I saw this article today on Army Times website:
Second task force seeks to cut retired pay - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times
This is the second commission in the last several weeks that has proposed pretty drastic changes to the current military retirement system (first being the Simpson/Bowles preliminary report). My question is this--if the current military retirement system were not in place, would you stay/have stayed on active duty in the military for a career?
For me, I'd have to say the answer would be no. I could make a lot more money as a defense contractor, and would not have to be gone from home for years at a time in various awful parts of the world. And, I could still stay in the National Guard/Reserves to get the retirement benefits at 60 and deploy less frequently (once every five years or so). To be honest, I don't see much difference between the proposed system for active duty and the current system for the National Guard/Reserves. Why would anybody stay on active duty and do the year deployed, year at home, year deployed cycle that we are currently living with? I can't see a scenario where this would end well for the all volunteer force...am I missing something?
Second task force seeks to cut retired pay - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times
This is the second commission in the last several weeks that has proposed pretty drastic changes to the current military retirement system (first being the Simpson/Bowles preliminary report). My question is this--if the current military retirement system were not in place, would you stay/have stayed on active duty in the military for a career?
For me, I'd have to say the answer would be no. I could make a lot more money as a defense contractor, and would not have to be gone from home for years at a time in various awful parts of the world. And, I could still stay in the National Guard/Reserves to get the retirement benefits at 60 and deploy less frequently (once every five years or so). To be honest, I don't see much difference between the proposed system for active duty and the current system for the National Guard/Reserves. Why would anybody stay on active duty and do the year deployed, year at home, year deployed cycle that we are currently living with? I can't see a scenario where this would end well for the all volunteer force...am I missing something?