Here's a picture of one of the main streets on base here.
All in all it's not too bad, although you know you've really stepped into another world when the captain who picks you up at the airport gives you a description of the suspected suicide bomber you need to keep an eye out for.
Here's a picture of a typical room. The one I live in isn't typical since I share it with about 20 other guys, it has no TV, and no wall locker or dresser. Not too bad, except at 0300 when you've got to go. The latrine is about 50 yards away in another building.
I'll post more later and get some pictures of my own up as soon as I have some. ¶ Wednesday, May 30, 2007 2 comments
I just read a piece she wrote last summer for the Cato Institute's Regulation called "Paying Tomorrow's Military" in which she makes a great deal of sense regarding military pay, benefits, and particularly the value (or lack of value) of "noncash benefits." Ms. Williams makes the case that so-called "noncash benefits" such as commissaries, on-base housing and the military healthcare system are not worth what they actually cost taxpayers.
"The military’s most expensive case of overuse is the Defense Health Program (DHP). ... DOD’s subsidy of health care benefits for those beneficiaries significantly exceeds the subsidies civilian employers typicallyoffer their workers or what the DOD provides its civilian employees. ... One result is that beneficiaries of DHP use 40 to 50 percent more health care than people in comparable civilian programs. ... The result for taxpayers is expensive. Health costs come to about $33 billion—eight percent of DOD's budget—in 2006,and by 2015 they can be expected to rise to $64 billion—12 percent of dod’s budget—absent changes in policy. Taxpayers spend 55 cents on health care for every dollar of cash compensation offered to military personnel, compared with less than 10 percent among private-sector employees."She does offer some recommendations to solve the problems she identifies.
Decision makers should consider the following recommendations:¶ Thursday, May 24, 2007 2 commentsThe most useful change would be to convert as many in-kind benefits as possible into cash benefits. Installation-centered benefits like family housing, subsidized military grocery stores, and on-base child care centers would be especially appropriate forsuch “cashing out.” Another area where a cash alternative would be appropriate is in the Defense Health Program. Giving active duty families a choice between DHP and a cash allowance would allow them to take advantage of less expensive plans while reaping a cash reward, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollarsa year according to the Congressional Budget Office."
- Convert in-kind benefits to cash.
- Increase the beneficiary share of costs for the defensehealth program.
- Improve the cost-effectiveness and responsiveness ofgovernment-operated businesses providing goods andservices to military personnel and families.
- Make the costs of in-kind benefits more transparent.
"Troops don’t need bigger pay raises, White House budget officials said Wednesday in a statement of administration policy laying out objections to the House version of the 2008 defense authorization bill.
"The White House’s Office of Management and Budget said in a statement of administration policy issued last week, as the House was debating the [2008 defense authorization] bill, that it “strongly opposed” the 3.5 percent raise. President Bush has proposed a 3 percent raise, and OMB officials said the higher increase is “unnecessary.” The policy statement also opposed the larger 2006 through 2012 raises, which the House Armed Services Committee had passed in hopes of shaving the gap between average military and private-sector pay to 1.4 percent by 2012." - Military Times
Yeah, thanks for your support. The administration is busy trying to stop high-interest payday loan shops from ripping off our military but not too concerned with addressing the thing that drives us to those places.
¶ Thursday, May 24, 2007 2 commentsRep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, [says] someone at the White House should have thought about the message it would send to troops. “I really want to know who the knucklehead is who said 3.5 percent is too much.”
Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., an Iraq war veteran and member of the House Armed Services Committee [said] if anything, the 3.5 percent raise isn’t enough. “It is not the raise they deserve.”
I was having lunch at Hard Times Café in Arlington with my minister, Kurt, and my friend, Justin. We were talking about what I might like to do after I retire when I realized the date and said that I had exactly one year left. Justin, who's a project manager for DMJM, immediately said, "Give me your resume." (Yeah, I love living in a town where you can't mention you're retiring from the Air Force without people asking for your resume!)
So, one more year. I have less time left in the Air Force than I spent in Korea. (1 year and 10 days thanks to an imcompetent orderly room.) I never imagined when I enlisted over 19 years ago that I would do this for nearly half my life thus far. When I enlisted my plan was to do four years and out. I was going to learn about computers, get my GI Bill money, and get out. But something always kept me going for another tour. Sometimes it was pride in the service, sometimes it was the job, and sometimes it was just job security. And here I am at the other end of a career getting ready to move on to something better, I have no doubt. ¶ Tuesday, May 01, 2007 10 comments
