News 6 Mashup: Jan. 17, 2022

Here is this week’s News 6 mashup of stories for the week of Jan. 17, 2022, straight from AWN News 6 Correspondent, Jolene McNutt:

Move.mil Moves to Military OneSource Website

Move.mil, the Department of Defense’s PCS online portal, has moved to MilitaryOneSource.mil. This includes access to Defense Personal Property System, also called DPS, it also includes a customer service contacts page and moving resources page.

2020 Military Demographics Profile Released

Did you ever wonder what the demographics of the military look like? The 2020 Demographics Profile was released last month. A quick peek shows that 82.8 percent of active duty military members are male and 17.2 percent are female. There’s an almost identical split between enlisted and officers: 82.4 percent of military members are enlisted and 17.6 percent are officers. The 222 page report goes more in depth and compares trends from previous surveys in 2005, 2010 and 2015.

Five States Added to Military Retirement Tax Free List

Five more states have made military retirement tax free. “Retirees living in Arizona and Utah will see the changes take effect immediately,” said Military.com. But the other three won’t begin the tax break until the 2022 tax season next year. Those states are Indiana, Nebraska and North Carolina. With these new additions a total of 26 states do not tax military retirement, “nine offer partial exemptions and six states, plus the District of Columbia, fully tax military retirement. Nine states do not impose income tax on their citizens,” according to Military.com.

Army National Guard Soldiers Fix Djiboutian Well

A team of Army National Guard Soldiers helped fix a well in Djibouti, reported Army Times. The well had a leak. The well was the only source of drinking water in the village that receives just five inches of rainfall a year. Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa was monitoring the leak for months, but didn’t have a team with the skills to fix it until recently. “Sgt. Beau Heithoff, a task force engineer specialist and a combat engineer with the Nebraska Army National Guard, said fixing the well became a team effort with the villagers,” reported Army Times. Heithoff also happens to work as a plumber in his civilian job. In less than a day and with the right knowledge and supplies, the well was repaired.
“Our effort is about much more than fixing a well,” said 1st Lt. James Fortson said. “It is about demonstrating that we care about our partners, and that we want our relationship to last.”

This Week in History

I was curious about why we set New Year’s Resolutions. And I found some fascinating facts! Celebrating a new year can be traced back about 4,000 years ago to the Babylonians who celebrated the new year in spring when the crops were planted. Ancient Egyptians also celebrated the new year. The Roman emperor Julius Caesar moved the New Year to January 1 in 46 B.C. But “it was the Babylonians who reportedly made promises to the gods in hopes they’d earn good favor in the coming year,” said howstuffworks.com. History.com explains why January 1 was chosen:
“Named for Janus, the two-faced god whose spirit inhabited doorways and arches, January had special significance for the Romans. Believing that Janus symbolically looked backwards into the previous year and ahead into the future.”