The White Falcon - 14.11.1980, Blaðsíða 2

2 White Falcon November 14, 1980
tgj What
ls an
American?
(by SMSgt. Gus Salvo)
What ls an American and what does
an American stand for? To me, being
a member of the U.S. Air Force means
a great deal. When I hear the word
American, I automatically visualize
a free democracy where the people
rule and there are equal rights and
opportunity for all.
I see the colors red, white and
blue softly swaying in the breeze
and I know they signify freedom,
liberty, and justice for all. I
think of people united together with
the common goals of freedom, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness.
I see children joyfully frolicking
about playgrounds without a care in
the world.
My imagination wanders and words
thunder through my ears saying "A
powerful nation which will defend
the rights of the people, as estab-
lished by our forefathers, and
stated in the Constitution of the
United States of America."
I think of a strong federal
government with unswerving loyalty
to all the people in the nation re-
gardless of race, color or creed.
I see people going to the church of
their choice and worshiping under
the religion of their choice.
I think of a nation that forms
and adheres to alliances and
treaties with other smaller nations
to insure, they too, can maintain a
free democracy.
A nation which stands tall and
doesn't back down to threats from
other powerful nations insures that
our people will never be subjected
to communist rule or dictatorship.
Last but not least, I think of
the military uniform and know it
represents strength, protection from
aggression, and all the basic in-
dividual rights that are sacred to
the people of the United States of
America. I know that I can lift my
shoulders high and walk tall with
dignity in my uniform and feel proud
because the people of any nation
know what 1 stand for.
SMSgt. Salvo Is the First
Sergeant for Air Forces Iceland.
Champus--Appeals
Part 13 of 14
APPEALS—A formal CHAMPUS multi-
level administrative appeal system
has been implemented. It affords
beneficiaries and participating pro-
viders an opportunity to be heard
and to seek redress of adverse
benefit determinations.
The appeals process includes an
independent hearing as well as an
appellate review by the Assistant
Secretary of Defense (Health Af-
fairs) . The first 18 months of
operation surfaced the need to
make the system more efficient as
well as more responsive, and pro-
posed changes are being developed.
Two major problems are the
period of time it takes a case to
get through all levels of appeal and
lack of beneficiary understanding of
their due process rights. Efforts
are underway to improve these defi-
ciencies.
Legal residence determines
many laws which affect you
Do you know what factors deter-
mine your state of domicile? Have
you done anything to change it?
Domicile, frequently referred to as
legal residence, has many and varied
consequences attached to it, not the
least of which is taxes.
Your status as a member of the
Armed Forces has a unique effect on
how your state of domicile is deter-
mined. This in turn determines what
state can tax you. Voting, car reg-
istration, and college tuition pay-
ments are only a few of the items
which are also involved.
Unless you are sure of the answer
to the above questions, and the
ramifications of those answers, you
probably should see a legal assis-
tance officer soon. Fines or
penalities for failure to abide by
the proper law could easily result
from ignorance of what law in fact
applies.
Post-election voting survey
More than 17,000 military person-
nel world wide and 2,500 federally
employed U.S. civilians overseas
will be selected by random process
to participate in a 1980 post
election voting survey.
The survey is designed to deter-
mine the effectiveness of current
voting procedures. In addition, more
than 1,600 military voting assis-
tance officers will be separately
surveyed to solicit concerns that
voting officers have experienced in
counseling military personnel and
their dependents. The answers
received will be used in preparing
the next voting guide.
Individuals selected to partici-
pate will receive the questionnaire
shortly. The questionnaire will be
postage free and should be returned
as soon as possible after answering
the survey.
Those citizens who are not se-
lected to participate through the
random procedure but who may have
comments concerning absentee voting
are invited to write to: Director,
Federal Voting Assistance Program,
Office of the Secretary of Defense,
Rm IB-457, The Pentagon,
Washington, D.C. 20301
WHITE
FALCON
The White Falcon is published
weekly by the Iceland Defense
Force Public Affairs Office for
military and U. S. civilian per-
sonnel and their dependents sta-
tioned in Iceland. It ls printed
by the U. S. Naval Station Print
Shop with appropriated funds per
NAVSO P-35.
Opinions expressed are those
of the writers and are not neces-
sarily official expressions of
IceDeFor, the Department of De-
fense or the U. S. Government.
The White Falcon office is lo-
cated in Bldg. 734C; telephone
4612/5192. Editorial deadline is
noon Tuesday.
Commander Iceland Defense Force
RADM Richard A. Martini
Public Affairs Officer
LCDR M. L. Sundin
Asst. Public Affairs Officer
Mr. Mik Magnusson
Command Senior Journalist
JOC Bob Rainville
Staff
J02 Frank Fisher—Editor
J03 Dave Guise—Sports Editor
PH3 Thom Lindgren—Photograpl
SN Karen Dean Guise
SN Janet Willard
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