Army veteran says his benefits are "too generous"

[pawnman]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/im-an-army-veteran-and-my-benefits-are-too-generous/2014/06/06/5e8db2ec-eb35-11e3-9f5c-9075d5508f0a_story.html

Retired reserve Army Lt Col says his benefits are too generous. Of course, he goes on to say he never deployed during his 23 year career...so maybe he's got a different perspective.

[Herk Driver]

I wonder if LTC (Ret) Tom Slear has considered donating his retirement to the Treasury to help pay down the debt?

Somehow I doubt it.

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[Lawman]

People like this piss me off in any profession.

"I'm getting more than I deserve so let's look at everybody else and assume they feel the same way."

Fuck this guy.

[ARIs 'R' Us]

When I graduated college, I was making roughly $9K (before poverty tax breaks) a year as a CFI/MEI, trying to get hours so I could work for a regional airline and make $20-30K/yr. Several years later, while my peers are in the $50K region at the regionals, I'm making six figures (when you include benefits, BAH, etc), and I'll be able to keep half of that, forever, if I stay until 20...not to mention the hundreds of thousand I'll make at my next job which Air Force flight time will allow me to get rather easily.

I, like all of you, have worked hard and sacrificed a lot (although many have sacrificed much more) to get to where I am...but I'm not complaining. The majority of our non-mil peers have financial circumstances rougher than we (officers) do. Enlisted is a completely different argument.

[Azimuth]

Enlisted is a completely different argument.

Why's that? I make more than an O-1, get $350 a month in flight pay (ours doesn't go down like yours), get more BAS, clothing allowance, and due to my job was paid 30K over four year, tax free, to reenlist. For a majority of Enlisted folks who joined right after high school, once you're an E-5, pay isn't really that bad once you factor in the allowances and special pays (if you get them).

[guineapigfury]

Why's that? I make more than an O-1, get $350 a month in flight pay (ours doesn't go down like yours), get more BAS, clothing allowance, and due to my job was paid 30K over four year, tax free, to reenlist. For a majority of Enlisted folks who joined right after high school, once you're an E-5, pay isn't really that bad once you factor in the allowances and special pays (if you get them).

The other thing to factor in to junior enlisted pay is the GI Bill, amortized over the first enlistment. Let's say a guy is an E-2, making $1717 a month. That's not much, but now add in free college and it's the best deal you're gonna see with nothing but a high school diploma unless your name is Lebron James.

[Majestik Møøse]

You're right Azimuth, we're paying the sweaties too much!

[ARIs 'R' Us]

Why's that? I make more than an O-1, get $350 a month in flight pay (ours doesn't go down like yours), get more BAS, clothing allowance, and due to my job was paid 30K over four year, tax free, to reenlist. For a majority of Enlisted folks who joined right after high school, once you're an E-5, pay isn't really that bad once you factor in the allowances and special pays (if you get them).

Good...no, great point. I just didn't feel appropriate making it for you :)

[Beaver]

When I graduated college, I was making roughly $9K (before poverty tax breaks) a year as a CFI/MEI, trying to get hours so I could work for a regional airline and make $20-30K/yr. Several years later, while my peers are in the $50K region at the regionals, I'm making six figures (when you include benefits, BAH, etc), and I'll be able to keep half of that, forever, if I stay until 20...not to mention the hundreds of thousand I'll make at my next job which Air Force flight time will allow me to get rather easily.

I, like all of you, have worked hard and sacrificed a lot (although many have sacrificed much more) to get to where I am...but I'm not complaining. The majority of our non-mil peers have financial circumstances rougher than we (officers) do. Enlisted is a completely different argument.

You equate yourself to a regional pilot?

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[Ram]

When I graduated college, I was making roughly $9K (before poverty tax breaks) a year as a CFI/MEI, trying to get hours so I could work for a regional airline and make $20-30K/yr. Several years later, while my peers are in the $50K region at the regionals, I'm making six figures (when you include benefits, BAH, etc), and I'll be able to keep half of that, forever, if I stay until 20...not to mention the hundreds of thousand I'll make at my next job which Air Force flight time will allow me to get rather easily.

I, like all of you, have worked hard and sacrificed a lot (although many have sacrificed much more) to get to where I am...but I'm not complaining. The majority of our non-mil peers have financial circumstances rougher than we (officers) do. Enlisted is a completely different argument.

Fuck your logic. Our civilian counterparts don't have to take their socks off to count the friends they know who aren't walking the earth any longer.

[ARIs 'R' Us]

You equate yourself to a regional pilot?

My point is that when I left college, I had two choices to fly. The one I made led to me being much more stable, financially, than my/our peers in the civvy world. I'm not complaining...and I'm not sure what led to LTC Slear's decision to do so.

###### your logic.

Good point.

Our civilian counterparts don't have to take their socks off to count the friends they know who aren't walking the earth any longer.

Agreed. So you're saying that a few more benefits, the lack of a RIF, or a guaranteed COLA increase once you retire would change that? Me neither.

edit to remove ####### failed

Edited June 9, 2014 by ARIs 'R' Us

[Beaver]

I don't have any peers in the civvy world.

[Lawman]

I don't have any peers in the civvy world.

Agreed.

Find me a civilian helicopter pilot who is;

Required to maintain a weekly organized regiment of physical training alon with a biannual review of his physical standard via a PT test.

Told his hearing loss will no longer be covered as a disability directly linked to the performance of his duties (despite a Boeing paper stating the Army hearing protection is substandard )

Spends anywhere from 2-4 months of the year deployed away from home to live in a tent conducting demonstrations of his airmanship ability (gunnery, NTC, field problems, etc)

Cannot leave his job until fulfilling an ever changing time table of service requirements while at the same time having no legal recourse to being forcibly downsized without appeal.

