United We Roll at Stardust Radio

If you have been following our visits with deployed members over these past years, you may remember that we have talked with a few members who have had departures from service denied or who have been brought back into service under the Stop Loss program. There were some tough situations caused with these interruptions in personal lives even after these Heroes of Freedom had served full tours of duty. I recall one in particular who would have been in the medical school where he had been accepted, had it not been for his Stop Loss. But he was serving out this extension of time, then was heading back to his medical school so he could become a doctor and planned to re-enter the military to take care of wounded or ill soldiers, to whom he was dedicated.

This release information is posted so that we can hopefully help to get word out to all members who are eligible for pay in association with their Stop Loss experiences.

Stop Loss - Just one more way that our Heroes of Freedom and their families give on behalf of freedom.

Release No: 138
July 27, 2010

Current, former Airmen eligible for stop loss special pay

Daniel P. Elkins
Air Force Personnel Center Public Affairs Office

RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas – Thousands of current and former Air Force members remain eligible to receive $500 in retroactive special pay for each month they were affected by stop loss. Airmen have until Oct. 21 to apply through the Air Force Personnel Center here.

Air Force people eligible include active, retired and former members as well as Reserve component members who served on active duty while their enlistment or period of obligated service was involuntarily extended, or whose eligibility for separation or retirement was suspended as a result of stop loss. Those who accepted a selective re-enlistment bonus subsequent to being affected by stop loss are not eligible for the special pay.

Air Force officials used stop loss for Operation Enduring Freedom from Oct. 2, 2001, through Jan. 31, 2003, and Operation Iraqi Freedom from May 2 through Dec. 31, 2003. Individuals who were deployed during either operation may be eligible beyond the inclusive dates depending on their Air Force specialty and deployment return date. The 2009 War Supplemental Appropriation Act set aside $534.4 million for the retroactive stop loss special pay compensation authority.

Personnel officials are encouraging those who were involuntarily held on active duty during either of the stop loss periods to contact AFPC to determine if they might be eligible for the special pay compensation.

“We want to exhaust all efforts in our attempts to reach as many eligible members as possible while the authority is in place to compensate them for their extended duty,” said Col. Bill Foote, the AFPC director of personnel services. “Of course, many of those eligible to receive this special pay are no longer in our ranks, so we’re opening channels to reach out to veterans to help spread the word about this valuable benefit throughout their communities.”

More than 3,000 claims by Airmen have been approved for retroactive stop loss special pay since officials here began accepting claims in September 2009. Officials estimate an additional 13,000 current and former Air Force members may be eligible for the compensation.

Whether or not Air Force veterans are sure they are eligible, Colonel Foote encourages those impacted by stop loss to apply. Claims are evaluated based upon historical records already available to personnel officials as well as any supporting documentation the applicant may submit.

To file a claim, eligible members or legally designated beneficiaries may download a stop loss claim application at www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/stoploss. Applicants who were serving in the Reserve or Guard at the time of stop loss may apply by visiting the Air Reserve Personnel Center website at https://arpc.afrc.af.mil/vPC-GR.

For more information on program eligibility and claims instructions, call the Total Force Service Center at (800) 525-0102.

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United We Roll World Tour Show
Stardust Radio www.stardustradio.com
Tuesday 7/27/10 2:00pm – 4:30pm Central (Live)
Wednesday 7/28/10 6:30pm – 9:00pm Central (Repeat)

Welcome Stardust Listeners and thank you for joining us on United We Roll this Tuesday, the 27th day of July, as we take time to honor those who serve our country and who protect our freedom!! It is amazing to realize that this is already our last show for the month of July in this year of 2010!

For those of you who are planning to make cards or small gifts for Christmas Care Packages for our troops, you should have your list of materials made out and be ready to go, unless you are waiting for school to start and are going to make this a class project. In that case, you should try to have your class projects completed by the end of October to allow adequate mailing time.

Now on to our show for this week. We have three fresh new visits with four of our deployed Heroes of Freedom. The show today will actually end at our usual time of 4:00pm Central, which puts us within our usual two hour period. Remember, if you are not able to stay with us through the show this afternoon, it will repeat again tomorrow evening, Wednesday, July 28th at 6:30pm Central. In addition, an MP3 copy will be placed on our show archive site for listening and downloading. You can reach our archive site at www.stardustradio.info or on the United We Roll page at www.stardustradio.com.

(2:07) During our first visit, we will be talking with Air Force members TSgt John Holloman & SrA Jonathan Killebrew who are currently deployed with the 532nd ESFS (Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron). Unlike many iof the other security members with whom we have spoken, these airmen work mostly off base or "outside the wire" as the term goes. Though they carry snacks and water with them, they are currently in temperatures of 120+ degrees and wearing 75 pounds of gear, which leaves feeling little like eating until they get back and cool off. This is a great visit with two very dedicated service members who ask only that we keep them in our prayers.

(2:48) Our next visit is with Army CPT Robert Leonard who is currently on deployment as the Signal Company Commander with B Co, 1-3 BTSB, 3rd ID. The Signal Company, as you will hear, is in charge of all communications within the Brigade and, as the commander, CPT Leonard manages the personnel and equipment that support the Brigade communications network. This job keeps everyone busy, including the commander and all of the "excellent soldiers" (as CPT Leonard proudly refers to his unit members). This is a very inspirational visit and one that I hope you all will not miss.

(3:27pm) Our third and final visit is with another Army member who is on deployment. We will be speaking with Army SPC Nicholas Piere of D Co, 2-7 IN, 3rd ID, where he continues his work as a CBRNE
Specialist and as a COIST Assistant. SPC Piere trains soldiers in his unit as on how to react to and handle chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosives. As a COIST Assistant, he also works with Iraqi Intelligence in preparation for the draw down. This young Hero of Freedom expresses his True American Pride and military family heritage as reasons that encouraged his service and protection of our freedom.
We would also like to thank some folks without whom these visits today would not be possible. Our deepest appreciation goes to TSG Jennifer Buzanowski, Mr Tom Conning and Capt Curt Schultheis.

We want to acknowledge Talking Communities, the Veteran owned service that brings us our Chat Star Teleconference Facility with state of the art private rooms and audio visual supports. If you need a place to host business seminars, display products or have a craft demo, or maybe you need to have a family celebration with members who are scattered around the US or the world. This is the place to see, hear, speak, show and text each other. For more information, contact the Stardust Radio business office at 319-648-3201.

Ladies & Gentlemen, we wish to thank all of you for joining us and we hope that you will be with us again next week when we will have more great visits from our Heroes of Freedom.

To all of our Veterans and all military family members who are listening, thank you for your service and for our freedom. To all of our First Responders and family members, thank you for watching over our families, homes and communities.

Once again, we would like to remind any of our listeners who are interested in health and legislative issues that affect those who protect our freedom to tune in to our other broadcasts – OFFE with Gene Simes and Jere Berry at 8pm Central on Tuesday nights ...... and also with Rick Townsend and Firebase Network Sundays at 6:00pm Central.

Please remember, it is up to us at home to help our troops, not only with letters and care packages, but also by being aware of legislation in our states and in DC that will impact them and their families. We must do our part to insure that our Heroes of Freedom receive the benefits and health care that they deserve for keeping our country safe and free. It is the least that we can do for them and it is part of what we must do to help insure freedom for our children.

We wish you all a good, safe and healthy week.
May God Bless You All And May God Bless America!