The American Spectator

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No Way to Live

9.15.08 @ 12:01AM

A CRIME AGAINST OUR WARRIORS
Re: Matthew Bishop's Coming Home to This?:

I would like to thank Mr. Bishop for his fine article. This is a subject that is significantly under-appreciated by too many within the general population of our country. It is truly a crime against our warriors that have gone in harms way to protect us and our freedoms. Particularly the enlisted barracks have deteriorated greatly in the last three decades or more. The state of housing for the married service members is not a whole lot better. Something simply must be done about this problem, and done now.

There is one aspect of the problem that is not addressed in this article that significantly complicates the situation, and is not sufficiently understood by the general public. The problem is that the Congress does not simply appropriate a single sum of money, send it to the Pentagon, and say spend it as you need to spend it. Congress passes bills to appropriate money to specific accounts or groups of accounts within the military. While the military budgets overall have been squeezed, the military construction and maintenance budgets have been significantly shorted in the area of military housing. Then all of a sudden a problem like the one at Walter Reed jump up to the public consciousness and the Congress leaps into action to hold hearings designed to assess blame on various military decision makers, and deflect the blame from Congress itself for not providing the necessary money and authority on an ongoing, realistic, non-crisis basis.

While I, too, agree that the appropriate military brass have not done their jobs, I do think that Congress deserves a lion's share of the blame. The politicians are more concerned to provide earmarked funds to civilian projects in their own districts, to ensure their own re-elections, and in issuing inane statements about the untoward cost of the military budget for PR purposes.

Unfortunately the road to promotability, particularly for flag rank officers, does not significantly depend on providing decent living conditions for their troops. The road to the next promotion depends entirely too much on networking and politics. This is particularly true at the flag ranks, but starts at the level of Majors that want to make Lt. Col., in other words mid field grade ranks. It is no sure bet that an outstanding warrior among the eligible Majors will get promoted to the upper ranks of the field grades. There is much blather about providing for the welfare of one's troops, but when the rubber meets the road in the fit reps that determine promotability, the politics of the military have an inordinate amount of influence. So we see "Bird" Colonels and the lower flag ranks spending inordinate amounts of time and effort in getting to know and be approved by Congressional politicians and their staffs. On the other hand, we have top quality warriors spending their careers trying to stay as far away from the Pentagon as possible, and then retiring after 20 years at the Lt.Col. rank, when they truly should be ticketed for flag status.

Disclaimer; the above discussion does NOT apply to me. I spent my military service in the lower enlisted ranks, and up to the lower NCO ranks, in a period between Korea and Vietnam. I do have a son who made a career in submarines for the Navy and retired a Chief. Additionally I have a former Marine cousin that retired at Lt.Col. after being denigrated by his superior for being a "war fighter." I have another cousin that retired from the Navy at the rank of Lt. Commander. I had an uncle that retired from the Navy after a career as a pilot. My father and another uncle served in the USMC and Army, respectively, during WWII. Then there are my numerous acquaintances that spent varying amounts of time in the military at varying ranks, both officer and enlisted.
-- Ken Shreve

I'm a retired USAF Master Sergeant, and while at times Air Force facilities were a little less than grand, places like Kunsan and Taegu Air Bases in Korea come to mind. But I was absolutely flabbergasted by the conditions of some dorms (a.k.a. barracks) that are on Ft. George Meade, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

It is no big military secret that the Air Force spends more on enlisted dorms than perhaps the other services put together. The standard that the Air Force was working towards was similar to many college dorms. Contrast this with the livening conditions for the other services.

The Marine Barracks at many Marine and Naval installations can vary greatly, The newer ones can put the Air Force to shame, but there are still many dating back, if not to World War II, then the close of the Korean War. Many have had updates and upgrades, but the basic structure, including plumbing and electrical lines is still out of date by decades. The Navy, again, it really varies and can vary on the same installation. And the Army has been most deplorable; maintenance has been deferred and deferred again. And often, instead of a full replacement, it is patched and patched over again.

There are many excuses but it boils down to Service and Command priorities.
-- Sandra Dent

Back in the day, as many of my students say, while I was briefly stationed in Jacksonville, South Carolina, many a young Marine and I (proudly Navy) would rent a room in the Thunderbird Hotel down the road from the base. Since we were lowly paid E-3's and under, we kept the out of pocket costs for comfortable accommodations down by using the full capacity of the rooms; often we had 10 or 12 people in one small room with a television and private bathroom, but this was preferable to the spartan and overcrowded barracks we called home when we weren't in the fields. Later I was PCS'ed to El Toro Marine Corps Base in California. I shared a room with a perfectly gentle and gentlemanly navy corpsman; the room was barely large enough for keeping clothes and a bunk-rack. Since we were naval personnel on a USMC base, we were eligible to receive a housing allowance that we pooled to live in the very ritzy area of Irvine. This allowed us to escape the loud, cramped space that most young Marines had to endure daily. Our brothers in arms had to make do with the little spaces they were allotted.

Now Marines are a hearty and spirited lot who do not ask much. They volunteered to join a special group knowing they will often spend 20 plus day a month in the field, sleeping, eating and other less mentionable functions, in the dirt. They work 18 hour days. And damn me if they don't do so with a smile, but when they get back "home" they have to endure barrack housing that no one on welfare would be asked to use. While the pay is low, they somehow get by. Few, if any, enlist in the military for the money, and Uncle Sam takes care of most of the essentials. But having to face the BEQ (Base Enlisted Quarters) after a long deployment, either in ConUs or overseas, can be downright depressing. Yes, the Marines are willing to live in sub-standard housing without complaining, but the questions are, doesn't the cost of forcing that choice cost more than good housing and don't "our boys" deserve a helluva lot better? Base house need not be base.
-- Ira M. Kessel
Rochester, New York

What do America's warriors deserve? Tax free incomes! Why should those volunteering to potentially place themselves in harms way have to sacrifice twice by paying Federal taxes when effete, rich and lazy liberals do nothing, but disparage our military and the nation's finest generation? For that matter all military pay for retirees, the Guard and reservists should be tax free too. Republicans looking to make gains in Congress in November should add this to the list of things they plan to do in the first 100 days after the moronic Nancy Pelosi has been kicked out of the Speaker's chair and replaced with a can do Republican.
-- Michael Tomlinson
Habbanyiah, Iraq

TALL ORDER
Re: Matt Bowman's Meet the Obama Pro-Lifers:

Interesting article by Matt Bowman on Pro-Lifers for Obama. Now, how about a little equal time. How about an article highlighting us Pro-Choicers who are supporting McCain/Palin?

Letter to the Editor

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