Making more vets just to screw them over!

See related story <A HREF="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/02/07/MNGM5B72E01.DTL" target="_new"> HERE </A>

!#&$ <font color=blue> </font color=blue>---<font color=red><i><b>It's not heavy,...it's my computer</font color=red></i></b>

I always like to point this out when people talk about military pay and benefits.

I used to see soldiers every day and what they make is not much if they're a grunt. I guess everyone has to start at the bottom though.

However those that use their training to get a kick ass job, or become officers, or are on active duty as an officer or leave their nice job to be on active duty, especially in a war zone---make a boatload of money.

It's amazing.

My buddy in Kuwait is pulling in way over $100K a year in the Navy by a combination of two things. One, his employer back home still pays him most of his salary ($80K+) as a compliment to our armed forces. Two, he's getting huge tax benefits and all kinds of bonuses for being in a war zone on top of his military salary. Add to that the free education and the massive hookups that this guy has and I'm impressed.

Those grunts that I used to see everyday would apply for credit at my work and I'd really have to bend the rules if there was any hope of them getting approved, but when an officer came in or a retired officer it was no problem. They all made over at least $80K and officers that were doctors or instuctors were making $100K+ iirc.

</font color=red><i><font color=red>GOD</font color=red> <font color=blue>BLESS </font color=blue><font color=red>AMERICA

It's the same thing with a cop or fireman..... It's a different calling & money isn't the motivator.... Smartest boss I ever had, had a saying, Money is only a short term motavator!!! I've found it to be true....



Dazzle them with Brilliance, or Baffle them with BS!
<font color=red>{FMCD}</font color=red>

I didn't say $100K. I said way over.

Those poorest people in the military are generally pulling in $20K-$25K or so plus housing, food, and health expenses from what I could see on paper. That's on base, not in a war zone for a 18 year old who just got into the marines as a grunt with ( or maybe without for all I know ) a high school education.

My buddy served in Kosovo and now in Kuwait, plus all the years of active duty outside of warfare, plus he's got years of work experience, plus a better rank, so of course he's doing better than the $20K.

Nobody joins the military for the money do they? They join for the benefits. They get to serve their country, travel the world, free education, free high tech training, free job placement, and job security like no other. You can't fire someone from their civilian job who serves in the military. They're guaranteed their job when they get back so at my friend's work while everyone was worried about losing thier posh silicon valley job during the tech crisis, he was sitting nice and pretty because he was in the military. At his work they've been laying off people by the hundreds for several years now and he hasn't had to worry about anything. He got another one of my friends a job there who did get layed off and spent over a year freaking out about losing his job. Then when they layed him off they called him up a few months later and told him he's needed again. So now he's back there going through the same [-peep-] all over again.

The military is struggling with recruits, but nonetheless our armed forces are several million strong.

</font color=red><i><font color=red>GOD</font color=red> <font color=blue>BLESS </font color=blue><font color=red>AMERICA

Now that I think about it, I think some of those guys are actually making less than $20K, but they're still getting the free housing expenses etc. There's so many factors, like whether they have kids, a spouse, both are in the military, etc.

</font color=red><i><font color=red>GOD</font color=red> <font color=blue>BLESS </font color=blue><font color=red>AMERICA

Position matters. I met one of the guys who flew the huge cargo planes back and forth to Iraq. First off, let me just say that the guy was one of the freakiest and scariest mofos around. This guy would basically fly non-stop to Kuwait, sleep, and the next morning fly back to California. It was like that non-stop for 7 days straight or something before he got a break and then went at it again.

He was making a lot of money in the military. He loved the job.

Let's face it, these guys aren't in for the money generally. I'm sure the brass has to make budget decisions all the time that aren't pretty, but if you pay the military too much then they're nothing more than mercinaries and that's not what we want is it? You don't want people joining the military for the paycheck. I realize this isn't what this thread is really about but I'm just commenting anyways.

