During a week-long tour through Southwest Asia, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff spent time focusing on what he calls his No. 1 priority: servicemembers and their families, reports AFPS’ Carmen L. Gleason.

“No matter what happens in the world, no matter what equipment I buy, no matter what concepts I adopt for the future, it’s really you that make the difference,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen told troops during a town hall gathering Feb. 17. “You are the center of gravity for the adjustments that must be made as we move to the future.”

And families, the admiral said, have emerged as more important than ever.

“Families were critical before, but I’ve watched what families have been doing since 9/11 in supporting multiple deployments. That service and sacrifice is special at a really critical time,” Mullen said, noting that many families have gone through as many as five deployments within a 10-year period.

“We couldn’t do it without you and your families,” the admiral told members of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing during a town hall yesterday. “You couldn’t be here, deploy and rest easy if things weren’t going well at home and for the support that your families have given.”

Family support, Mullen said, “is vital to everything that we do.”

“And what our families have done and our extended families have done that make it possible for us to serve at this extraordinary time has truly been exceptional,” he added. “So I am extremely grateful for that as well.”

Mullen said that he hasn’t seen a more challenging time in his 42-year military career, and the current force is the best he has ever seen.

“We move forward into the future in better shape than we’ve ever been,” he said, “and whatever the challenges are there that are to be met, they will be met because of you, because of our people and our families.”

Speaking passionately about another of his priorities, Mullen encouraged troops at all levels to be good leaders. “I focus on [speaking about] leadership wherever I go,” he said, “because I believe anything is possible with great leadership.”

Mullen emphasized that leaders are present at every pay grade, and aren’t necessarily the most senior members of the organization.

“I have been greatly influenced throughout my career by courageous leaders that made a difference when things really got tough,” he said. “I have seen the toughest problems we’ve ever had be solved by nothing else than … individual leaders who are willing to take risks in the toughest kinds of situations.”

Leading during a time of change is the toughest time for a leader, Mullen said. Nothing, he added, is more important to military success than good leaders.

“I have great expectations for … everybody wearing a uniform to continue to lead,” Mullen said. “Take care of those around you, take care of those who are in your charge, take care of your peers, and also take care of your seniors.”

The admiral reminded the servicemembers that everyone who has experienced success has had leaders who contributed to that success. “We got here because somebody made a difference in our lives,” he said, “whether it was a coach, a teacher, a command sergeant major, a senior chief petty officer, a second lieutenant.”

Mullen urged servicemembers to try to make that same difference in someone else’s life. “We are a growing institution that depends on that,” he said. “This extends across the full spectrum of who we are, how we take care of ourselves [and] how we treat each other, which should be exactly like we want to be treated.”

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Laws have changed and servicemembers who want to vote need to be aware of these changes, the director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program said.

Generally, military personnel who want to vote are a higher percentage than that in the general population. Still, there can be roadblocks to exercising the franchise, reports AFPS’ Jim Garamone.

Overseas-deployed servicemembers may find that “the absentee ballot doesn’t get to them on time, so they can vote it and send it back to the election official so it can be counted,” Bob Carey explained during an interview yesterday.

In the general population about nine out of every 10 absentee ballots are successfully cast, the director said. “Only about six or seven out of every 10 military ballots are successfully returned,” he said.

The biggest problems, Carey said, involves the nature of overseas duty and delays in the military postal system.

Carey’s organization is working to expedite the voting process for military members. On the postal side, officials are looking at ensuring that all military ballots take seven days or less in transit. Imagine an express-mail service for military voters, Carey said.

The power of the Internet also is being harnessed. Military voters can go to www.fvap.gov for almost one-stop shopping. A servicemember can go online and find the necessary voting forms and fill them out right there.

“Down the line we will also have an online ballot system where they can receive the ballot online, fill it out online and chose their candidates online,” Carey said. “They will still have to print it out and sign it, but it would end the wait of getting the ballots.”

Deployed servicemembers — at combat outposts and aboard ships — are the most affected by voting issues. Many military voters also are younger and aren’t aware of the processes behind voting, Carey noted.

“We’re trying to make it easy,” he said, “so they don’t have to know chapter and verse of election law in order to participate in the process.”

One of the bigger changes in the process is that military voters must send in a federal postcard application – again available at www.fvap.gov — as soon as possible.

“The law has changed and even if they have been getting their absentee ballot automatically they have to register each and every year,” Carey pointed out.

Servicemembers also must submit a postcard application each time they move, each time they deploy and each time they redeploy.

“We’re encouraging everyone by Jan. 15 to send in a new federal postcard application,” Carey said. Local election officials, he said, are more than happy to deliver balloting materials, but they have to know where to send them.

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