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pecuniumI have a few things to share, and don't feel like making three, or more, separate posts at the moment.
1: It's confirmed, I'm off to Korea in 11 days. I'm supposed to leave from an AFB, which means I don't get the comforts of commercial air, much less the semi-luxuries of international flights.
They said to bring my wet-weather gear, and a sleeping bag w/mat, which doesn't bode as well as I might like (the last trip was in November, before the winter really set in. Given that I was in a tent with no heater, and sleeping in everything I owned {sleeping bag, poncho liner [a polyester, quilted blanket... perhaps the best piece of gear the army has ever introduced... get two, they're small] long-johns, BDUs, hat, gloves, chemical suit, and socks} just to be warm enough to sleep. The was a frigid draft from the mouth of the mummy bag, and I had to sleep with my boots in the bag. One night I was too tired and forgot to do that... took a few minutes to warm them up enough to get my feet in... what it took to warm me, after my feet then warmed them was hours} I can say that the winters, as shown on M*A*S*H were that cold. I recall they said the summers were hot. Then again, summer is the time for Korean Hemorrhagic Fever, so...).
On the other hand, it's probably much the same as the last trip, and I'll be sleeping in a large tent (I can do that) and working twelve hour shifts.
I am, for what it may be worth, the senior NCO in my contingent, and the LT is pretty new, so it ought to be... interesting.
2: Wars, and rumors of
I was bitching last week about the friend who was told he is being called up... well it seems he might be along with about a score of others, of whom more than half have just returned.
That's offensive. What's worse is they are short the required time available to do the full tour, so someone will be asking to waive that, and keep them until the rotation is over.
But the rumor mill (and that's where it sits, and the persistence with which it comes to me, and the wide range of people mean nothing, save that I thought I'd do my part to spread it... as less than light-hearted whimsy, if it's wrong, and as a way to kill the idea a-borning, if it ain't) has been active of late, and cranking out this gem... DoD is arguing that the authorization to activate RC troops is for 2 years, per operation.
That adds up to 10 years, plus ramp-up, and down, that they ca, in theory, tag NG and Reserve troops with.
Which, if done to anyone, will be done to critical MOSs, like mine.
It's also more than the can tag the RA with, esp. as that 10 years is from the present, which means some (if not most) are outside the eight-year window they can pull people out of the IRR from.
And they are still stealing no small part of the retirement I've earned, by refusing to pay it for, in my case; as much as 17 years from when I retire.
3: On Classified information, and reactions.
Three cases, you decide how well they are being handled.
Sandy Berger: Took home copies of files from when he was in the White House. Told no-one, returned them, as well as his notes, as soon as he was told he had them.
Reaction: Some are still calling for his head, even though the FBI cleared him, nothing was lost and no harm was done.
Richard Shelby: Admits to leaking classified documents to CNN and Fox, papers which he only had access to as head of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
The information was old, but (though this is a wonderfully vague phrase, and often used to cover up stuff the Intel community just wants to keep quiet) it did let some people figure out some of the things we can listen to. They may have known already, but this would've confirmed it.
Reaction: None to speak of. DOJ declines to press charges, and it's been handed over to the Senate Ethics Committee. Those yelling that Berger must hang, are silent.
Valerie Plame: Covert CIA operative; outed by a member of the White House staff.
This is worse than a crime, it was a blunder. In the first place, out a covert agent is a felony. Depending on the agent it might move to the level of, "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" because not only is that agent useless, so is the network they had been running. No way to hand it off to anyone else, it has to be rebuilt from scratch. Since Plame was working on the only real Weapon of Mass Destruction (she worked in nuclear proliferation, which includes the makings of some very ugly bombs, worse than the so-called, dirty-bomb Jose Padilla is said to have wanted to make) one could argue the release of her name was of, ""exceptionally grave damage" to the interests of the United States.
If one accepts the fight against terrorism as being a world struggle, then it was harm to more than just the US.
Reaction: Apart from people like me, none to speak of. Pundits are saying that since she wasn't the target, then no crime was committed (this is, IMO, an odd attempt to apply an intent aspect to a statutory crime, and won't wash, if the investigation finds who did it). The CIA had to file a specific request to get DoJ off it's ass, and that was more than a year ago.
Not that I had any real doubts, but it's enough to make you wonder about people's motives, ethics and their willingness to sink to any depth for an iota of political advantage, and the Devil take the details, such as what harm it actually does.
1: It's confirmed, I'm off to Korea in 11 days. I'm supposed to leave from an AFB, which means I don't get the comforts of commercial air, much less the semi-luxuries of international flights.
They said to bring my wet-weather gear, and a sleeping bag w/mat, which doesn't bode as well as I might like (the last trip was in November, before the winter really set in. Given that I was in a tent with no heater, and sleeping in everything I owned {sleeping bag, poncho liner [a polyester, quilted blanket... perhaps the best piece of gear the army has ever introduced... get two, they're small] long-johns, BDUs, hat, gloves, chemical suit, and socks} just to be warm enough to sleep. The was a frigid draft from the mouth of the mummy bag, and I had to sleep with my boots in the bag. One night I was too tired and forgot to do that... took a few minutes to warm them up enough to get my feet in... what it took to warm me, after my feet then warmed them was hours} I can say that the winters, as shown on M*A*S*H were that cold. I recall they said the summers were hot. Then again, summer is the time for Korean Hemorrhagic Fever, so...).
On the other hand, it's probably much the same as the last trip, and I'll be sleeping in a large tent (I can do that) and working twelve hour shifts.
