About me:
Well, for one my name is Tim.I am from Houston, Texas. My best friends are Brittany and Talena. Click on their picture on the right to be wisked away to there pages. Well leave a comment and let me know what you
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Good Story
2005-09-13 -
6:08 p.m.
LIFE AT THE PALACE
By SPC. Jousua Forman
I tell my freinds and family that I am living in one of Saddam's former palaces, and they think I am living the good life. I don't tell them that the plumbing is horrible and frequently broken.
Of course, that is when we actually have power in the building --whether our own generator is overworked to the point of being inoperable or we've been given a "brand new" generator that just won't work at all.
I guess it is to much to ask the KBR employeses, who make six figures for being over here compared to my $2,000 a month, to actually work on the generator so we have power.
After all, it's not their problem. They have power.
Congressmen can talk all they want about giving away 30,000 and 40,000 bonuses for people to join or stay in the army, but what about the soldiers who are already in the service not ready to re-enlist? All we're getting is a 3 percent pay increase each year, which is designed to offest inflation.
Most Soliders are living paycheck to paycheck, not to mention young families on welfare or other programs.
We work in an enviroment where we are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, especially while deployed to Iraq. We have 30 day days of paid vacation each year, although we have no say in when we take our leave. During the leave that I took prior to this deployment, I didn't get a chance to see very much of my family or freinds due to the fact that both my parents work and all of my freinds are in collage.
I will not get a chance to see my youner brother when I go home on midtour leave, because he will be gone for his first year of collage.
While delpoyed, I have to watch people like New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez make 25 million a year to play a game, while I wake up each marning not knowing what might happen to me or the soldiers with whom I work.
Each day, I put my life on the line along with the soldiers I work with and soldiers across Iraq. We put up with the kinds of things that one in the civilian world would deal with. We also do not have the luxury of quitting our jobs.
I accept this because I love my country and stand behind American values, but once my time is up in the regular army, I plan to get out and move on with a career in the civilian world so that I can support a family comfortably.
The scenario of supporting a family and raising children just does not seem probable if I stay in the military. An 18-year-old kid out of high school can go to college and look at his choices and plainly see that a technical job at a company will be safer and pay more than anything the military can currently provide.
Soldiers in the infantry take pride in what they do regardless if wgat they may say, but when comparing the duties and responsibilites to the pay and benefits, it just doesn't equal out. Every job out there has pros and cons, but at least a civilian can make the choice to leave his job if he truly dislikes the direction he is headed.
Stop-loss is a tem that makes most soldiers cringe.
My unit is made up mostly of veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom I who took Baghad. A majority of those soldiers are under stop-loss orders and were forced into their second deployment. I lived in the barracks with soldiers who missed the cut off date by a week, and I have seen what a crushing blow that can be for a soldier.
These second tours are taking a toll on this all-volunteer Army. We won't last at this pace regardless of what the politicians say. It's easy to make decisions like these when you're hiding under the blanket of the very freedom we provide.
The Army wonders publicly why it cannot meet enlistment and retention goals and why the divorce rate is so high among active-duty soldiers. I find it hard to believe the Army didn't plan for those problems before.
The soldiers in the Army need something other than a re-enlistment bonus. They need a larger pay raise each year and quite a bit more than an extra 500 a month while deployed.
Happier soldiers will increase enlistment. People will talk.
*****
Sad I know exactly what he is talking about. I see the truth behind his words. I know very well what it all amounts up to while my freinds back home do not. They agree we need to be payed more but cannot yet begin to understand why. If they understood this then maybe they would press the politicians a bit more harshly. It really think it is sad a civilian doing my job gets paid 6 figures while I only get paid 1600 a month.
I was also reading another article about some hilicopter poilts getting "chewed out" for answering the call for an SOS by the US Coast Guard to assit in evacuations of new orleans. The CO says he simpley "reminded" them of their mission with no emotions. I can honestly say from my end, that is complete and utter bullshit if I ever had to raise that flag. I know for a fact those pilots got an ass chewing and were grounded for three days. Despite the fact that their base is in Florida, were delivering supplies (which they did and then answered the SOS call). It clearly states in the SOP that pilots can answer an SOS call if the lives of those making the SOS call are more important then the mission itself. The pilots made that call and were "chewed out" for it. Despite the CO saying he was simply "reminding them of their mission". I do have to raise the bullshit flag. I know the military and the way it works.
****
There are some other things bothering me but I will write them when the emotions have passed over me.
Tim
