Slowly, over a lot of years, we watched as the Congress, aided by various Presidents and General Officers, pecked away at the benefits package. When we protested, they pointed out that no one ever put in writing that these things would be part of our lives forever...we just assumed that...wrongly so, it seems. Congress developed a strategy in the late 60's and early 70's that we called the "Shotgun" technique. As the time of year approached for the budget to be hammered out, rumors would start to fly about the benefits that were being considered for cuts or elimination. The lobby groups would fly into action, storming the congress with pleas and threats, and storming the troops to join their organizations so they would have the money to save our bennies. We would hear that the commissary subsidies were going to be cut again...or any number of other parts of our lives that we considered necessary and our due... our butts were out there in the wind after all. The rumors would be running rampant and there were always a dozen or so major cuts on the table. The lobbiests would charge and the halls of congress would be abuzz with it all. Then the budget would be settled and the announcement made that only two or three of the items would be cut...and the crowd roared. The lobbiests had saved three or four of our bennies! But when all the smoke and mirrors were cleared away, the fact was that we had actually lost a few more benefits, no matter how many were "saved".

So over the twenty-six years of my active duty career, I saw so many benefits fade away so gradually that I can barely remember some of them. I remember when Levis in the PX were cheaper than in Sears or Wal-mart. I remember when we shopped in the commissary all the time because it beat Safeway or Fry's. And I remember the clinics and hospitals full of retirees there for their "free medical care". But I don't remember when it was that so much of that slipped away. A lot of it happened when I was busy raising a family on NCO pay and not particularly aware of what Congress was doing. Like I said, it was gradual. But I do remember living in California in the seventies when an E-6 could make more money bagging groceries at a supermarket than the military paid him. When an E-5 with a couple of kids was eligible for food stamps. I was there when our pay was frozen as an attempt to help the economy recover...don't remember my deployments or other duties being reduced at the same time. These benefits weren't luxuries or "extras"...they were necessary for military families to survive. Seems like every time there is talk about cutting the Defense budget, the first item on the list is always personnel...pay and benefits...'cause we really need those multi-million dollar cannons that don't work. Does this sound like a whine? Just an old lifer crying the blues about how it was back when? Not really. We called it the "X" factor. The things that we were required to do that our civilian counterparts weren't. The moving, the separations, the ridiculous hours, being called away from Christmas Dinner with the family because someone forgot to post the duty roster, the frustrated plans, and...oh yeah...the opportunity to be shot at on occasion...and to go to places where no one in their right mind would ever go on purpose only to be reminded that we knew what we were getting into when we signed up. I know some civilian families had to put up with some of these things, too...but they did have the right to walk away at any time. We pretty much accepted it as part of our life. We saved when we could, we made do with less. We were careful and stretched the bucks and never looked over our shoulder at what our civilian counterparts were making (almost never).

What the heck is my point? Well...we are on the verge of the biggest "Shotgun" scam congress has ever pulled. Using the same techniques they perfected years ago to strip the military of the benefits they had EARNED!...they are gearing up to ram a brand new "entitlement" down our throats (or through another orifice) with no regard to the millions of voting Americans who are dead set against it. An "entitlement" that we will be paying for ourselves like never before...and if you don't want to play along...you will be thrown in jail. Because they know what is best for us. We being too dumb to know for ourselves. It doesn't matter if you are right- or left-winged, what color you are, where you go to church, or what moon you worship when it is full...EVERYBODY is gonna suffer from this...your "medical care" is gonna wind up costing you ten times more than you can imagine. Quoting my lovely daughter, known here as MamieLady, "I am not sure of the destination but the mode of travel seems to be a handbasket". Bon Voyage.