[TFL] REMINDER FOR ARMY RETIREES: Army to Close Retiree and Family Member AKO Accounts on 31 December 2013
- From: TFL@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- To: <HEALTH.MIL@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <TFL@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <RetVet-Info@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2013 14:15:09 -0600
REMINDER FOR ARMY RETIREES: Army to Close Retiree and Family Member AKO
Accounts
By Mark Overberg, Deputy Chief, Army Retirement Services
On Sept. 20, the Army published its plan to modernize Army Knowledge Online
(AKO). The plan transitions business users to a suite of more secure,
interoperable Department of Defense (DOD) services. The improved security
requires users to have Common Access Cards (CAC) embedded with usernames and;
personal digital certificates.
The Army will close all accounts for military and civilian retirees and family
members, who do not have CACs.
The Army plans to close inactive retiree and family member AKO accounts on Dec.
31, 2013. These are accounts that have not had a password change in over 90 days
and are not set to automatically forward email to another government account.
The Army will also remove email storage for active retiree and family member
accounts on this date.
On Mar. 31, 2014, the Army will close all remaining retiree and family member
AKO accounts.
To ease the transition, the Army G-6 recently approved an exception to policy
that allows retirees and family members to automatically forward their AKO email
to a civilian email address until Dec. 31, 2014. However, retirees must set
this up in their AKO account profiles before Dec. 31, 2013.
To avoid disruptions to communications and personal accounts, retirees should
take the following steps as soon as possible:
* Obtain a personal email address from a civilian provider.
* Replace AKO email addresses in all personal accounts - especially myPay
accounts at the Defense Finance and
* Accounting Service (https://www.mypay.dfas.mil/mypay.aspx.)
* Obtain a premium DS Logon account. This account allows access to
personal benefits records and claims on DOD
* and Department of Veterans Affairs websites. See the DS Logon article on
the next page for more information.
* Download important emails and files to a personal computer.
The Army has many sources of information that retirees may access in place of
AKO. The Army home page (www.army.mil) provides official Army news and
information and links to Army social media sites (Army Facebook , Army Twitter,
Army YouTube and Army Flickr.) It also includes links to Army images, audio,
video, presentations, and Army Live, the official Army blog. The U.S. Army
Installation Management Command's home page (www.imcom.army.mil) includes links
to individual installations and garrisons that provide local information and
services to retirees. The Army's official benefits website is MyArmyBenefits
(https://myarmybenefits.us.army.mil.)
The Army plan indicated that retirees may share files using free and paid
commercial services. The plan also noted retirees may join comment forums at
military service organization and commercial websites.
For updated information on the AKO transition, visit http://www.eis.army.mil/ako
and http://www.eis.army.mil/uploaded_files/AKO-TransitionFactSheet.pdf
SOURCE: Army Echoes Newsletter, Sep-Dec 2013, at
http://www.armyg1.army.mil/rso/echoes_issues.asp, and Veterans Today.com
website at
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/10/30/army-plans-to-close-retiree-ako-accounts
-by-mar-31-2014/
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