- Thread starter 2ndamendfan
- Start date
I’m just hoping he wasn’t the guy that drove into the tv station?!!!! Kidding!!!
I said many are making north of $200k. Of course those under 10 years FSO service aren't in that category, but a 22 y/o new hire with a bachelor's degree in Kabul is making over $100k, that's a fact. Many only quote their base pay, their actual pay is much higher.
Deployed is deployed, even if they're just sitting on a big gray boat pulling port visits and banging hookers in Malta or Phuket, or hitting up Oktoberfest in Munich on weekends. I did fourteen years infantry with two FMF tours, one stateside rotation at PI for two years, and three years as a recruiter. I was on the high side of hostile fire pay from '92 until I reported for recruiting in '03, having spent time in Haiti, Liberia and Afghanistan and getting two CARs in those years, but that time still accounted for less than a quarter of my total time deployed. You can't compare peacetime (which we are in right now) with the height of GWOT years. The Cold War years had the majority of time spent without a shot, yet the forces forward deployed still kept the peace through their defensive posture outside our nation's borders.
Whether you count them or not, they're still defending the nation outside our borders.
And the biggest drains on our system is those who never worked day one yet are more than physically and mentally capable of doing so, yet still collect SSI because they are professional grifters of the system.
I don't quite get where you're coming from on the peacetime vets comment. Are you talking about them getting their GI Bill or other care and benefits from service connected injuries? I lost a few fellow Marines to training accidents, of course they didn't get a PH out of it, but their families and the unit still suffered as much as when we lost someone in combat.
I'm as much a critic of fake VA disability ratings as anyone, the doctor at my final physical outright called me a liar for claiming to not having anything wrong with me (he was right, but I still have a 0% rating from my zero claims), but even a peacetime veteran put something into the system and served their country. I guess you could say it's their fault since they did such a good job at keeping the peace, they didn't even get to go downrange and slay bodies. I envy those guys.
That’s where I’m going the fake ratings... you hurt an ankle in basic and end up with a 100%. I disagree with they kept the peace for all those years but will agree to disagree on that
I just don’t like generalizations. Not everyone is making 200k. Just like not every contractor is making 300k. Most barely break 100
I just don’t like generalizations. Not everyone is making 200k. Just like not every contractor is making 300k. Most barely break 100
The majority of those injured in basic are given a ticket home with their ELS after they heal up from the initial injury, and anyone pulling off a 100% rating out of boot camp is next to nil. I've been intimately involved in that process. Many across GWOT bilked the VA for >50% ratings for a variety of conditions where they were absolutely faking it. While it wasn't unheard of prior to 9/11, that practice didn't become mainstream until you had a lot of fobbits getting peanut butter and jelly over grunts getting their "fat check" every month for losing a leg to a pressure plate IED and they wanted in on the action without actually ever seeing any action. I would absolutely LOVE to be a fraud investigator for the VA, I'd damn near do the shit for expenses only, as I love calling out malingerers and watching them cry when caught. I could live off their tears...
I don't write in generalizations. Others may, but I don't. Read what I wrote again and you'll see I'm not only specific, but I link references often and speak from first hand experience otherwise. I said "many make north of $200k in Kabul", which after 35/35 uplifts isn't hard to do for someone with ten years service (and promotions considered annually) and a Masters degree, which most FSOs have by that point. Most of the mid level DoS/INL folks I worked with were FP2 and higher.
Anyhow, back to the regularly scheduled shit show of the Pit, I have to run to the post office. Cheers.
I don't write in generalizations. Others may, but I don't. Read what I wrote again and you'll see I'm not only specific, but I link references often and speak from first hand experience otherwise. I said "many make north of $200k in Kabul", which after 35/35 uplifts isn't hard to do for someone with ten years service (and promotions considered annually) and a Masters degree, which most FSOs have by that point. Most of the mid level DoS/INL folks I worked with were FP2 and higher.
Anyhow, back to the regularly scheduled shit show of the Pit, I have to run to the post office. Cheers.
Going to have to side with Redmanss on this one Squat. Many of us from the cold war, post cold war, post Desert Storm timeframe did a lot to maintain the peace (hence the nickname "America's 911"). Grenada, Panama, Liberia (how many times now?), Somalia, Northern Iraq, Haiti, PI, to name just a few places, were places we were sent into to maintain order (or re-establish it). Combat pay was $60 whole dollars extra back inthe day, until it finally got bumped to $120. And that is only AFTER 30 continuous days (unlike other services where you just had to spend one day a month to get it; and yes, I saw quite a few 0-5/6's fly into country once a month during OIF, just so they could get their tax free status and hazardous duty pay...but I digress). Add to that, up until Somalia, we didn't even rate CARs if it was a "humanitarian" mission. It didn't matter if you were mixing it up or not, a humanitarian operation negated a CAR, since it wasn't (politically) a combat operation. IT wasn't until the whole shitstorm of Somalia, that they finally changed the regulations. Irony of ironies; getting shot at or shelled with RPG's, in woodland camo utilities that were literally falling apart on us after three months deployed in the field, while the entire KTO (Kuwaiti Theater of Operations), REMFs and all, had new desert utilities and were sleeping in hard backed tents or buildings, getting three hot squares a day and working in fairly safe conditions. (We ended up finally being allowed to "survey" (trade in) our trashed out uniforms for new ones from supply, but it took an act of Congress to allow it. This was pre "Nametape" days, where a stenciled name across your back and on the right cargo pocket and a "club patch" were it. It did however, show you had some salt, and were a Marine with some deployment experience).
At any rate, there were a lot of folks that paid a lot in blood, sweat and tears to "maintain the peace". Just because it never hit the press, or was celebrated by the media doesn't change that.
I’m not knocking you guys... I spent six months in the va system. Im knocking the people abusing the system after 2 weeks in service. They are dragging the system and you will find in most gov jobs. One girl medically retired from the army after 2 weeks of service and then 3 months at the VA. How is that even legal? But the admin guy that admitted me had to fight for his combat designation after getting blown up......I’m knocking the guy that fought for 15 years for 100% after hurting his knee and getting retired, in AIT while a marine missing his leg tried to stay in..... meanwhile those guys with bad backs from 1000s of peacetime jumps complete with broken legs and ankles get nothing. Not even a second look for a gov job.
Spend hours in the va and you will eventually ask the people in with you what happened and a lot are trying to get a rating increased. They are taking appointments from the vets that kill themselves in the parking lot. There are forums out there how to max your ratings. You’ll get sick if you read it.
I tried to say that. I’m sorry if that didn’t come across that way. Plus a lot of you guys were in combat without being “designated” in combat.
But let’s get back to bashing every civil servant as an underserving leech that according to some deserves to die
Last edited:
I am more okay with a 100% to a guy that broke his ankle on the steps of MEPPS than I am giving $1 to anyone doing a job that is not a delegated governmental responsibility under our constitution. Our government is a Leviathan that grown to the biggest threat we face, it is an existential threat. Buy more ammo.
Similar threads
