ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Ill. (Oct. 26, 2013) -- Retired service members from multiple conflicts, descended on Rock Island Arsenal on Saturday, for an Retiree Appreciation Day held by the Quad Cities Military Retiree Area Council.
"This is the Retiree Appreciation Day and we put it on every year in October," Chris Chambers said, marketing director, Rock Island Arsenal Family and Morale, Welfare, and Recreation. "This event is for military retirees of all branches. As long as they are a military retiree and have a retiree ID card, no matter which way they got it, they are eligible for this day."
"This is for any military retiree of any service," said Bill Walters, retirement service officer, Fort McCoy, Wis. "They could be a medical, reserve or active duty retiree. Whatever it is, any military retiree is welcome to come and they will receive good information."
Garrison Commander Col. Elmer Speights Jr. opened the event by sharing a vision of the future for RIA, which includes the development of guest lodging, a bigger housing area and a campsite on the installation.
"I want to get everything here to the Army standard," said Speights.
He answered a few questions from the audience. These included questions about the health clinic.
"We are working to clear up the area around the health clinic to increase parking and hire more providers," said Speights. "I might not be able to get everyone in to see the providers, because of the small size of the clinic and the priority for service members and their families stationed on the installation, but what we are going to be able to do is help you bring your medical costs down by providing medical ancillary services for you."
Medical ancillary services are support services other than room, board, medical and nursing services. At the Rock Island Arsenal Health Clinic, they would include x-rays and blood work. Retirees can contact the health clinic for more information at (309) 782-0805.
"The Fort McCoy Retiree Services Office covers five states, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan and Northern Illinois," said Bill Walters. "We have Area Councils who volunteer in these five states, and they help put these RAD events on. They work hard and do a good job."
"I liaised between the AC and the (Rock Island Arsenal) Garrison," said Chambers. "We bring all the retirees in our area of responsibility together and give them lots of good information on programs and services that concern them. It is just a day to show them our appreciation for what they have done for our country. I have been here since 2010 and I know that it has been going on well before that. The AC and Garrison have a good relationship and work to make this event happen every year. This is the major retiree-centric event every year on the installation."
"I have been doing this since 2000 and this is my last one," said Walters. "I support the councils and I write a newsletter that goes out to more than 60,000 military retirees and surviving spouses in our region."
Walters plans to retire at the end of the year.
At this event, there were multiple booths and 12 speakers, who presented information to the attendees.
"We do these events once a year at military installations," Walters said. "We have Area Councils out there, let's say Des Moines, Iowa, where there is no military installation. The council there puts on a retiree event in their area annually."
"We are always tweaking the program and the speakers," Chambers said. "We get feedback from the retirees on who they want here and what kind of information they want. We tailor the program to give them the most helpful information that we can. This time we had Col. Speights, a speaker from Army Sustainment Command and from First Army as well. Bill Walters, Association of the United States Army, TRICARE, Honor Flight, FMWR, the keynote speaker normally comes from Military Officers Association of America, Federal Long Term Care (Insurance Program), Delta Dental, and the Milestones Area Agency on Aging."
"I have 13 Area Councils that do this kind of these events," said Walters. "We do pre-retirement, because not only do I have post retirement support, I have pre-retirement support. Preparing those Soldiers and military members that are going to retire and give them briefings so that they know what to expect when they walk away from the uniform."
"We are here because we love RAD's and we love the military," said Tom Bebbington, senior account manager, Federal Long-term Care Insurance Program. "This is a great opportunity for us to reach just the kind of people we want to reach. The folks that come to a RAD are typically retired military and sometimes they are civilian employees. These folks are here to learn about benefits, today. This is an important federal benefit; this covers a need that people typically face in retirement. You associate long-term care with aging, the kind of care you need when you are sick and not going to get well, nursing home care, home care and things like that. People typically face those needs in retirement. We consider this a part of retirement planning, obviously we have a RAD and it is a great time to be talking about things like that. We attend this event every year."
"The program itself (retiree dental program) is a TRICARE product," said Joe Montoya, team leader for the National Guard/ Reserve and the TRICARE retiree dental program. "TRICARE, people take right off the bat that it means medical, TRICARE for the department of advanced health affairs is the umbrella for all health, medical, dental, so forth. Dental has been a hard one to promote, even though dental health is necessary. We are one of the products of TRICARE, we are stand alone and are different than all the others, this program, is not subsidized at all. That is why on Jan. 1, the new five-year contract goes into effect. Delta Dental will be the administrator for the program and the fact it is 1.4 million plus, of retirees and family members enrolled in the program. The premiums are going down and the benefits are going up."
Information about this program is explained in the retiree service office's Army Echoes September-December 2013 issue.
"The only way the people get the information is events like this," said Montoya. "We talk about the new world out there in regards to the Internet and so forth. I see it in some of the branches where they totally go paperless and they want to go online. We are going through a transition right now with our folks; there are a lot of them that do not have computers. We still need to be able to be face-to-face and give them the information they need. Once you look around at this group in the room, you will see that they are in this category. One of the things that we were taught in the services is that you do not ever want to hear from your folks, well they never told me. When I do my presentations, one of the things I point out to folks is that you need to be visiting the dentist."
There was a preregistration for the event, with registration available the day of. The event lasted from 7 a.m. until after 1 p.m., ending with a lunch buffet at the Rock Island Arsenal Club next door.
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