Department News


Sentinel Department Newsletters
(published annually)

Future ROA Annual Meetings
Based on information provided by ROA President Peggy Wilmoth on the July 15th Town Hall, the 2026 ROA Annual Meeting will be a 90-minute Zoom Meeting.  The 2027 Meeting will be March 11-14 in Washington DC. The change was primarily prompted by the Congressional schedule. Both Houses of Congress will be out of session in October so there were no opportunities for ROA visits to Congressmen and Senators. We will post registration on the October Zoom meeting when announced.
New Height Weight Standards for All Servicemembers
 (Although this story is focused on the Army, these standards apply to all Services)
Army officials have announced that the service has scrapped its decades-old height and weight standards, tape tests and supplemental body fat assessments in favor of a single waist-to-height ratio. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll signed the directive July 1, and it took effect immediately July 7. Every soldier has 90 days to get measured and recorded under the new system. Waist divided by height now has to be below 0.55. Buried in that fine print, however, is a policy that goes a little further than the announcement suggests: the tape test is now gone. Army officials announced Tuesday that the service has scrapped its decades-old height and weight standards, tape tests and supplemental body fat assessments in favor of a single waist-to-height ratio, becoming the last military branch to adopt the standard the Pentagon ordered in December. Also eliminated are alternative assessment methods and appeals. Exemptions that let the Army's strongest performers on the fitness test skip body composition screening altogether have also been cut. Learn more.
 
Reserve Retirees Approaching Age 60 Need to Take These Financial Steps
A retired military reservist approaching age 60 needs to take several steps before starting to receive military retirement pay; needs to review their Survivor Benefit Plan election; and may prepare to switch to “regular” retiree Tricare coverage. Most reserve retirees are eligible to receive military retirement pay at age 60. However, service members with qualifying active-duty service may become eligible earlier. Under the reduced-age retirement rules, each block of 90 qualifying days of active duty in a fiscal year typically moves the pension start date three months earlier. The start of military retirement pay can not be earlier than age 50. Read the full article.
Department Resolution to be Considered at the ROA National Convention
The government of the Republic of Iraq offered an Iraq Commitment Medal to Allied Iraq War Veterans in a letter to the US Secretary of Defense in 2011. The proposed ROA resolution urges the U.S. War Department and U.S. Congress at a minimum to approve this Iraq Commitment Medal to be awarded to qualified Iraqi War Veterans without further delay. Read the full Resolution.
 
ROA is Fighting to Streamline Duty Statuses to Ease
the Burdon on Reserve and Guard Members
Watch ROA Executive Director MG(R) John Hasham testify before Congress. "During the Opening Days of Operation Epic Fury, some Guard and Reserve Members went through four or five duty statuses while performing a continuous mission."  Click here to see the matrix of the over 30 duty statuses under which RC members currently serve.

ReserveConnect Forum: Behavioral Health Challenges in the RC

ROA will be hosting two live webinars via Zoom on June 9, 2026, focusing on behavioral health challenges Reservists and their families face, early eligibility and TAMP 180 for TRICARE benefits, reintegration from conflict zones, current stressors on the force, and the lack of available resources.

I you weren't able to attend you can still watch the conversation at www.roa.org/rcforums.
 
June Reserve Voice Online Newsletter
ROA's June monthly newsletter includes a plethora of news and information you need to know, including our FY 2027 congressional NDAA priorities and ROA’s goal to bring younger Reserve members further into the conversation about the future of the Reserve Component.
 

America’s Guard and Reserve at the Front Edge of Conflict
The first American deaths in the current conflict with Iran did not come from the active-duty force. They came from the Reserve Components. During Operation Epic Fury, U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers assigned to the 103rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command were killed in an unmanned aircraft attack at the Port of Shuaiba, Kuwait while supporting joint operations in the region. These Soldiers were not waiting for mobilization after the war began. They were already forward, sustaining the joint force.

Soon after, tragedy struck again within the Reserve Components when a KC-135 Stratotanker from the Ohio Air National Guard crashed during a mission, killing six Airmen. At the same time, Air National Guard fighters have been flying combat sorties as part of the opening phase of the campaign. F-35As from the Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing, diverted from other operational missions, moved into theater and joined the air campaign against Iranian targets.

Taken together, these events illustrate something many Americans, and even some policymakers, still fail to fully appreciate: the National Guard and Reserve are no longer a force waiting in reserve. They are an operational force integrated into the Joint Force and present wherever the nation requires military capability.

Read the full article.