Find me that guy with that job an we can start comparing pay and benefits. That doesn't even get into the knee and back issues I've had as a direct result of performing the Army lifestyle.

[Fuzz]

Told his hearing loss will no longer be covered as a disability directly linked to the performance of his duties (despite a Boeing paper stating the Army hearing protection is substandard )

WTF? That's some bullshit.

[Majestik Møøse]

Leave it to the media to present the opinion of 1/1000000 as a popular dissenting opinion.

If the military wants to get serious about cutting personnel costs, they'll provide an option to convert retirement pensions to the 401k/403b model that the rest of the world started using last century.

[17D_guy]

Getting really tired of retirees and/or people who served over 20 years ago saying how much more hardcore they were or how easy we have it now.

Thanks for your service, shut your damn mouth.

You're service did not included the big issues the common Airman (or other service member) is facing today (both O & E).

Budget cuts (personnel, training, and equipment), SARC, Alcohol is the de-bil, etc.

Our new guys aren't "soft" and "not dedicated." They reacting to a command environment that's pulling them so many different ways, not giving them tools, and judging them harshly for it when they come up lacking. Or, just hammering them for nothing.

I've got enough retired E7 DAF Civ's (who wrote and sourced their position when they retired) telling me how cush my job is thinking we have the manning, funding, training from when they retired still. I don't need it from a (fellow) REMF O as well.

[addict]

Headline: old fart who mysteriously made LTC while a reservist fully behind cutting benefits for the younger generation coming home from Afghanistan. Feelings of guilt for his sham of a career he deflects onto other people.

Edited June 10, 2014 by addict

[Spoo]

Thanks for your opinion career part time reservist, now go away.

Edited June 10, 2014 by Spoo

[Hueypilot]

So after serving 20 years pretty much doing nothing but working in an office, you retire. 15 years later, and after over a decade of war, you decide to pen an article where you feel the benefits are too lavish because you personally didn't do enough to merit earning them.

The guys returning from Iraq and Afghanistan in pieces disagree with you. The people who've spent 3-4 years of their lives (or more) deployed to various shit holes and missing birthdays and anniversaries over the past decade also disagree with you.

If you feel guilty that you're getting nice perks for basically doing nothing, that's fine. Take that retirement and other monetary benefits and donate them to the Wounded Warrior Project. But to try and axe benefits for future generations who actually did deploy and face imminent danger while you've managed to enjoy those benefits for well over a decade is shameful. Not everyone (and in fact, very few) are able to enjoy a 20+ year career avoiding deployments and danger.

The mere fact that we sit ready to give our lives, even if we're a cook, supply tech or what have you, is worth having those benefits. And I find it baffling that people such as this guy will attack benefits given to people who, at a minimum, sat ready to serve, but they are mute when it comes to benefits being paid to people who haven't given anything to this nation.

[deaddebate]

Why's that? I make more than an O-1, get $350 a month in flight pay (ours doesn't go down like yours), get more BAS, clothing allowance, and due to my job was paid 30K over four year, tax free, to reenlist. For a majority of Enlisted folks who joined right after high school, once you're an E-5, pay isn't really that bad once you factor in the allowances and special pays (if you get them).

Care to explain how awesome our pay is to another Enlisted member who doesn't get flight pay or a sweet SRB? Let's compare the base pay for an E-5 at 6+ years ($2.7K) to an O-1 at <2 years ($2.9K). I may not have

The other thing to factor in to junior enlisted pay is the GI Bill, amortized over the first enlistment. Let's say a guy is an E-2, making $1717 a month. That's not much, but now add in free college and it's the best deal you're gonna see with nothing but a high school diploma unless your name is Lebron James.

Fair point, but not that extremely awesome. It comes with the obligation for service and possible/likely deployment. I've known numerous people my age who questioned my sanity for selling my soul to the AF. Working 50-60 hours a week, plus the "highly recommended volunteer opportunities/morale events," plus the mandatory "on-call" status, plus limitations on certain social activities, plus the normal administrivia/queep is a fair trade in my opinion.

I don't have any peers in the civvy world.

This. I'm not a Green Beret, ball-turret gunner, PJ, or Pilot, but the pencil-pushers in the civilian world don't have half the shit a given nonner in the MPF does

Great words.

Also this.

.

[Spoo]

So after serving 20 years pretty much doing nothing but working in an office, you retire. 15 years later, and after over a decade of war, you decide to pen an article where you feel the benefits are too lavish because you personally didn't do enough to merit earning them.

The guys returning from Iraq and Afghanistan in pieces disagree with you. The people who've spent 3-4 years of their lives (or more) deployed to various shit holes and missing birthdays and anniversaries over the past decade also disagree with you.

If you feel guilty that you're getting nice perks for basically doing nothing, that's fine. Take that retirement and other monetary benefits and donate them to the Wounded Warrior Project. But to try and axe benefits for future generations who actually did deploy and face imminent danger while you've managed to enjoy those benefits for well over a decade is shameful. Not everyone (and in fact, very few) are able to enjoy a 20+ year career avoiding deployments and danger.

The mere fact that we sit ready to give our lives, even if we're a cook, supply tech or what have you, is worth having those benefits. And I find it baffling that people such as this guy will attack benefits given to people who, at a minimum, sat ready to serve, but they are mute when it comes to benefits being paid to people who haven't given anything to this nation.

BOOM goes the dynamite.