Retiree News

Photographs. We need to continue our appeal for photographs. If you have any old photographs of Guardmembers, could you scan them to JPEGs and email them to Retiree News  – [email protected]. Old photographs continue to generate a large number of views.

Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) Update. We need to keep monitoring the ongoing debate about commissaries. Currently taxpayers pay more than a $1.4 billion a year to subsidize commissaries. Congress wants to make the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) self-supporting or have minimal Federal support.

The DeCA has already introduced store brands that reduce costs. Quoting their February 22, 2018 press release, “Commissary store brands are becoming a larger portion of the store inventory with the latest addition of private label products.” Read the press release for more information about store brands.

There will be more commissary / exchange joint sales events. DeCA’s March 8, 2018 press release had more detailed information. There has been unofficial talk about merging the commissary and exchanges systems. Imagine more locations like the Fort Shafter exchange with an expanded food availability.

A Public Radio International (PRI) article mentioned two other options. One is to privatize the commissary system. The other is to close commissaries and give beneficiaries a monetary payment.

We continue to monitor this on-going dialogue about commissaries.

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