Conference aims to identify, correct problems faced by families of deployed

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By Nancy Montgomery, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, May 12, 2005

HEIDELBERG, Germany — If Gen. B.B. Bell said it once, he said it 20 times:

“I’m all over it.”

“Good stuff.”

“Write that down.”

Chairing a U.S. Army Europe conference on improving services for families of deployed soldiers this week, Bell promised that whatever could be changed, would be changed — and soon.

“Rusty,” he said repeatedly to Brig. Gen. Rusty Frutiger, “get me something to sign.”

The two-day conference brought more than 100 Army spouses, educators, service providers, administrators, lawyers and commanders from throughout Europe to the Heidelberg Marriott Hotel to help identify problems and suggest fixes in five broad categories: installation support services, rear detachment operations, policy and programs, services to children, and health care.

But it was evident early on that Bell already not only had his finger on the pulse of the community but also a finger in every pie. Problems in how children of deployed soldiers were recruited for summer camps? Bell knew all about it and suggested changes himself.

More people missing dental appointments? Bell knew why, sort of.

Chaplain shortages, day-care shortages, school program shortages, Army and Air Force Exchange Service image problems: Bell knew, and had ideas of what to do.

“I’ve just got to roll in on this family care plan,” he said, after one proposal to mandate an emergency guardianship plan for all families, not just dual-soldier ones. “This is pretty intrusive. It’s really about a formal guardian,” Bell said. “We might have to go down that path. I’m going to look closely at that.”

Perhaps the only matter that took him by surprise was the fact that some base commanders don’t contract for grass-mowing and snow-shoveling within 50 feet of housing, insisting wives do the yardwork when soldiers are deployed.

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of,” Bell said.

Despite his familiarity with nearly all issues raised, Bell said the conference helped in getting people together and told him “what’s still bugging them.”

The conference attendees were instructed at the beginning that what Bell was really after was sustained changes, through new or revised documents — regulations, circulars, pamphlets and whatever else the military bureaucracy had written down.

“Our ability to influence is fleeting if we only do it by personality or if we only do it for the moment,” Bell said. “I’m trying to deal with the institution.”

The conference was also billed as a lessons-learned exercise — after two major troop deployments to Iraq and back — for those who’d lived through it to offer how it might be done better the next time. Medical and dental care, for example, suffered when 1st Armored Division soldiers, after more than a year downrange, came back and were supposed to all be attended to within a few months.

“They had four months to try to clean up two years of neglect,” said Lt. Col. Laurence Mixon, who attended the conference in his battalion-commander role. “It killed the system.”

Inconsistency, “red tape,” and too-few resources were common themes at the conference.

Frutiger, USAREUR deputy chief of staff for personnel, said that was also expected.

“I don’t think any of it is going to be a surprise,” he said on the conference’s first day. “They’ll want us to spend more money, but we simply don’t have the money.”

Still, he said, the conference would help him prioritize where to spend what he could.

Many of the proposals from the conference attendees were apparently modest, such as making sure dentists conducted annual exams and X-rays on the same day, or mandating soldiers be briefed on how to handle their increased deployment pay to discourage impulse buys.

At the end, Bell said about half of the proposals could be achieved “just boom.” Others might take time, and some weren’t possible.

Like a proposal to make child care — one of the biggest weaknesses in USAREUR, Bell said — more affordable. Europe should be designated a high-cost area and cost-of-living allowances be excluded from family income totals, the committee working on the issue suggested.

“I don’t have that authority,” Bell responded. “But it’d be terrific, wouldn’t it?”