Posted on 04/14/2014 9:52:56 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
What started as a hard-charging Marine comment to Congress has turned into a public relations emergency for Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Micheal Barrett.
Speaking to the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel on Wednesday, Barrett was making the case that personnel costs needed to be reined in to maintain readiness — as all the services have in recent testimony — but went a step further by saying that lower pay would actually improve discipline within the Corps.
“I truly believe it will raise discipline,” Barrett said. “You’ll have better spending habits. You won’t be so wasteful.”
(snip)
Barrett wrote in his open letter to Marines, posted on usmc.mil on Monday, that his comments were miscontrued.
“Recent reporting of my testimony may have left you with a mistaken impression that I don’t care about your quality of life and that I support lower pay for servicemembers. This is not true,” he wrote.
“Nobody wants less,” Barrett continued. “But if we don’t slow the growth of our hard-earned generous compensation/benefit entitlements that we have enjoyed over the past decade, we don’t have sufficient dollars for what we need — investment in our warfighting capabilities and our wonderful Marine and family care programs.”
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
Didn’t some Admiral or General recently say that if you didn’t agree with Obama’s social engineering of the Military, you were welcome to retire?
What a Marine does with his income is his business.Its not the Business of the Marines.
I have it on good authority that there is a ‘bit’ of panic in the Sergeant Major’s Office. And no I won’t comment on the source.
His base pay is over 93,000 per year.
Nobody, and I mean nobody, in the U.S. Armed Forces from E-1 to O-10 is overpaid. In fact, most enlisted & officers are way underpaid for what they do.
Having risen to the lofty rank of SP5 (E-5) during my stellar Army career I'm unfamiliar with those in the stratosphere.;-)
Army-wise,a Master Sergent (three up,three down) is an E-8.Then the various Sergents Major,I assume,would be E-9 so I assumed (or suspected) that the top Enlisted Man in the services would be E-10's.
I was wrong.
As much as despise what the Sgt.Maj. said, and is proposing, your comment is wrong.
“Generous compensation”? I’ve never known a military man who thought his or her compensation was generous.
Plenty of real marines want to clean this pencil pusher’s clock.
What a meathead.
The guy’s a nut. You fight for good pay. You fight for good bases. You fight for good equipment.
Give Sgt Barrett the same pay as an E-1 and see what he says.
His explanation was that they needed to slow down pay raises so they could buy equipment. The obama administration fed this to the Pentagon, they devoured it then fed it to him and he devoured it. Now, he's trying to feed it to his marines. His job is to fight for them and represent them. Instead, he's rolled over like a good doggy. Probably why he was selected for the job, anyhow.
The leadership in today's military seems to be, by and large, very questionable.
It is not for the Marines, Army, Navy, or Air Force to tell a person what they may or may not buy as long as its legal.
Bouncing checks or failing to pay bills is a different issue.
These positions as sevice department’s chief enlisted person are purely political. You don’t get picked for those jobs just like you won’t make General if you are an officer unless you are of the right ,or should I say left political pusuasion. That is why our services are going down the toilet now, the Dimwit in the a White House is promoting only lefties and using the military as a social experiment.
There should be, It was a totally asinine statement and showed to me that the SM was not in touch with “his enlisted Marines”. After 30 years in the military, I have a lot of respect for NCOs and especially SNCOs, but I really question this guy.
He’d fight tooth and nail for officer and senior enlisted pay/benefits.
This guy’s an idiot who shouldn’t ever again be asked to testify before Congress. BUT, that being said, an E-10 (or whatever) has put in decades in the Corps and is obviously worth far more than an E-4 or an O-3. He’s earned whatever the pay is. That doesn’t mean he should be making public pronouncements. IMHO, they’re two totally separate things.
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