Get These Retired Military Newsletters

Subscribing to a few retired military newsletters can change your life.

No, I’m not kidding!

It is hard to keep up with changes in benefits, laws, and programs. It’s even harder once you leave active duty and you aren’t bombarded with messages and posters and notifications.

One of the best ways to remain informed is to read the various retiree newsletters published by each branch of the military, Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), Tricare, and other organizations.

This stuff isn’t just for retirees – there is useful information for anyone associated with the military, including currently serving, family members, and veterans. I recommend you read them all, because none are comprehensive and you will likely learn different information from each publication.

Defense Finance and Accounting Service

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service, aka DFAS, publishes a retiree newsletter every quarter, and you can find all the issues and articles at this webpage.

Tricare

Each Tricare Region produces its own newsletter, published quarterly. You can access the Humana/Tricare East newsletter at this webpage. Also, you can access the HealthNet/Tricare West newsletters at this webpage. You might want to read both, because almost all the information is Tricare and applies to everyone. The Tricare Overseas newsletter can be found at this webpage.

You should also sign up for email updates from Tricare themselves. While these are not newsletters, per se, Tricare does push out information when there are changes to the Tricare program.

Air Force Afterburner

The Air Force retiree newsletter is called the Afterburner, and you can find the archives at this webpage. (This page takes a while to load for me – give it a minute before you give up!) To sign up for electronic delivery of the Afterburner, fill out the form at this page.

Army Echoes

The Army’s retiree newsletter is called Army Echoes, and you can find the archives at this webpage. Directions for signing up for electronic delivery of Army Echoes are located at this webpage.

Coast Guard The Long Blue Line

The Coast Guard’s retiree newsletter is called The Long Blue Line. The archives can be found here. If you’re a Coast Guard retiree, you need to make a little extra effort to be sure you’re getting all the info that is applicable to you. Because as we all know, something are different if you’re Coast Guard.

Marine Corps Semper Fidelis

The Marine Corps retiree newsletter is called Semper Fidelis. But I can no longer find a link to the archives on the website. The best way to find it now is via the Facebook page. Or you can do an internet search for “Semper Fidelis Newsletter for Marine Corps Retirees” and then sort through the results to find the most current edition.

Navy

The Navy’s retiree newsletter is called Shift Colors, and you can find it at this webpage. In order to receive it electronically, you need to ensure that your email address is correct in the MyPay system.

Are there other newsletters that you’ve found helpful? Please let me know in the comments or send me an email to Kate at KateHorrell.com, and I’ll add it to this post. There’s a lot to know, and we all need all the help we can find!