Defense Cuts = No Air Shows

Started by Stonewall, February 16, 2013, 03:28:10 AM

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PHall

#60
All of the Demonstration Teams are back. But their schedules are reduced from what they did before and costs are a major issue now.

SunDog

Quote from: jimmydeanno on March 17, 2013, 02:00:18 PM
I wouldn't rather either.  There used to be a time where the DoD wasn't some sort of sacred cow that couldn't be criticized and the civilian population wasn't afraid to keep it in check, since that's who they work for.

DoD has become a function of it's budget.  It has done remarkably well at spending all of their practically unlimited budget.  Now that it's budget isn't unlimited they just need to deal with it.

The practical reality is that the purpose of the military is to destroy our enemy, not provide $40k jobs to unskilled 18 year olds and spend the next 20 years providing their irrelevant education to prepare them for "the outside world," while then providing a living wage for the rest of their life at age 38.

Military retirement is based on base pay - excludes other pay and allowances in the computation. For practical purpose, no one is living on military retirment income after 20 years of service.  It ends up beibg about 1/4, more or less a bit, depending. My son is an O3E, a pilot, and living off-base with his family.  A very large portion of his present income, like quarters, flight pay, etc., won't be factored in his retirement at 20 years service.

PCS moves tend to hurt his chances of building equity in a home, especially in locals with high closing costs (basically sales taxes on houses, really). His wife is a teacher, and though her job is "portable", union situations tend to have her "starting from scratch" on each new job.

When he was accepted for a commissioning program, he stayed on AD while he finished the two semesters he needed to complete his undergrad degree (he enlisted out of college) and it was a good deal, for sure, except he did have to use his VA to pay tuition - Unka Sam didn't pick up the tab for that.

No complaints - he's paid well enough, unless you figure it on a per hour basis, of course.  The retirement he picks up at twenty will be about what a civilian in Fed, state, or local gov't would get for about the same amount of service in a defined benefit plan. Public safety folks do a bit better. Most folks not in gov't service don't have defined benefit plans anymore, of course.

Walkman

Thunderbirds are at two Michigan air shows this summer.