Annual Physical Fitness Test (St. Pius X High School)

Each APFT is held at St. Pius High School track and begins at 0800. RSVP by COB the Thursday before the scheduled APFT via email to LCDR Edward Dieser, 404.639.0757.

Officers requiring an immediate APFT to maintain their Basic Readiness status may also contact LCDR Edward Dieser, 404.639.0757, to schedule a test at the Roybal Lifestyle Fitness Center. Additional dates for other venues may be added. Monthly reminder announcements will be provided. 2008 APFT Schedule:

• 21 June
• 19 July
• 16 August
• 20 September
• 18 October
• 15 November
• 13 December

CAPT Ralph O'Conner enjoys his sidebridge	CDR Gail Williams providing encouragement during the sit-ups

Please note: These items are for personal use. The USPHS flag is not intended to replace official USPHS flags, as noted in Subchapter CC29.9 of the Commissioned Corps Personnel Manual.

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ACOA Sponsors Successful Roadside Cleanup on May 10, 2008
Submitted by LT Anna Satcher Johnson

Thirteen officers and their family members participated in the roadside cleanup sponsored by ACOA on Saturday, May 10, 2008. The volunteers gathered at a local church on Saturday morning to remove roadside litter along a one-mile stretch of Ponce De Leon Avenue between Briarcliff and Clifton Roads. As officers cleaned the road, a local resident jogging by expressed his appreciation for ACOA’s service. ACOA is responsible for a one-mile stretch of Ponce De Leon Avenue between Briarcliff and Clifton Roads and organizes regular clean-ups to remove roadside litter. This community service project has been accepted and sustained by ACOA as part of the Georgia Adopt-a-Highway program. ACOA contractually agrees to clean up a section of roadway four times each year. The Georgia Department of Transportation has erected signs noting our sponsorship. These signs are seen by tens of thousands of motorists and passengers.

Please join us for our next quarterly clean-up on Saturday, August 16 at 0930. We meet at the Church of the Latter Day Saints, 1450 Ponce de Leon Avenue NE, Atlanta, GA. For questions, contact LT Anna Satcher Johnson at 404.639.6167 or LT Melissa Morrison at 404.639.4227.

 

ACOA members at the May 10 Roadside Clean-up: Left to Right, CDR (Ret.) Lester Sharpton, CDR Marta Guerra, CDR Heidi Blanck (and children), LT Carl Lawson; 2nd row, CDR Theresa Harrington, CDR Jacqueline Thomas, LT Ray Tookes; Rear, CAPT Michael Campsmith. Not pictured: LTs Dianna Densmore, Paula Peters, and Anna Satcher Johnson.

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Membership has its Privileges: ACOA is Working for You
Submitted by CDR Robert Knowles

The mission of the Atlanta Commissioned Officers Association (ACOA) is to advance the PHS Commissioned Corps by uniting and serving Atlanta-area Corps officers and advocating for their interests through leadership and communication. ACOA membership provides many opportunities to get involved with your local Corps community.

The Atlanta Branch of COA is involved in many activities. Some of ACOA’s activities include, but are not limited to the following:

• Annual Atlanta Officer's Promotion Ceremony
• Community service activities (such as Habitat for Humanity and USO Hartsfield)
• Social gatherings (evening out, sporting events, formal)
• General membership meetings on current topics of interest
• Special interest lectures and Lunch-and-Learns
• Crunch and Runs (APFT)

If you are already a member of National COA and the Atlanta Branch of COA, we want to thank you for your time, commitment, and support. If you are not a member, please join. If you know of officers in your agency, division, or branch who are not members, please encourage them to join! With larger numbers we can have a louder, more united voice to address issues that affect Corps officers, and we can make more of an impact in our local community.

If you are interested in becoming an ACOA member, please contact Malissa Spalding at the National COA Headquarters, 301.731.9080, or join online at the National Commissioned Officers Association webpage. You must be a member of COA in order to be a member of ACOA, and the dues for both are paid annually at the end of June. The dues for National COA membership vary depending on your rank and PHS status, and range from $25 to $135 annually. Atlanta Branch membership dues for 2008 are $10 per year.

All members receive a subscription to FRONTLINE, the monthly National COA newsletter, and The Signal, ACOA’s bi-monthly newsletter. Also, as an ACOA member, you will receive discounts on PHS flags, PHS desk sets, and ACOA-sponsored social events.

