Yet Another Broken Promise. Gee Thanks, HQDA.
I wrote this article mainly because I’m p!ssed, and I’m venting. It’s geared toward Army personnel and retirees who read TAH.
But personnel with a background from other services might want to read it anyway. I’m guessing similar things will be happening in other services, albeit likely involving other subjects.
AKO – Army Knowledge Online – will close its doors to retirees and dependents at the end of March 2014. That’s now official Army policy. See page 6 of this document.
Inactive retiree/dependent accounts (no password change in the last 90 days) get the axe at the end of the year. Current accounts (those who’ve had a password change within the past 90 days) will get the axe on 31 March 2014. Further details are in the linked article.
Yeah, in the “great scheme of things” it’s a small thing. And yeah, supposedly they’ll forward mail to a civilian e-mail account of your choice until the end of 2014 to “ease the transition.” You’ve got to the end of this year to set that up.
The stated reasons for doing this? Security and budget.
Still: regardless of the reason, or how good the reasons are – it’s yet another freaking broken promise.
When AKO was first instituted, it was announced – publicly – as both an official e-mail account and a permanent e-mail address that “you’ll keep for your career – and even after retirement”. Having an AKO account soon became mandatory. I personally remember both the early AKO rollout, and when having an account became mandatory – to include for members of the USAR and ARNG. Hell, I was a fairly early subscriber in the USAR.
In retrospect, I guess this really shouldn’t be a surprise. Ask anyone who retired in the 1960s or 1970s how DoD handled that promise of “lifetime medical care for you and your family as a military retiree” it made to everyone joining the service in the 1940s and 1950s. They all got royally screwed in the 1960s when DoD rolled out TRICARE (then called CHAMPUS). On top of the increased costs under CHAMPUS/TRICARE, for a long time (1967-2001, to be precise) they were also booted from CHAMPUS/TRICARE just as soon as they became Medicare-eligible. That didn’t get fixed until Congress passed the “TRICARE-for-Life” statue in 2001. And that only fixed part of the issue.
Hell, any of us can probably think of at least a handful of promises (implied or expressed) on which DoD has reneged over the years. This latest with AKO is just yet another example among many.
But it still p!sses me off. Why? Because this is being done simply because it’s convenient. In terms of the Army’s budget it will only save a pittance. Apparently it’s just “too hard” to keep their word by finding the money to issue retirees a secure ID card (CAC) on request and to pay DISA to continue e-mail service for retirees (the Army is transitioning to DISA-provided enterprise e-mail and phasing out its own e-mail systems, which is IMO likely a big part of the reason the change is happening now).
So instead of keeping its word, yet another DoD promise from past years goes out the window.
However, DoD can still find the money to fund overpriced, badly-designed pipe-dreams that will never work as advertised (see the F-35). As well as 680 or so craptastic “green energy” projects, virtually all of which have little-to-no military utility and which waste dollars. We throw out good, experienced troops who have one too many tattoos – thus flushing all the money we’ve spent to train them – and reject otherwise excellent recruits for the same reason. We can find the dollars to fund “gender equality” surveys regarding the integration of women into combat specialties, or run pilot training programs to tell us things we already know. And . . . well, I guess I should shut up now. I don’t have all day to continue writing this paragraph alone.
Hell, maybe it’s just me. Keeping my word is worth a bit more to me than avoiding a minor inconvenience; to me, keeping my word is important. Apparently Big Army’s word is worth less and it’s priorities are different.
Shame on you, Big Army. Shame.
The really sad part? Broken promises like this, from the Army and DoD, are really no surprise any more. They now seem to be more-or-less “business as usual”.
Just remember, HQDA:
. . . . Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!
So does GI Joe. As well as the guys and gals thinking about heading down to the Recruiter’s office.
Category: Big Army, Defense cuts
Nothing is too good for the troops, so, give them nothing.
Doesn’t this come under that “all of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again” heading?
You can bitch and moan all you want to, but it won’t change anything and you know it. The cost of tweaking thsoe few electrons to keep AKO accounts going could be better used for decorating the heads at the — oh, what am I saying? DoD doesn’t give a crap what happens to you after you’ve left them… or sometimes even if you’re still there.
