[427TJ]

"Yes he may take home "only" $13,000 per year BUT he has free housing, free utilities (except phone), no property tax, does not have to do any lawn maintenace like cutting grass if he lives on base housing, PX privledges etc etc."

$13,000 take-home is still jack-squat, whether someone else mows the grass outside his enlisted dorm building or not. I lived in officer housing in the USAF and if I left the porch light on after sunrise I had to stand tall in front of the Wing Commander. I also had to mow the grass, front and back, and if the Wing Commander thought my lawn was a tad long then I was in trouble. The PX ain't that great unless you live on a base with a large retired military community nearby, like Luke AFB in Phoenix. Great Commissary (supermarket) there but the ones at more remote bases suck. We did most of our grocery shopping in town. Oh, and many of those young enlisted with babies were delivering pizzas in the evening after duty hours.

"Plus he received free training in his occupation from his years in the military which he can then go onto the civilian side when he retires."

That's the trade-off we make with a all-volunteer force and it's a major recruitment tool. Why would any red-blooded young American not want to learn a marketable skill while in uniform? How many prison guards, police officers, customs agents, border patrol, TSA, etc. got their start in the military? Millions of them.

"Another perk is he for the most part does not have the fear of being laid off, outsourced, etc."

Ever heard of a RIF? That's a "Reduction In Forces" and it's how the military reduces certain over-staffed (or just plain cut, like navigators) career fields. Yes, the smart/lucky ones can cross-train into a different career field but RIFs usually result in fewer troops in uniform. In today's military they need every breathing soul they can get so no RIF fears at the moment.

"He mentions he works with Cisco infrastructure. Look at all the IT pros that are out of a job right now and begging for IT work."

Much of the civilian I.T. work has been sent overseas where the cheap labor is, so yes, $13,000 looks great by comparison.

"Another perk is you can retire after 30 years collect your pension and then go into civilian job sector and receive prefferential treatment on hiring because you are a veteran."

A great old friend of mine retired from the USAF as a Master Sergeant. He went out to San Diego and applied for a job at a BMW motorcycle dealership. (He had attended the BMW mechanics school in Texas and gotten some form of certification.) The shop owner hired him but later said that because he was a retiree getting a gov't check he should take less pay than the other guys at the shop. That's a slap in the face in my book. "Thanks for your service and I'm going to pay you less because of it."

"Also besides your combat pay you pay no income taxes while in combat."

Well I certainly hope so! "While you're getting blown-up by car bombs we're gonna' make you pay income tax." SLAP! Again, that's part of the deal we make with our volunteer Army.

"I really do appreciate what the military does and have a brother in law who is a Col in the Army. But sometime these letters irk me(whether liberal or from the right) when they leave this info out and portray something as a really bad deal when in reality it not that bad a deal."

We all support the troops. But try getting by on that $13K per year plus "perks", plus many months in lousy combat conditions, and tell me how good a deal it is.

Don't get irked. Call your Congressman and ask him why the troops are still scrounging through Iraqi garbage dumps looking for armor for their Hummvees.