Posted on 08/17/2010 10:08:04 AM PDT by Pan_Yan
You are colossally misinformed. You should do some study on the real facts and figures of a military retirement and get back to us.
Yeah, silly me.
;^)
BTT
See Mr Rogers’ post #34
1st hand experience is rare, but there it is.
Tommy Franks
Yeah, but I'd never have been able to look my father in the face if I stole money like that.
I good example of how broken the military pay/benefits package is BAQ/BAS. Married guys get paid for housing and food. At the lower ranks a single guy with just as much experience and ability has to live in the barracks and eat at the mess while getting paid half of what his married counterpart does.
Before the flaming tirades begin, I understand that you have to provide for a married service members family. But it's still a stupid system.
Gates is destroying our military & he is going to retire after he has done so.
What a legacy!!!
Retired Army Gen. Tommy Franks was paid $100,000 — out of donations made to wounded veterans — for allowing his name to be used on fundraising appeals by a charity that has come under increasing scrutiny for the way it handles its money.
Lawmakers questioned the ethics of the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes Foundation not only for using donors’ money to pay Franks, but for failing to disclose to potential donors who received the mail solicitations that Franks was paid for his endorsement.
To be fair, he later ended his association with them when he found out that only 25% of the money was actually going to benefit veterans.
He would pass the confirmation hearings, imo. If he has to sweat for missing a detail, then he should have to sweat. If there was no intent to do harm, then that, too, should be recognized.
O-5 ish but really just a benchmark that is convenient.
for 17 the PV would be about $1.1mm to provide the benefit to you with 3.5% inflation on a 6% investment yield until age 85 or so. Still not a bad payday but still well earned in my book. Now, were this given lightly or to everyone it would be a much bigger problem but few make it for the 20 years.
Not always, I was a single guy living in the barracks and because I worked graveyard, I got BAS. There are a lot of rules about who and who does not qualify.
Many enlisted guys don’t get it. BAQ is available for all regardless of marital status if there are no base quarters available. The amount is usually based on rank and there is a slight increase for married folks because of the square footage rule most localities have in regards to liveable space.
Here’s a link to a 2009 pay chart and other allowance charts that show just how much or how little (depending on your perspective) a servicemember gets.
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/militarypay/u/pay_and_benefits.htm#s1
Ok, thanks for the clarification.
With an “up or out” system in the military, and limitations (quotas) on the percentages that can serve at ranks above E7/O5, the highest pay ranges are rarely reached as you state.
If after he retired, it is a legitimate and legal action on his part to raise funds for a good cause, and he was paid a remarkably low amount, given retired 4-stars make the REALLY big bucks.
After he found out it was wasteful and not a good organization, then he did right by disassociating himself.
I was just giving a hypothetical example. I was on both sides of that deal. The point being, of course, that military pay, and everyone else’s for that matter, should be based on performance not a convoluted system involving marital status, number of kids, availability of base housing, etc. About half of my compensation at the end of my service was non taxable.
The source is Army Times. I’m not faulting the man for making money. He has held several very lucrative positions since retiring. Good for him. But the appearance of a war time commander getting paid six figures to promote a charity raising money for wounded men who served under him does not sit well with a lot of people.
Oh, ok. I didn’t pick up on that.
Yes, performance based pay, but as you’re probably aware, it’s interpreted by the services to mean promotions. You aren’t “supposed” to get promoted if you’re not performing. That’s what they claim anyway.
Now, anyone who’s ever served, knows that’s not an absolute. There are some who get all the right endorsements, jobs, training, etc. that help them with promotions.
You’re correct, it’s too convoluted to go into here, it would take up a lot of bandwidth. ;^)
Half your active-duty base pay, not total compensation, and that compensation was further reduced by half because of your VA disability rating because of job-related injuries and physical damage, right?
I'm afraid you lost me. The point I was getting at was that with BAS, BAQ, sea pay, pro pay and sub pay were as much as my base pay. I've never dealt with the VA.
All things considered, the retired colonels and generals don't get paid diddly when compared to those that climb the corporate ladder and never serve a day.
But at least they can say they served in the war and didn't spend their time scheming how best to get the better office and a parking space, they actually did something for the country, not to the country.
Nobody is gettin’ rich on the military by staying in. Best deal going seems to be a hitch for college. Some of the retention bonuses aren’t bad but still, not gettin’ rich just a good way to catch up on bills and maybe give momma a little benefit she has so well earned like maybe a vacation.
Moving “benefits” suck and it just doesn’t pay to buy a house unless it is a junker you can manage to buy for cash and repair for equity enhancement but what kind of life is that for momma or the kids. Base housing eats up all the BHA and living on the economy is often a predatory seller’s market of junk peddled to the PCS crowd.
Up or out is a brutal way to manage costs and few (including Gates in all probability) understand it or give a damn. I’m mortified and ashamed that Gates name is associated with TAMU.
I assumed you retired from the military at 20-yrs.
As I understood you to say, you said that your compensation upon retirement was about half of what you made on active-duty.
I then pointed out that you would receive half of your base pay at 20-yrs, not half of your total compensation that includes base pay and other pay, like BAS, BAQ, special duty pay, etc.
So, regardless of the other pay received, your retired pay is based only on your base pay and does not take into consideration your total compensation. So, if you were to receive half of your compensation upon retirement after 20-yrs, and if your base pay accounted to half you total compensation, then you retired at 100% VA disability (or better).
Now, if you retired at 30-yrs and received 75% of base pay, perhaps something closer to what you said, but still not 50% of your total compensation.
I'm just trying to keep policy clear for those that think retired military make half of what they make on active-duty, when they clearly do not.
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