Legislators ready to award

[steamer]

I did 21 years in the Navy. I spent a total of 7 and a half years with my family, and no, not all at the same time. I did six, 6 month deployments. six, 3 month deployments. 3, 0ne year yard overhauls. two away from home. I can't begin to count all the 1 week, 2 week, 3 week and 30 day underway periods. Must be several dozen. One 2 year shore duty that was 250 miles from home. Just loved driving back and forth every weekend just so I could spend 24 hours with my family. One 2 year period stationed 500 miles from home. I got home every other weekend for the first year so I could spend 12 hours at home before I had to drive 10 hours back to my ship. That was lots of fun! Did I mention that on one of my 6 month deployments I spend 4 months of it sitting in the Indian ocean in 100 deg heat with out ever setting foot on land. That was 100 plus degrees out side on deck. I work in the engine rooms, It was 120 degrees down there. six hours on, 6 hours off. That's when ships were steam powered, and no, no air conditioning. Your right, I should have to wait until I'm 62 to collect my pension. Just hope I live that long. Because many of use don't! So do I think I deserve My little monthly stipends, you better believe I do! And bye the way, It amounts to about 1/3 for my total active pay at the time I retired. That was in 97. Unlike most union workers that get 80 to 100%. Yep we retired military got it made in the shade. Well back to my hammock under the palm tree with my tropical drink.

[djh3]

Well just read this tid bit on Yahoo. More misinformation on how much us GI's make. Unfortunatly I think some of this came from the Sec of Defense. First section there says a Private with no dependants make over 40K a year!!!!! 2/3 of which is base bay and the other is housing and food allotment of which is not taxable. Well I looked it up (took about 30 sec on google) an E-1 under 2yr makes a whopping $1500 a month. If he has no dependants then he is going to not get the housing and food allowance because he is going to be in the barricks. The person writing definatly didnt do much homework. Oh yea and for the record the 1500 a month figures to somewhere around 18K a year of which the fellow has to pay income tax on, unless that is someone is shooting at him or trying to blow him up with a propane tank, garbage can or other improvised device.

[Black Owl]

I believe that it was some time around the 70's when they were switching over to the all vol military that the DOD came out with figures showing how much money the troops were actually making. Those figures included housing, subsistence, clothing, medical, and the savings from shopping at the PX and commissary. Sure made it sound great.....

 

[RandyR]

Well just read this tid bit on Yahoo. More misinformation on how much us GI's make. Unfortunatly I think some of this came from the Sec of Defense. First section there says a Private with no dependants make over 40K a year!!!!! 2/3 of which is base bay and the other is housing and food allotment of which is not taxable. Well I looked it up (took about 30 sec on google) an E-1 under 2yr makes a whopping $1500 a month. If he has no dependants then he is going to not get the housing and food allowance because he is going to be in the barricks. The person writing definatly didnt do much homework. Oh yea and for the record the 1500 a month figures to somewhere around 18K a year of which the fellow has to pay income tax on, unless that is someone is shooting at him or trying to blow him up with a propane tank, garbage can or other improvised device.

 

If you include the cost of a shiny new battle tank and fuel into the salary of every private then maybe you can come up with the numbers that news article quotes.

[Prairiehammer]

Well just read this tid bit on Yahoo. More misinformation on how much us GI's make. Unfortunatly I think some of this came from the Sec of Defense. First section there says a Private with no dependants make over 40K a year!!!!! 2/3 of which is base bay and the other is housing and food allotment of which is not taxable. Well I looked it up (took about 30 sec on google) an E-1 under 2yr makes a whopping $1500 a month. If he has no dependants then he is going to not get the housing and food allowance because he is going to be in the barricks. The person writing definatly didnt do much homework. Oh yea and for the record the 1500 a month figures to somewhere around 18K a year of which the fellow has to pay income tax on, unless that is someone is shooting at him or trying to blow him up with a propane tank, garbage can or other improvised device.

 

That inflated number came from a DOD spokesman; I wonder where he got his numbers, too, because the official Army site has a chart for all pay grades and like you said it's $1516 a month. That's just $18,192 annually. The spokesman said that 2/3 of the $40,400 is base pay. Well, when I take $40,400 and multiply it by .6666 I get $26,906.40. Nearly a $9000 discrepancy.

Why would the DOD feed us this B.S.?