-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a prelude to war! 000011. BAH rates for 2000 released WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Defense Department officials recently announced new Basic Allowance for Housing rates, which took effect Jan. 1 and apply to all military services. "The good news is the rates for people living in high-cost areas are increasing," said Maj. Justo Rivera, chief of Air Force Pay and Allowance Policy. "On the other hand, over half of our Air Force installations are located in areas with lower housing costs and, over time, newly assigned people there will receive lower BAH rates. However, the lower rates will not apply to those who are currently living in these areas, as they are "rate protected." Under this "protection," if BAH rates decrease, members' current allowances remain unchanged; if the housing allowances increase, members will receive the higher amount. "The lowered rates will only affect members who arrived at their new assignment after Dec. 31, 1999, since the BAH legislation includes a "rate protection" provision to protect currently assigned members from fluctuating local housing costs," Rivera said. He said a significant feature of the new BAH program is, regardless of where airmen are assigned, out-of-pocket expenses are equalized for every grade. No matter where in the country people move, they'll have the same out-of-pocket dollar amount within each grade and dependency status. In enacting DOD's housing allowance, Congress intended to pay for approximately 85 percent of the national average housing cost for each grade, with the member paying 15 percent "out-of-pocket." BAH does not cover all of service members' housing costs. By law, service members should pay no more than 15 percent of the national median housing cost out-of-pocket. In 1999, the out-of-pocket expenses were approximately 19.8 percent. The new BAH program, which replaced the Variable Housing Allowance, is intended to provide uniformed service members housing compensation based on comparable civilian costs of housing. BAH is based on rental costs by pay grade, dependency status and location. It's designed as a partial reimbursement to assist service members and their families in affording suitable off-base housing. According to Rivera, some key improvements of the housing allowance program include a cost-based system that is more efficient and responsive to the growing housing costs than the previous system. The new BAH methodology also ended the creeping growth in members' out-of-pocket expenses. Another change is the elimination of annual housing surveys and VHA offset. "The VHA offset was a negative incentive since it authorized finance offices to recoup a portion of the allowance when individuals did not use their full housing allowance. In addition, we got rid of the annual requirement to provide a copy of the lease or rental agreement to the finance office," Rivera said. "A key factor of the old and new housing allowance methodologies remains our commitment to ensure that the typical service member of a given grade and dependency status will not be penalized -- or rewarded -- for assignment to a high or low housing cost area," he added. "We will continue to take every reasonable step to ensure housing allowances are accurate and equitable." For specific BAH rates, service members can visit the Per Diem Committee Web site at http://www.dtic.mil/perdiem/rateinfo.html. 000012. DOD stands down Y2K operations center by Paul Stone American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Characterizing the Y2K rollover period as "a remarkably successful weekend," Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre announced Jan. 4 that DOD was standing down its Y2K operations center. During a Pentagon briefing Hamre said the minor glitches that did occur, combined with a normal start of the business week, makes it unnecessary to continue a full-scale watch on the millennium bug. "Everything worked fine. We just had a small handful of problems," Hamre said, crediting the "literally tens of thousands of people" involved in making DOD's Y2K repairs during the past two years. "We had no problems with any of our forces deployed anywhere," Hamre said. "Every one of our commanders in chief reported that they were under positive and affirmative control of their theater throughout the entire rollover period." Some of the minor glitches Hamre referred to included a "swipe card" not allowing entry to a building, a cash register that did not function at a facility in Okinawa, and some computers that did not automatically convert to the year 2000 -- a problem that was solved simply by rebooting the computers. He said the glitches were no more significant than a local dry cleaner not being able to get his or her computer working. Except for a reconnaissance satellite, "nothing had any operational implication," Hamre said. As he had reported in previous briefings during the holiday weekend, Hamre again explained that a satellite-based intelligence system experienced a Y2K failure shortly after the rollover of Greenwich Mean Time. The failure meant that intelligence officials were unable to process information from the system for two to three hours. Hamre said the problem was not with the satellite itself, but on the ground in a processing station, and emphasized that within several hours a back-up system was in place and operational. "We had a minor loss of the normal sequence of things we observe on an ongoing basis from this asset," Hamre said. "It was not judged to be significant in quantitative terms and it was not judged to be significant for military terms because the backup system took care of all our high-priority military requirements." Although not surprised DOD sailed through the Y2K rollover period without serious problems, Hamre said the Pentagon had anticipated more people would try to use the time period to attempt to hack into DOD computer networks. DOD is standing down its Y2K operations center for now, but Hamre said it might have to be re-energized at the end of February, when computer systems go through the leap year transition. Disruptions are possible if systems have not been programmed to recognize 2000 is a leap year. But Hamre believes that scenario is unlikely. "If there was going to be problem that showed up, it really would have showed up at this window," he said. 000010. Global Internet Mail authorized for use in Southwest Asia by Capt. Timothy A. Stacey Air Mobility Command Network Operations and Security Center SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFPN) -- Air Mobility Command's Global Internet Mail system, known as GI Mail, has been authorized for use in Southwest Asia by the Joint Task Force-Southwest Asia Joint Communications Control Center. Citing security and performance issues associated with commercial e-mail services such as HotMail or Yahoo e-mail, the JCCC endorsed Air Mobility Command's GI Mail system for use within SWA. GI Mail evolved from a requirement to provide deployed aircrews with e-mail capability from all Air Mobility Command bases and en route locations. Originally planned as a morale tool for families to communicate with deployed members, GI Mail can also be used by members to communicate with their home bases. The mailbox becomes a one-stop point of communication regardless of the location of the deployed member. Unlike HotMail or Yahoo e-mail, GI Mail is an Internet-based e-mail system owned and operated by AMC. It offers the same services and functionality as HotMail, but with three advantages: -- GI Mail services are protected by being placed inside the government network behind the Scott Air Force Base, Ill., firewall; -- It allows people to forward correspondence from their home base to their GI Mail account when they are on the road; and -- GI Mail improves e-mail communications by increasing available bandwidth, by eliminating the commercial ads found in HotMail which gobble up valuable bandwidth. Normally, there are about 6,000 active accounts; however, during Kosovo operations, accounts rose to over 40,000 -- representing all military services. This surge strained the system beyond its original capacity, so AMC's Network Operations and Security Center upgraded it to handle the additional users. Post-Kosovo operations reports gave a "thumbs down" to allowing only ".mil" access to the GI Mail. This approach excluded large numbers of deployed personnel who did not have ".mil" access. Consequently, AMC's NOSC is aggressively pursuing secure alternatives to allow access from all domains. The NOSC is planning to implement a secure socket-layer on the GI Mail server to allow secure access to the system from anywhere in the world via the World Wide Web. The AMC NOSC is committed to providing a morale e-mail service that meets the needs of their worldwide customers. (Courtesy of AMC News Service) **COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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