Combat Pay

My friend Joe is in Afghanistan now. So are my friends Chris, Jesse, Rick, Cameron, Trent, Dave, Doug, Rob, James, Ryan, Will, (other) Chris and Richard. They are leading platoons or companies, or serving in staff jobs as their respective Military Occupation Specialty designates. My friends Matt and Conner were there too before they were wounded and sent home. Every chance I get to hop on Facebook, I check on the my friends' pages to make sure they are not among the wounded. When my friend Rob got home last week I was relieved that he had made it back in one piece, and when my friends Doug and Dave come home next month I will breath a little easier.


The Army has communication down to a pretty good science: I can talk to anyone, anywhere, at the touch of a button. With our advanced computers, someone in Fort Knox, Kentucky can hop into a tank, shift the inboard GPS to "Afghanistan" and talk to a buddy of his in a HMMWV in what the Army calls "near real time" (because, apparently, "real time" is either copyrighted or simply too hard to conjure up... and also, apparently, no one has ever looked at a watch and completely gotten the concept that it is showing "real time"). So, anyway, how do I talk to them? G Chat. Or Skype. Facebook, too, is really useful... yeah, great use of government-funded resources... moving on, when I talk to them they always tell me, before signing off, to stay safe here. I do the same. But it is so completely different. There are times when I come to work and my biggest complaint is someone stole my chair (Seriously. This has happened. I showed up at work one day and my chair was gone).

No, seriously -- Evan, I feel your pain

These guys... some of them are getting into firefights every other day and dealing with losses in their formations in the tens and twenties. Me? I am dealing with having to walk a half a mile to get food and dudes in the gym who look at the sign that says "No Sleeveless Shirts" and think "Well, obviously that doesn't apply to these puppies" while flexing. Needless to say, its a little different. But the Army doesn't see it as such: we both are authorized to wear a patch on the right shoulder of our uniforms (something I am 100% against and something, as people know, I will rarely if ever do) and put "service stripes" on our Class A uniforms. We both get to tell stories about being "down range" and swap tales of missing loved ones.


And -- the crux of the post -- we still do not pay taxes while deployed and make at least an extra $350-$400 per paycheck, depending on location and (relative) imminent danger. Really, a huge benefit to deploying -- maybe the only "benefit" and maybe that is the wrong word -- is it affords people the chance to save a crap load of money since there are really no expenses (my crippling addiction to caffeine aside) and you are making between $400-$1000 more per month than usual. So those privates and specialists with kids at home and mortgages to pay who are used to taking home $2500 a month after taxes? Provided they can save their money, they are doing well for themselves. Deployments can be an economic boom. Its all about seeing the glass as half full I assume...


Today is April 8th -- the day we found out that Soldiers deployed (well, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines, regardless of current status) will be among the over 1.5 million federal government employees who will not be paid. At least we are not among the 800,000 getting furloughed, and at least we know that we will still technically be paid, but we will not get a paycheck until the budget issue is resolved. So I guess... wait... I get paid, but not really. And the bank, which usually takes my money and puts it somewhere safe, won't get my money. And if I need it I can't get it - or, at least not all of it - because I am only getting 1/4 of my paycheck this month. But at some point in the future it will magically appear as if it had never been gone. Yeah, this seems like a foolproof plan.

Which is why I'm glad I bank with Bailey Savings and Lo--- wait a minute...

Part of the beauty of being an Army officer is being apolitical. I vote a certain way and hold certain political beliefs that no one really needs to know about. And to be honest I could care less about a balanced budget or universal health care, but it's mostly apathy: those decisions do not affect me. But I would ask that we look beyond that. Sure, Soldiers are not getting paid, but -- like I said -- we will. The money will come. And I am not sure this is a Democrat vs. Republican issue, nor is it a "(insert President's name here) sucks" issue. All I can think about right now is I have all those friends I listed above who are fighting for my freedom, fighting 8000 miles from their home, who have volunteered to do so, and who will man that post tomorrow and sling rounds downrange because, simply put, it's their job. I imagine we owe them better than making this debate partisan or anti-Executive. And we also owe it to them not to parade around veterans who are angry at the current government, or families of deployed Soldiers who cannot make ends meet now because - lets be serious - there will always be veterans who are angry at the current government, and 18 and 19 year-old kids will never be good at saving for rainy days such as these. If I could stay on my soapbox just a minute longer, I would suggest that instead of arguing on talk shows or protesting for the CNN cameras, we ought to focus on people who simply show up for work because they are told to do so and would never think otherwise. And its not me. Not by a long stretch. It is my heroes I listed above who are in Afghanistan and who have no say in this debate -- and frankly don't want one -- because, by showing up for work, their actions speak louder than any words, however well spoken, ever could.