I am, for what it may be worth, the senior NCO in my contingent, and the LT is pretty new, so it ought to be... interesting.
2: Wars, and rumors of
I was bitching last week about the friend who was told he is being called up... well it seems he might be along with about a score of others, of whom more than half have just returned.
That's offensive. What's worse is they are short the required time available to do the full tour, so someone will be asking to waive that, and keep them until the rotation is over.
But the rumor mill (and that's where it sits, and the persistence with which it comes to me, and the wide range of people mean nothing, save that I thought I'd do my part to spread it... as less than light-hearted whimsy, if it's wrong, and as a way to kill the idea a-borning, if it ain't) has been active of late, and cranking out this gem... DoD is arguing that the authorization to activate RC troops is for 2 years, per operation.
That adds up to 10 years, plus ramp-up, and down, that they ca, in theory, tag NG and Reserve troops with.
Which, if done to anyone, will be done to critical MOSs, like mine.
It's also more than the can tag the RA with, esp. as that 10 years is from the present, which means some (if not most) are outside the eight-year window they can pull people out of the IRR from.
And they are still stealing no small part of the retirement I've earned, by refusing to pay it for, in my case; as much as 17 years from when I retire.
3: On Classified information, and reactions.
Three cases, you decide how well they are being handled.
Sandy Berger: Took home copies of files from when he was in the White House. Told no-one, returned them, as well as his notes, as soon as he was told he had them.
Reaction: Some are still calling for his head, even though the FBI cleared him, nothing was lost and no harm was done.
Richard Shelby: Admits to leaking classified documents to CNN and Fox, papers which he only had access to as head of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
The information was old, but (though this is a wonderfully vague phrase, and often used to cover up stuff the Intel community just wants to keep quiet) it did let some people figure out some of the things we can listen to. They may have known already, but this would've confirmed it.
Reaction: None to speak of. DOJ declines to press charges, and it's been handed over to the Senate Ethics Committee. Those yelling that Berger must hang, are silent.
Valerie Plame: Covert CIA operative; outed by a member of the White House staff.
This is worse than a crime, it was a blunder. In the first place, out a covert agent is a felony. Depending on the agent it might move to the level of, "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" because not only is that agent useless, so is the network they had been running. No way to hand it off to anyone else, it has to be rebuilt from scratch. Since Plame was working on the only real Weapon of Mass Destruction (she worked in nuclear proliferation, which includes the makings of some very ugly bombs, worse than the so-called, dirty-bomb Jose Padilla is said to have wanted to make) one could argue the release of her name was of, ""exceptionally grave damage" to the interests of the United States.
If one accepts the fight against terrorism as being a world struggle, then it was harm to more than just the US.
Reaction: Apart from people like me, none to speak of. Pundits are saying that since she wasn't the target, then no crime was committed (this is, IMO, an odd attempt to apply an intent aspect to a statutory crime, and won't wash, if the investigation finds who did it). The CIA had to file a specific request to get DoJ off it's ass, and that was more than a year ago.
Not that I had any real doubts, but it's enough to make you wonder about people's motives, ethics and their willingness to sink to any depth for an iota of political advantage, and the Devil take the details, such as what harm it actually does.
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-06 04:52 am (UTC)And just what does the military think you're supposed to live on during those 17 years?
Egads. And I thought I was shafted because my self-employment means I have no retirement at all, as my income doesn't allow for any meaningful savings.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-06 06:40 am (UTC)Soldiers with special skills are entitled to Proficiency Pay. ProPay is based on the idea that there are skills, so hard to acuire, risky to maintain or valuable to the Army that one is entitled to special pay as an incentive to retain them.
But one has to prove they've not been lost. Jump pay is, IIRC $75 dollars a month. Language pay is from $75-300, depending on langauge(s) and skill.
To get Jump pay, one has to jump out of an adequately functional airplane once a quarter. To get laguage pay one must take a test (for each language one wants to have considered for pay) every six months.
This is the same for the Active Army, and the Reserve Components.
But where I'd be entitled to, say $100 for a test score of 2/2, I get $9, because I'm only credited with four days of duty in the month.
I have to maintain the same (and the active army linguist is supposed to get 10 hours a week, during duty hours, for maintainence... try to get that from an employer), but I get a tenth the pay.
The Airborne guys get the same treatment... have to risk as many streamers and cigarette rolls as the active guys, but they get about $6 for it.
So, to deal with the retirement issue. When an AC guy does his 20, and puts in for retirement... he gets paid without cease.
If I do the same, I have to wait until I'm 62... used to be 65, but we're winning, one little bit at a time.
As a grace note, they pro-rate my retirement. I did the math, and it's fair. If I had done 20 active, I'd get a given ratio of my base pay...(I'd say what it is, but until you get retirement orders Congress can change it... my retirement isn't worth what it was when I enlisted. I don't think the pay raises have made up for the percentage changes).
For the Resesrves, we get retirement points (which are the measuring unit people are trying to find for Bush, because they represent... more or less, days of duty performed). A max year is 364/365, most get less.
Those are then multiplied by a factor, determined by rank.
It works out to the same ratio of base pay we get, were we to retire, at that pay grade, and had worked that many days out of twenty.
But they make us wait for it (after it was part time, and we have other jobs, [not that they ponder the full-timer is able to get another job] so what's the harm).
If I were 18 when I joined, and 38 when I retired... I'd be waiting 25 years to get my pay. Pay I earned, for work I performed, risks I took.
It pisses me off a little.
So, if you want to support the troops, call your Representatives, and tell them the Reserves deserve an equal day's pay, for an equal day's work.
TK