[MILRETVET-INFO] 'Soldier For Life' Website: New Online Home For Retirees (and Active Duty\NG\Reserves\Family Members)
- From: RETVET-INFO@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- To: <RetVet-Info@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 7 May 2014 12:48:24 -0500
'Soldier for Life' website: New Online Home for Retirees
May 1, 2014
By C. Todd Lopez
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, May 1, 2014) -- The Army's "Soldier for Life"
website, launched May 1, is designed to be a new online home for retired
Soldiers.
The Army's web portal "Army Knowledge Online" -- better known as "AKO" -- has
been available to retirees and family members for many years now. However, the
Army is transitioning to a more secure enterprise network for business users --
Soldiers, Army civilians and contractors.
Retirees will continue to be able to access important information about the
Army, and information pertaining to health, retirement, employment and education
benefits online at the new site, www.soldierforlife.army.mil
<http://www.soldierforlife.army.mil> .
Mark E. Overberg, who serves as deputy chief of Army Retirement Services, said
the new website will allow "ongoing communications with the retired community."
In February, the Army Retirement Services office was moved under the newly
created Soldier for Life program, Overberg said, because retired Soldiers are "a
part of the whole Soldier lifecycle -- the last part of the Soldier lifecycle."
Right now on the website, retirees can also opt-in to receive a newsletter that
lets them know what's going on in the Army "with a primary focus on news that
retired Soldiers care about," Overberg said.
EMAIL CHANGES
On AKO, retirees and Family members had access to web-based email services that
gave them a ".mil" email address. Currently retirees and Family members are no
longer able to send email from their AKO accounts or read emails within the
site. What they are still able to do, however, is instruct AKO to forward any
emails they might receive there to a commercial account. The AKO website will
continue forwarding emails to commercial accounts until Dec. 31, 2014.
Overberg suggests retirees and Family members set up a free commercial email
account to replace what AKO used to provide for them. He said after setting up
such an account, they should notify family, friends, and professional contacts
about the new e-mail address.
Additionally, he said, retirees and Family members should contact any businesses
or other websites where the AKO email address is a part of their contact
information and update it to reflect the new email address.
One such site in particular to update, he said, is the Defense Finance and
Accounting Service's "MyPay" website, where retirees and Soldiers alike can look
at their leave and earnings statements and other important documents.
To ensure that DFAS can contact them, Retired Soldiers should visit the "MyPay"
site and ensure that a new or non-AKO email address is listed. Overberg said
that today, some 500,000 Army retirees have MyPay accounts. Of those, he said,
about 350,000 are still registered there with their AKO-provided email address.
By not signing up for a commercial e-mail service and updating business account
information, former AKO users risk not receiving important notifications.
FUTURE SITE
Right now, the Soldier for Life website is extremely new. Overberg said the site
is only in "stage one" of its development. But he said there are several ideas
about what will be brought aboard as the site's development progresses into
"phase two."
Future upgrades to the Soldier for Life website might include a "white pages"
feature similar to what was one available on AKO, Overberg said. The difference
will be that the white pages-style directory will include only those retirees
who "opted in" to the listing.
Also under consideration for inclusion in the next-generation of the site is a
"Retired Soldiers Blog," Overberg said. "The intent of this blog will be to
provide a three-way communication: Army to retired Soldiers, Retired Soldiers to
Army and Retired Soldiers to other Retired Soldiers."
Overberg said that commenters to blog posts will be limited to those who have
retired from the Army. "When somebody posts a comment, we'll want to make sure
they are a retired Soldier."
Part of making that happen, he said, is ironing out the technical details of how
to authenticate retired Soldiers on the site. That might include integration of
services from DoD Self-service Logon.
Overberg also said that the Soldier for Life website has been designed to be
easier to use than AKO. He said he has heard complaints from retirees that AKO
was too complex -- and so they stayed away from the site.
MORE THAN JUST RETIREES
The Soldier for Life program, and its website, is about more than just retirees.
In fact, the retiree program was just recently folded into the SFL program.
"Soldier for Life," is in fact about the entire "lifecycle" of being a Soldier:
from the moment a Soldier shows up at basic training: "Start Strong"; to the day
they arrive at their first command and begin their Army career: "Serve Strong";
to the moment they make the decision to transition from a uniform-wearing
Soldier back into a productive member of civilian society: "Reintegrate Strong";
to the final separation or retirement from Army service and transition into an
example in their community about what it means to be a Soldier: "Remain Strong."
Lt. Col. Wenceslao G. Angulo, who serves as the communications and outreach
director of the Army's Soldier for Life program, said the SFL program and its
website aims to serve those in all four phases of being a Soldier.
"We want to attract talented young men and women to join the Army," he said.
"The new site provides current information and links to resources for all
Soldiers which include Active Duty, Army National Guard and Army Reserve,"
Angulo added. "We also provide access to information and links to resources for
those preparing to transition to civilian life. Now with retirement services
joining the Soldier for Life program, we can now provide services and
information for those who have retired from the Army, but remain Soldiers for
life."
For more information about the AKO transition, please visit:
http://ciog6.army.mil/AKOTransition/tabid/215/Default.aspx
(For more ARNEWS stories, visit www.army.mil/ARNEWS, or Facebook at
www.facebook.com/ArmyNewsService <http://www.facebook.com/ArmyNewsService> )
=======
SOURCE: US Army News Service at
http://www.army.mil/article/125210/_Soldier_for_Life__website__new_online_home_f
or_retirees/
NOTICE: Links to archived copies of this and other mailing list messages,
subscribe\unsubscribe instructions and other useful information for active duty,
retirees, veterans, and their families, are available on the LINKS FOR
MIL\RET\VETS website at www.hostmtb.org <http://www.hostmtb.org>
If you prefer not to receive future RETVET-INFO mailing list messages, click
here <mailto:retvet-info-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=Unsubscribe> to
unsubscribe. If unsuccessful, please contact Mailing List Mgr
<mailto:milton.bell126@xxxxxxxxx?subject=RETVET-INFO%20Unsubscribe> .
Other related posts:
- » [MILRETVET-INFO] 'Soldier For Life' Website: New Online Home For Retirees (and Active Duty\NG\Reserves\Family Members) - RETVET-INFO
