And also, the military fucking sucks for anyone who doesn't know. For the ground pounders, aside from the possibility of getting killed any day that you work (be it actually in battle, or joe smuckatelli flagging you with his armed rifle), most of the times your quality of life sucks, too and you get paid shit to work long hours. I don't know how my two younger brothers do it. They're enlisted and I probably make twice the amount they do and they probably do just as much, if not more work. Maybe my brother will post here and you can ask him personally. I've only done 3.5 years so far, but I have a hard time seeing myself doing anything past my 10 year commitment. I have a cool job, but the long hours, constant studying, dealing with bullshit, constant moving, being away from family, doing more than what you actually get paid for really starts to take its toll. Especially since I know I can take my TS clearance and million dollars in flight training and run away with it and make twice the amount I make now in the civilian/private sector. Contract flying pays a ridiculous amount of money in Afghanistan. And who knows if I'll even get the opportunity to reach the highly acclaimed 20 year mark. More and more people are being let go, not because they suck or anything, but because that's how the economy is and we just don't have the money to retain everyone.
Point that I'm trying to make, is that people who actually reach 20 years fucking deserve the perks that go along with it. And the double-dipping, triple-dipping phrases, aka shit I've never heard of used in this context is absolutely absurd. You're telling me if you put all that time into this country, and when it was all said and done, you wouldn't turn over your military uniform to a civilian uniform the same way that they do? It's like that one interview I saw on youtube where a CEO asked an Occupy Wall Street protester, "Wouldn't you want to be part of the 1%?" and the protester kind of froze before eventually saying yes. Not saying that the military is the 1% or anything, but if given the same circumstances you would do the same thing. It would be stupid to throw away all those years and not take advantage of it. If it seems unfair, well guess what, you also had the very same opportunity to do the same thing that guy did.
20 years is a tough plateau to reach. It's not as easy as just waiting it out and eventually you'll get there. For me, 20 years means I went on 2-3 deployments during my JO tour, 1 during my disassociated sea tour, 1-2 during my department head tour, 1-2 during my XO tour, and possibly 1-2 if I made CO. That's only a potential 60 months of deployment, or essentially 5 years that I missed out on being in the U.S. or with my family. And for someone in a more dangerous area of the military than myself, who even knows if you survive those first few deployments.
So yeah, 20 years of pain in the ass work, potentially 5 of it not even in the U.S., shit pay for the first half of it (comparatively speaking), the potential to be killed, long hours you'll never get back, being separated from your family, numerous missed holidays and birthdays, you definitely deserve something when it's all said and done. So in a nutshell, raising the costs of health care, especially when there are literally MILLIONS that can be cut elsewhere within the DOD is a little ridiculous.
Start with getting rid of the fucking F-22's we don't need.
