A lot of budget projections comes down to book keeping and future cost projections. In terms of actual man hours, the bands cost no more today than when you were in. But, the Dollar buys about 10% today of what it did when you first went in.
As a side question, do you remember the minimum wage in 1968? I do, and kids today would laugh and not believe anyone would have worked for that.
When I worked before going in, pay was $1/hour. In FACT, I regularly got more than DOUBLE what the military paid me as an E-1.