Where were they 30 years ago and where are they today? A small fraction of the people there earn $22 a month.
Do they pay rent and for food? You probably should include base housing and mess hall food as income...
is that factoring in the three hots and a cot, the uniforms and other gov issued items? http://www.militaryfactory.com/military_pay_scale.asp
they're reservists. they don't get base housing. They get $8 worth of mess hall food a weekend. Edit after seeing DLJ: they get uniforms issued one time (at boot camp or other accession). They don't get new clothes every year.
the ones with full time jobs were doing ok. It was the ones who could only get part-time work, or seasonal. One was a single mom/2 kids trying to do school as well as work. But yeah, the weekend-a-month/2wks a year thing. When they get deployed, some make more than they make here (b/c they don't have to pay rent/food), but some get paid much less (b/c military pay scales for, say, an E-5 welder/plumber are much much less than a plumber/welder w/12 years experience can charge/make). Then again, it was Spokane, so maybe that's a deflated market compared to everywhere else, I don't know. But I had to do financial counseling with almost 1/4 of the unit.
Ahh I got ya Brian..I did not even think about reserve units, I am ashamed to say..There were not many "active" reserve units when I was in..These guys really sacrafice to serve..full time guys, well thats the job..the armed forces believes that they save money deploying reservists rather than keeping operational units on the books..just a shell game..
It's funny, but they do. There was a study (Navy-wide, so I can't speak to Marines or National Guard or anything) that for 8% of the cost of an Active Duty billet, you can have a reservist that does 23% of the mission b/c you don't have to pay for housing, medical, etc. unless they're actually doing their mission. That diminishes the more that they're used (you can't just have 4 reservists split the active-duty billet for 1/3rd the cost) but the reserves are a really good deal for Navy commanders.
Navy's downsizing. They're not keeping the ones who HAVE enlisted full-time. And some are like me--they did active duty for a while and got out for whatever reason to join the reserves.
interesting..I could understand in a peace time Navy, but when most reserve units say for the army are active and deployed on and off over the past decade..hmm, ok , so they save while not deployed..I get it..
I don't think he'd ever have made it under an (R) (say, if Romney won) but he's one of the guys who's both smart and used to wear a uniform. I don't know a ton about him, but I'm almost in the anyone-so-long-as-Panetta-leaves camp. I would've liked to have seen Norm Dicks play a role in DoD (maybe not as Secretary). He's going to go along with defense budget cuts, which as I've said before I'm for (and the military's been planning for). The problem I had was that they weren't being planned or implemented in any kind of systematic or logical process, or with any strategy for the next 20-30 years in mind. Hopefully a guy who's worn the uniform AND been in various business and political capacities would have a better B.S. meter. Or maybe he'll roll over for the President. I don't know enough to tell.
