Photo By Staff Sgt. Richard Wrigley | Stuart Delery, the acting associate attorney general for the United States Department...... read more read more
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FORT STEWART, Ga. - The Soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division had a chance to sit down and talk with someone who has their welfare in mind, and is in a position where he might be able to make necessary changes.
Stuart Delery, the acting associate attorney general for the United States, visited Fort Stewart and met with Soldiers and community members in a town-hall-style gathering, Sept. 1.
Delery’s visit is part of a new initiative within the U.S. Department of Justice, dubbed the “Service members and Veterans Initiative.”
The new initiative intends to tackle many of the issues Service members and their families face while on active duty, and the challenges that veterans encounter after they leave service.
“The sacrifices of our nation’s service members go beyond the courageous act of putting themselves in harm’s way to defend our way of life,” said Delery on the DOJ’s blog. “The sad fact is, they also face obstacles to exercising their civil rights and maintaining their families’ financial security. That is why the Justice Department prioritizes enforcing the statutes specifically created to protect the civilian employment rights, voting rights, and financial security of those serving in the Armed Forces.”
During the Town hall many good questions were asked, and the meeting seemed quite constructive while maintaining a conversational tone.
One good point a Soldier brought up is current legislation is protecting Soldiers’ and their Families from being financially exploited during their year-long deployment. However, with the new shape of the fighting force and current operational tempo, Soldiers are deploying more often but only for 90 days or less. The Soldier noted they are in turn stuck paying things like monthly phone bills for phones that don’t work in the areas they deploy to.
It was a concern that Delery clearly took seriously, and assured those in attendance he would look into.
“We wanted to hear from the Soldiers about the problems that they are seeing and hopefully get some ideas for us in what we could do in partnership with the [Department of Defense] to do something about it,” Delery said.
It appears that intent was met.
“I think a couple of issues that were raised, particularly the ones around the current deployment timing and structure,” Delery said. “I think that is something we need to take back and think about, and figure out how that impacts the protections that [Soldiers] have.”
| Date Taken: | 09.03.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 09.03.2015 15:29 |
| Story ID: | 175201 |
| Location: | FORT STEWART, GA, US |
| Web Views: | 64 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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