Editorial: One Grunt's Opinion On Changes to Military Retirement

I have been laying off writing of anything about the proposed changes to the military retirement system being talked about because I realize for the vast majority of Americans they could really care less, and in their single-minded focus of making everything fair game honestly believe that changes can be made with no harm. There is another very small minority of far left that feel if this will further weaken the American warmaking machinery then they are all for it. They are not driven by any fiscal sense of responsibility, but rather an irrational hatred of the military.

With that in mind, I wanted to try and acquaint readers of some aspects of military life that while they may be aware of, do not truly appreciate the full consequences of, and why among the benefits military personnel look forward to, the retirement plan is probably the most important.

Right up front let me say that if you are enlisted and do your 20 and retire you are not going to be able to live off of it. I retired in 1999 and my annual retired pay is about $14K. Not exactly what you would call extravagant.

So what did I have to do to earn this windfall? For starters I endured low pay, long hours, frequent separations and the attention of folks who really didn't think too highly of those of us in uniform and would from time to time try to put a .30 caliber punctuation mark on those feelings.

When I took my final physical upon leaving the Army they pumped me full of dye and did an x-ray. It was revealed that I had a grand total of 2 bones which showed no signs of damage or breakage. The right shoulder blade and the left femur. Every other bone in my body at some time in the previous 20+ years had either been broke or damaged enough that it showed up on this x-ray. Granted, a lot of them were what is called stress fractures like the collar bones and the toes. I have knees with no cartilage and joints that aren't. I wear the scars of knife marks, shrapnel, and bullet grazes. And all of this was accomplished while serving during a period when we were at peace. Well except for Grenada, Haiti, Panama, Somalia, East-West Germany, Desert Storm ... you get the point.

The physical toll is just one aspect. There is the mental toll not only on the service member but for anybody foolish enough to become a part of their life. It is the 2 am phone call with a voice on the other end informing you that your unit is on alert and you have less then 2 hours to get to base, get your unit organized and ready to deploy. Even before you hang up the spouse has turned the TV to a news network to try and glean some information about what little corner of the world has suddenly gone to shit and the only answer is the United States. You go to the bathroom for a quick brush of the teeth and to shave because you don't know when the next time is you will see running water. You grab your bags, already packed, and embrace for what may be the last time and as you close the door she is left with her fears, knowing it may be days or even weeks before she hears from you again.

If your children have the television station numbers memorized for the cable news outlets by the time they are 8, then you know of which I speak. Thank goodness for DoD schools too, where when asked what your daddy does for a living and the response is "kill people," nobody bats an eye and knows right away that he is in the Infantry. Or if they say "jump out of airplanes," then they know he ain't right. When they are asked where is your dad you ask them for a globe to point it out and the inevitable answer to when is he going to be back is a shrug of the shoulders.

If you aren't awakon out of a good night's sleep it may be the orders you received assigning you overseas. An assignment that does not allow you to bring your family for the year you will be gone.

So for any of you that want to use that shared sacrifice argument I am waiting to hear your side. For those that think being in the military is just a 9-5 job where you get to hop down to a bar after a hard day of chasing jihadis, dodging bullets or defusing IED's, I really look forward to your tales of how writing 10 pages of C++ code compares. I'm sure somebody can tell me how an 8-hour shift on your feet at a retail store equates to launching multimillion dollar aircraft off of the deck of an aircraft carrier. Who wouldn't trade a job selling car parts for loading 500 pound ordnance onto the wing of an aircraft.

There is very little that service in the military guarantees you. One is that if you survive today you get to do it all over again tomorrow, and the second is the 20 year retirement. Health care bit the dust long ago, and while the program is still active we pay for it just like ya'll. Lower premiums sure, but the copays are about the same.

If they mess with the military retirement in the manner they are proposing they may never recover from effects in terms of military readiness. It is not a regular job and to try and make those comparisons is both foolish and foolhardy.

Is He Sure The Influx of Military Members Won't Cause His District to Sink?

Hank "Guam is Sinking" Johnson (Nutjob-GA) is always good for a laugh, but when it comes to national security I find it very hard to laugh when guys like this are trying to tell defense folks how to manage their affairs.

Hank is lobbying for the Defense Department--yeah, that same evil entity that the Dems see as the only place in the federal budget as a target to make cuts in--to locate their new African Command Center in his district. Via Jamie Dupree, here is one of the most solid reasons I have ever heard for locating a command center. It has nothing to do with it's ability to actually do its mission mind you.

"We've got one of the country's largest diaspora communities from Africa," Johnson added, ticking off his own list of why Atlanta is the best pick.

