Volume XIII

Volume XIII, Issue 8

Page 3

Air Force News

Col Mike Lee, USAF

We seemed to race past midterm and before you know it the campus will be quiet again for a month as we send our cadets home for Christmas Break. AF cadets attended an AF birthday celebration at the Air Museum in Topeka in September, went canoeing in October (to see if the Navy had it right) and then decided to try rappelling during the heaviest rainfall in months to see why the Army enjoys the mud so much. We "re-blued" by visiting Vance Air Force Base and planning a B-2 Stealth Bomber fly-over from Whiteman AFB for the 8 Nov Nebraska-KU football game. If the bomber can't make it, we've recorded "jet noise" to play over the PA system, and we'll just announce that the Stealth Bomber's flying by . . . no one will know the difference!

We started into mandatory fitness training three (3) times a week as part of an overall push by the USAF to improve fitness levels for all members, active and reserve. That puts us out on the roads of KU and Lawrence a little more and doubles our contact time with most of our younger cadets. It also increases the pedestrian flow through areas around the

University in the dark hours of the morning. Some of our cadets think they're becoming nocturnal animals . . . some skunks on campus apparently don't like the competition.

The Arnold Air Society, our national "social organization" recently decided to interview and record the stories of American Veterans in support of the Congressionally-mandated Veteran's History Project. Every day, 1500 Vets pass away, and Congress decided it was essential to record their stories. We know MOAA is a great source, and we hope that some of you might be willing to sit and tell some old war/sea stories to be recorded for the nation's posterity. Our cadet in charge of this project is C3C Mallare. Anyone willing to share some history can contact the AFROTC office at 864-4676, and we'll get the details to Mallare, who will then contact you.

Col Mike Lee

MOAA Legislative Updates - October 2003

Legislative Update for Friday, October 3, 2003:

Issue 1: Senate OKs Reserve Health Care Amendment. The Senate version of the Iraq supplemental appropriations bill will include authority to provide TRICARE benefits on a cost-share basis to National Guard and Reserve members who don't have employer-sponsored health insurance.

Legislative Update for Friday, October 10, 2003:

Issue 1: On Concurrent Receipt, Smoke But No Fire...Yet. Various media reports have been circulating the details of a purported concurrent receipt compromise. While we think something significant will be done this year, reports of specific numbers are premature speculation.

Issue 3: Food Charges Nixed for Hospitalized Wounded. Congress appears close to passing a measure that would permanently prohibit military hospitals from charging combat-wounded troops for the cost of their food while hospitalized.

Issue 2: Veterans Benefits Legislation Update

On Wednesday, the House unanimously approved H.R. 2297, an omnibus veterans benefits bill that had been approved by the House Veterans Affairs Committee in June. The bill authorizes continuation of the VA survivor annuity (Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, or DIC) for qualifying survivors who remarry after the age of 55. DIC is paid to survivors of members who died of service-connected causes. This would bring DIC into alignment with the rules for every other federal survivor program -- a long-sought goal of MOAA and The Military Coalition.

* S.1132, the Veterans' Survivors Benefits Enhancement Act of 2003. This bill would raise educational assistance rates for surviving spouses and dependents of veterans who died of service-related causes and authorizes 45 months (vs. 36 months) of eligibility; increase the DIC rate by $250 for qualifying surviving spouses with one or more children under age 18; and make surviving spouses eligible for burial in a national cemetery; among other provisions;