We look forward to a very exciting year with particular emphasis placed on social events and esprit de corps for our members. We’d be glad to have you on board for the journey!

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Update on Commissioned Corps Uniform Changes
Submitted by CDR Bruce Tierney

In a July 5th, 2007 memorandum [PDF] and an August 28th, 2007 memorandum [PDF], former Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH), ADM John Agwunobi, highlighted 15 separate decisions he made that impacted both uniform as well as grooming and appearance issues that will affect Commissioned Officers over the next several months and years. As previously noted, one of the driving forces behind these changes was the desire of the ASH to help move the Corps towards a structure for uniforms and appearance that is more consistent with our fellow uniform service officers in the Navy, in part to give officers a single source for acquiring uniform components.

In particular, officers should note that daily uniform wear is required effective 1 July 2008.

Please see the “March Uniform Update” article on Commissioned Corps uniform changes on the ACOA website. This article provides officers with an update on the status of each of these policy decisions, to include those decisions that have already been acted on and the current progress that has been made on those policies not yet formally announced by the Office of Commissioned Corps Force Management (OCCFM) and the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG). Officers should continue to keep a close eye on the Commissioned Corps Management Information System (CCMIS) web site for the latest updates and information in the form of Personnel Policy Memorandums (PPM) and Personnel Operations Memorandums (POM).

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Thrift Saving Plan: Getting Started
Submitted by CDR David B. Callahan

The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is a federal government-sponsored retirement savings and investment plan. Although it was established in 1986, members of the uniformed services have been eligible to participate since 2001. The TSP is distinct from the retirement pay provided through the Commissioned Corps. This article provides basic information about saving through the TSP and why it is important to you. Comprehensive information can be found at the TSP website.

Most personal finance experts agree that Americans tend to underestimate the income they will need in retirement, and do not save and invest sufficiently to provide for the retirement lifestyle they envision. The TSP provides a way to save for retirement in addition to retirement pay. The TSP offers the same type of savings and tax benefits that many private corporations offer their employees under “401(k)” plans. The TSP is a defined contribution program, whereas the uniformed services retirement system is a defined benefit program. This means that the benefits received from the uniformed services retirement system (i.e., retired pay) are based on years of service and the rank held at the time of retirement, rather than on the amount of contributions and earnings, as is the case with the TSP. In addition, unlike participation in the uniformed services retirement system, participation in the TSP is optional. To participate in the TSP, an officer must sign up through the Commissioned Corps Compensation Branch. Contributions to the TSP are deducted from your pay; the amount you contribute and the earnings attributable to your contributions belong to you. TSP contributions are yours to keep even if you do not serve the 20 or more years ordinarily necessary to receive uniformed services retired pay. The TSP offers advantages from a tax perspective: contributions are deducted from your pay before taxes, and your investment earnings are tax-deferred (meaning you are not taxed until you make withdrawals). This can help lower your taxes now, and even though you pay taxes later, you may be in a lower tax bracket in retirement.

An officer signs up for the TSP by completing and submitting a TSP Election Form (TSP-U-1) to the Compensation Branch. You can decide how much of your pay you contribute to the TSP, with certain rules and limits:

• You can contribute to the TSP as soon as you become a member of the uniformed services. You may elect to contribute any percentage (1 to 100%) of your basic pay; however, your annual total of tax-deferred contributions cannot exceed the Internal Revenue Code limit, which is $15,500 for 2008.
• You can change the amount of your TSP contributions at any time by submitting your TSP Election Form (TSP-U-1) to the Compensation Branch.
• If you contribute to the TSP from your basic pay, you may also contribute from 1 to 100 percent of any incentive or special pay (including bonus pay) you receive.
• The amount you decide to contribute from each category of pay must be stated as a whole percent. The dollar amount of your contributions from your pay will be automatically adjusted with every change in your pay.
• Allowances (Basic Allowance for Housing, Basic Allowance for Subsistence, etc), cash awards, lump sum leave sell-back, and separation pay cannot be contributed to your TSP.

• Government Securities Investment (G) Fund
• Fixed Income Index Investment (F) Fund
• Common Stock Index Investment (C) Fund
• Small Capitalization Stock Index Investment (S) Fund
• International Stock Index Investment (I) Fund
• Lifecycle (L) Funds