Lot of truths about in the world...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Umar Al-Mokhtār
...Plus the odds of actually being shot at diminish considerably as you get further down the DoD tail, which is large. :p
for those that seek the tail, I guess that's true. Not everyone does.
Quote:
"...kill others in exchange for medical, dental, education, food." Are you sure you're not a recruiter? That's a great selling point, almost as good as "Travel to strange and exotic places, meet unusual and fascinating peoples, and kill them!" :D
Both are good, either will work -- both are true.
As Tom says, there've been a lot of changes over the past few years, not all for the good though most are, but there still is that word 'kill' involved. Not even the Cops have that...
Or perhaps Prunes and Pears...
Tom, I agree that trying to compare military life to civilian is one of apples to oranges, but that is often an exercise in semantics to an enlisted military techno-weenie who has pretty much a "normal" work week with minimal chance of deploying. We all have encountered the type. There are folks who's MOS rarely takes them out of the NCR.
I do not feel that national health care is an anathema but I do feel it should be approached very carefully or we’ll end up like the Canadians, no offense to Norfolk, Rex, and our other northern members. :o
While I do oppose gun control I have pondered the fact as to why you can't have an unregistered firearm on a military base. Then again not every military regulation makes sense, especially to a libertarian.
“Of course, we're different, since we get shot at.” Even that applies to a small percentage of military personnel so using it as leverage to extract more veterans benefits is a stretch.
Trying to man an all volunteer force requires more expenditure overall. Plus 30 years ago when we signed up there were fewer dependents (and when Ken lashed up camp followers had no official recognition). DoD over the years has had to react to the huge increase in it’s “population” that I believe it did not adequately foresee.
Too easy, no question. There have always
been fewer fighters (I have absolutely no use for the term 'warrior') than there have others in the armed forces and that tendency has increased over the years. Those folks are needed so that's really okay -- as long as they stay out of combat units; it's only when they get assigned to combat elements that they become problems...
Our personnel systems, Army and the Corps, refuse to recognize that little problem.
We should be paying that E3 - and the O3s as well -
to stay single...
Paying soldiers of any rank to get married is just dumb. Pay should be totally marriage irrelevant. The current pay system was designed to cope with a large draftee Army in the low cost 1940s. Those days are long gone yet the pay system remains...
We should also be able to reward people for doing a good job with more money as opposed to only be able to reward through promotions. Feeding the Peter Principle is also dumb.
In 1967, there was a move to rectify the problem and one of the things that was included was a contributory -- and portable -- retirement system. The senior folks, officer and enlisted conspired to beat that down on the nominal basis of 'breaking faith' (even though anyone with over 10 years would have been grandfathere) but the actual rationale of not eliminating the capture and hold effect of the 20-30 year retirement system. Stupid and shortsighted.
$100 million plus Fraud with Tricare
Fraud costs military health program $100 million plus
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=139968
Crooked Phillipino doctors combined with corrupt U.S. military retirees to file fraudulent claims with Tricare. Here's a pithy quote:
"I know this is illegal and wrong to submit fraudulent claims to get money, but I did it for fun," U.S. Navy retiree Romulo Estoesta told investigators. He died in 2002.
One man's socialism is another man's just desserts. And vice versa.