Senior enlisted advisors with a combined 2,000 years of NCO experience, and their spouses, attended the Secretary of Defense’s First Annual Senior Enlisted Advisors Forum. These trusted advisors gathered to converse with senior DoD leadership about the challenges faced by today’s enlisted personnel, and to discuss DoD’s efforts to address the key issues affecting the quality of life and readiness of the force. Seventy-nine E-9’s and 60 spouses took part in the day-long session of information sharing and cooperative problem-solving.

This report gives an overview of the Forum, summarizes key issues identified by the participants, and reviews the Department’s responses and follow-up actions now being taken. The hyperlinks below lead to the PDF files of the report sections.

Introduction

Recruiting and Retention

Compensation

Health Care

Child Care

Schools

Forum in Review