then must rebuild our military when each successive generation relearns the world isn’t getting any less dangerous. In periodic budget crises, we whack


“unsustainable” military compensation pro- grams — from pay raises to health care and retirement — and keep whacking them until the cuts hurt retention and readiness, and then we scramble to repair the damage. It happened in the 1940s, 1970s, and


1990s, and it’s happening again now. Many Americans (and many in the


government), weary of nearly 10 years of war, are asking hard questions about what the nation still stands to gain from its tre- mendous investment in that war and the defense department that’s conducting it. Faced with huge annual deficits and


projections of unacceptable growth in the national debt, various budget panels are issuing calls for military pay freezes, retirement and health care spending cut- backs, force cuts, and much more. Doing nothing isn’t an option, and


changes almost certainly are coming. The question is whether the nation


(again) will go too far in letting budget pres- sures override the hard lessons of history. One lesson we should have learned is


America must be prepared for war at any time. On Dec. 6, 1941, or Sept. 10, 2001, no one expected our country would be em- barking on massive armed struggles within


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