</font color=red><i><font color=red>GOD</font color=red> <font color=blue>BLESS </font color=blue><font color=red>AMERICA

unfortunately that is what most of the world will base their opinions of our military and its personnel.

I work therefore I am conservative.
<A HREF="http://www.cameronwilliamson.com" target="_new">-={Psychotic Sociopath.}=-</A>

I agree, it sure is personal!!!

We had protestors spitting on us..... You've got the prison thing (which is BS, IMO)... It's never a pretty street to walk on...

Hold your head high & let the rest of them kiss your royal red ass... You know you've got what it takes & no one will ever be able to take that away from you!!!!!!

At least, that's how I've lived with it......




Dazzle them with Brilliance, or Baffle them with BS!
<font color=red>{FMCD}</font color=red>

People didn't seem to realize that the prison scandal was revolving around less than a dozen people out of 135,000 (at the time) active soldiers.

</font color=red><i><font color=red>GOD</font color=red> <font color=blue>BLESS </font color=blue><font color=red>AMERICA

OK this post wasn't meant to be a discussion on active military pay. I was merely trying to point out that in this time of the increased number of active duty military service personnel, the government is reducing the benefits that they will receive when they end their tour of duty.
This being said, in reference to the article referred to in the post, the bush administration intends to apply a $250 fee for VA medical services to veterans with a suitable means of income. I do not agree with this decision however considering that VA health care is my only means of health care, and that I am rather familiar with it, these fees may be necessary. I base this on the fact that there are a lot of veterans that use VA medical care, instead of or in conjunction with, company offered medical plans. These vets have earned the right to do this by serving their country.
When the time comes for the current military personnel to leave active duty, the VA medical system will become even more overwhelmed. As more and more vets start using the already burdened system the level of health care will be proportionately reduced. Now if the government were to ever take the position of taking care of veterans instead of just using the VA medical system as a training facility for medical students, this would not present a problem, however given the past history of the government's lack of interest in funding VA medical services properly and no sign of future change, the system will never be able to handle this much of an increase in patients. When this happens and if vets continue to use the system as they do now, the level of health care will be substandard at best. The current level of VA medical services is extremely over taxed. There are too few Md's, too many medical students being used as health providers, an extreme over usage of physician assistants instead of Md's, too few Rn's, too many nursing students providing services, a disproportionately large number of PN's and LPN's to RN's, and this will only get worse when all the current active duty military personnel start using the system.
Ideally the right thing to do would be to adjust the VA medical services funding to cover the increase in veterans using the system, but come on, do you think this has even a remote chance of happening? Just look at who is proposing the increased fees, the same person who called to duty all the inactive reservists, our president.
Now to remark on the brilliant idea of increasing the co-payment on prescription drugs from $7 to $15, this is a lot more serious than the $250 annual fee. It was less than four years ago that the drug co payment was only $3, then more than doubled, and now more than doubling again.
Many people may scoff at the idea of complaining about a drug co payment of $15, however when you consider the fact that this $15 per prescription fee will also be applied to veterans who are below the poverty level in income we must look at it in a different light.
Referencing "Senate Rpt.107-231 - VETERANS LONG-TERM CARE AND MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAMS ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2002" :

This article can be found at <A HREF="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/?&db_id=cp107&r_n=sr231.107&sel=TOC_34728&" target="_new">http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/?&db_id=cp107&r_n=sr231.107&sel=TOC_34728&</A>

After reading this article, and considering the hardships put upon lower income and poverty level veterans the $7 fee increase caused, I certainly hope that every American that reads this will contact their Representatives in Washington and demand that funding be properly provided for veterans health care and further more that any attempt to increase the fee for prescription drugs not apply to lower income veterans.
In addition to contacting your Representative please also contact:
House Committee on Veterans' Affairs
335 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

or call:

(202) 225-3527


!#&$ <font color=blue> </font color=blue>---<font color=red><i><b>It's not heavy,...it's my computer</font color=red></i></b>

Shhh! The fact that the US Army will be using my filthy man-cream as a weapon is a secret!!


I don't only break your heart, I also break your pelvis