From: Adam Flinton 

Jeff Shultz wrote:

> On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 22:42:12 -0600, Robert G Lewis wrote:
>
>
>>"Jeff Shultz"  wrote in message
>>news:pan.2004.12.11.04.07.10.232697{at}shultzinfosystems.com...
>>
>>>On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 12:59:42 -0600, Robert G Lewis wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Mark the original quote dealt with benefits to those on
active duty in
>>>>Iraq, Not the armor issue ( which is an issue)
>>>>
>>>>here is the article quoted in the link John provided
>>>>
>>>>http://www.tnr.com/blog/iraqd?pid=2440
>>>>
>>>>and here is the original transcript
>>>>
>>>>http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20041208-secdef1761.html
>>>>
>>>>This is one of the items quoted in the TNR article ( although the cut
>>>>the response)
>>>>
>>>>:  Specialist Skarwin (Sp?) HHD 42nd Engineer Brigade.  Mr. Secretary
>>>>[Cheers] my question is with
>>>>the current mission of the National Guard and Reserves being the same
>>>>as our active duty counterparts, when are more of our
benefits going to
>>>>line up to the same as theirs, for example, retirement?  [Cheers]
>>>>[Applause]
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>SEC. RUMSFELD:  [Laughter] I can't imagine anyone your age worrying
>>>>about retirement.  [Laughter]  Good grief.  It's the last
thing I want
>>>>to do is retire.  The pay and benefits for the Guard and the Reserve
>>>>relative to the active force have been going up unevenly at a rate
>>>>faster than the active force.  If you go back over four
years - matter
>>>>of fact, I just went over this with the senior person in
the department
>>>>who looks at pay and benefits. And apparently, what's
happened is that
>>>>for a variety of reasons, the incremental changes that are made each
>>>>year, in terms of pay and benefits and health care and retirement and
>>>>what have you, have brought the Guard and Reserve up at a
faster level
>>>>than the active force. And what one has to do in managing the total
>>>>force and the total force is critically important.  We need the Guard
>>>>and Reserve as well as the active
>>>>force.  And we have to see that we have the incentives arranged in a
>>>>way that we can attract and retain the people that are
needed to defend
>>>>the country.  At the moment, we are doing well in terms of attracting
>>>>and retaining the people we need.  And if anything, I think the data
>>>>suggests that the Guard and Reserve forces had been advantaged
>>>>relatively compared to the active force over the past four years.
>>>>Question.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I would be interested to know what the actual situation is. the
>>>>perception
>>>>is the Guard and Reserves are not as well off as the Regular Active
>>>>duty forces.
>>>>
>>>>Bob Lewis
>>>>
>>>
>>>I've never heard of any disparity like that - other than the Reserves
>>>(and perhaps the Guard) has to wait until age 60 to start receiving
>>>retirement benefits. Since they aren't 24x7 military normally, this made
>>>sense previously. Perhaps it needs reevaluating since the useage of both
>>>forces has gone up significantly since 1991.
>>
>>Agree that it should be looked at. I would think that that while they are
>>24 x 7 they should have the same benefits.
>>
>
> Since it's not something I thought about much (I never really considered
> retiring in the reserves), it's slowly filtering through how reserve
> retirement works - I think that NG is the same, but I'm not positive.
> Basically each day they spend on active duty they earn a retirement
> point. More points means more retirement money. So being on duty 24x7
> right now is upping their retirement. My thought would be that combat duty
> would be worth, say, 1.5 points a day instead of just 1, but that's just
> my thought of how they could sweeten it.
>
>

Does the spouse co-own the pension like in the UK? i.e. the pension may
matter more to the soldier as it may what's left to the spouse should the
soldier be killed.

In the UK there would have been serious uproar at the pensions comment as
in essence worrying about what might be left to one's spouse/dependants is
very much in the mind of those "young people" being asked to
possibly to do the pro patria morte bit.

BTW if sucked into the mil via the NG or whatever, what happens to payments
such as the mortgage, car loan etc given that a 50K per year person would
not be paid 50K while serving?

Adam

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