Site News

AskTOP wel­comes Kara to the edit­ing staff.

I try my best to be a bringer of good news. Fortunately for all of us, I have that fine priv­i­lege today. The AskTOP edit­ing staff has grown by one.

On board with us this Spring is the tal­ented Kara Faulk. Kara comes to us as an intern from Athens State University where she is work­ing on her English degree. She is off to New York later this year to break into the big city pub­lish­ing scene, but we have her for now and we are putting her straight to work.

What does this mean to the AskTOP com­mu­nity? More high-quality Army lead­er­ship mate­r­ial for you to ref­er­ence on the job, share with your col­leagues, and argue about at the water cooler. Welcome, Kara! We are glad to have you on board.

Hello friends. Visitors this week­end may have noticed that we had a brief inter­rup­tion in ser­vice on Sunday. It looks like our host sus­pended us because we were ham­mer­ing their data­base server. We were over­due for some data­base opti­miza­tion and we should be back up and run­ning fine now.

We will be work­ing on some script­ing and caching improve­ments that should help us avoid issues like this in the future and maybe even speed up page load times a lit­tle for you guys. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

After months in devel­op­ment, today marks the offi­cial launch of the AskTOP Arms Room. We have com­piled what we believe to be one of the largest col­lec­tions of free down­loads for U.S. Army lead­ers avail­able on the internet.

Visit the new AskTOP Arms Room and let us know what you think!

We have over 3,000 doc­u­ments avail­able for down­load right now. All of the docs are cat­e­go­rized by type of media (Forms, Manuals, Clip Art, Memoranda, etc.) and they are search­able. You can also vote doc­u­ments up or down to adjust their plac­ing in our “Best of” list­ing with­out even log­ging in to the site.

We wel­come you to come take a peek at this new cor­ner of the web­site and let us know what you think! We appre­ci­ate your feedback.

We just uploaded a new wel­come video to the site. Check it out and let us know what you think. This is our first attempt at pub­lish­ing video for AskTOP. We plan to make more videos in the future. We have been play­ing around with the idea of putting together an Army lead­er­ship inter­view series where Mark speaks with mil­i­tary lead­ers about the strug­gles they faced as they were climb­ing up the ranks and what they did to over­come those challenges.

There is more than one answer to any lead­er­ship ques­tion. That’s why we rely on an entire panel of Subject Matter Experts to help answer your ques­tions. I think an inter­view series like this would allow us to share even more view­points with Army lead­ers every­where. What do you think?

Would you like to see more video con­tent on AskTOP? How about a video inter­view series with lead­ers from across the ser­vice? Sound off and let us know how you feel!

The Army, like any orga­ni­za­tion, must react and adapt itself accord­ing to chang­ing out­side con­di­tions. We are now enter­ing a part of the cycli­cal lifes­pan of the U.S. mil­i­tary called a draw­down. What does this mean to Soldiers? Simply put, if you have com­mit­ted an unfor­giv­able sin such as: DUI, drug use, lying, cheat­ing, or steal­ing you will have to work very hard to be retained. Read more»

I had an oppor­tu­nity to visit Fort Carson, Colorado last week where I spent time with Soldiers of HHC, 4^th STB, 4^th BCT includ­ing a meet­ing with AskTOP Subject Matter Expert SFC Mackie Ocampo. I also vis­ited the 60^th Ordnance Company.

I served as pla­toon sergeant and later first sergeant at the 60^th while we were sta­tioned in Friedberg Germany oper­at­ing the sec­ond largest ammu­ni­tion stor­age site out­side the United States. I left the 60^th Ordnance Company in October of 1995 as 1SG. At that time, the Soldiers and Leaders of the unit pre­sented me with a unit guidon. I hung the guidon proudly in all of my offices through­out the remain­der of my career.

Mark presents a guidon to 60^th ORD com­mand team

Space for my I Love Me Wall has dwin­dled since I retired. The 60^th has always held a spe­cial place in my heart. It didn’t feel right to pack the guidon away in a box, so I decided to give it back to the unit for cer­e­mo­nial use.

