SOUTHERN COLORADO MILITARY RETIREE ASSISTANCE OFFICE

                                              FACT SHEET

Background:  The Southern Colorado Military Retiree Assistance Office (RAO) is sanctioned by the Air Force Chief of Staff (AF/A1) under Air Force Instruction 36-3106, 28 December 2018.  The purpose of the RAO is “…to serve military retirees, spouses, widows and widowers, and to support, advance and unify the retired and active military families.”  RAOs are organized geographically under 15 Area Representatives (Colorado is in Area IV) that report to the Air Force Retiree Council.  At the local level, RAOs fall under the installation Vice Wing Commander who furnishes necessary support including funding, office space, and administrative assistance.  Within the Colorado Springs area, RAOs are located at Peterson SFB (Bldg. 350, Rm 1054) and the USAF Academy (Community Center, ID Card Area, Rm 100).  They are staffed by military retiree volunteers from all services and serve retirees and their families from all military branches.  Assistance is provided to answer questions related to pay, legal, medical, IDs, and other areas of interest to retirees and their families.

Military Retiree Population Statistics:  Within the state of Colorado, there are approximately 408,000 veterans (VA Statistics) with almost 99,000 veterans residing in El Paso County.  There are about 32,000 military retirees and 3,500 military retiree surviving spouses within the greater Colorado Springs area.  These 35,000 plus folks represent our “target population” or potential clients and are the sole reason that RAOs exist.  Unfortunately, to date we have only been able to reach out to less than 1 % of this group through events such as Retiree Information/Appreciation Days/Seminars and monthly RAOs Meetings.

Outreach Efforts: Military retirees and surviving spouses, especially those not familiar with the RAO, should understand that the basic purpose of the RAO is ASSISTANCE.   Ongoing efforts to “get the word out” about RAOs include distributing brochures (about 1,500 per month) around base locations (i.e. pharmacy, clinic, library, etc.) as well as off-base sites such as veteran organizations, surrounding university campuses, municipal organizations, and senior care facilities.  Monthly (2nd Wednesdays) RAO meetings are held at the Peterson SFB HUB (10:00 am) and Retiree Information/Appreciation Days/Seminars are held annually with locations and host responsibilities rotating between the Air Force and the Army.  We are continuing efforts to expand our email roster of military retirees and military retiree surviving spouses because email is the most cost effective means of communication.

Join our Email Roster:  We know email addresses frequently change and some people are leery about giving out email addresses. However, you can be assured that we use our RAO Email Roster only to notify military retirees/surviving spouses of official events and remind them of recurring meetings. To get added to our RAO Roster, simply send an email (Subj: Add me to RAO Roster), include your name, phone number, and email address to  scouter62@gmail.com.  

Retiree Assistance Offices:         Peterson SFB (719) 556-7153                                                                               Air Force Academy (719) 333-7877