USMA Class of 1995

Bike 4 Vets

Dear Class of 1995 Officers:

My name is Ed Acevedo and I am a graduate of the Class of 1988.

In March I will be starting a cycling trip from Saint Augustine, Florida to San Diego, California to raise awareness and money for disabled veterans and the families of soldiers killed in action.

Here is the website for the trip: www.bike4vets.org

Many of the younger USMA classes are bearing the brunt of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The purpose of my trip is to honor their sacrifices, and the sacrifices of their troops.

If you like the concept, please let me know who I should direct future emails to. I will send out a note once the trip is underway. I am not asking any of you to solicit donations from people in your network. But perhaps you can help me by getting out the word to anybody you think might be interested in this cause. I am hoping to get a good amount of support from members of the extended USMA community.

In case anybody asks, I am not setting up my own charity for this event. On the website there will be a page where donors can contribute directly to one of several foundations that provide assistance to disabled veterans. All of the charities are well-established and recognized by the IRS as charitable organizations for tax purposes. Donations are tax-deductible.

This event is not just about raising money, but more about increasing awareness and focusing attention on our heroes. The story of our veterans and their contributions often gets lost among all the other media stories these days, and I hope my event will help to ensure that their sacrifices are not forgotten.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your service to America.

Best regards,
Ed Acevedo
Saint Augustine, Florida

Celebrating 30 Years of Women

This information is taken verbatim from an email I received from Donna McAleer ‘87, USMA Women’s Conference Communications.

The United States Military Academy and its Association of Graduates will celebrate 30 years of the integration of women into the Corps of Cadets by hosting the 2006 West Point Women’s Conference at West Point, New York from April 27 – 29, 2006. All current and former USMA Staff and Faculty members, USMA graduates and USMA cadets are invited to attend.

Registration for the conference is available at www.west-point.org/usmawomen and by clicking the Conference Registration hyperlink. An early registration discount of $50 is applied to registrations for graduates, current and former USMA staff and faculty, and their guests if completed by 15 Feb 06. On 16 Feb 06, the registration fee increases to $150 for graduates, current and former USMA staff and faculty, and $200 for guests.

As part of this conference, we encourage all women graduates to participate in the graduate data collection project also available through the url above. The userid is usmawomen and the password is GoArmy. We look forward to seeing you at this commemorative celebration.

The 2006 West Point Women's Conference was created to recognize and advance the United States Military Academy's progressive contribution to the success of the All-Volunteer Force by: celebrating the integration of women into the Corps of Cadets; recognizing the contribution women leaders are making to the Army Profession and the Nation; and planning for future contributions to an increasingly diverse Army and Nation.

Message Board, at long last !

It has taken me some time to get it done, but we finally have a message board. I have transfered the old messages over for convenience, I encourage you to pass the word along. We will continue to make improvements on it and else where.

Individual Ready Reserve

Just Out!
Due to a recent change to Department of Defense Directive 1235.13 your current mobilization status might be impacted. It is imperative that you contact the Human Resources Command, St. Louis at 1-800-318-5298 and immediately speak with your career manager to discuss your options.

Feedback from abroad...

• USMA '93 --
  • I understand you are the USMA class of 95 POC for IRR.
  • I am actually class of 93 and was hoping it would be alright to get in touch with you. If there is a class of 93 POC that you are aware of, please let me know and I can go bug that person.
• USMA '94 --
  • Well, here is what we are finding out from this whole crazy experience of Rick being called back up. Carolyn, your sniffing must have waken up the Army to that DoD policy because last Wednesday a MAJ called Rick and said he did not have to go if he did not want to because he did serve his 8 years (5 active, 3 IRR) and that to be eligible to be called up, he must positively affirm that he wants to stay IRR. As a compromise, he did report to Ft. Jackson on Sunday. He signed that necessary paperwork on Monday, but now the HRC there doesn't know what to do with him. (duh...send him home!) so as they figure out how to out-process him, he's been hanging out. He will make it back here for Thanksgiving though.
• USMA '95 --
  • Thanks for all the info. Actually found out this afternoon that those who did not opt-in were released from the orders they received. I will hold on to this # and info just in case. Thanks again.
  • Thank you very much for your reply. That is very helpful - and comforting! If you don't mind, I may send you another email in the coming weeks to verify that I have correctly interpreted the forthcoming directive.
  • Thanks for the offer but between then and now, I have gotten all the esignation paperwork done.
  • Thanks for coordinating all of this IRR information. Over a year ago, I contacted a POC to make sure that my status as fully resigned was correct and to find out if there was any further paperwork I needed to file. I got a reply from an officer at HRC-St Louis informing me that my record was archived and needed nofurther action. The e-mail and response are below. In your experience, is this sufficient reason to believe that everything's in order or is there some kind of paperwork that verifies my complete resignation from the Army beyond a shadow of a doubt. It is kind of frustrating to worry about this everytime there is a new IRR call up.
  • I just reviewed the class website information on the IRR. My interpretation is that if I’ve done nothing about my IRR status since I left the Army in 2000, I should no longer be a part of the IRR. I based this interpretation on the following: "4.5. Officers who have fulfilled their MSO and have not taken action to elect to remain in the IRR shall be advised of the requirement to remove them from the military. The Military Departments shall remove those officers from the military within 2 years after fulfillment of the officer’s MSO unless they positively elect to remain in the IRR past their MSO"
  • Thanks for helping all of us Knucklehead IRRs who have no clue as to what is going on.
  • I appreciate you putting all of the IRR information together.
  • Thanks for the help. I applied for a delay and it was approved. I am now moving forward with an exemption in light of the directive. Keep up the good work. I know that I speak for all of us who have been called up that we appreciate what you are doing to help us.
  • I just wanted to send a quick note to say thanks for working on this stuff for us. I am sure everyone appreciates your help as much as I do.
• MOST COMMON QUESTIONS ---
  