When I walked into the unit, I saw the unit motto “Wolf Pack” on the wall. That brought back mem­o­ries… I encour­aged the unit to choose a motto as none existed at the time within the 60^th and over­whelm­ingly they chose “Wolf Pack”. Funny how tra­di­tion car­ries on.

I spent some time with a group of Soldiers at the 60^th. This gave me an oppor­tu­nity to inter­act with a great group of Soldiers and lead­ers. As I stared into their faces I saw the next group of lead­ers that will lead the mil­i­tary of the future. Who knows, they may very well be some of the next great American civil­ian, polit­i­cal, and busi­ness leaders. After all, the mil­i­tary grows the best lead­ers this nation has to offer as they are tested morally and phys­i­cally. They must have the intesti­nal for­ti­tude to do what is right no mat­ter how tough things get. More impor­tantly we grow lead­ers that we will entrust with our country’s most pre­cious resource–the sons and daugh­ters of this great nation. They will be the ones to lead, grow, and men­tor our chil­dren as they tackle our nation’s future strate­gic and tac­ti­cal chal­lenges across the globe.

I would like to give a spe­cial thanks to 1SG Seip and CPT Parris of the 60^th Ordnance Company for allow­ing me the oppor­tu­nity to spend some time with their Soldiers. Also, a spe­cial thanks to the lead­ers of the 4^th STB, LTC Craft and CSM O’neal as well as SFC Mackie Ocampo and SFC Holland for their pro­fes­sion­al­ism and kindness.

Airdrop! New con­tent secured.

Eight new posts were pub­lished to the site today, includ­ing con­tri­bu­tions from AskTOP sub­ject mat­ter experts John Perry and Philip Cave (fea­tured below). Check them out and remem­ber to give us a shout if you have any tricky Army lead­er­ship questions!

My EPS selec­tion let­ter is signed, when will my pro­mo­tion orders be cut?

Orders will gen­er­ally be cut by the National Guard 15 to 30 days from the sign­ing of an EPS (Enlisted Promotion System) let­ter. However, there are sev­eral vari­ables that could impact that time… [read more]

Political CANs and CANNOTs for Soldiers dur­ing a pres­i­den­tial elec­tion year

Now that we are through the hol­i­day sea­son and charg­ing for­ward towards Spring we face 2012, a pres­i­den­tial elec­tion year. That poten­tially spells prob­lems for mil­i­tary per­son­nel (active, Guard, Reserve, or retired) who want to be involved in the polit­i­cal process. This arti­cle is a quick ref­er­ence to help you nav­i­gate the var­i­ous polit­i­cal restric­tions that apply to you as a Service Member. [read more]

More shiny new content…

• Where can I find an exam­ple Army counseling SOP?
• Can I use an elec­tronic DA FORM 5000/5501?
• Can I let Soldiers go to the gym dur­ing Duty Hours?
• Who gets copies of an Army coun­sel­ing statement?
• Can I receive an Article 15 because I let my pla­toon play soc­cer for PT?
• Can my leader force me to attend a din­ning in or dining out?

Click to read Army Regulation 600–8-19

Army Regulation 600–8-19 has been updated via a rapid action revi­sion dated 27 December 2011. Titled Enlisted Promotions and Reductions, this reg is an impor­tant ref­er­ence con­cern­ing advance­ment through the Army ranks. Changes include:

• Clarifies mil­i­tary edu­ca­tion waivers for rec­om­men­da­tion and pro­mo­tion (tables 3–3 and 3–4).
• Adds new guid­ance for select­ing or nom­i­nat­ing Soldiers to fill first sergeant and sergeant major vacan­cies (para 7–41).
• Adds an Internal Control Evaluation Checklist (app B).
• Changes Basic Noncommissioned Officers’ Course to Advance Leaders Course and Advanced Noncommissioned Officers’ Course to Senior Leaders Course (throughout).
• Changes HRC-Alexandria, HRC-Indianapolis, and HRC-St. Louis to HRC (throughout).
• Makes admin­is­tra­tive changes (throughout).

