posted on March 22, 2002 05:38:42 PM new This email is posted at the request of JACKSWEBB.Please note: the all-capsmessage which appears at thebottom is not his.
Text of email:
The U S Military
On 12 November, Ms. Cindy Williams (from the Laverne and Shirley TV show) wrote a piece for the Washington Times denouncing the pay raise(s) coming service members' way this year-citing that the stated 13% wage gap was bogus.
A young airman from Hill AFB responds to her article below. He
ought to get a bonus for this!
Ms. Williams:
I just had the pleasure of reading your column of 12 Nov, "Our GIs earn enough" and I am a bit confused. Frankly, I'm wondering where this vaunted overpayment is going, because as far as I can tell, it disappears every month between DFAS (The Defense Finance and Accounting Service) and my bank
account. Checking my latest leave and earnings statement (LES), I see that I make $1,117.80, before taxes. After taxes, I take home $874.20.
When I run that through Windows' Calculator, I come up with an annual salary of $13,413.60 before taxes, and $10,490.40 after.
I work in the Air Force Network Control Center (AFNCC), where I am part of the team responsible for the administration of a 5,000-host computer network.
I am involved with infrastructure segments, specifically with Cisco Systems equipment. A quick check under jobs for Network Technicians in the Washington, DC area reveals a position in my career field, requiring three years' experience with my job. Amazingly, this job does NOT pay $13,413.60 a
year, nor does it pay less than this. No, this job is being offered
at $70,000 to $80,000 per annum. I'm sure you can draw the obvious conclusions.
Also, you tout increases to Basic Allowance for Housing and Basic Allowance for Subsistence (housing and food allowances, respectively) as being a further boon to an already overcompensated force. Again, I'm curious as to where this money has gone, as BAH and BAS were both slashed 15% in the Hill AFB area effective in January 00.
Given the tenor of your column, I would assume that you have NEVER had the pleasure of serving your country in her armed forces. Before you take it upon yourself to once more castigate congressional and DOD leadership for attempting to get the families in the military's lowest pay brackets off AFDC, WIC, and food stamps, I suggest that you join a group of deploying soldiers headed for AFGHANISTAN, I leave the choice of service branch up to you. Whatever choice you make, though, opt for the SIX month rotation: it will guarantee you the longest possible time away from your family and friends, thus giving you full "deployment experience."
As your group prepares to board the plane, make sure to note the spouses and children who are saying good-bye to their loved ones. Also take care to note that several families are still unsure of how they'll be able to make ends meet while the primary breadwinner is gone-obviously they've been squandering the vast piles of cash the DOD has been giving them.
Try to deploy over a major holiday; Christmas and Thanksgiving are perennial favorites. And when you're actually over there, sitting in a DFP (Defensive Fire Position, the modern-day foxhole), shivering against the cold desert night, and the flight sergeant tells you that there aren't enough people on shift to relieve you for chow, remember this: trade whatever MRE (meal-ready-to-eat) you manage to get for the tuna noodle casserole or cheese tortellini, and add Tabasco to everything. This gives some flavor.
Talk to your loved ones as often as you are permitted; it won't
nearly be long enough or often enough, but take what you can get and be thankful for it. You may have picked up on the fact that I disagree with most of the points you present in your op-ed piece. But, tomorrow from KABUL, I will defend to the death your right to say it.
You see, I am an American fighting man, a guarantor of your First Amendment rights and every other right you cherish. On a daily basis, my brother and sister soldiers worldwide ensure that you and people like you can thumb your collective nose at us, all on a salary that is nothing short of pitiful and under conditions that would make most people cringe.
We hemorrhage our best and brightest into the private sector because we can't offer the stability and pay of civilian companies. And you, Ms. Williams, have the gall to say that we make more than we deserve? Rubbish!
- A1C Michael Bragg, Hill AFB AFNCC
*********************************************
IF YOU AGREE, PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE AND SHOW OUR SUPPORT OF THE AMERICAN FIGHTING MEN AND WOMEN.
THANK YOU.
THIS LETTER SHOULD BE APPLAUDED BY ANYONE WHO'S EVER SERVED OR HAD A FAMILY MEMBER SERVE IN THE ARMED FORCES! THIS YOUNG MAN DESERVES A MEDAL!!!!
God Bless the United States and all those who serve.
posted on March 22, 2002 08:59:40 PM new
http://web.mit.edu/ssp/db21/GIs.html
It's not THAT Cindy Williams.
I'm convinced not many people are jerks. The source of my restoration of faith?? A month or so ago I walked out of a store and froze in my tracks. NJ issues certain license plates if requested. There was truck there with Congressional Medal of Honor plates on it. 30 seconds behind me a guy comes out with his son, maybe 10-12. The kid sees the strange plate and asks what it was. By the time the father finished explaining, the driver came out of a store. The kid goes up to him and ASKS to SHAKE HIS HAND.
At the expense of trashing the good woman's name?.....Well, I really hated that show anyway.
I haven't championed anything in years. I'm mostly stirred by the relentless pontification from soapboxes made of balsa. I was going to "finish" the drug thread, but the thought of Ken posting more links from the Tanzania Daily Sentinel, and Borillar putting words in my mouth faster than I can say them, was withering.
posted on March 22, 2002 09:58:50 PM new
Though you're obviously withered, if ever you in fact did bloom, it must have been something else to cause it for I posted not one link to that thread.
posted on March 23, 2002 08:51:02 AM new
It's been a long time since I was in the millitary. Sure, the pay was lousey (a universal complaint throughout the world's millitary history). I am reminded that private grade soldiers (E-1) in the early 1960's, if I am recalling correctly, received $50 a month in pay. In WW-II, it was $35 a month.
Millitary pay has never been a compensation for a career as an enlisted person. Officers fare better, but also have always been underpaid (since we outlawed looting of captured objectives). The food, such as it is, is free and so is thee board.
In the Navy, at Naval stations on land (except for bootcamp), the food was incrediably good quality! I'll not shock you with horror stories about onboard ship food. The basic housing for E-1 was really great on land and sucked at sea for everyone but the Captain and higher-ups.
Your off-base housing allowance goes up as you go up in rank. Therefore, it instills a desire for millitary personell who have famlies to perform as they are supposed to in order to advance in rank.
My point is, is that serving your country inthe Millitary will likely keep you poor and was never meant as competing with the Private Sector careers.
posted on March 23, 2002 06:59:51 PM new
Looting while frowned on has never stopped.
I watched a episode of Antiques Road Show tonight that featured glass that a women said her husband - a bomber pilot - would send home from France in WWII. She described it as "liberated". Unfortunatly he crashed on take off one day and the packages stopped.
Still - perhaps he did not rape and burn, which would be a big improvement on everyone else who swept through the previous 1,000 years.
