We all need to be aware that military paycheck dollar amounts are meager, and services (base schools, commissaries, and health care) make it possible for our service personnel to make ends meet.
So, when I read this article from Army Times, it made my blood boil! Who the BLEEP does Rumsfeld think he is?
Army Times
An act of ‘betrayal’
In the midst of war, key family benefits face cuts
By Karen Jowers
Times staff writer
Commissaries and the Defense Department’s stateside schools are in the crosshairs of Pentagon budget cutters, and military advocates, families and even base commanders are up in arms. Defense officials notified the services in mid-October that they intend to close 19 commissaries and may close 19 more, mostly in remote areas.
(NOTE: This means spouses must drive many (sometimes hundreds) of miles to the closest base for base commissary shopping.)
At the same time, the Pentagon is finishing a study to determine whether to close or transfer control of the 58 schools it operates on 14 military installations in the continental United States.
The two initiatives are the latest in a string of actions by the Bush administration to cut or hold down growth in pay and benefits, including basic pay, combat pay, health-care benefits and the death gratuity paid to survivors of troops who die on active duty.
The roots of all these efforts reach back to the highest levels of the Defense Department.
(NOTE: WTF IS A 'DEATH GRATUITY'? THIS IS A HORRIBLE TERM!)
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has made no secret of his desire to get the military out of support activities that are not central to its core war-fighting functions, said Joseph Tafoya, director of the Department of Defense Education Activity. As soon as he arrived at the Pentagon three years ago, Tafoya said, Rumsfeld began asking: “Why am I running stores? Why am I in education?”
(NOTE TO RUMMY: Why are you so heartless?)
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=0-ARMYPAPER-2335705.php