Budget crunchers set their sights on military retirees’ health costs

[rikules]

There is no one in public service - from the President down - who deserves to get better treatment than those who put their lives on the line for the country. No one.

if it were up to me;

20+ years service would get free dental and medical for life (on base, at military facilities)
for self and family (children until 18 years of age)

but pensions would not kick in until 65

30+ years would be allowed pensions after 50

1. So it appears that military members and their families are not supposed to have a follow on career any farther than they can drive to a military base.

2. 20-years active duty, transfered to the fleet reserve in 1998, annual retirement? $17,000 a year.


I started a new career at the age of 39, that new career started at significantly lower then my peers (by age) because - you got it - I didn't have 20-years in the field. After earning both a Bachelors and a Masters degree on off duty time. The $17K just brought me back to par with professionals in the same field at the same age.


When people want to bitch and moan about military retirements they always seem to latch on to figures for Captains (Colonels) and Generals - they don't realize that the vast majority of military retirees are enlisted pukes.



>>>>

you leaped to an erroneous conclusion

i EXPECT them to have a follow up career after service

most servicemen are very highly trained and have great experience

i have worked with many ex-servicemen who were trained in the military and, after their service was over, they joined the workforce.

most of them were great guys and very good at their jobs

so
i maintain my position

free medical and dental for life for themselves, their wives and their kids until 18

and pensions kick in after 65 for 20+ and after 50 for 30+ years in the service

all things considered i think this is pretty good;

they join the service
get the best training and education
free medical and dental
when they leave the service they get first crack at jobs (companies favor ex-military)

they continue to get free medical and dental (under my policy)
i would be happy to give them 4 more years of college for any future career plans
and then they get 2 pensions when they retire

sounds pretty good to me

 

[SFC Ollie]

I had a 15% disability . Partly due to an ulcer and a wound that got uber infected where in I wound up with cellulitis & hep. b. I would get a shot every 2 years at the VA. 5 years later after I as out, they reclassified me to 10% due to my ulcer treatment being ‘successful’, that is I take prevacid everyday so it was “cured”!!!
2 years later, they reclassified me to zero % and told me since I had apparently shown up negative for the pathogen, that that.

Bullshit, I still have the pathogen, my family doctor showed me the panel test. Try doing anything about it, forget it…you cannot fight city hall? Try fighting the VA.

Join a few veteran groups and get some local contacts. I know everyone there is to know at the local VA and I don't even get treatment there. (I do some volunteer work for them though.) And I'm on a first name basis with the former National commander of Am Vets. And with the Head of the county Veterans Assistance Office. You need to get out and meet these people. You may be surprised what some networking will do.

 

[Trajan]

I had a 15% disability . Partly due to an ulcer and a wound that got uber infected where in I wound up with cellulitis & hep. b. I would get a shot every 2 years at the VA. 5 years later after I as out, they reclassified me to 10% due to my ulcer treatment being ‘successful’, that is I take prevacid everyday so it was “cured”!!!
2 years later, they reclassified me to zero % and told me since I had apparently shown up negative for the pathogen, that that.

Bullshit, I still have the pathogen, my family doctor showed me the panel test. Try doing anything about it, forget it…you cannot fight city hall? Try fighting the VA.

Join a few veteran groups and get some local contacts. I know everyone there is to know at the local VA and I don't even get treatment there. (I do some volunteer work for them though.) And I'm on a first name basis with the former National commander of Am Vets. And with the Head of the county Veterans Assistance Office. You need to get out and meet these people. You may be surprised what some networking will do.

I hear you Ollie, but, its been, well a long long time. frankly, I just don't have the energy. I dropped the rock but it still pisses me off when I see it or hear it again.



one day I''l share my student loan story, in short they stuck me after promising to pay them, that I did pursue...and it was a no go. fine print.

 

[ABikerSailor]

if it were up to me;

20+ years service would get free dental and medical for life (on base, at military facilities)
for self and family (children until 18 years of age)

but pensions would not kick in until 65

30+ years would be allowed pensions after 50

1. So it appears that military members and their families are not supposed to have a follow on career any farther than they can drive to a military base.

2. 20-years active duty, transfered to the fleet reserve in 1998, annual retirement? $17,000 a year.


I started a new career at the age of 39, that new career started at significantly lower then my peers (by age) because - you got it - I didn't have 20-years in the field. After earning both a Bachelors and a Masters degree on off duty time. The $17K just brought me back to par with professionals in the same field at the same age.


When people want to bitch and moan about military retirements they always seem to latch on to figures for Captains (Colonels) and Generals - they don't realize that the vast majority of military retirees are enlisted pukes.



