Group Meeting Summaries

All,

  I’d like to thank everyone who was able to participate in our 15th meeting on Monday, 2 Mar. We only had a 14 total folks participating.

  Below are some of the things we went over today. 

Updates

- Rhys is back in TX and has been working on some RAO stuff. Long-term plans for that position still seem to be up in the air. AFPC signed the DMDC document and sent it back to them on Fri, 6 February. Supposedly DMDC approved it  back in July 2025. She has heard back from her contacts at DMDC just asking questions that have already been answered earlier and still no input on getting retiree data from them.

- Just a reminder that April is Volunteer Appreciation month and an opportunity for you to submit your RAO, and volunteers, for recognition. Each year we submit our RAO for a base award, and for several years now we have submitted one of our volunteers for the AF Volunteer Excellence Award, which several have received. Of course, you can also submit one of your volunteers to receive a RAO Volunteer of the Year certificate signed by the Council Co-Chairs.

- The new Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Kenneth Wilsbach, was sworn in on 3 Nov 2025. No info on whether Chief Bass has worked with him regarding a letter to MAJCOMs on the importance of RAOs. During the meeting with us the Chief thought that letter might get done by February. 

- I plan to dial back our RAO collaboration meetings to every two months, so will plan on holding the next one in May.  Feel free to provide me with any input you have on that.

Main Topics for Today

-  RAO 2025 Annual Reports

Reports were due to AFRS by 16 Feb.  As of last Mon, a week after the reports were due, Rhys tells me she had received reports from about 20% of the RAOs - out of ~77 RAOs.  Looking back at 2024, only about 44 RAOs out of ~77 submitted a report - 57%. That means 43% of RAOs didn’t even bother to submit a report.  Of the 44 that submitted a report, only 27 included any text at all in the “Other Accomplishments” section of the report - 61% of them. That means, overall, AFRS received “Other Accomplishments” information from only ~35% of RAOs. Personally, I find these numbers very discouraging.

I believe our annual report is a very important document for several reasons, and particularly the “Other Accomplishments” section which allows us total flexibility on what we include.  I include a lot of detail in our report for three primary reasons. First, this is really our only opportunity each year to provide AFPC a comprehensive summary of what our office has done during the year, how we operate, what our concerns are, etc. Essentially, why RAOs are indeed important! Second, the report is essentially an annual history report for our RAO and will provide any future Directors with easily accessible, and  detailed, information on what the office did prior to their tenure. This is important for continuity within the RAO.  Lastly, if the text in the “Other Accomplishments” section is shared annually with all the other RAOs, which I absolutely believe it should be, some of the information may be of help to other RAOs. 

-  Consolidated Yearly “Other Accomplishments” text from all RAO Annual Reports

I view this underutilized portion of our annual report as, by far, the most important.  I say this based on my own personal experience.  When I first joined the Buckley SFB RAO in late 2017, I had absolutely no idea what an RAO did. My first action was to reach out to Tammy Cournoyer at AFRS and ask her for the names of several RAO Directors she believed really had their stuff together so I could reach out to them for help, education and advice.  One of the Directors (at the time) she referred me to was Terry Jensen at Hurlburt Field.  During my discussions with Terry, he mentioned there was a Word document that consolidated text from the “Other Accomplishments” section of each RAO report and was kind enough to send me a copy of the latest one he had.  Needless to say, as a new guy I found this document to be a literal gold mine of information.  I reached out to numerous RAO Directors to talk with them personally about things I saw in their report, things I felt would be good for our RAO to emulate.  All the Directors I contacted were very helpful and willing to share information, lessons learned, tools, processes, etc. That experience led me to view the information in the “Other Accomplishments” section from other annual RAO reports as absolutely invaluable.  To this day I try to ensure I get a copy of this information every year and review it for ideas that can help us improve our operation.  I don’t think a year has gone by when I didn’t find items of interest to our operation.  So, when I take the time to provide a lot of detail in our reports, I’m always thinking that, just maybe, some other RAO out there will find that information as useful as I did.

I’d be interested in knowing how many of you are familiar with this document, whether you routinely receive it and how useful you find it?

-  Highlighting and documenting the more “impactful” things RAOs do for retirees (topic raised by Area XII rep MSgt Chavez)

Since our last meeting MSgt Chavez (Area XII Council Rep) reached out to me regarding the importance of RAOs telling, and documenting, the more “meaningful” actions they accomplish in support of retirees/surviving spouses. As an example, he referenced the case I spoke of where our office, in a matter of a couple days, located and provided a Class A uniform in support of a dying vet’s request to be buried in uniform.  I’m sure all of you have many similar stories you can tell that really get to the heart of why what we all do is so important.

