Tom Philpott has covered the military for more than 30 years. His syndicated column, Military Update, reaches 2 million readers and focuses on breaking news affecting pay, benefits, and the lifestyle of service people. He is a contributing editor with Military Officer, and his freelance articles have appeared in numerous magazines including The New Yorker, Washingtonian, Readers' Digest, and Kiplinger's. Philpott served a tour in the U.S. Coast Guard as an information officer.
Defense Department officials have told Congress they conditionally support opening on-base shopping to disabled veterans, Purple Heart recipients and caregivers of severely injured veterans — changes to current law that would add at least a few hundred thousand weekly shoppers to commissaries and exchanges nationwide.
Developments this week could affect VA leadership, electronic health records, VA benefits for blue-water Navy Vietnam veterans, and access to commissaries and exchanges.
A House committee’s plan to pay for Agent Orange disability benefits to blue-water Navy Vietnam veterans could subject disabled veterans to a funding fee on their VA home loan.
The BRS lump-sum feature is controversial: No other federal retirement plan offers a lump sum to replace a portion of a defined benefit.
Interim director of the Defense Commissary Agency Rear Adm. Robert Bianchi, USN (Ret), says he is committed to reforming how commissary shelves are stocked.
