http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/11/military-budget-recommendations-retirement-cuts-111710w/

I shouldn't write about stuff when I am angry...but...this morning's news and recent articles in print news have me in knots.  Gotta write to vent.  The above link says it all, or almost all.  The politicians have spent us into a corner;  we are bombarded with "news" stories about the terrible things that will happen if we don't borrow more money...so we can afford to give more money to starving African nations and China and researchers who are apparently evaluating the prospect of opening Gold's Gyms for shrimp.  But in order to afford all these "crucial" expenditures, just borrowing isn't enough...now we have to reduce spending in those areas that are not so crucial.  Up to this point, it is stupid enough to make you puke, but it gets better.  The targets for the cuts are the "entitlement" costs associated with old people and retired military.  I must admit that I am both.  Old and retired from the Army...but not stupid.

The military is an easy target for cuts;  they don't vote as a bloc, they are by nature not political, and lately they have been distracted by two wars and multiple deployments with all the pain to them and their families that they entail.  The military pay has always been below the national average for like jobs (although there are some military jobs that are not comparable to a civilian equivalent).  Most of us retired folks today spent twenty years or more to achieve that status.  Its hard to try to explain what those twenty years are like for some folks;  not only do most civilians never realize what we do, they flat would not do it themselves.  We didn't do it for the money... are you kidding?

Let me ask you...would you do it?  Would you commit to a job that paid you below the poverty level for the first ten to twelve years, then well below your civilian counterparts (who by the way, are committed to only to do the job, with no obligation to the people that work for them...more on that to come).  After twenty years you can retire with half the pay you were earning at the last two years of your job.  You can keep your privileges to shop at the company store, to use the company medics (if you pay for the insurance - lower than civilian counterparts, sure, but not the promised "free for life") and you can travel space available anywhere.  There are a few other bennies but those are the major ones.  Sounds pretty good since you could conceivably retire at age 37, still young enough to have another career after you leave the military.  But of course you'll be twenty years older than most of the people you will be competing with for jobs and may be even sick or disabled as a result of your military service.

Now lets try to capture some of the realities of what it takes to earn that retirement.  Right from the start you learn that while you serve in uniform, you will give up some of the very rights that you are sworn to defend;  under the rationale that it is necessary for good discipline and order.  You will spend the rest of your career governed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice.  This little book is full of interesting bits that no civilian would imagine.  Don't like your boss? Tell him off and walk away, go get another job somewhere else.  I know it is not that easy nowdays, but you could do it without restriction if you wanted to.  Do it in uniform and you could get up to ninety days in jail and some kind of less than honorable discharge.  Call your boss an "anal aperture" and you could receive the same punishment  (even if your boss deserves it...in the article on disrespect, the UCMJ states clearly that "the truth is no defense").  If you do something that makes the leaders mad, but isn't covered in any other article in the UCMJ, then they resort to Article 134, the General Article.  In a nutshell, 134 says that you can be charged under this article for any other infringement not mentioned in previous articles and covers anything that contributes to the disorder of the unit.  Everyone wearing blue and you wear red...chargable offense (just an example...we all wear green).  Awww...that's just one little part of it.

Ever been woke up in the middle of the night to go get one of your workers out of jail because he got drunk and wanted to see if the cops were really all that tough?  Or called to one of your workers' homes because he whipped up on his wife or kid or dog and the neighbors complained?  Ever had to supervise how your workers fold their clothes and store them in their private residence?  Or ensure that they cleaned up their bathrooms or hallways or shined their shoes or shaved close enough or pressed their pants correctly or got their haircut or even got out of bed on time or ate their breakfast on time or make sure they exercise and are able to do enough pushups and situps, made them run for miles, and all this and sooooo much more before they ever even get to their workplace?  Then there are the deployments:  lasting from a couple of days to a couple of years;  to places where they will live in tents, eat out of a can or bag,  crap in a variety of unsavory places, live in the same underwear for days, work twenty hour days, and the beat goes on...and that doesn't even consider the places where people don't want you there and show their displeasure with bombs or bullets...or both.

I am cooling off a little and am loosing the momentum of this piece.  Let's just say that the life is so much more and more dificult than most folks realize.  Those who have served for twenty years and retire deserve what they get...they earned what they get...they have it coming...it is part of their pay.  But the cost of paying retirees is huge....but it is an honorable debt and should never, ever  be compared to the likes of the absolute waste of our tax dollars in studies, grants, subsidies, and such.  One of the few government expenditures that is mandated by the Constitution.  But when the budget cutters whip out their knives, the defense budget is prime in their eyes.  And personnel costs are the biggest chunk of the defense budget.  They cry that we only serve for twenty years but we live for forty years after that and the government has to carry us all that time...Dang right!!  They come after the military with new "plans" to save money with no regard to the effect is has on the quality of the service or its ability to defend the nation.

I'm about done...I just shake my head and wonder.  Those leeches in congress, with few exceptions, never served.  In twenty years a soldier can look forward to collecting half his pay for his retirement...how much are we paying former senators and congressmen who spent a couple of terms in office and collect 100% of their pay for life.  If they really want to get serious about this stuff, let them give up half their retirement, their freebies, and their priviledged status...and oh yeah...while I am thinking about it...no politician should be able to brag about having been to Iraq or Iran unless they include the total number of hours they spent there.  They drop into a forward base on a helicopter  and spend ten minutes talking to some officer then fly out and spend the next year telling everyone who will listen "I've been to Afghanistan..."  How about they pick up a rifle and stand a guard post?