# Troops Ask:  Will We Get Paid?



## Marauder06 (Jul 30, 2011)

It's criminal that they're being forced to even having to wonder about this.  

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43954150/ns/politics-more_politics/



> the top question on their minds Saturday even as bombings rocked the city around them, was one the top U.S. military officer couldn't answer.
> Will we get paid?
> "I honestly can't answer that question," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told troops at Kandahar air base in southern Afghanistan, as several expressed anxiety over budget wrangling in Washington.
> Mullen also told them they would continue to go to work each day.


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## TLDR20 (Jul 30, 2011)

This came about pretty hard during the budget crisis. They sent out emails saying we were not going to get paid. Dudes were pretty upset, especially since they were in the process of moving to Florida. Or deploying.


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## Manolito (Jul 30, 2011)

What I don't understand is how the commander and chief can send men and women to war and then lie to them and say if the Republicans don't extend the debt the military won't get paid. Then turn around and scare the old and infirm and tell them they won't get their SS check. Truth is SS has a fund that can pay all benefits to 2035 but then again the government has borrowed some of that money.
I don't believe a Man could treat the troops this way so guess how I feel about this subject.
Bill


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## Diamondback 2/2 (Jul 30, 2011)

All I will say is that I am going to be out of uniform soon, and when I am I’ll share some views relating to our CinC, congress, and military leadership. Until then I will just wonder if I’ll get paid…


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## TLDR20 (Jul 30, 2011)

JAB said:


> All I will say is that I am going to be out of uniform soon, and when I am I’ll share some views relating to our CinC, congress, and military leadership. Until then I will just wonder if I’ll get paid…


I get out in 19 days.


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## Diamondback 2/2 (Jul 30, 2011)

cback0220 said:


> I get out in 19 days.



Yeah I still got 60-90 depending (out of my hands at this point). Lucky you!


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## Mac_NZ (Jul 31, 2011)

cback0220 said:


> I get out in 19 days.



60 for me.  Then the epic beard growing competition can begin!


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## RackMaster (Jul 31, 2011)

Mac_NZ said:


> 60 for me. Then the epic beard growing competition can begin!



It will be perfect timing, just as the weather starts to cool down here.


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## SpitfireV (Jul 31, 2011)

So a hypothetical situation. Let's say the troops don't get paid for a month and people in Iraq and Afghanistan say "fuck this" and make their own way home. Are they technically deserting? Even considering the government would have broken their contract.


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## Mac_NZ (Jul 31, 2011)

If it was us yes, it would be desertion still but I'm not well versed on the UCMJ beyond enough knowledge to get by in a US base without getting in the shit.  And when you do get in the shit just plead dumb Kiwi and say something about Hobbits and all is forgiven.


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## Marauder06 (Jul 31, 2011)

SpitfireV said:


> So a hypothetical situation. Let's say the troops don't get paid for a month and people in Iraq and Afghanistan say "fuck this" and make their own way home. Are they technically deserting? Even considering the government would have broken their contract.



Yes, it would be desertion, and any number of other crimes which are punishable under UCMJ.  Most of threats to not pay the troops "only" involve those stateside.


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## AWP (Jul 31, 2011)

I wonder if we should start calling each other "Comrade?"


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## x SF med (Jul 31, 2011)

To even think about not paying troops during a time of war, is criminal.  To force the troops into distraction thinking about whether their families will be able to make ends meet is ludicrous and akin to treason and sedition on the parts of the government who voiced it.

Don't pay Congress, the Senate, the Supreme Court and the VP and POTUS before you don't pay the troops in harms way.


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## Manolito (Jul 31, 2011)

Doc you bring up a very good point in my estimation. Distraction isn't talked about much but I wonder if it gets kids killed. Back when the earth was cooling mail call every two weeks was bad enough you get a guy with a Dear John and you have to watch him for months because his mind isn't in the game. I can't imagine today with internet always there and the wife telling them they are fed up with little johnny and need you home to straighten him out and then along comes the Commander and Chief and on national TV he says I may not be able to pay the military. This has to be dangerous or are the troops today better equipped to handle this kind of thing?
Bill


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## Marauder06 (Jul 31, 2011)

It's very dangerous.  It's also disastrous for morale and retention.  Troops are fast getting tired of getting tossed around like a political football while all their families have to look forward to is another 12 months apart and the very real possibility that their servicemember might come back in a bag, or physically or mentally damaged for life.  I'm sure many of them are thinking, "we're doing our jobs, why can't the people who got us into this in the first place do theirs?"


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## formerBrat (Jul 31, 2011)

I have a hard time believing that this will ever happen....but....I also have a hard time believing that people actually think you can spend your way out of debt. (unless you happen to be the lucky lotto winner)

It is unbelievably messed up to consider not paying the men and women that volunteer to defend this nation. It's just as fucked up to use it as political leverage. In addition to the morale and retention issues, what type of effect would it have on recruitment? Would make a difference. Has there already been a change in recruitment numbers?

Depending on the effect, would it cause the branches and their Reserve and Guard counterparts to reconsider the change in recruitment age again? I believe I had read recently that earlier this year both the Army Reserve and National Guard returned the enlistment date to 35 from 42(?).

I realize that people don't generally enlist for the money, but one also has to be able to take care of their person as well as their families and could see it as putting off some potential recruits that would see it as a, "they really don't give a shit about us at all" gesture.

Am I off base in this view?


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## Marauder06 (Jul 31, 2011)

I don't think it (troops not getting paid) will ever happen either.  I think both parties are smart enough to realize that is very, very dangerous on a number of moral and practical levels for a country to not pay its troops.  At the same time, I think it is reprehensible that anyone is even holding this out as a threat.


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## Manolito (Jul 31, 2011)

Mara that is what eats my shorts it will never happen and the troops will get paid you can bet on that. It is the fact that they would use the threat. Appears now they will pass the debt ceiling raise and throw the Defense budget under the buss.
God Bless our men and women who serve inspite of the ignorant people in Washington.
Bill


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## x SF med (Jul 31, 2011)

Manolito said:


> Mara ...
> God Bless our men and women who serve inspite of the ignorant people in Washington.
> Bill



Mara, aren't you glad you don't have to take offense at this anymore... since you left DC?


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## Manolito (Jul 31, 2011)

If he was at the pentagon he was in Arlington Virginia and if he was in Washington voting on taking things from the Military then I am talking about him.


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## Marauder06 (Aug 1, 2011)

x SF med said:


> Mara, aren't you glad you don't have to take offense at this anymore... since you left DC?



lol- I think it's out of the frying pan and into the fire leaving D.C. for ultra-lib New Haven, CT ;)

And for the record, while I was in D.C. I was a lowly graduate student, not affiliated with the five-sided puzzle palace or the inner workings of our political construct.  Although, I don't think I'd do a worse job than those currently doing it...


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