Military power "should not, maybe cannot, be the last resort of the state," Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a March 5 statement delivered to members of the Armed Forces through American Forces Press Service. Relying upon military force too often or too quickly would likely produce limited beneficial results over time, he said. "We ought to make it a precondition of committing our troops that we do so only if and when other instruments of national power and our allies are ready to engage as well," he said. Other key points include using military force "in a precise and principled way." Whenever civilians are killed inadvertently, Mullen said, "We make it hard for people to trust us." He also said that while entering any conflict with a "clear strategy," that plan must evolve in order to prevail in the end. "We will win, but … only over time and only after near-constant reassessment and adjustment," he said. "The day you stop adjusting is the day you lose."
 

Air Force officers and civilians have until April 5 and April 26 respectively to submit their applications for this year's intermediate or senior developmental education slots. Line officers, chaplains, and medical service officers can apply for as many as five programs on the Air Force Personnel Center's secure applications Web site. (Click on the "Ask" button and select the "Continued Education" link, or search for "2010 IDE/SDE.) A review team at the Air Force Personnel Center Civilian Development Education and Training Branch conduct review boards between May and August; the small-programs review board will meet in September.
 

Northrop Grumman has backed out of the bidding process for the $35 billion contract to supply the Air Force with the replacement aircraft for the venerable KC-135 tanker. The decision, announced March 8 by Northrop president Wes Bush, virtually assures that Boeing Co. will procure the tanker contract. The Air Force's selection methodology "clearly favors Boeing's smaller refueling tanker and does not provide adequate value recognition of the added capability of a larger tanker, precluding us from any competitive opportunity," Bush said in the statement. Northrop's prototype tanker, which would have been built under a joint agreement with the European aircraft manufacturer EADS, would have been based on the A330 Airbus airframe. Boeing's offering is based on the 767 commercial airliner.
 

The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments will extend the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) health communities program, now underway in the San Diego area, which allows DoD and VA to share electronically maintained health information with the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN), which was established with the help of the Department of Health and Human Services. Under the expansion, service members, their families, military retirees and veterans in the Southeastern Virginia/Hampton Roads area will be included in the arrangement on a voluntary basis. The program's managers stress that privacy and security receives the highest priority, and that eligible persons who choose not to participate will see no adverse effects on their access to health care. 
 

The Army recently sent its 2010 Survey of Army Families to some 75,000 civilian spouses of active-duty soldiers, hoping the representation will provide an accurate picture of their opinions and attitudes. The quadrennial survey is particularly important this year, Army officials say, because of the high operations tempo and frequent deployments in support of combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Recipients can complete written responses to the survey they receive by mail, or answer the questions online. Spouses who do not receive the survey can also provide their input, through their local Family Support Group or Army Community Services office.
 

Eligible beneficiaries of the military health care system can now use a single Web-based entry point to gain access to information and resources. Visitors to health.mil will find links to TRICARE and benefits pages. Web buttons are categorized so that retirees, active-duty service members, care providers, educators, researchers, health-care staff members, Defense Department leaders and news media representatives can navigate the site easily.
 

Anticipating that roughly 200,000 Vietnam War veterans will file disability claims because of exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange, the Department of Veterans Affairs has launched an initiative to seek input from private-sector advice in order to resolve those claims in a timely manner. The VA expects the influx of new claims because of decision VA health officials made last year, which determined that veterans who suffer from Parkinson's disease, ischemic heart disease, or B-cell leukemias can claim that their maladies can be traced to Agent Orange exposure. The VA hopes that the input will enable the department to process claims more quickly than the 90 days it now takes. More information is available online at www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/.
 

Any changes to the present "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, which still bars homosexuals from military service but allows service members to keep their private lives private, should minimize "disruption to a force engaged in combat operations and other demanding military activities around the globe," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said March 2. Reflecting on the Obama administration's intent to allow homosexuals to serve, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen's subsequent approval, Gates told a panel charged with drafting such a plan to consider effects on military and family readiness, cohesion, recruiting, and retention. The panel will present its findings to Gates by Dec. 1.
 

A panel of experts appointed by Department of Veterans Affairs to find out how the agency could better serve veterans of the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf war is ready to offer its recommendations. Among them:
* Improving sharing of data regarding exposures and long-term health issues between the Defense Department and VA;
* Improving delivery of benefits to those with war-related disabilities;
* Taking a more pro-active approach to resolving veterans' service-related problems;
* Better training for claims adjudicators with the Veterans Benefits Administration;
* More research into treatments, and;
* Better outreach programs.