Thanks to Bryan for the link!
First read this story, but I give you a tidbit...
What a failure to understand the trigger side of the equation! Military training is inherently dangerous.
For Soldiers and Marines its obvious. You're around stuff that can crush you, micro vaporize you or rip you from limb to limb. For Sailors and Airmen, they're around stuff that can crush them, rip them from limb to limb or even rip them in half mechanically. And we're talking about daily operations or training....not combat.
Even the physical grind of maintaining fitness takes a toll after a few years.
Long story short? Since the nation has reverted to a volunteer military, the nation has a responsibility to take care of its servicemembers. That's just a fact. Don't like it? Then go back to a draft, but if you're going to ask more of fewer people then you have to pony up the costs of decent pay, medical and retirement accounts. On a sidenote let me add this. You can have a healthy looking 45 year old former Marine or Soldier with the knees of a 70 year old and if he spent his entire time in the infantry, the back of an 80 year old.
The Lt Colonel in this article might have skated but he speaks only for himself. Other than that he needs to shut the fuck up!
First read this story, but I give you a tidbit...
A few weeks ago, I mentioned to a receptionist in a physical therapist’s office that I was covered by Tricare, the military’s health-care program for service members, retirees and their families. (It has nothing to do with the troubled Veterans Affairs hospital system.)What arrogance.
“Good deal,” I said.(“You deserve it,” she responded.
Really? If she only knew. Though I spent more than five years on active duty during the 1970s as an Army infantry officer and an additional 23 years in the Reserves, I never fired a weapon other than in training, and I spent no time in a combat zone. I returned to active duty for five months in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, but I was assigned to the Pentagon. My hazardous duty consisted of a daily drive on New York Avenue before its upgrade.
I am hardly unique. Despite the extended operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, nearly half of the 4.5 million active-duty service members and reservists over the past decade were never deployed overseas. Among those who were, many never experienced combat.
It’s a fact of warfare called the logistical tail. For every soldier, Marine, sailor or airman whose job is to engage the enemy, there are three or more service members in a well-guarded, reasonably comfortable bivouac area ensuring that the troops are fed, resupplied, paid, entertained and attended to medically.
What a failure to understand the trigger side of the equation! Military training is inherently dangerous.
For Soldiers and Marines its obvious. You're around stuff that can crush you, micro vaporize you or rip you from limb to limb. For Sailors and Airmen, they're around stuff that can crush them, rip them from limb to limb or even rip them in half mechanically. And we're talking about daily operations or training....not combat.
Even the physical grind of maintaining fitness takes a toll after a few years.
Long story short? Since the nation has reverted to a volunteer military, the nation has a responsibility to take care of its servicemembers. That's just a fact. Don't like it? Then go back to a draft, but if you're going to ask more of fewer people then you have to pony up the costs of decent pay, medical and retirement accounts. On a sidenote let me add this. You can have a healthy looking 45 year old former Marine or Soldier with the knees of a 70 year old and if he spent his entire time in the infantry, the back of an 80 year old.
The Lt Colonel in this article might have skated but he speaks only for himself. Other than that he needs to shut the fuck up!
