By Stephan Andrew Brodhead
Guardsman Kilroy gets the shaft
Here is a small portion of an article from www.Military.com.
It discusses early retirement issues for Guardsman and Reservists.
The personnel issue still stirring hard feelings involves, ironically, the first-ever step by Congress to lower the age 60 threshold for Reserve and National Guard retired pay. The bill says that for every 90 consecutive days spent mobilized, reservists will see the age-60 start for payment of annuities cut by three months. So a reservist eligible to retire who was mobilized for 18 months could begin to draw retired pay at 58-and-a-half.
The razor in the cake is the effective date. The early retirement provision applies only to mobilization periods after the bill is signed. It leaves out more than 600,000 members mobilized since 9/11 for Afghanistan and Iraq and to respond to natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. About 142,000 of them have been deployed multiple times the past six years.
Let’s put this in a little better perspective with a short story:
Airman Kilroy joined the active duty Air Force in 1978 as a C-141A Loadmaster. He marries his high school sweet heart in 1980. For 10 years Airman Kilroy performs his duties as a LoadMaster and helps haul several million pounds of cargo worldwide, as well as, hundreds of medivac missions. The constant deployments take a toll on his marriage and he divorces in 1985. He is strapped with child support and has to move back into the barracks while his wife remarries and lives in a house.
In order to acquire rank in the Air force, one must test on a yearly basis, and although Airman Kilroy does his job in a consistent, safe and excellent manner, he does not do well on pen and pencil testing. At the 10 year point because of his inability to test well, he is unable to make rank and forced to separate form the Air Force Active Duty structure. He then joins a Reserve unit. He flies approximately the same amount of missions; however his wage is reduced to a 1/3 of what it was on Active Duty. He lives in a small apartment with a roommate and still pays his child support.
During Desert Storm he is activated for 1 year. The 1990s bring the Clinton draw down and Base realignment and closure( BRAC). As a portion of the C-141B fleet is retired, the Ops tempo is heaped on the remaining C-141B aircraft and aircrews.. He continues to support a high Ops tempo. Because Guardsman and Reservists are not “paid to shave”, all active duty pay reflects a mission performed and active participation.
By 1998, Airman Kilroy has amassed 3,650 point from 10 years on active duty and another 1400 performing in the Reserves. Most mission days are in excess of 16 hours. If one adds up the amount of time Airman Kilroy has spent working it would be very close to 2000 hours a year (2088 hours is a standard working year) for 10 years. Airman Kilroy has amassed 5,000 points over a 20 year period.
In 2001, 9/11 kicks off another round of participation. The C-141B continues its retirement while the C-17 comes into the inventory. The C-141C is still tasked extensively because of the lack of airframes to support the war on terror. Kilroy is activated for 2 years in 2003 at the start of the Iraq conflict. In 2005 Kilroy cross trains to loadmaster on the C-17 and then performs a 12 month activation. Most mission crew duty days on the C-17 are in excess of 24 hours. In the 10 years since 1998, Kilroy has earned another 2,145 retirement points. His total is now 7,145. A normal active duty point summary for 20 years is 7350. Airman Kilroy is 200 points away from an active duty point summary, however, instead of 8 hour days, he has spent an average of 16 hours a day to achieve his 7145 point over a 30 year time frame.
He is now 48 years old. He has flown 10,000 hours. His latest flight physical has found that he has high blood pressure, he is pre diabetic, and some lower back issues from pushing cargo on and off aircraft for 30 years.. In addition he is suffering from slight depression, anxiety ,and PTSD issues from seeing thousands of wounded soldiers, and the aviator lifestyle. He never saw his kids grow up. In 3 years he will have reached 33 high year tenure. Most other units do not want him because of his high year tenure and point summary. He would not be allowed to earn more than 65 points a year anyways or he would get into sanctuary. Sanctuary is where a reservist has enough points to get an active duty retirement.
At 48 years old, Kilroy is looking for a job. He now understands what age discrimination in the work force is. He settles for a low paying service economy job with zero benefits. He has to wait for another 12 years to get his retirement check. But wait, Medicare expenses are so high that his Medicare part B insurance takes up 50 percent of his retirement check. His buddy from active duty has been retired since 1998 with a hefty active duty retirement check and a second career with a school district. He will have 2 retirements by 55. Kilroy did twice the work load and will get a hacked over Reserve retirement check.
The 90 day deployment kicker the Congress and Armed Services Committee" are considering is an insult. It seeks to patch tears in the ops temp from the extended occupation of Iraq. Its patching a symptomwith school yard logic. Are the Joint Chiefs this insensitive and callous?In a peacetime setting the kicker will have zero affect. Not making early retirement retroactive for Reservists and Guardsmanwith with high point summaries that have served their country through thick and thin for the past 30 years, is an insult. It also reflects the loss of objectivity on the part of the DOD, Armed Services Committee, Congress, Senate, and Executive. They are so used to exploiting the deep well of the Patriot citizen and their intrisic motivation that they have lost touch with reality. They will allow Medicare to destroy our economy, but not reward a citizen soldier for life long service.
Soldiers in Robert E Lees army of Northern Virginia would follow their leader barefoot, on snow covered roads, with tattered clothes and no rations for a cause they believed in. Saying Reservists and Guardsman would leave the service before the job is finished in Iraq because they can retire early is another insult levied by the Congress and the DOD. Most soldiers, Seaman, and Airman love their country and love their military, and cannot think of doing other things.
Guard and Reserve Patriots represent the highest order of society and deserve a little more this time. How about retire at age 55 for 30 years participation and over a 3750 points summary (50%). This scenario would encourage longevity. Presently , there is no incentive for patriots to stay past 20 years.In addition, most bonuses are targeted to young Guardsman and Reservists.
Congress needs to rethink their position that the Guard and Reserve are second class lower tier soldiers. Since Desert Storm ,while the military was downsizing, the Guard and reserve filled the gap of the Clintom military. Their present position on not making earlier retirement qualifiers retroactive will do great harm to retention.
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