Get help at TurboTAP, but watch what you type

[cec]

Get help at TurboTAP, but watch what you type




By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jun 13, 2007 13:30:04 EDT

The Pentagon has a new Web site for do-it-yourself transition services — but type carefully when you look for it online.
The Web address for the program, launched June 9, is www.TurboTAP.org. However, if you mistakenly use the .com suffix, you’ll be taken to a Web site selling a device that lets bartenders pour beer faster.
The beer tap that promises to provide a perfect pint in two seconds might bring joy, but not the same kind as finding a job.
Michael Dominguez, the principal deputy under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said Wednesday that TurboTAP is a “dynamic, automated Web-based-system for delivery of transition assistance and related information.”
It aims to help National Guard and reserve members who often are unable to attend transition courses when demobilizing from active duty.
“We are excited by the possibilities for TurboTAP,” Dominguez said in testimony before the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee about the myriad government programs aimed at helping troops find post-service employment.
Guard and reserve personnel will be able to access employment information, build a resume online, do a job search or contact a military career center, he said.
TurboTAP also is available to active-duty service members.
The online system could help the Defense Department meet a Bush administration goal of having 85 percent of separating service members — active and reserve — attend transition courses. That goal was set by a presidential task force that looked at no-cost or low-cost ways to improve benefits for returning war veterans.
“TurboTAP will better meet the needs of the National Guard, reserve and active component service members and their families because it gives them the tools to connect and access the information to meet their needs when they are ready, present or future,” Dominguez said. “We have high expectations for this being a 21st-century approach to delivering individualized information and benefits to service members and families.”



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