Arkansas Blog

Something tells me the Snyder-bashers will be conspicously absent from this thread.

I'm sure Mayberry would be battling the Bush administration over vet benefits {rolls eyes}

I have to admit I do not know much about military vs. reservist pay or benefits. I guess I assumed that if you are serving your country in a dangerous place one would get the same benefits as everyone else.

Does someone who is in the reserve and serving in Iraq get paid the same as active duty military? Do they get housing allowances and such for thier families? Does their family get the same type of benefits if they are killed while serving?

Dman! They spent beau coup millions of dollars for bribes to people in Iraq and can't afford an education packet for our loyal troops......what a bunch of horse fertilizer.
What sort of message does this send our troops? Bush and company are crookeder than the Pig Trail.

It's a shame that one thing that popped into my mind on this topic is that increased benefits to those who serve creates more incentive for folks to join and help fill the depleted ranks. They deserve it, but I hate to see it, in any way, result in more people signing up to go over there in the first place.

Any*mouse....to answer your questions:

My son was a captain in the Arkansas National Guard (I never got above the rank of E-5) and he has been in 9 foreign countries. He was the company commander of the unit when they were sent to Kuwait a few years ago to guard Patriot Missile sites from possible Iraqi attack. He got out a couple of months before his unit was called up again to be sent to Iraq, where one was killed and several wounded, some very severe.

The point is, he told me they are under the same pay, benefits, etc., as the Regular Army. If they have active duty for 180 days in a calendar year they are covered medically by the V.A. (I only had 29 federal duty days in the LR Central activation so I am not covered).

The one big difference is in retirement. Regular Army can retire after X number of years and start immediately drawing a military retirement check. The NG has to wait until they are 60. My son had his 20 years in at age 40, with two or three federal duty stints, but has to wait 20 years until he turns 60 to draw retirement benefits.

Hope that clears it up for you.

Apparently this is the part of "support our troops" the Bushists do not want to understand. More and more, we are hearing about the soldiers returning home to find their jobs gone and having to go through the long hassle of filing a complaint under the Soldiers and Sailors Act. Also, the closing of many VA medical facilities, leaves wounded vets with longer distances to travel for care.

Any veterans group he appears before should boo him out of the hall.

Cato,
Were you in the halls of LR Central during your activation?

No. I had just started my freshman year at the UofA and my unit did not send any students to LR. We had to drill every night, attached to the Fayetteville unit. We were bussed to Fort Chaffee for physicals (remember, Fort Chaffee was an active base back then).

We did this for 29 days, I almost flunked out of school but I took my pay for those 29 days and bought a tv at Montgomery Ward. B/W, since there was no color back then. Got to watch Paladin, Mr. Diamond, Matt and Chester, Jackie Gleason, The Twentieth Century and Walter Cronkite.