Posted on 01/28/2015 6:35:47 PM PST by Timber Rattler
Thanks for your informative and thoughtful posting, redlegplanner!
One question, though: What kind of person is still only a Captain at age 50? Wouldn't that, all by itself, be a warning sign? And aren't many 50-year-olds in the military still in excellent shape?
Regards,
I’m not speaking as a veteran, but I think we need to make sure that actual combat veterans are well served, but that career military who don’t see combat are treated more like other government workers.
IMHO, if you serve a year in a combat zone, that is worth 5 years stateside.
There is a huge difference between someone who does aircraft maintenance in the US and someone who serves in a deployed brigade combat team.
Screw over the Veterans, give more to welfare mommas, more to illegal aliens.
Sounds great! What a crock!!
“Screw over the Veterans, give more to welfare mommas, more to illegal aliens.
Sounds great! What a crock!!”
Bingo. Best post on this thread and sums it all up.
I don’t know. Doing one enlistment just long enough to earn the GI bill would be worth it. It will be tough for them to retain quality people past that.
War has changed a lot; what was a young man’s game fifty years ago has morphed technologically into something different altogether. While select units might require youth & stamina, more and more of wars are waged from behind computer consoles.
I think these things are being re-examined (in both the public & private sector) as people live longer, and to pay a retiree for thirty years after they’ve worked twenty isn’t economically feasible. As with so many programs, everybody wants the best benefits but nobody wants to foot the bill.
You’re right; younger people now will work more hours for more years and have less to show for it. It is not a coincidence that the middle class birthrate has dropped so steeply; home ownership and families (even holding the title to a car) are viewed as out of reach for many young people.
“Congressional retirement pay should be cut by 50%.”
All assets of current and former members of CONgre$$ should be seized.
I say we start with your tagline. Fix that, and a lot of other things will get fixed reasonably quickly.
In the same realm the number of vets being buried in veterans cemeteries is dropping off. WW2 had the highest modern times number eligible and most WW2 vets are gone. Korea and Nam Vets will be next. The eligibility is simple for a VA operated or subsidized cemetery. 180 days active duty minimal with an Honorable Discharge. The Civil War up to WW2 had the highest number of vets in these cemeteries. So despite what congresspersons Wiz on military & vets say the money saving nonsense at expense of Vets the cost have been going down and reductions made.
Once again my question is: Will this new recommendation include the current requirement that all “retired” at 20 years military personnel are subject to recall to active duty until they have a combined 30 years of active and retired service?
Traditionally the “retirement” at 20 years at half pay was actually a “retainer” pay for excess officers during peacetime that may be needed to recalled to active duty if a war came.
I doubt it.
In discussing any pay/benefits for government employees, I always look at the state of the taxpayers first. I don’t know specifics (I plead ignorance on that), but I do know that expecting workers to shoulder the burden for benefits that have disappeared for most of them decades ago will never be popular.
Yeah and that is later pay for part time work. Full time enlisted military get darn little for what they put in.
I retired from the Air Force after 22 years as an E-7. My retired check is almost what an E-2 now makes. Our pension gets smaller in relation to current active pay every year.
Try to explain to the Marines from 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines and the many AF pilots and crew members that we thank them for their sacrifices during their action in May of 1975, but since they were not stationed in a combat zone for a year they do not qualify for the extra benefits. They were stationed on Okinawa and in less than 48 hours they were fighting and dying on a small island off the coast of Cambodia. (Mayaguez Incident) I was in Thailand at the time, just arrived a week before this, which was designated as a combat zone since I was drawing Hostile Fire/Imminent Danger Pay, and I lost several Security Police friends when one of those responding AF helicopters crashed. It was then that they called for the Marines to respond. What I’m trying to get thru to you is ALL active duty are COMBAT VETERANS in some way or another. The only time I was ever shot at was when I was stationed in Montana guarding one of those Minutemen Missile Silos. Was some drunk cowboy just having some fun.
I do not see a huge difference just because of where one is stationed. Fourteen of my years were spent at overseas locations. Numerous times I had been asked to “volunteer” for this and that, but I never did after seeing the fiaso of the Mayaquez Incident.
BTW, it is known as the final battle of the Vietnam War and the deceased names are the last on the Wall.
If the 20 year retirement wasn’t there I would not have made it a career.
Maybe you come from a family of officers, I don’t know, but enlisted retirement pay is DESERVED and EARNED. and they should get it.
What little I get (half my late husband’s retiree pay) he earned. It was never a gift. We struggled through years of pay that got us food stamps, although we only tried for them a couple of months. Because we were military, for some reason we had to prove our income and bills every single month. Weird. Who fights the wars, who protects our nation????? The military, that’s who. Even when not in a war, they are on call all the time.
Oh my gosh, I’m moving to Hawaii!!!!!
Ahhhh, the entire point!!!!
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