Troops Don’t Deserve Retirement, Board Says

I’m not sure how coherent I’ll be in writing this, so I’ll try hard to maintain some sort of calm while responding to this article in the Stars and Stripes.

The Defense Business Board — tasked by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to find ways to reduce the DOD budget — says annual Treasury Department payments into the system will balloon from $47.7 billion this year to $59.3 billion by 2020.

The 25-member group of civilian business leaders suggests that the Defense Department look at changing the current system, even hinting at raising the number of years troops must serve before being eligible for retirement pay.

The current system “encourages our military to leave at 20 years when they are most productive and experienced, and then pays them and their families and their survivors for another 40 years,” committee chairman Arnold Punaro told board members at their quarterly meeting late last month.

So, here’s a question for this board of “civilian business leaders” that probably never served a day in their lives! Is 20 years of stress, frequent family separations, combat deployment, overseas tours, field training exercises, long work days, and frequent weekend duty not enough?!

Since 9/11, I’ve probably been away from home 40% of the time at least. Others have been gone more than that. I read all these boohoo stories of politicians, celebrities, and business leaders that whine because they have to spend 2-3 days away from their families. Meanwhile, our troops spend months AND YEARS at a time away from their families.

They aren’t spending this time in board meetings, sales pitches, or business lunches. They’re being shot at, mortared, and blown up. They question whether each day will be their last. Meanwhile, when they’re back home, they’re sleeping on uncomfortable cots in unbearably hot (or cold) tents for weeks at a time preparing for that eventual combat. They don’t shower, eat crappy food, and drink warm water. They’re awaken at 0500 and get to sleep at 2200 if they’re lucky.

Every Monday, my troops are sweating their ass off in a concrete motor pool maintaining vehicles that are as tired as the Soldiers working on them. Then, they come back to an undermanned office and try to catch up on all the work that got stacked up throughout the day.

Their families worry about how they will manage if something should happen to their loved one during this training or combat deployment. Spouses raise kids alone, pay bills, and handle everything involved with insurance, rent, mortgage, whatever. They are forced to quit jobs when their service member is moved to another state (or country). They soothe their children crying themselves to sleep because mommy or daddy is deployed.

And yet, troops don’t deserve the lucrative compensation that 20 years of beating, abuse, and harassment has done to them.

Maybe before these morons spout off at the mouth from their six figure salaries about whether or not there is a “more equitable possibility” for retirement pay!

Here’s an idea on how to save money for the government: END WASTEFUL GOVERNMENT SPENDING ON WORTHLESS SOCIAL PROGRAMS! Instead of spending billions and billions more in borrowed money to pay people sitting in their living rooms or unable to find jobs, how about we cut these programs? How about we stop sending money we don’t have to foreign countries that are using it to scam our citizens and kill our troops? How about we stop the drug war that hasn’t done anything but make the trade more dangerous and profitable than ever? How about we cut federal staffs in half? How about we stop creating agencies to regulate everything from light bulbs to cow farts? How about we get rid of NPR? How about we abolish the department of Education and let the states do their jobs?

And here’s the kicker! How about we end pensions for Presidents and Congressmen that only serve 4-8 years!!