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A person should consider more than how much they are paid in their job or career. Extras matter and put a dollar value on it. Can you be easily laid off? Put a dollar value on that. Good working conditions? Put a dollar value on it. Upward mobility? Same thing...add it all up and then compare against other sectors, jobs, careers.
Like most myths their is some truth to it but it is largely in the past now. Before the all volunteer force the government saw no reason to pay market wages to attract people. Pay and conditions were well below their civilian equivalent. That started changing when the draft ended and the Armed Forces had to entice people to join voluntarily. By the 80s the military enjoyed competitive pay and benefits and few would say they were underpaid at that point. So ultimately it depends on when a person served whether they were underpaid or not. The perspective becomes muddied when different generations mix and the truth becomes obscured.
All US servicemembers understand that a 20-year pension will give you 50% of your base-pay [in my case, base-pay was around one-third of my normal take home pay].
When I reached 20 years I was mandatory retired on that my 50% pension as an E6.
Last week my son arrived home. He served for 6 years, the Covid vaccine gave him cancer and he was medically retired. He is 100% disabled. As an E4 his pension is twice that of my pension.
I had no idea that a medical retirement is so much different from a High-Year-Tenure retirement.
* the DOD has noted a distinct increase in esophageal cancers soon after administration of the Covid vaccines. So the VA has already published a memo that they will automatically accept all esophageal cancer as service-connected, and they will fast-track the paperwork to get anyone with that cancer their 100% rating. [as compared to Agent Orange which took 20 years of petitioning].
* High-Year-Tenure is the DOD policy that governs how they decide which servicemembers have served too long, and need to be transferred to retirement.
I should have shared the articles when I first read them.
While serving in Afghanistan, my son had a dental appointment and they discovered tongue cancer. He was sent to Germany for his first surgery, and then to Bethesda for more surgeries and radiation therapy. After a year of physical therapy, the Army medical retired him. He will never speak clearly again, but he is once again able to eat solid foods.
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