Yep. I’m planting the seeds early for my young g’son to NOT join the military.
I was going to add something about ‘speak with forked tongue’ but I coudln’t remember who said that first.
AKO has transitioned to an FOUO classified portal, hence the added security (CAC card) and cancellation of email. It’s such a terrible portal I don’t really understand why anyone would miss it. The only thing I use it for on a regular basis is uploading NCOERs and routing them through MyForms.
Another bucket of chickenshit from the Great Whorehouse on the Potomac River! We vets don’t kowtow to B. Hussein 0bama & Co., so of course they’re gonna shit all over us every chance they get, fuck ’em all to death up the ass sideways with a broken broomstick while they’re sitting & spinning on a diarrhea-soaked pile of rusty, tangled concertina wire right after they’ve been violently ass-raped by a pissed-off Grizzly Bear with AIDS and the motherfucker that was mean enough to give it to him!!
Just got asked last week to help with my previous units FRG restart (prior to this msg).
The last one collapsed due to personally sensitive info getting sent thru compromised commercial accounts. My spouse was helping and asked me if I thought ______’s wife was selling Viagra, I said more likely her webmail got hacked and they are using her contacts list to send spam.
Members are supposed to get sponsored AKO email accounts to reduce risk. Also, AKO rule groups are a great way to control access and notifications.
So much for that capability.
The unit has Teams scattered from NY to FL so working virtually just got a lot harder.
The Family Programs folks seem to have also been caught by surprise and so far, don’t have a plan.
And.
Wasn’t it just last month Big Army said we need to stay in better touch with our retirees and former soldiers?
Nice.
I am a retired Army NCO and among those being kicked out of AKO. I still think that every young and able American would benefit from a few years in the military but I would no longer recommend it as a career. Liberals are gutting our military to buy votes from people that will sell them for government handouts.
Since when have B. Hussein Øbama & Co. ever been bashful about doing just that? Next, they’ll probably start demanding rent from Military Families living on on-base and on-post housing, that, or they’ll start insisting said housing be infested with Public Housing denizens in the name of “diversity”!
No surprise here.
Where is it stated that BO is a liberal? He is more conservative then The Saint. So enough of that BS. As for liberal, check homeland for the latest contractor crap. You idiots would not find a liberal if your life depended on it in either party.
Either way, the NSA is reading your mails. So ….
And remember all systems have been penetrated by hackers…soo
Assides from that why do you want a tie in? Yeah, i know, your friends can find you. Set up a link on military dot com, or one of the other friendly sites, or if you got the cash, find out how to start your own site, like your blogpost here, or brainstorm with the friends to ???
Probably the nicest thing they could do for/to us.
But, hey, we’re still a “soldier for life” according to the CSA.
Take a little bite here another little bite there. Then the the BIG bite does not seem to be or hurt as much. Joe
Just a thought: the costs for maintaining servers (app front, data backend, security and infrastructure) is extremely high. The government is consolidating data centers in efforts to reduce costs.
If it’s a choice between the largely dysfunctional AKO and being able to draw my well-earned retirement pay at age 60, I choose my retirement pay.
NKO has virtually the same thing happening, as it is only CAC enabled now.
Guess all the IRR folk (who don’t have a CAC) are just fucked…
Simple translation – F you, get the hell off our property. Next will be restrictions from going on post.
@17 I needed to go to the NFCU a while back at the Navy Annex in DC and they wouldn’t let me in WITHOUT AN ESCORT! You gotta watch out for those old retired officers. You NEVER know what they’re going to do.
@16- The Good Idea Fairy has failed us again.
Ive been out for almost 8 years and still use my AKO email for resumes. It looks more professional and subtlety draws attention to the military background. Im understanding now why my father tried to talk me out of joining, and unless something drastic changes, ill do everything I can to make sure any children I ever have from joining.
It would appear that this could be one more attempt to separate the retiree from his service entity. Making a career in the military as just another job. once you retire, you are no longer affiliated with the service. Revamp retirement, force retirees off Tricare for Life. Look at the big picture.