20% of enlisted and 6% of officers use Food Stamps and/or WIC ......

[Stinky The Clown]

... according to Jon Soltz of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

The average PFC makes less than $1700 a MONTH.

Meanwhile, the White House doesn't want to approve a $29 a week raise for the military.

Last week, said Soltz, some guy was buried at Arlington after being killed on his FOURTH FUCKING TOUR in Iraq.

But we can't afford 29 shit fucking bux a week for these guys.

[Critters2]

1. The 3 -star general I know is filthy effin' rich. How does that work? nt

[Left Is Write]

2. Disgraceful. Where are all those "support the troops" people now?

[northofdenali]

3. A military spouse of my acquaintance finds it hard

to go to the grocery store. They live in a nice house (subsidized) in a pretty good neighborhood, she works (Wal Mart) and goes to the University (grants, loans) and they can't get far enough ahead to get off food stamps.

Many times I've gone with her and used the stamps myself to spare her the embarrasment - it's a relatively small town and we always know people who are shopping there. Sometimes she goes to the 24-hour grocery in the wee hours (3 am) to avoid running into folks she knows.

She dresses her kids with 2nd hand clothes.

I hate the fucking repukes and this makes me hate them worse. These are good people who signed up to serve - they can't get decent health care (physical or mental) they can't get decent on-base (no-cost) housing (the local base is razing 300 housing units, and it'll be 6 years before the rebuild is complete), they can't get a $29 a week raise.

What fucking kind of country has this become? WHO doesn't support "our troops"? The guy in the Hummer with 47 yellow ribbons on it, who votes repuke every time, and could care less if our troops get what they need, let alone what they deserve? Yeah.

[Captain Hilts]

8. Beautiful cat! nt

[northofdenali]

10. Thanks, Mookie -

that's Sugar, the Travellin' Kitty. She's been from Prudhoe Bay to Homer, Tok to Seward, and all spots in between. Wears a harness and leash, and is an absolute splash at tourist spots!



On the Haul Road at the Arctic Circle with daddy.

[Triana]

14. Awwwr! Lovin me some SugarKitty! She's a doll! (n/t)

[Lint Head]

4. When you volunteer

you volunteer to take a vow of poverty and die for the country. That's what George wants and 'by god' George gets what he wants and screw everybody else. George only cares about George. It's the country of the George and by the George. George mania is breaking out everywhere. :dem:

[Captain Hilts]

7. Yes and no. Folks w/o college degrees in the military do much better than those on the outside.

Medical insurance, etc.

[driver8]

5. This really sucks. I grew up as a Navy brat (during the 60's and 70's)

and, although my father wasn't getting rich, we had plenty of money to live on.

This is absolutely disgraceful and should be a talking point of every Democrat running for office against these assholes.

Meanwhile, government workers get huge freakin' bonuses and our military gets it up the ass once again.

[Captain Hilts]

6. I'm a 60s/70s navy kid too. There were enlisted on food stamps back then also.

Hell, Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society goes back to the First World War.

I saw a study that a high percentage of those in the military of food stamps have three or more kids. Just sayin'.

I have a very difficult time believing officers are on food stamps. Dad was an officer during the draft era when salaries were low and I never heard of that.

But the govt. certainly rarely misses a chance to screw over veterans, or retirees. Boy, did my dad get screwed over upon retirement after 28-32 years.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. No neocon effort to stop those VA bonuses we read about a few weeks back, huh?

[ProdigalJunkMail]

18. I was an Army Brat in the 60's-70's

my father was a lieutenant at the time and we used food stamps. I remember my mother talking about how ashamed she was to have to use them at the local grocery. Nothing has changed...two of the most important jobs in the country get the worst pay...teachers and soldiers.

sP

[msongs]

11. gee you'd think democrats would be ALL OVER this wouldn't you...but they're not nt

[Captain Hilts]

12. They really should be going berserk over this one. nt

[Shallah Kali]

13. They need that $ to pay the mercenaries oops sorry 'Military Contractors' 4 X citizen soldiers get

not to mention the nice cut hailburton, blackwater, and the rest get. We can't have the military corporations going to be on anything less than a pile of $$$$ can we?

:sarcasm:

[sanskritwarrior]

16. One more point

On contractors it is a myth they all make oodles of money. Sure your blackwater guys do, but the vast majority of contractors don't.

