Research - Rehabilitation - Re-Employment

Sgt. Shaft 11/20/2006

Dear Sgt. Shaft:
I spent 10 years on active duty in the Air Force. I received an honorable discharge. I then completed 14 more years in the Air Force Reserve, retiring as a master sergeant with 24 years of service. I hold a retired reserve ID card and am authorized for base usage and privileges. I will not receive retirement pay until I reach age 60. Am I currently eligible for Tricare benefits, and if not when will I be? It is difficult locating factual information for what has been termed a "gray area" for retirees such as myself. Your assistance would be appreciated.

Master Sgt. P. G.
USAF Retired

Dear P.G.
You will be eligible for Tricare when you reach age 60 and begin to collect your reserve retired pay.

Beginning Nov. 10, Tricare beneficiaries when visiting Tricare Online will be directed to Tricare.mil, the official Web site for all Tricare information. Reorganized with beneficiaries in mind, the site is much easier to use and allows visitors to look up benefit information, schedule an appointment and track claims.

The Tricare system supports the health care plan for the uniformed services, retirees and their families, and serves more than 9.2 million eligible beneficiaries worldwide.

Shaft Notes
Congratulations and hurrah to good friend Maj. Gen. Mary Ann Krusa-Dossin on recently receiving her second star.

Gen. Krusa-Dossin was commissioned a second lieutenant in August 1975 through Officer Candidate School.

By 1996, she served at the Pentagon as an action officer with the Joint Staff's J-7 Operational Plans and Interoperability directorate. In 1998, she took command of Security Battalion, Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, Calif. She served as assistant chief of staff from July 2000 until June 2002 at Marine Corps Community Services, Camp Pendleton. She transferred to the Pentagon in July 2002 to serve as the deputy director of Marine Corps Public Affairs. In June 2003, she became director of Marine Corps Public Affairs. In 2006, she assumed command of Marine Corps Base, Camp Smedly D. Butler, Okinawa, Japan.

She received a bachelor's degree in psychology and sociology in 1974 from Texas Christian University. In 1981, she earned a master's degree in human relations from Golden Gate University. In 1995, she earned a master's degree in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University.

• Xerox Corp., through its Web site www.LetsSayThanks.com, is providing people with an opportunity to pick out a thank-you card to send to a service member in Iraq. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services. Xerox will print the cards.

It is free and takes a second. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the troops received a bunch of these? Our service members over there need to know we support and appreciate their sacrifice.

Congratulations to Xerox for this patriotic gesture.

Also kudos to Morrill Worcester, president of Worcester Wreath Co. in Harrington, Maine, who donates more than 4,000 wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery. For more than 10 years, the superintendent selects a new section every year and the group decorates graves around the mast of the USS Maine Memorial and the graves of Iraq and Afghanistan casualties.

The Maine State Society of Washington, D.C., leads the effort to organize local volunteers to place the wreaths on each grave in the selected section.

• Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson has named a 10-member commission to screen candidates and recommend finalists for the post of undersecretary for health in his department.

The commission, chaired by VA Deputy Secretary Gordon H. Mansfield, will recommend a replacement for Jonathan B. Perlin, who resigned Aug. 11 after seven years with the department. Under federal law, the appointment of a VA undersecretary is made without regard to political affiliation.

Send letters to Sgt. Shaft, c/o John Fales, P.O. Box 65900, Washington, D.C. 20035-5900; fax to 301-622-3330; call 202-257-5446 or email sgtshaft@bavf.org.

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