Roger That: Air Force considers plan to triple length of maternity leave

The Air Force is pondering whether to lengthen paid maternity leave, following the lead of the Navy, which tripled the benefit to 18 weeks, the Air Force Times is reporting.

The Air Force offers six weeks of maternity leave, as Defense Department policies require. But in an email Wednesday, Air Force spokeswoman Rose Richeson said the Air Force is looking into extending that leave.

Richeson said the possible extension would be “similar to the recent changes announced by the Secretary of the Navy,” Ray Mabus. Richeson said there is no time frame for making any decisions on changing the leave policy.

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Federal lawmakers are slamming an U.S. Army plan to cut troop strength by 40,000 and shrink the size of the force from 490,000 to 450,000 by 2017, according to Defense News.

The 450,000 figure was already known, but plans to draw down to that amount by 2017 is a year sooner than previously announced. The new plan, reported by USA Today, includes 17,000 civilian lay-offs, and downsized brigades at Fort Benning, Georgia, and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.

“People who believe the world is safer, that we can do with less defense spending and 40,000 fewer soldiers, will take this as good news. I am not one of those people,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

During the peak of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army swelled to about 570,000 soldiers to ensure that deployments could be limited to one year. The Army began cutting troop strength after most troops came home from those wars.

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Former President George W. Bush charged $100,000 to speak at a 2012 charity fundraiser for U.S. military veterans severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, ABC News reported Wednesday.

The network also reported former first lady Laura Bush collected $50,000 to appear a year earlier.

Speaking and traveling fees for the former president were paid by the charity, but the amount was underwritten by a private donor, the charity’s lawyer told ABC News.

According to its website, the charity, Helping a Hero, helps to provide “specially-adapted homes” for wounded veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to help “reintegrate them into their community.”

Former Marine Eddie Wright served on the charity’s board and criticized the president’s fee to “speak on behalf of men and women he ordered into harm’s way,” according to the report.

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A military contractor at the center of what the Defense Department has described as the largest contracting and bribery case to come out of the Iraq War was sentenced to four and a half years in federal prison Wednesday, according to Stars and Stripes.

But as George H. Lee Jr. saw it, he did little, if anything, wrong.

In a rambling speech at the Philadelphia federal courthouse to U.S. District Judge Joel H. Slomsky, Lee, 72, said he was remorseful yet repeatedly denied having done anything to be remorseful for.

Despite pleading guilty to bribery this year, Lee rejected prosecution claims that he gave more than $1 million in cash, jewelry, spa treatments and hotel stays to Army officials who steered $20 million in contracts his way.

Lee’s son, Justin, and five high-ranking officers have all pleaded guilty and implicated Lee or his companies — American Logistics Services and Lee Dynamics — in the bribery scheme. Nearly all have been sentenced to prison terms, the newspaper reported.

This story was originally published July 9, 2015 at 10:55 AM with the headline "Roger That: Air Force considers plan to triple length of maternity leave."