Tax Time Made Easy (and free!) With Military One Source

If you have not yet filed your taxes, TaxCut Basic Online by H&R Block is free to active duty, National Guard, and Reserve service members and their families through the Military One Source website!

To access this free service provided by the Department of Defense, you must be registered and logged into the Military One Source Web site. Making a Military One Source account is easy and free. Just visit Military One Source and register (the site will ask for your branch, active-duty status, state and duty station. Norfolk is on page 2 of the list!).

Once your account is created, you can click on the Money link and then on Tax Filing Services. Once there, you will see a link to Go To TaxCut.

This will take you to the H&R Block site, where you will have to make another login (click on New User side - Get Started). Once this is complete, you can start entering your tax information!

You can file both Federal and State taxes here (although you may have to print and mail the state one - I don't think it will let you file electronically). There is a toll-free, 24-hour help line if you have questions or need assistance!

Hope this helps you all save some money! Sadly, I found this information AFTER I filed...and Jackson-Hewitt cost me $200 to file! Ah well...Lessons learned... ;)

All my Best,

Stacy

In the News: SWIFT Visits Colombia

U.S. Navy, Marine Corps Training Teams Arrive in Colombia
Posted On: Jan 27 2009 8:35AM
By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Daniel Ball
Southern Partnership Station Public Affairs

CARTAGENA, Colombia (Jan. 26, 2009) – High speed vessel Swift (HSV 2) arrived here Sunday for the first of two instruction evolutions in Colombia during Southern Partnership Station (SPS).

Southern Partnership Station is an annual deployment of various specialty platforms to the U.S. Southern Command area of focus in the Caribbean and Latin America. The mission goal is primarily information sharing with navies, coast guards, and civilian services throughout the region.

Training teams from Navy Expeditionary Training Command, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Marine Corps Training and Advisory Group began their courses Monday with students from the Colombian Navy, Coast Guard, Marines and National Police. The courses provide instruction in a variety of topics such as junior and senior enlisted leadership, port security and nonlethal weapons.

Training began Monday in classrooms set up on Swift and at Colombian military facilities.

"We’re teaching about 45 students about nonlethal weapons techniques,” said Marine Sgt. Geormon Elder from Douglasville, Ga. “They’ll learn about different ways of dealing with crowds and mobs. We’ll cover riot formations, hand to hand techniques, riot batons, crowd control munitions and pepper spray. The students will leave with a better understanding of crowd control and crowd dynamics, which helps promote safety and security.”

The Colombia stop comes on the heels of the SPS visit to Bridgetown, Barbados. While there, instructors taught 96 members of Barbados Royal Defense Forces and servicemembers from St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada on maritime topics including small arms marksmanship, port security, small boat repair and small boat coxswain techniques.

Colombia is the fifth stop for SPS. After Colombia, SPS is scheduled to visit Panama, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.

The mission is coordinated through U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. Fourth Fleet (NAVSO/ 4th Fleet) with partner nations to meet their specific training requests. As the Naval Component Command of SOUTHCOM, NAVSO’s mission is to direct U.S. Naval Forces operating in the Caribbean, Central and South American regions and interact with partner nation navies within the maritime environment. Various operations include counter-illicit trafficking, Theater Security Cooperation, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, military-to-military interaction and bilateral and multinational training.

Fourth Fleet is the numbered fleet assigned to NAVSO, exercising operational control of assigned forces in the SOUTHCOM area of focus.

Article Source: http://www.southcom.mil/AppsSC/news.php?storyId=1535

In the News: HSV 2 SWIFT Visit to Barbados

High speed vessel Swift (HSV 2) visited Barbados

High speed vessel Swift (HSV 2) visited Barbados for the first of two, two-week long instruction evolutions in Barbados during Southern Partnership Station (SPS). Barbados was the fourth stop for SPS.

While here, their goal was primarily information sharing and promote mutual understanding with navies, coast guards, and civilian services throughout the Eastern Caribbean.
Training teams from the US Navy and Marine Corps trained with defense and police forces from the seven Regional Security Service (RSS) nations.

The courses provide instruction in a variety of fields such as small boat navigation, small boat maintenance, port security, armed sentry and marksmanship training.

While in port, the crew of the SWIFT hosted the Barbados Sea Cadets on Saturday, 17 January. They were given a tour of the vessel, some basic small boat instruction, and had lunch with the crew.

The SWIFT brought almost $20,000 BDS worth of medical supplies to be donated to local community organizations to help improve the quality of life in Barbados.

Over 100 law enforcement personnel from the Barbados Defense Force and their colleagues from member states of the Regional Security System graduated on Friday after completing two weeks of intensive training which was facilitated by United States Military officials from the US Naval vessel HSV 2 Swift.