>>>>

you leaped to an erroneous conclusion

i EXPECT them to have a follow up career after service

most servicemen are very highly trained and have great experience

i have worked with many ex-servicemen who were trained in the military and, after their service was over, they joined the workforce.

most of them were great guys and very good at their jobs

so
i maintain my position

free medical and dental for life for themselves, their wives and their kids until 18

and pensions kick in after 65 for 20+ and after 50 for 30+ years in the service

all things considered i think this is pretty good;

they join the service
get the best training and education
free medical and dental
when they leave the service they get first crack at jobs (companies favor ex-military)

they continue to get free medical and dental (under my policy)
i would be happy to give them 4 more years of college for any future career plans
and then they get 2 pensions when they retire

sounds pretty good to me

Quick question there sportcheck........did YOU retire from the military? If so, you would understand that every 3-4 years over that 20 year period, you would pull up tent stakes and go elsewhere. Sometimes, you would have to leave your family and this country behind for a couple of years.

Oh yeah.......don't forget that every 3-4 days (when I was in) if you're serving on sea duty, you have 24 hours of work, which means your job, watches, and if qualified, inport fire party (I was). Drills can come any time of day, and the real thing can happen at any time as well.

And when you're on shore duty? Probably a weekly duty roster that you rotate, if you're lucky, that means you only have duty every 2 weeks.

Add that to you get 30 days vacation a year, but not all at once generally, you've gotta meet the "needs of the command" first.

Then........sprinkle it with combat and war zones where you could very easily be killed, as well as dangerous working conditions where you could die as well (most dangerous piece of real estate on the enitre PLANET is on the deck of a carrier during flight ops), and do that for 20 years, walking on steel deck plates and concrete in heavy steel toed boots, and then tell me your retirement plan is good.

I await your fucked up response with baited breath douche........

 

[ABikerSailor]

There is no one in public service - from the President down - who deserves to get better treatment than those who put their lives on the line for the country. No one.

if it were up to me;

20+ years service would get free dental and medical for life (on base, at military facilities)
for self and family (children until 18 years of age)

but pensions would not kick in until 65

30+ years would be allowed pensions after 50

1. So it appears that military members and their families are not supposed to have a follow on career any farther than they can drive to a military base.

2. 20-years active duty, transfered to the fleet reserve in 1998, annual retirement? $17,000 a year.


I started a new career at the age of 39, that new career started at significantly lower then my peers (by age) because - you got it - I didn't have 20-years in the field. After earning both a Bachelors and a Masters degree on off duty time. The $17K just brought me back to par with professionals in the same field at the same age.


When people want to bitch and moan about military retirements they always seem to latch on to figures for Captains (Colonels) and Generals - they don't realize that the vast majority of military retirees are enlisted pukes.



>>>>

Yep, you pretty much stated what I've got right now, only I've figured out how to live on that much and not work (yeah.....I got lucky).

However.........I've also found that many corporations and businesses DO like military to work for them, as we're smart, know how to follow orders and can think on our feet.

But working with civvies? Yuck. Them bastards as a general rule know NOTHING about teamwork, or attention to detail. It's all stab you in the back and climbing the corporate ladder by any means necessary.

Me? I'm happy being a poor hippie. I've got 20 years of straight arrow 4.0 sailor that I need to balance out.

 

[SFC Ollie]

Fact is that I didn't get some of the better jobs I went after because i was too old.

A few because I was over qualified and they could over a young college kid less money. But they wouldn't make me an offer at all.

Try breaking into a field when you are 40+. Even with your military background I got news for you. many don't want to even talk to you. And if you happen to be near a military base then the base is your only option because the civilians already hate you and if they did hire you they believe that you will quit and take the first opening on base.

It's crazy. When I became general manager of Gutter King inc. I hired veterans over anyone else.

 

[The Gadfly]

Let's get straight who we're talking about here. We're not talking about vets who gave a few years, did their bit to serve, and then went back to civilian life. These are individuals who gave half or more of their adult life to serving America. They made a commitment to America, and once upon a time, America made a commitment to them. They and their families sacrificed, moving from one duty station to another, ready to deploy anywhere, any time, they were needed. They spent time, where they couldn't take their families along. They went into harm's way, not once, but over and over, and they did it all for less, a lot less, than they could have made in civilian life. Most of them didn't ever get O-6 pay, or pensions; most of them spent years saluting officers younger, often a lot younger, than they were. Most of them are the senior enlisted personnel who are the backbone of America's military forces; the people who keep the military running day to day. These are the people junior officers would be lost without, and senior officers respect.

