I have a brother-in-law who was also a member of the MN National Guard. He made no bones about it, he was in for the benefits and pension. He also made it to sergeant but I don’t know what level.
He was in a unit he considered safe; skill set unlikely to deploy. He bragged about his 2 weeks a year tromping in the woods of Fort Ripley in the day and playing cards at night. He got his son into the same unit.
Well, they got notice that they were going to Kosovo. He immediately retired (just shy of 20 years I think). His son deployed and came home a PTSD wreck.
I doubt this is peculiar to the MN Nat.Guard, but it’s a familiar story to me.
I did some calcs the other day when I saw the Gaslight Media touting Timmy A-Walz's "common man" lack of stock and real estate investments.
article trying to show a meager walz living off a teachers pension , no assets, no investments, no business ventures, he’s just a regular guy like me and you.
I did a guesstimate of the annual retirement income of Tampax Timmy A-Walz and his wife:
$100,000 US House pension $ 60,000 Social Security $ 40,000 annual compounded interest [403(b) - 2 accounts] $ 40,000 gubernatorial pension $ 30,000 National Guard retirement pay ======== $270,000 total annually
Not bad scratch, if you can get it. $135 an hour, retired.
We won't even talk about their gold-plated Cadillac health care packages.
Plus, they sold their house and are living in a rental house [on the Minnesota taxpayer dime] while the Minnesota governor's mansion is being renovated.
The biggest tax ticks ever spotted in the wild...