They will return in March for another two weeks.

Article Source: http://barbados.usembassy.gov/pe01232009.html

Ship's Background, Mission and General Information

As you may know, the HSV-2 SWIFT has a mission and background that is not typical of other ships utilized by the Navy.

The following is information provided by the Gold Crew's Officer In Charge, LCDR Mike Vecerkauskas. It offers a little insight about the SWIFT's Mission and her Background, as well as a taste of what you can expect your Sailor to be doing over the next year:

This is the 3rd version of the SWIFT program as a privately owned, US Navy leased high speed vessel.

There is a blue and gold crew that will rotate aboard approximately every 4 months. The off-ship crew has offices at Military Sealift Fleet Support Command at Naval Station Norfolk.

SWIFT has a mixed military and civilian crew, approximately 20 civilian and 20 military. The civilian mariners operate the ship and provide ship services, while the military crew executes the ship's mission for the Fleet Commander.

SWIFT has completed an owner required overhaul in Morgan City, LA and has departed on deployment to Central America.

SWIFT will be home-ported in Norfolk; however, her operating concept requires that the ship will be forward deployed often, and the crews will be flown to and from the ship in theater.

Our team is developing the foundation of how future High Speed Vessels will operate and how they will integrate into Military Sealift Command and Theater Commands.

Our current mission is to work for Commander 4th Fleet and US Southern Command to engage Caribbean and Central American countries in theater security cooperation under the Partnership of the Americas.

We will relieve the Blue Crew on station in the Dominican Republic at the end of February.

We will have embarked staff and training teams that will work with partner nations in training maritime forces in naval operations.

Your sailor will routinely see ports that few US Navy ships ever visit and engage foreign military and civilians at all levels during our port visits. Our primary mission is "engagement" as "goodwill ambassadors", to build teamwork and cooperation between the US and regional countries.

Our next mission is to US Africa Command, executing theater engagement, security cooperation missions, and training as part of the Africa Partnership Station along the coast of West Africa.

Between our deployments SWIFT will undergo a 60 day shipyard period for additional upgrades and improvements.

Pre-Deployment Brief Information

A Pre-Deployment Brief will be held on February 5, 2009 at 1800. This meeting is Mandatory for all SWIFT personnel and family members are highly encouraged to attend the meeting.

I'm not the one deploying. Why do I need to attend the Pre-Deployment Brief?

A Pre-Deployment Brief gives sailors and their families important information on what to expect before and during a deployment.

Subjects can range from:

• What families need to have while their Sailor is away
• What paperwork needs to be updated or completed before your Sailor leaves
• What to do and who to contact if you have a problem during deployment
• How kids may react to their parent being gone
• What to do if there is an emergency while your Sailor is gone
• What resources are available to help you during a deployment

As an added bonus, going to the brief will give you a chance to meet your support team and put faces to names as well, which I always find helpful :)

I cannot attend. How do I get the information?

I will try to put together a 'meeting minutes' document and e-mail it to those who cannot attend, but try to schedule ahead for this important meeting! Just e-mail me and let me know you couldn't make it and I will make sure you have all the info you need.

Hope to see you there!

Welcome to the HSV-2 Swift News Site!

Welcome to our friends and families of the HSV-2 Swift!

I'm Stacy Katzenstein, the Command Ombudsman for the Swift Gold Crew. I want to tell you all first that this website will be used to post any news stories, photography, updates and deals/discounts that I think could help you during your attachment to the Gold Crew.

Please note that I will not, however, post ship's movements, dates or anything that may be deemed classified, sensitive, or may compromise the safety of the ship and it's crew.

I am hoping that this website will give us all an open forum to discuss anything we want to share. Please feel free to e-mail me or call me with any problems, questions or issues you may have that you do not want discussed in the forum, and I will be more than happy to help you in any way that I can!

A little about my history with this command: My husband (It1 Katzenstein) was attached to the HSV-2 Swift's Blue Crew from Jan 2007 - July 2008, during which it was homeported in Ingleside, Texas. We went through two deployments during that time: first through South America, then through Operation Handclasp in Africa. I am very familiar with the unique factors that make up being attached to the Swift and hope to use that knowledge to help you during these deployments!

The great thing about the Swift is that there is often news/media stories in various countries about operations in their area. I will frequently post news articles, videos, photos of anything I come across to keep you up-to-date with what your sailor is doing. If you come across any materials that I do not post, please feel free to contact me with a link to the information and I will make sure it makes it onto the site.

That's all I have for now! I can't wait to meet everyone and look forward to making deployments (as well as pre- and post- deployment time) as smooth as possible for you!

Thanks and Best Regards,

Stacy Katzenstein

Command Ombudsman, HSV-2 Swift Gold Crew

swift_ombudsman@yahoo.com