“Paying these employed people a “pension” takes money away from the elderly or from lifers, that is, people who actually stayed in the military or job until retirement age.”
Take the example of an average officer. He has a bachelors degree, and, if he’s anything past a captain, which, if he’s retired, he certainly is so, he has a masters. Rare exception not to.
He’s made, on average, an enormously less amount of salary than his civilian counterpart, for instance a pilot or a doctor, and certainly much less so for his education. A civilian pilot, logistics expert, civil engineer, communications specialist, does not require a masters.
He lives (and this goes for girls too) in, often, a remote city/town. His spouse scrambles for a lifestyle every three or so years, ditto kids. And she can forget about a continuity for a career. Very rare when moving around so.
When he gets out of the military, finding a job at 40 plus years old that appreciates the experience, expertise in logistical, communication, leadership, teaching and life skills is almost out of the question, yet he’s only 40 with kids in high school, on way to college; a house to purchase and a whole new life to set up.
He’s been on call 24 hours a day for at least 20 years, if not 28. He’s spent years, many years, months at a time, years at a time, away from home.
The divorce rate is high. Post trauma is high, and that’s if he’s not wounded and disabled.
A lot of the pull is not the salary, which is low, again, in comparison, it is the pension. THese guys are not thinking, gee, how about a welfare scheme, in which I can collect for doing nothing, it’s what can I do for my family and my community by doing a job which gets me potentially getting bombed by an IED while my family fends for themselves during the winter so I can always at least provide for them while being a productive citizen through later years.
I’m sure most of them would take a much lower salary after retirement, or a lower retirement, than they have, all things being equal, and, in case you don’t know it, a lot of them took a 20% hit on salary, lifestyle changing, due to the sequester, which most people only think they themselves took a hit on, not realizing the military WAS, by far, hardest hit.
You don’t hear them complaining.
Read the Kipling Poem above. He had it right, as he has a lot right, having seen action in India.
But when people mistake the military as greedy, lazy, undeserving, they just don’t know what they’re talking about, they don’t know.
But they ought to. Because, whether the military goes into some lame brained LBJ/kennedy Aisan Jungle scheme, or a Bushy Saudi deal, they are prepared to protect this country against all enemies.
Neglect them and underappreciate them at your peril, they take only so much misunderstanding and lack of appreciation.
They are people, and the hardest working, most societally conscientious kind.
You described our life perfectly. My spouse just retired after 26 years. He’s struggling now to work for military contractors in DC, many of which are now being infiltrated with civilians under 30 who are highly over educated, yet know nothing about how the military operates.
He’s ready to get out of that environment as well, and take his managerial experience elsewhere.
IIRC, only around 7% of military stay in till retirement.
How many of those are combat arms?
“Take the example of an average officer.He has a bachelors degree, and, if he’s anything past a captain, which, if he’s retired, he certainly is so, he has a masters. Rare exception not to.
He’s made, on average, an enormously less amount of salary than his civilian counterpart, for instance a pilot or a doctor, and certainly much less so for his education.”
According to militarypaychart.us, a lieutenant colonel makes $100,000 a year. I don’t know what you think civilians make, but I don’t think that is “enormously less.”