French G, I love this paragraph. It's beautiful. Thank you for posting it.
In certain roles, I see how it is in the nation's best interest to have competitive career benefits to private life. High ranking command officers, weapons researchers (though that is mostly privatized now), nuclear reactor engineers and technicians, people who design and maintain complicated machinery and sophisticated computer networks, masters of the skills of warcraft who teach those skills to the next batch of warriors. Gotta retain them, so lifelong employment and retirement perks makes sense.
But for PFC Skippy you guys bring up so frequently? Eff, no! For that matter, any infantry/combat/bureaucratic support/MP/janitorial/fighter-jockey/cooking/etc role. I don't think it's in a person's best interest to remain employed by the armed forces in a lifelong pursuit of any of those roles. It's certainly not in the nation's best interest to pay retirement benefits to people who put in 20 years in these positions. It's hardly irreplaceable talent. You may think that's callous, but history shows that imperial-sized armies are quite easy to assemble and replace fallen soldiers.
That doesn't mean that guys who get injured in the line of duty (or families of those who die in service) shouldn't be taken care of. Of course they should.
But the military shouldn't be a means of an easy retirement.
And it absolutely shouldn't be manipulated into a block constituency like it has been.
There's so much fail in this that it's hard to begin.
You say:
people who design and maintain complicated machinery and sophisticated computer networks, masters of the skills of warcraft who teach those skills to the next batch of warriors. Gotta retain them, so lifelong employment and retirement perks makes sense.
But for PFC Skippy you guys bring up so frequently? Eff, no! For that matter, any infantry/combat/bureaucratic support/MP/janitorial/fighter-jockey/cooking/etc role. I don't think it's in a person's best interest to remain employed by the armed forces in a lifelong pursuit of any of those roles.
Let's start with the basics shall we? It's the guys with 12, 15, 20+ years experience that teach "the next batch of warriors". They also teach the guys that sustain and maintain that complicated equipment and machinery on how to do it. And let's go point by point.
Infantry- Definitely a young man's game. The wear and tear on the body is phenomenal even on a Mech Infantry grunt. Moreso, should you choose to fall out of planes and/or helicopters, go ranger, or become a snake eater.
Combat- Humping 155 rounds, breaking track, or building a bridge also puts great wear on the body. Those are also young man's jobs.
Bureaucratic support- Do mean things like beans and bullets or HR functions? Because everyone I know wants the newest soldier to be their unit's clerk and to process their evals, orders and awards. Can't have any experienced folks doing those jobs.
MP- No, it's not writing traffic tickets on post. Guess who had the second highest casualty rate in Iraq? Yeah, the guys doing convoy escorts and finding IED's with their vehicles.
Janitorial- Don't know of any service that has a "Janitorial" MOS. Yes, all soldiers are expected to learn how to keep themselves and the living areas clean. Just like you have to keep your house clean, just maybe not to the same standards as the First Sergeant insists upon.
Fighter jockey- I good friend of mine is former Air Force. He guesstimated the USAF spent over $1million on him before he even touched an airplane. Probably another $2-3 million teaching him to fly and another million or so how to fight. So yeah, no need to to retain that investment.
Cooks- Yes, because everyone just wants the pimplely faced kid to all the cooking for 120+ people in your unit. I mean they've got the recipe cards and bunch of pots and pans and an MKT, how hard can it be?
etc- Not sure who the etcera would be. You pretty much said "Eff, No" to all the Combat Arms, Combat Support and Combat Service Support jobs. Which is every job in the Military.
Is that how your company does it? No experienced people allowed?
Also it's "Up or Out" in the military. Last I checked you have to make E-6 or O-4 to make it to twenty years. Not too many PFC's make it past 7 or 8 without getting booted. None-select twice for Major (at about years 8-12) and "bu-bye". You don't get any retirement. The only PFC's that get retirement are those that are medically retired. Due to illness (like Agent Orange or Gulf War Syndrome), injury or wounds.
Ask anyone who served if the military is an easy retirement. It's not. And if anything, they should make it 25 years to get full pension. Although, they will probably offer 15yr 40% like they did in the 90's to cut the numbers.
There are also a couple of other jobs that I have no problem with having a defined benefit plan and retirement after X years.
Firefighter- I want some young guys hauling my carcass out of my burning house, not some old dude that I'll have to do CPR upon. Firefighting is another youngman's game. Retirement with pension after 25 years.
* Police- Same as above. I want young legs hoofing it after criminals. Again, retirement with pension after 25 years.
*All other civil service jobs
# need to go to a defined contribution/401k plan. Now.
But do I understand their anger and resentment. Yes. They were promised you do 20, we will pay you 50% of what you retire at. For the rest of your life.
Can we and should make cuts? Yes. Everyone across the board. If they would have cut welfare, SS, SSDI, Civil Service Pensions, Congressional Pensions, etc. Then no one could have said "Boo", but when some sacred cows are spared, the ones selected will complain, and rightfully so.
*- One current problem, at least here in Illinois is the double and sometimes triple dipping in pensions. For example: I know a guy who worked for 20+ years as firefighter and retired with a full pension. He then went to work for a different municipality as a fire inspector for 10 or 12 years, and retired from that job with another full pension. Utter Bull Cookies. You get one Civil Service pension. If you begin a second career after you retire from public service then you can only do the 401k option.
#- the ones remaining. Every single level of .gov needs to cut 20% of their payroll this year, then 10% a year for the next five years. We'll re-evaluate and decide how much the cuts should be every year after that.
