Posted on 06/08/2014 6:29:27 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Tom Slear, who retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel in 2001, is a freelance writer in Annapolis.
A few weeks ago, I mentioned to a receptionist in a physical therapist’s office that I was covered by Tricare, the military’s health-care program for service members, retirees and their families. (It has nothing to do with the troubled Veterans Affairs hospital system.)
“Good deal,” I said.
“You deserve it,” she responded.
Really? If she only knew.
Though I spent more than five years on active duty during the 1970s as an Army infantry officer and an additional 23 years in the Reserves, I never fired a weapon other than in training, and I spent no time in a combat zone. I returned to active duty for five months in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, but I was assigned to the Pentagon. My hazardous duty consisted of a daily drive on New York Avenue before its upgrade.
I am hardly unique. Despite the extended operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, nearly half of the 4.5 million active-duty service members and reservists over the past decade were never deployed overseas. Among those who were, many never experienced combat....
(Excerpt) Read more at m.washingtonpost.com ...
Nobody is forcing her to accept those benefits or use the VA, are they?
The media has launch a full scale attack against our military.
LA Times Columnist suggests Tahmooressi was gearing up for mass murder
oops...”he”
3 guns and 400 rounds.
Ain’t even a good day at the range
Tom, make your personal guilt trip reparations check out to: Department of the US Treasury. Make sure you calculate every single dime of retirement and associated military benefits into that payback, so you can live with a clear conscience.
There is always one slacker in any group.
My history is similar...active duty 80-84, reserves 84-00, active duty again 00-03, retired from the reserves in 04; I’m not yet eligible for retired pay. I will receive a generous amount of retired pay plus other bennies that I worked for. No, I didn’t deploy to either Iraq of Afghanistan but I was on a short list to go shortly after 9/11. Luck of the draw.
I don’t begrudge he author for saying that his bennies (and by extension mine) are too generous but I’d respectfully disagree. If you want a military that people will want to join, you have to provide competitive pay and bennies in wartime and in peacetime. Yes, people do need to understand the risks inherent in military service but they should be appropriately compensated.
Try it on a Chief’s retirement.
Friggen LtCol. Give me a break.
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 America demands Justice for the Fallen of Benghazi! |
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When I got “out” after my active USMC service in 1968, the last thing I ever considered was to use anything - anything - involving the military, which of course included VA hospitals or medical.
If he wasn’t a hypocrite he would have resigned rather than retired and there would have been no issue for him to feel guilt ridden about.
I hear you, brother. Thanks for your time which I hope was well spent.
'68 is the year I got out as a Marine Corporal E-4....we sure as sh*t weren't in it for the gold....
Excellent point. He could have done that, or just not processed the application for retired pay.
Hang yourself, brave Tom. We fought at Arques today, and you were not there.
A journalist . Wow. What a surprise. Another yapping Chihuahua for the Democrat party. He’s trained to yap whenever his masters tell him to.
Yap, little dog, yap! Your masters are ordering you.
If he had any honor, he’d give back his journalist checks, too.
Let's take an axe to welfare, food stamps, Section 8, the multitude of bogus SSDI claims, etc. and then we can talk about cuts to the benefits that service members like myself actually worked for.
You are phony and a shill for what the administration is going to do next.
Those Democrat make-believe pig farmers.......did they earn their money? Did he yap at them?
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