Case in point, a guy that fixes our computers in the Brigade S2 shop, my current job (military intelligence type computers). Guy is 32 was discharged because he lost part of his foot in Afghanistan, but he still wanted to serve. He has a TS/SCI clearance and still felt he had some good to do. So he took a job with a defense contractor, I see him everyday as he is considered a contractor "embed" they work with us, go to the field with us, sleep in the dirt with us, and deploy to Iraq with us. This guy has become a pretty good friend. He has a Master's Degree in International Business and could have done anything in the world. He chooses to work with us and here's the catch I know what he makes, he makes less than I do and he was the same rank as I was when he was a soldier. Most contractors I know or met in Iraq make exactly what soldiers make and it isn't tax free for them unless they do a year, the same as us grunts. Anyway I guess my point is I see a lot of contractor bashing on DU and when I see it it bothers me, because I know my friend and my friend is a better patriot then some of my own soldiers. He was discharged because he couldn't road march anymore and he wanted so badly to still feel like he was "part of the fight" that he took a job where he makes less money and still has to deploy. Granted he will be a FOBBIT over there, but so will 85% of the rest of us. So when I see contractor bashing I think of my friend and it bothers me........Anyway back to your regularly scheduled programming........

[Shallah Kali]

17. Sorry I should have been more specific! My contempt is those who hire pinochet's henchmen

and their ilk plus those in the US government who won't pay the soldiers a fair wage yet have not problems fatting Haliburton, blackwater, and the rest coffers.

[sanskritwarrior]

15. Depends on the soldiers circumstance

If the PFC is unmarried and lives in the barracks and eats at the DFAC 1534 a month is quite a bit......

If a soldier is married he gets BAH and BAS (for food), so let's use Fort Hood as an example.

A PFC married with a kid gets 1534 a month in income, 272 a month in BAS and 862.00 a month in BAH for rent or a mortgage.

So a married PFC with a wife and one child makes 2662.00 a month.......Take out taxes and a PFC married with one child makes 2200.00 a month give or take.

I don't know a lot of jobs where a 19 year old kid makes 1100 a pay check after taxes. Rent at Fort hood is from 400-800 depending on the apartment or house.........We need a raise but we are NOT underpaid in the military.

Better yet let's look at two of my soldiers here in Hawaii up here at the Brigade Staff we have a married couple both are SPEC4's and they have 2 kids.......

So for them they get BAH for one with dependents and BAH for the other without dependents..........

So 2 E-4's married to each other in Hawaii make the following amounts........

1883.00 for each of them in pay

272.00 for each of them in BAS (for food)

and one gets 1925.00 for housing with dependents and the other gets

1461.00 for housing without dependents

so 2 married E-4's in Hawaii make after taxes as pay is taxed.........$7600.00 in pre tax income per month...........

Again we need a raise but we are not underpaid. I see the soldiers on food stamps everyday, they usually are driving a BMW or a Jaguar and their "money" went towards that flashy car instead of their food budget..........I've seen soldiers blow a 30,000 reenlistment bonus in a 72 inch plasma TV, 15" subwoofers for their JAG, a vacation to Tahiti and then wonder why they have no money.

It's a crock of crap that we don't get paid enough to live on......We have to budget like everyone else......BTW it doesn't bother me at all, but those 2 married E-4's make with 2 years in make more than I and my wife do and I have 14 years in. It's the nature of the beast, I don't begrudge them, but if they are driving a JAG I sure don't feel bad that they need food stamps.......

[newportdadde]

21. Completely agree - my BIL does quite well as an officer.

He is a major in the Army. I don't know specific salaries but I think he makes something in the 70s range. He also gets medical for him and his wife and three kids and a nice housing subsidy.. enough they can rent a house or use it to make a mortgage payment and not dip into their pockets.

Of course the drawback is getting shot at in Iraq....

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. This is fucking outrageous.

This is how you create right-wing nuts. You don't take care of your people, and soon they'll start listening to anyone on the radio who tells them that we don't have enough money for our soldiers because we're spending too much of their taxes on social programs.

[Squatch]

20. That same "average PFC" also lives in the barracks

gets three hot meals per day, gets a monthly clothing allowance, and subsistence pay.

Here are the new barracks at Ft Lewis, Washington. Pretty nice digs, if you ask me.

[TX-RAT]

22. Not bad, considering i was making 323 a month in 72.

[Squatch]

23. When I was a 2LT, my take home pay was $1700

but then again, I wasn't married, had a $400 apartment, lived on coffee and subway sandwhiches, etc.

10 years later (and still in the military), my take home is significantly higher: I live with my family in a nice suburban DC home, am able to maximize my TSP and ROTH IRAs, can still afford to fly a couple hours a month, etc.

It's a rite of passage: you start out in the military making very little, but through personal discipline are able to scratch out a comfortable financial living.

[driver8]

24. The "average sailor" assigned to a ship has to live on the ship when in port.

The single guys are not given money for housing -- the 3'x6' foot bunk is considered adequate housing.

That is absolute bullshit.