Bush Served His Country Without Pay

PoliPundit.com ^ | September 16, 2004 | Oak Leaf

[Springman]

Bump for later.

[Cvengr]

The 2-drill per day criterion has an interesting history.

Reserve or militia drills were originally accounted during the early years of our country by dedicating one day per week for drilling or rehearsing maneuvers by the reserve/militia. Christmas and July 4th were reserved as formal holidays and excuse from any formally paid drilling.

From those 52 weeks minus 2 holiday weeks came the 50 drills a year criterion for a satisfactory year for longevity and retirement purposes.

It was also during this period that the 4 hour criterion was adopted as a minimim time period fro a 'drill'. in that many reservists/militiamen had to journey by horseback some distance to get to a drilling assembly area.

Circa WWI, tactics and demographics had changed considerably, and it was recognized that more training could be performed by field maneuvers over a several day period. The 50 drills/yr amd 4 hr min drill period remained as regulatory constraints for federal pay/ Within those constraints, and larger regions to recruit servicemen, came arguments for a weeken drill per month en lieu of a one day drill per week. More training value was actually obtained and less percentage of the serviceman's time wasted on travel.

Accordingly, the weekend drill was adopted and the 4 hr drill period remained.

What varies today is travel pay. For many years, even for drills in remote locations, travel from home to the assembly area was the serviceman's burden, while travel while under orders was a government expense. The grey area comes in discerning whether the servicemen is obligated to remain faithful to all regulations 24-7 even in civilian status as is customary, or if his obligation only commences upon assembly at the reserve center.

I know of many situations where servicemen paid their entire paychecks and more simply to travel to drills without reimbursment for much of their career, while 20 years later, their juniors also receive milage and perdiem venturing to the drill site. Many of these situations vary from command to command and interpretation of the regs over time.

On top of these requirements came the 2-week active duty periods which only changed in formal nature about 15 years ago. IDT prior to this wasn't recognized, rather a rule that while in uniform the servicemember had the same obligations and privledges as a regular.

Over the past 20 years there also had been considerations to migrate from a weekend drill plus 2 week active duty routine to a 6 week contiguous active duty period, because in more modern maneuver warfare environments and higher tech battlefields, some argue more training and unit performance is enhanced by a longer active duty environment. 3 days without sleep doesn;t compare to a 6 wk intensive training environment for skill retention.

The arguments today might be even more persuasive considering the pressure on civilian job markets by extensive overseas deployments by reservists.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!!

[tioga]

love the cartoon!

[Rightly Biased]

Thanks Misty the MSM would never report this. Heck I doubt even Fox would report it.

[JustAmy]

Thank you for the ping.

Good post!

[maica]

...G Winner went into the service as a 1st Lt. and skerry only went in the reserves as an Ensign. Are they the same level ranking.
%%%%%

W was a 2nd LT which is equivalent to Ensign.
He was promoted to 1st LT (=LT JG)

[Guenevere]

bttt

[marty60]

Thanks, I get all these ranks mixed up. They're different in various services.

[Ed_in_NJ]

Thanks - emailed it to FNC.

[isthisnickcool]

Bush was in the ANG and didn't get paid for some of his work. John Kerry has been a US Senator for the past year and a half and has done no work but has taken pay. And perks, and benefits...

[Mo1]

oh ok .. thanks

I was just wondering because some of the looney left are claiming he lost is flying status before going to Al.

[vrwinger]

I think one reason the media has done such a pathetic job covering these matters is because they do not have enough people within their ranks with any military experience.

Not only that they don't have the experience, they HATE the military and have no interest in reporting it correctly. It is truly disgraceful how terry McAuliffe has set the agenda for this topic and how it is reported.

[nicmarlo]

Thanks for the ping! Service with no pay.....guess he wouldn't have payroll records if he opted not to get paid.... : )

[MistyCA]

:)

[jimfree]

The reserve retirement system and the concepts of drill points and satisfactory years is simple enough. I wrote requirements for it in anticipation of a new military personnel system. If the MSM wanted to explore it they would have. The five month gap is sexier news. But that last year was a satisfactory year because 1LT Bush played by the rules. He got excused from some drills and then went to work and did enough drills to finish the year satisfactorily.

[MistyCA]

Thanks!

[MistyCA]

Well, I sure hope they do!

[MistyCA]

Thanks!