Over at Foreign Policy, retired Navy Commander John T. Kuehn writes about "If I could change one thing in the US military personnel system (1): It is time to extend the age of military retirement." Kuehn is the Major General Willam A Stofft chair of historical research at the Command and General Staff College, and, yes, he has a PhD. Here is why Commander (ret) Kuehn believes a change in the retirement system is needed. ...The current system was designed because between the 20 to 30 year stretch was statistically when military personnel had been physically and emotionally "used up." However, these conditions no longer apply. Today, folks are a lot healthier when they retire and could reasonably be expected to serve under the generally harsher circumstance of military service longer than they could in the past. The current system needs to recognize and account for the improvements in healthcare and lifestyle by those Americans who qualify for military service in its promotion and retention policies, and it should do this with meaningful policy change. .. The problem with this argument is that the author seems to be entirely disconnected from the last 13+ years of combat, and what that combat does to young men and women...possibly the disconnect exists because he is a reseracher and a retired Navy Officer, not a 40 year old infantry platoon sergeant in the 82nd Airborne Division. In backchannel discussions on this piece, Army soldier TCOverride offers up a solution for the retirement situation. I think you'll enjoy it. I call this the risk = return method. Combat tours--real tours, not quatar/doha/buehring tours--earn 2.5x the retirement rate. A one year tour counts for 2.5 years towards retirement (but not pay.) A non combat, but unaccompanied tour counts for 1.5. Tours based on any LSA earn 1.75%, except for individuals listed below. Any tour during which a person receives a PH, or Valor medal, counts for 3x. No multiplier is added for E9, or O6 and above. Especially E9, as they have, as a population (albeit with notable, and damned few exceptions) contributed nothing of measurable value. Unless E9 has PH or Valor awards. BSM without 'V' is pretty, but worth squat. No multiplier is added for people beyond minimum retirement (20 years) unless the recipient has a PH or Valor award (multiplier always counts for these people, regardless of length of service.) PH or valor award multiplier is not limited to tour in which award is earned, once earned, modifier applies to any and all future tours and the tour where award was earned. Additional awards gain a .5 modifier. 2 PH would earn 3.5, 2 PH+BSV earns 4.0, etc. E9 with BSV would earn the 3% modifier. Sailors and other undesirables only get tour multipliers if they participate in actual combat. Being a cook on a carrier is not actual combat. Being on a seal team is. Unaccompanied tours multiplier still counts for sea duty. Having a missile fired at your ship is combat. Docking at a port in a terrorist threat nation (like Yemen) would result in earning the multiplier only while docked/underway in that nation's waters. Marines on embassy duty in nations where Ivan or Mohamed are the given names of over 40% of the male population, or where women dress like ninjas, or where goat buggery is commonplace (with exclusions for Australia, Scotland, New Zealand) would receive a special rate of 1.75%, which would go to 5% if at any time a clinton or kerry is the SECSTATE. Of course, they could also do silly things to reduce the VA claims backlog like analyzing your medical condition(s) annually according to VA standards, and determining the severity/rating as you go, so that when you retire you already have a rating. MOH: automatically qualifies for 20 years' service retirement eligibilty. Service in any TRADOC (or other service equivalent) posting beyond 24 months without at least three requests by the soldier for immediate worldwide reassignment result in no accrual of years' service for retirement. Goes along with this Military Motivator:
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/uIeH-AiCGcw/changing-the-retirement-benefit-foreign-policy-egghead-vs-grunt.html
Posted
Nov 03 2014, 11:55 PM
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BLACKFIVE