"I know that Ambassador Andrew Young is very interested in AFRICOM choosing to locate its headquarters in Atlanta," said Johnson, referencing the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

The most common use of the word is diaspora is, according to the dictionary,

1. dispersal of the Jews to countries outside of Palestine after the Babylonian captivity
2. the body of Jews living in countries outside Israel

Trust me, Mr. Johnson has not suddenly found a love of all things Jewish. No, instead he is referring to the lesser-known definition which basically refers to any large population dispersed outside of their home country. In his mind, the best reason to locate a military command center in his district is because he has a large African-American community.

One question for Mr. Johnson, and this goes for everybody who self identifies as an African-American: Can you point me to your home village in Africa?

Barack Orders Pentagon To Reduce Budget

Not quite the 25% Barney Frank was looking for but it definitely tells you what his priorities are and how he will pursue the war on terror. Late tonight comes word that he has directed the Pentagon to reduce it's budget for 2010 by at least 10%.

So while he can spend trillions to combat STD's, build golf courses, and prop up Hollywood, national security seems to be low on the priority list. Liberals like Code Pink no doubt are going to be thrilled by this turn of events.

A senior US defense official tells Fox tonight that the Joint Chiefs have been asked to cut the Pentagon's budget request for FY 2010 defense budget by more than 10 percent - about 55 billion dollars.

Sleep tight America, there may not be too many days left or nights that you can.

Defense Appropriations Versus the Warfighters

Much ado has been made lately about the defense appropriations bill winding it's way through Congress, H.R. 5658: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 Bill Status, so I wanted to see just what the money for the military was going for. You know the money that actually winds up in the hands of the military and not those "special projects" the congress critters hold near and dear to their hearts.

Now being an old Army guy I decided to see how the Army money was being parsed out and I found something disturbing. In the Army you have training bases and you have bases which actually have the soldiers who make up the regular units and actually deploy. One base that is a combination of this Ft. Benning, GA, which is home to the U.S. Army Infantry School, and is home for the training of all Infantry soldiers from Basic to Infantry to Airborne to Ranger. It will soon be the home of the Armor branch, that is tanks. Additionally it is home to the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, which has done two rotations in Iraq.

I just bring up Ft. Benning because A) I am very familiar with it, and B) their entry on the funds appropriated seems to run counter to the thesis I am putting forth.

First here is the list from the bill of the funds asked for and where they are going with the bases housing the warfighters in red.

SEC. 2901. AUTHORIZED ARMY CONSTRUCTION AND LAND ACQUISITION PROJECTS.

(a) Inside the United States- Using amounts appropriated pursuant to the authorization of appropriations in subsection (c)(1), the Secretary of the Army may acquire real property and carry out military construction projects for the installations or locations inside the United States, and in the amounts, set forth in the following table:

Army: Inside the United States
-------------------------------------------------------------
State Installation or Location Amount
-------------------------------------------------------------
Alaska Fort Wainwright $17,000,000
California Fort Irwin $11,800,000
Colorado Fort Carson $8,400,000
Georgia Fort Benning $30,500,000
Fort Gordon $39,800,000
Hawaii Schofield Barracks $12,500,000
Kentucky Fort Campbell $9,900,000
Fort Knox $7,400,000
Missouri Fort Leonard Wood $50,000,000
North Carolina Fort Bragg $8,500,000
Oklahoma Fort Sill $9,000,000
South Carolina Fort Jackson $27,000,000
Texas Fort Bliss $17,300,000
Fort Hood $7,200,000
Fort Sam Houston $54,000,000
←→
Virginia Fort Eustis $50,000,000
Fort Lee $7,400,000

The forts receiving the lowest amount of dollars are those that actually house the forces which get deployed! The biggest post east of the Mississippi is not even on the list, Ft. Stewart, GA, home of the other two brigades of the 3rd Infantry Division that has also made 2 trips to Iraq.

The average amount for the war fighters is less then $10 million, once again the exception being Ft Benning.

Look at Ft. Bragg's paltry sum: $8,500,000. Is this the same Ft. Bragg that has recently come under so much criticism for the condition of it's barracks? The Ft. Bragg that is home to the 82nd Airborne Division and Army Special Forces Command?

How about Ft. Campbell, home of the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division? $9,900,000
Another post not on the list, Ft. Drum, NY, home of the 10th Mountain Division, but I guess since they are spending all of their time in Afghanistan there is no need to give them any money. I wonder where the good senators from New York are to lobby for their base?

The total comes to just over $310 million for the bases to spend on improvements and construction projects. The warfighters portion of it - - $77 million.

Somebody up there on Capitol Hill needs to pull their heads out of their fourth point of contact and figure how to allocate the money more appropriately, or maybe somebody from across the river at the Pentagon can bother to go over there and explain to them the difference between the warfighters and the posts which have a real nifty golf course for the congress critters to visit.