{"id":31061,"date":"2023-10-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=31061"},"modified":"2023-10-13T06:53:43","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T06:53:43","slug":"army-leaders-talk-quality-of-life-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=31061","title":{"rendered":"Army leaders talk quality-of-life concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Secretary of the U.S. Army Christine E. Wormuth, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Gen. Randy A. George, and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael R. Weimer, are panelists during the AUSA Military Family Forum IV: Army Senior leader\u2019s Town Hall at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., Oct. 11, 2023. The event was in support of the AUSA 2023 Annual Meeting and Exposition.
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WASHINGTON \u2014 Hundreds of Soldiers and Family members participated in a Family forum on quality-of-life concerns with Army senior leaders during the last day of the 2023 Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

The participants voiced their concerns on a wide range of topics including health care, spouse employment, education, and barracks and housing issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that we have a lot of work to do,\u201d said Secretary of the Army Christine E. Wormuth. \u201cWe are an enormous organization with an enormous inventory of housing and barracks. We know there is always continuing work to do, but I think we\u2019ve done a lot in the last few years to make sure we are supporting our Soldiers and Families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Child Development Centers<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The Army is putting an emphasis on expanding its number of child development centers, Wormuth said. The service built six new centers and has at least five more on the way.<\/p>\n

The Amry is also looking to increase staff at CDCs by increasing wages and providing incentives. The Department of Defense recently adjusted how much service members pay for child care at CDCs for the current school year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know child care is a huge issue,\u201d she said. \u201cFor me, as a mom, that was one of the hardest things when my kids were young.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Installation App<\/strong><\/h5>\n

When Soldiers and Families move to new installations, one of the biggest challenges they face is finding the right resources for the information they need, said Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George.<\/p>\n

To alleviate the problem, the Army Software Factory is working on a mobile application that will bring information into one place. The team is currently reaching out to Soldiers and Families for ways to tailor the \u201cMy Army Post\u201d application for use across the service.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to make this happen, and we want your feedback on what else you need,\u201d George said. \u201cI think this is important. We have a lot of resources in the Army, and we want to provide them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spouse Employment<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The Army is working on a number of initiatives to increase spouse employment. One example is that military spouses and dependents stationed in Italy can now telework for American companies. This is a big win, Wormuth said.<\/p>\n

The Army is looking at increasing direct hiring opportunities for spouses. They are also working to ensure states follow the recently passed Military Spouse Licensing Relief Act that recognizes service member and spouses\u2019 valid professional licenses when they move to another state.<\/p>\n

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\n Secretary of the U.S. Army Christine E. Wormuth, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Gen. Randy A. George, and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael R. Weimer, are panelists during the AUSA Military Family Forum IV: Army Senior leader\u2019s Town Hall at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., Oct. 11, 2023. The event was in support of the AUSA 2023 Annual Meeting and Exposition
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Barracks and Housing<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The Army is the service with the largest number of barracks. It spends more than $1 billion annually and has a maintenance backlog of $6.5 billion to bring the quality of barracks up to standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s going to take some time, but we are making progress,\u201d Wormuth said. \u201cThe chief of staff of the Army\u00a0and the sergeant major of the Army\u00a0and I are working to increase the amount we are spending on military construction for barracks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Army leadership is working to provide 100% sustainment funding for barracks and to spend more on renovation and construction, Wormuth added.<\/p>\n

There is a barracks summit scheduled for the end of October to discuss improvements.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are doing a lot in that area to really try to make sure that our Soldiers are living in the kind of accommodations that they deserve to live in,\u201d she added. \u201cBe patient with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the forum ended, leadership reiterated the importance of these quality-of-life issues for Soldiers and their Families.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want you to leave here today knowing that none of these concerns surprised us,\u201d said Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer. \u201cWe absolutely know they\u2019re important. We absolutely know these are priorities, and we are taking a look at each and every one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED LINKS:<\/p>\n

Secretary of the Army reveals service innovation, transformation during AUSA<\/a><\/p>\n

AUSA 2023: Key Events<\/a><\/p>\n

ARNEWs archives<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Secretary of the U.S. Army Christine E. Wormuth, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Gen. Randy A. George, and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael R. Weimer, are panelists during the AUSA Military Family Forum IV: Army Senior leader\u2019s Town Hall at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., Oct. 11, 2023. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31063,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31061"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31066,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31061\/revisions\/31066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}