  • I submitted my resignation in xyz...but never received confirmation of receipt. How can I guarantee that I'm out?
  • Do we have any classmates at PERSCOM (preferrably at Reserve PERSCOM? They should be able to help us get Honorable Discharge certificates for those who have trly resigned, but not received anything from the government.

Here are some reasons why this is so important:

1. IRR recall is happening.
2. Our classmates are getting orders.
3. DoD put out a new directive (1235.13) dealing with IRR on 16 July 05 - it states:
   4.4. All Ready Reservists shall be retained for the entire period of their MSO, contractual obligation, or may voluntarily remain in the IRR as prescribed in reference (f), unless discharged under regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Defense or the Secretary concerned.
   4.5. Officers who have fulfilled their MSO and have not taken action to elect to remain in the IRR shall be advised of the requirement to remove them from the military. The Military Departments shall remove those officers from the military within 2 years after fulfillment of the officer’s MSO unless they positively elect to remain in the IRR past their MSO.
   4.6. Ready Reservists, including personnel in the IRR and the ING, who occupy Federal civilian positions designated as key positions IAW DoD Directive 1200.7 (reference (g)) shall not be retained in the Ready Reserve. All Ready Reservists, to include personnel in the IRR and the ING, designated as key employees are required to notify their Military Service of their requested status (Standby Reserve – Active Status, Retired Reserve, if eligible, or discharge from the military) within 30 days of such designation IAW DoD Instruction 1215.18 (reference (h)).
4. The effective date of the directive is 16 July 2005.
5. Our classmates are already discussing with Congressional Representatives.
6. DoD Reserve Affairs, Army Reserve Affairs, Army G1 and both DoD and Army Legal are working through the issue. BG Byrne in the Army G1 is working the issue of IRR recall through HRC St.Louis and trying to resolve it by tomorrow, but as with all things Army, it may take a little longer.

Carolyn Davis has asked to publish some information about the recent Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) fiasco. From this page you will find information on the basics of the IRR program, discussion about and instructions for resigning from the IRR, and a list of additional resources about IRR mobilizations available on the web. There are also links that will lead you through what happens when you are recalled, steps to prepare yourself for mobilization, what you need to take with you to the mobilization station, and accounts from other classmates who have gone before you in the IRR mobilization process.

Updates to the Army IRR recall policy are currently in process based on DoD Directive 1235.13, Management of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) and the Inactive National Guard. As of Friday 4 November 2005, Army G-1 guidance was nearly ready for publication. The latest updates from DoD Reserve Affairs and Army Reserve Affairs will be posted upon publication or notification.

For answers to or action on additional questions please contact Carolyn Davis, USMA '95 IRR POC.

Finding Classmates

As our reunion approaches, many people are trying to find each other. AOG runs a great service that can be found here. You will need to login, and the AOG Homepage has directions for getting your credentials.

I highly recommend that you keep your information up to date with AOG. The class leadership uses the information here to find you and push out information to you. This is critical as the reunion approached in October.

Class Mailing List

The mailing is continuing to grow, albeit slowly. I have had about one hundred people contact me and request to be added. I would like to get as many as possible added to the list, but I will only do so at the request of the individual. The list is hosted at West-Point.org. I am having those that interested in participating contact me with their name, company at graduation, cullum, and email address. Please have something in the title indicating 'subscribe' or 'add to list'. This list does not publish the addresses to which the message was sent; rather, the 'To:' line simply states 'usma1995'. This will prevent spam harvesters from getting your information. The information is private to the administrators of the site.

Site was last updated on 20 Mar 2007

Academy events.