Delivering the Army Family Covenant
LTG Rick Lynch
CG, IMCOM
Defender 6 sends:
On 8 October 2007, the Army unveiled the Army Family Covenant (AFC),
institutionalizing the Army’s commitment to providing Soldiers
and Families – Active, Guard, and Reserve – a quality of life
commensurate with their quality of service.
However, as I travel
around the Army meeting with Soldiers and Families I’m surprised
to find that many are not familiar with the Army Family Covenant
and the commitment Army leadership has made to provide a better
quality of life to Soldiers and Families.
We are delivering the Army Family Covenant with a focus on five
specific areas:
Standardization and funding of existing programs and services,
Increasing accessibility and quality of health care, Improving
Soldier and Family housing, Ensuring excellence in schools,
youth services and child care and Expanding education and
employment opportunities for Family members.
Some accomplishments over
the past two years include: Standardized Army community staffing
and programs at all Garrisons, added 1079 Family Readiness
Support Assistants positions to provide administrative and
logistical support to commanders and FRG leaders, Funded
Exceptional Family Member respite care providing up to 40 hours
of care per month for Families; Increased primary care visits to
more than 7 million people, meeting access standards for 90% of
acute, routine and specialty appointments; Authorized TRICARE
standard coverage for more than 500,000 eligible members of the
Selective Reserve and their Family members and lowered the
co-payment; Funded the Training Barracks Modernization Program
to allow 11,306 Soldiers to move into newly designed or
renovated barracks in FY09, introduced the First Sergeants
Barracks Initiative to enhance single Soldier quality of life;
Reduced financial burden on Army Families by eliminating CYSS
registration fees and reducing program
fees, collaborated with more than 373 school districts to
support military
connected students transferring to new school districts and
increased placement of military spouses through the Army Spouse
Employment Program, a partnership with Fortune 500 companies and
government agencies
to provide employment opportunities.
We are indeed making progress on delivering the Army Family
Covenant, but we
have much more work to do.
I am dedicated to deliver on the Army leadership’s
promise to continue to provide the best care and quality of life
possible to Soldiers and their Families. Our commitment to
delivering the Army Family Covenant is non-negotiable. We will
not depart from this commitment.
I would ask that we always take the time to accentuate the
positive. We have so
very much to be thankful for when it comes to health care,
housing, services and programs, and many other things.
Many times we
immediately start talking about negative items, and many of
those conversations are based on anecdotal evidence without
firsthand knowledge.
Let’s be grateful for what we have, and strive together to
improve. An attitude
of appreciation will go a long way.
Optimism is a combat multiplier.
As always, thanks for your continued service to our Army, and
our Nation. Together we are making history.