America made them a promise, and now, a bunch of Americans who never spent a day in uniform think it's OK to renege on that promise. They are wrong! These individuals have been there for America, every day, when times were tough, when morale in the military was low. They and their families have sacrificed, when others did not, have been anxious when others didn't have to be, have lived hard, when others lived easy, and endured separation, when others were together. They kept their end of the bargain, and now, it's time for America to keep her end of it, tough times or not. The politicians made a promise to them, before they came up with the ideal of making other promises, without figuring out where to get the money to keep them.

These individuals never got rich on pay or pension; nor did most move on to a cushy job in civilian life; financially, most of them would have been better off doing something else. Thank God they didn't because most of their fellow Americans have been able to sit here, fat, dumb happy, prosperous and content, while they stood guard. Well, they stood up for the rest of us, and now, by God, it's time the rest of us stood up for them, for a change! I hear everyday on this board, how all of us, "owe" this group or that group, for one reason or another; seems to me, that if we owe anybody, it's our military retirees and their families; you show me anyone, who has given America more, for less!

Now, I know how many Americans feel about professional soldiers, or soldiers in general for that matter. I got that message loud and clear years ago, in military towns where there were signs that read, "No Soldiers or Dogs Allowed" in the windows of local businesses. I get it, that in a time when Vietnam was just the first in a string of unpopular wars, soldiers are a representation of things a lot of Americans have come to dislike. Those of you who feel that way, remember this; you have the ability to feel the way you do, because these are the people who have shielded you from the real wolves of the world, and there have been and are some nasty ones out there. You have been given the luxury of pretending those wolves aren't really there, by those who have faced them for you! You remember that, while you spout your drivel about "people who can't do anything else", and so on. Your contempt and lack of gratitude notwithstanding, I am here to tell you that the vast majority of you could not walk a mile in their boots, or stand their watch, or fill their role, for one day, if you wanted to.

Owe them and their families free medical and dental care? Damn right we do, and I refuse to stand by while another promise to them becomes a lie! They have been denied enough, and lied to enough, and lied about enough, and cheated enough, and now is a good time for making good on that much of a promise. Take the money from some of that selfish, mostly useless, back-home, re-election bait pork the politicians can always find a way to pay for, and give it to someone who actually earned it, for a change!

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Don't point out to Ravi and the liberal whiners and defenders of Unions that Military retiree benefits are subject to yearly review and possible change. If you read any of the threads on Unions losing bargaining rights you will find her and her buddies in there claiming us retirees have nothing to fear and have no stake in anything.

 

[SFC Ollie]

Don't point out to Ravi and the liberal whiners and defenders of Unions that Military retiree benefits are subject to yearly review and possible change. If you read any of the threads on Unions losing bargaining rights you will find her and her buddies in there claiming us retirees have nothing to fear and have no stake in anything.

Are you kidding, I've got a green Party guy (actually was on the ticket for governor) in a local forum that is comparing this to teachers, telling me "now you know how it feels". I had to ask him if those teachers knew how it felt to be shot at.

 

[The Gadfly]

Don't point out to Ravi and the liberal whiners and defenders of Unions that Military retiree benefits are subject to yearly review and possible change. If you read any of the threads on Unions losing bargaining rights you will find her and her buddies in there claiming us retirees have nothing to fear and have no stake in anything.

Are you kidding, I've got a green Party guy (actually was on the ticket for governor) in a local forum that is comparing this to teachers, telling me "now you know how it feels". I had to ask him if those teachers knew how it felt to be shot at.

Hell, Ollie, they don't have a clue, and most of them don't want to. The closest they've been to combat, is a video game (if that's not "too violent" for them). Their idea of "hardship" is if the air conditioning goes out for a day or two. They never ate cold c-rats in the rain, or humped a ruck. Their idea of "leadership" is how well they can run their mouths; most of them couldn't lead a troop of Girl Scouts on a day hike. They have a bad day at the office, they go home, have a drink, put their feet up, and bitch about how unfair it is; no cramped rack, or sleeping in the mud for them! The permanent civilians know all about it though; just ask them. They've seen it all in the movies, for Chissakes! All soldiers and sailors do, is tour the world, on Uncle Sam's dime, drinking, whoring, and talking rough, and for that, they want a pension and health care? Just warmongering brutes, with no stake in civil society (never mind there wouldn't be one without them!). They want gratitude, for fighting unnecessary wars I didn't support? Just throw the dogs a bone, a ribbon or two and some shiny hardware, as a token of the country's gratitude. If they're such super patriots, they should be glad to serve us for nothing!

As rotten as that sounds, it's the way a lot of permanent civilians think. They'll be happy to tell you why what they do, is ever so much more vital to America, than what you've done, and they deserve much more than you do; all the progressives say so!