budget cuts, where should troops fit in?

I personally am not a very political person.  I don’t get involved in, well much of it.  The closest thing I come, is making sure that I vote for a President.  And that really is the only time that I try to get informed about it.

I will obviously not get all up in a political discussion, because… I am very uninformed…

However I did just read a comment from someone who got me a bit worked up.  I know that each person has their own right to their own opinion so here is mine…

I personally do not think that the military should undergo a pay cut, but I also don’t think that we should really cut a large number of our troops.  What got me going is the comment of “we should cut our troops”and ” the caliber of the troops is not worth it, to keep them in”  also said “I am okay with keeping the pay the same, benefits, and bonus”  This person thinks the caliber of the people in the military is not up to par, ok.. that is the way it is with most people in any job line, not just the military.  However, I think that if the are getting their epr’s evaluated properly, this will affect their carrier in the military, and it will either make or break them. 

Keeping the bonus.  My husband has never got a bonus, not when he came into the military, and surely not when he has re-enlisted.  I don’t think that this has made an impact on my thoughts though.  I think that it is just like any job, anywhere… you don’t count on them if you were not told that you were going to get them.  Most of the people who I have known that did get bonuses have decided not to stay in until retirement.  And many of them were given a bonus, larger than my husbands yearly salary.  My personal belief is that if the bonus was taken away, that it would be ok, if this was one way to keep a budget for the military stronger.

Maybe the financial side of things would be the same, by cutting the troops when you are looking at the cost of deployments.  However the toll that it will take on families, and the hardships that one endures over and over again from deployments.  I know hence my blog name that the families are not issued through the military.  However… it is a fact that there are families out there that would like to have their spouses some of the times.

I know that for the most part the USAF has some of the shortest individual deployments and that I should not complain about the time gone.  However that is what the first thing that most people say.  “The AF has it easy because they are not gone for a full year at a time”.  You are right, and I do understand that they are not gone for a year at a time, however with the rotation windows that some of these guys do have sometimes they are only home for a couple of months before they are shipped out again for training and another deployment.  Some people just don’t see that side of things.  I won’t ever say that one is easier or harder than another to serve in, because they are just different. 

So for the budget cuts and cutting more troops, I don’t think that this is the complete answer.  I know I am only ranting on one part of it, but it is the only rant on it that I have at the moment.  Other than… Congress can cut their own salaries since they are not the ones going and defending their own countries freedoms.  However for some of them that have helped in the support of our freedoms… thank you, but I still don’t think you need to make that much.  Can’t you live on a military salary?

been there and done that

I have been there and done that!  That’s pretty much what any military wife will say when you talk about your feelings of a deployment.

It really use to crack me up when spouses would say “oh he’s been on so military deployments, that I just go on with it, I am so used to it”  All I have to say is… blah, blah… whatever.  What are you saying you are used to it? 

This is my story… my husband and I married back in 1994, this was just a couple of years into his carrier, he had been on 1 deployment and had just returned from a tour in Korea for a year when we married just 3 days later (he never came home on mid tour).  We were immediately sent to North Dakota to live, where the deployments started almost immediately, we were there for 7 years, then sent to Alaska for another 6 years and let me say… the deployments did not slow down at all.

Back inthe 90’s deployments were not as frequent as they are right now.  My husband did a lot of volunteering… not that I liked this.  Actually he told me that he did not volunteer, but later on I found out that almost all of them were.  I am sure at this point people will be steaming at me writing this.  Now since 2001 the deployments are very often, and no need to worry for someone volunteering, because you just have no choice.

What I don’t understand is why it is always thought of the enlisted person deploying, and their life being disrupted.  You have all hit the nail, right on the head.  It truly is not just the one that leaves who goes through the emotional toll, it is also the rest of us here, left in the real world that suffers also.  We are the ones missing the big chunk out of our life.  I personally don’t think that it is any harder for a spouse or significant other  than it is a person with a child to deal with a deployment.  I used to hate it when people would say…”just be thankful you don’t have children and it is just you, you can’t imagine how hard it is”  Again.. let me say 14 deployments…. only 2 of them with children… no it is not easier to deal with the emotional toll with or without children… it’s just different.

So, yes I would also say that I have been there and done that to many things that others say and do when it comes to their deployment feelings, and the way they handle it.  However, I am always up for a talk and an ear if you need one…