Check your inbox for our Christmas Newsletter or click this link to read it in your web browser. Merry Christmas, folks. Have an excel­lent holiday.

We have an excit­ing 2012 com­ing up on the site. The newslet­ter con­tains some details about where we are going and how we are chang­ing to bring you what you’ve asked for.

Welcome to December, folks. I’ve recently returned from my famil­ial Thanksgiving pil­grim­age from Alabama to the frozen wastes of Minnesota. I man­aged to sur­vive the trip with my health mostly intact. One runny nose and a nasty stom­ach virus van­quished, I am back in action.

Every month we like to take a step back and take stock of the site. I look for things we are doing wrong, things we’ve accom­plished, and trends in the feed­back we are hear­ing from you, the read­ers. Our upcom­ing newslet­ter will out­line some of this infor­ma­tion and let you in on some of our plans for the future of AskTOP.

For now I will leave you with a sin­cere sea­sonal mes­sage. Thank you all for help­ing this site launch suc­cess­fully and begin to trans­form into a true com­mu­nity of Army lead­ers. Your out­looks, insights, per­spec­tives, and ever-professional bear­ing have made AskTOP a joy to run thus far. From all of the crew at AskTOP, thank you!

There have been rumors cir­cu­lat­ing about an update to AR 670–1 effec­tive 1 March 2011. We have just con­firmed through offi­cial Army chan­nels that this doc­u­ment is NOT an offi­cial release. The cur­rent ver­sion of the Army Uniform reg is effec­tive 3 Feb 2005. There are a num­ber of mes­sages that have been released that change and amend this reg­u­la­tion, but no com­plete AR revi­sion has been approved. This notice is being pro­vided as an advi­sory to our readers.

The cur­rent ver­sion of AR 670–1 can always be down­loaded directly from the Army Publishing Directorate here:  Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms. Wait for offi­cial word from APD before using any updated ver­sion of this reg.

Thank you for your Service.

As you know, this Friday (11.11.11) is Veterans Day. This is a time to cel­e­brate vet­er­ans from all ser­vices and con­flicts. According to the 2010 US Census, there are nearly 22-million vet­er­ans in the United States. That’s a lot of brave souls. Thank you all for your ser­vice and sac­ri­fice. If you are active-duty and you have the lux­ury of an extended week­end com­ing up, enjoy it to its fullest.

As has become tra­di­tion over the years, many busi­nesses are offer­ing spe­cial dis­counts, sales, and free­bies to vet­er­ans and active-duty ser­vice mem­bers alike this week. The Army has pub­lished an arti­cle about some of the var­i­ous offer­ings. At the prompt­ing of AskTOP SME Becky Pillsbury, I’ve pulled out some of the high­lights below for your con­ve­nience. The orig­i­nal arti­cle can be found here: Businesses offer free meals, deals on Veterans Day. Thanks for the tip, Becky!

This list will be updated if we stum­ble across any more good offers.

Free Food for Veterans Day

All of the offers below are avail­able to vet­er­ans and active-duty mil­i­tary. Offers are good for Veterans Day only unless specif­i­cally indi­cated otherwise.

• Applebees: Eat free from a lim­ited menu
• Chili’s: Eat free from a lim­ited menu
• Golden Corral: Eat free from 1700–2100 on 14 Nov.
• Krispy Kreme: Come in and claim your free doughnut
• Subway: Free six inch sub or flatbread
• 7–11: Free small Slurpee from 1100–1900

Don’t for­get that the National Park Service is offer­ing free admis­sion to over 100 loca­tions around the coun­try 11–13 Nov. Get out­side and enjoy the lit­tle bit of nice weather we have left!

Have you heard of a great Veterans Day free­bie? Share it with us in the com­ments below and we will add it to the list.