Just based on what I’ve seen regarding annual reports, I wonder how much this is being done. Of course, I only know how our office approaches this issue. First, I believe the “Other Accomplishments” section of the annual report provides a perfect place to highlight these items. In addition, for those more out of the ordinary things we do, we forward the information on to our base leadership to make them aware of the impact we have beyond the routine calls (ID cards, wills, pay issues, etc) and the true value added impact we have for retirees and surviving spouses - like casualty assistance.  We also send info on these particularly noteworthy cases (in my opinion) to our POCs at AFRS (Rhys Michael).  We communicate fairly regularly with base leadership to try and make them aware of what we do - sending them a RAD summary, having them review our annual report, sending them a yearly summary of what we do, telling them about our more noteworthy support activities, etc. At the end of each year, we also send out an RAO summary to all the retirees and annuitants on our e-mail distribution list (currently ~2500 folks). We tell them how many customers we supported, what our most frequent inquiries are, the number of volunteer hours provided to the RAO (and the many other organizations our volunteers support), the unique cases we handled, etc.  I feel it’s important to give them the big picture and let them know all the things the office has done over the year, not only for them individually, but for others.

-  Update on virtual social security and Medicare briefings

  We’ve now had one social security and one Medicare virtual briefing so far with about 20 folks attending each of them.  We use a “registration” link and cut off the number of attendees to 20-25.  Our PA person from SS has funding to do an in-person meeting in Mar, along with two other individuals, and wants to have a 4-hour session to provide a brief and then work with individuals one-on-one.  That is planned for 25 Mar.

-  Update on RAO issues Chief Bass is helping with - SmartDoc, CSAF Letter, DMDC retiree data (if available)

No update on these issues.  Chief Bass has spoken with Lt Gen Roberson about the position Rhys & Lori had at AFPC and they hope to engage regarding the need for the position(s). Rhys seems to think AFPC does realize such a position is needed based on her absence. Chief Bass mentioned she has met with SAF/MR and mentioned RAO programs.

ID Cards (again)

About a week ago we got a call from a retired Reservist that had their NextGen ID card confiscated at the gate when it came up “terminated” on the DBIDS scanner, so I contacted our MPF to ask why it might have happened.  First, they told me the “termination” indication by DBIDS is fairly common and happens for many different reasons, and not just for retirees.  If DBIDS states “terminated”, then the DEERS record is not active for X, Y and Z reasons or DBIDS is glitching for X, Y and Z reasons.

For this particular case I was told that the member’s status had transitioned from Reserve Retired to Retired. When this change occurs, the DEERS profile automatically updates, and the existing ID card is terminated by the system. When I asked how DEERS knows when the member has transitioned, I was told DEERS is updated directly by each service’s personnel system. Because there can be a delay between a member’s retirement being processed and the update appearing in DEERS, they ask that Guard and Reserve retirees bring a copy of their official retirement orders when they come in for their “retired” ID card. Having their retirement orders on hand helps ensure a smooth transition if the system has not yet been updated. I asked if this is also true for Gray Area Retirees who are eligible to receive their retired pay before age 60 and was told Yes.  Our MPF believes the best guidance to share with any Guard or Reserve retirees that haven’t turned 60 yet is that their current ID card will automatically terminate at age 60.

Medicare and Social Security Contacts

Kirtland AFB and Biddle AGB asked for info on how to locate the Medicare and Social Security contacts for their areas.  For Medicare, the following website will show you Regional Offices and the e-mail for each one so you can reach out and ask for someone to contact in your region CMS Regional Offices | CMS

For social security, here is the link you can use to Ask for a Social Security speaker. The page instructs you to email your Regional Public Affairs person and they will send the request to the appropriate Public Affairs Specialist closest to you. If you e-mail your region and don’t get a response in a reasonable period of time let me know and I’ll reach out to my PA person here in Denver and ask for assistance.

So, those are the main things I recall from our meeting.  If I missed, or misrepresented, anything you feel is noteworthy please let me know.  Also, if you have any general comments on the meeting please e-mail me.

