Posted on Nov 5, 2013
Since the Army closed all retiree's AKO accounts in 2014... what do you think of this loss of benefit?
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<p class="MsoPlainText">The U.S. Army will close all retirees' and family
members' AKO accounts between Dec. 31, 2013 and Mar. 31, 2014. Additionally, you can no longer store email
in AKO after Dec. 31, 2013.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p><br></o:p></p><p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>When AKO accounts were created back in the Late 90's they were promised to retirees for life. What do you think about this loss of benefits?</o:p></p>
members' AKO accounts between Dec. 31, 2013 and Mar. 31, 2014. Additionally, you can no longer store email
in AKO after Dec. 31, 2013.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p><br></o:p></p><p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p>When AKO accounts were created back in the Late 90's they were promised to retirees for life. What do you think about this loss of benefits?</o:p></p>
Benefits
Retirement
Army
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 27
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i know this is an old thread but what the heck,,I retired in 2014 and did not know they did this till just recently , this shows how much I used it but when I did use it was very helpful, I would like to have some of the emails I had on there
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Here is a link for FAQ for retirees using AKO: https://esd-crm.csd.disa.mil/app/answers/detail/a_id/1252/kw/retiree
End of AKO portal access: "The Army is extending the deadline for retirees and family members to access the AKO portal (e.g., files, pages, groups) to 30 March 2015. You will still be able to login to AKO, but will have a limited view."
End of AKO portal access: "The Army is extending the deadline for retirees and family members to access the AKO portal (e.g., files, pages, groups) to 30 March 2015. You will still be able to login to AKO, but will have a limited view."
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CW3 Michael Danberry
Thanks for the link LTC Metz, it answered a question I just received about whether DoD civilians were also losing their AKO access.
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CW2 Jacob Bender
CW4 Dan Cady - I don't see how. The Russians probably want our DFAS info more than they want to know what we wrote home from our 2005 deployment.
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If we are adding benefits to the public for just being an eligible voter, why can't we keep a promise to those who worked for the benefit.
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I was never able to use this, I transferred to the retired reserve in 1993, if it existed then it was so new we were not informed of it nor was any training available on how to use it. When I heard of it and tried to activate my account, the password requirements were so difficult,with my medical conditions and medications, I never was able to activate it. Any computer system for retired disabled or the like I say issue a random number generator synched up to the password security system. Paypal has this security available and I use it. With it you establish a password, this must have the number in the security device to logon. This 18 characters with capitols, special characters, numbers, and small letters change every other month! Who can keep up with that? Not me.
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To be honest SFC Staley, I don't spend a lot of time on AKO (other than the mandatory check on my Medpros and GAT) as an active duty NCO. I can't imagine spending any time on AKO as a retiree.
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SFC Jon Vandeyacht
If I still had access, I would use it just about as much as I did when I was in. There were many many things available to users. All you had to do was look. One of the biggest benefits besides access to free use of one of the best antivirus/malware programs was the ability to sign up for access to many programs that are a benefit to Active Duty as well as Retired. Now, without the mail.mil or .mil its exceptionally difficult to sign up for things such as access to the discounts at Oakley, just to name a few.
Is it Petty? yes.... but now that I have only 70% of my base pay versus 100% base pay + BAS + BAH + Jump + language pro pay = <40% of what it was. So a 12% savings is much more HUGE than it was when I didn't care because a CAC card accessed everything. I also really enjoyed having all of the contacts I had. Some communities are very small, like a company of only 32 pax or Battalion of 300 pax. So having the access to all of your buddies was a big part of life.
Am I complaining - No, just feel that this really didn't cost the Army much and I would have been happy to pay a small user fee to keep my access...IF, that would have kept my access.
Is it Petty? yes.... but now that I have only 70% of my base pay versus 100% base pay + BAS + BAH + Jump + language pro pay = <40% of what it was. So a 12% savings is much more HUGE than it was when I didn't care because a CAC card accessed everything. I also really enjoyed having all of the contacts I had. Some communities are very small, like a company of only 32 pax or Battalion of 300 pax. So having the access to all of your buddies was a big part of life.
Am I complaining - No, just feel that this really didn't cost the Army much and I would have been happy to pay a small user fee to keep my access...IF, that would have kept my access.
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