[Our man in washington]

I completed a four-year stint in the active reserves last year. I have a good job, so the money from the reserves was just gravy. I spent weekends writing reports at a military base. I'm proud of my service, but I was doing safe duty with minimal stress, and I'm not exactly a candidate for food stamps.

Do people like me really need a tax break? I don't think so.

[martyjlewis]

I completed a four-year stint in the active reserves last year. I have a good job, so the money from the reserves was just gravy. I spent weekends writing reports at a military base. I'm proud of my service, but I was doing safe duty with minimal stress, and I'm not exactly a candidate for food stamps. Do people like me really need a tax break? I don't think so.

No, you don't, but you're not exactly the military norm. I know far too many people that meet their children for the first time after they have learned to walk, and for only a month in the middle of a year tour in Korea. Meanwhile their wife is left to take care of the family by themselves.

Don't they deserve a break? Many of these honorable people are E-5's or E-6's with 6-10 years experience and an Associates Degree, and choose to re-enlist after this happens. They clearly aren't doing it for the money either. Personally, though, I think a tax break will only serve to separate the Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen, further from a true feeling of worth, and make their civilian equivalent worth harder to figure out. I say, forget the tax break, give them a raise! Face it, we can't pay the way civilian companies do when they put someone in a dangerous place, so let's pay them more when they are home.