  Thanks again for your participation.  Please let me know if you have any questions, concerns, comments or changes you would like to see made regarding these periodic meetings.  We’re doing these for all of us so if they’re missing the mark please speak up.  I’ll be back in touch with details for our next meeting in May.

v/r,

Steve

Steve Young

Lt Col, USAF, Ret

Director, Buckley SFB RAO

All,

  I’d like to thank everyone who was able to participate in our 14th meeting on Monday, 2 Feb. We had a pretty good turnout with 19 total folks participating.

  Below are some of the things we went over today. 

- Mike Hinman, AF Retiree Council Area V rep, gave us a short rundown on some inputs he got from Lt Gen Roberson, Council co-chair, on the future of the Council.  Lt Gen Roberson assured him the Council will not be going away.  We still don’t know whether the billets occupied by Lori Kullberg and Rhys Michael will be filled or who the RAO POC at AFRS will be.  Rhys was supposed to finish up her work in DC last week.

- I discussed the annual RAO summary we send out to all the retirees on our e-mail distro list (~2500) as well as the Col we work for on base.  I cover the number and makeup of our volunteers, hours worked (both in the RAO and for other organizations), number of folks we helped along with the most frequent help requests we get (IDs, etc.), the RAD, other activities the RAO supports (veteran’s Day cards, etc.), unusual supports we provided, etc.

- I gave a short update on the virtual social security and Medicare classes we are offering on alternate months.

I went over three areas related to ID cards:

            - Old ID cards that show up as “terminated” in DBIDS are being confiscated at some bases.

            - The ID card process for dependents turning 65 and when they can actually get the INDEF ID card

issued. I mentioned the dependent’s ID will expire the last day of the month before their 65th birthday

and they can’t get their INDEF ID until the month they turn 65.  Someone during the meeting said they

actually can’t get the INDEF until the day after they turn 65. Just today one of my volunteers, who turns

65 tomorrow, got his new INDEF ID today, so he didn’t have to wait until the day after his birthday.  Is it different

for a dependent than a military retiree?  He did say he needed his Medicare card.

- Why new ID cards are necessary for surviving spouses of military retirees.

- We mentioned the annual RAO reports are due to AFRS on 16 Feb, though we currently don’t know who they will go to (Rhys?). Several folks mentioned they had not received the 2025 report template, and I told everyone they went out to the Retiree Council Area Reps in Dec. If anyone still needs it, let me know.

- I mentioned we had no update from Chief Bass on several issues she is helping us with: the DMDC agreement that will allow us to get access to AF retiree data; a letter from the current CSAF to MAJCOMs on the importance of RAOs; and the SmartDoc Rules of Engagement (ROE) and sample SmartDoc text that we provided to Chief Bass right after our last meeting on 6 Jan.  If I get an update on any of these prior to our next meeting, I’ll pass it along.

- I mentioned I am planning to hold our next meeting on Mon, 2 Mar.

- Christina Randel from Germany indicated she had no previous reports from her RAO so wondered what she should put in her report. She also asked about what tools other RAOs use to track volunteer hours, track what customers call about, etc. Jerry Edmonds from Travis offered up the spreadsheet he uses to track volunteer hours and others offered up some other tools as well. I’ll send Christina a report template for 2025, the spreadsheet we use to track contacts and subjects, etc.

- Joanne Stanton mentioned that some airports take a military ID for identification with no problem, and other airports won’t accept them and require a driver’s license or something else.  One the meeting attendees works at an airport and indicated it’s a software issue.

- Here’s an update on my attempt to enroll in VA healthcare. I submitted my online application on 7 Nov. About a month ago I got a letter from the VA saying my application was incomplete, they didn’t have proof of my military service (DD-214), which they didn’t ask me to upload during the online application process.  When I called the VA number, they told me they could see my DD-214 and didn’t know why I got the letter.  The lady told me it showed my application was “deferred” due to income. I explained we did large ROTH conversions last year so maybe looking at 2025 would be different and she said she would request the VA re-evaluate it.  Finally, I got a letter dated 20 Jan saying I was not enrolled and was in Priority Group 8a, due to income.

So, those are the main things I recall from our meeting.  If I missed, or misrepresented, anything you feel is noteworthy please let me know. 

  Thanks again for your participation.  Please let me know if you have any questions, concerns, comments or changes you would like to see made regarding these monthly meetings.  We’re doing these for all of us so if they’re missing the mark please speak up. 

v/r,

Steve

Steve Young

Lt Col, USAF, Ret

Director, Buckley SFB RAO