New privatized housing units at Columbus AFB, Miss., will be available to members of the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, as well as perhaps civil servants and service retirees, when they become available in October. Columbus’ Commercial Dispatch reported June 5 that, until now, housing at the base has been reserved for full-time, active-duty Air Force personnel and their families. However, the new privatized homes will be open to the ANG and AFR members if contractor Pinnacle Housing is unable to fill the units with active duty members, the newspaper reported, citing a base spokesman. If there is still space after that, then the homes, consisting of some duplexes and some single-family units, would be opened up to civil service members and then retired personnel. The base held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new homes on May 20, and some families have already moved in. But the bulk of the homes are scheduled to open in October.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.