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What's this talk about a pay cut after 20? I never experienced anything like that. There's an enlisted pay chart (as of 2003) at http://www.military.com/Resources/Re...able_Jan03.htm
As far as how the Army retained me, the answer varied for me according to what stage of my career we're talking about. After my initial enlistment was done I did leave the Army for a while. I tried my hand at civilian life. I found that it made my wife and family happy that I was out of harm's way but there was a definite lack of personal satisfaction for me. In the Army I had learned a set of skills that I became very good at and I was recognized for my proficiency at them. I thought about what the military had to offer me compared to what faced me in civilian life. In the Army I had a definite and recognizable career path. If I wanted to increase my pay by getting promoted, it was easy to determine what schools and/or training I needed to qualify me for promotion. I knew what physical requirements I needed to meet. I knew what time in grade requirements were needed. It was all out in the open, no secrets. Now my civilian employer had a policy too. They banned any discussion about pay among coworkers. There was no clear path to the next level. It seemed to me that qualifications and performance were secondary to who you knew or how much butt you were willing to kiss. It just didn't seem quite fair to me. So back I went into the Army. Subsequent re-enlistments were for many of the same reasons except that by that time I was about 30 yrs. old and over the halfway mark to retirement. Try doing that in civilian life! After 20 years or more (in my case) of being in the Infantry, you don't need the Army to cut your pay for you to figure out that it's a younger man's game. I was very proud and equally happy to retire at that time. I still take a sense of pride at what I accomplished and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to do it. I don't believe that I could have done anything else that would have afforded me the opportunity to work with the caliber of people with such a high sense of dedication and selflessness. It was truly an experience that I would not have traded for anything. |
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Actually, I wasn't succesfully retained. I opted out after my first enlistment, mainly due to two reasons:
1. My wife hated the life, and made sure I knew it. (ex wife now, so might as well have stayed. 2. I spent 3 years at fort Polk. These days, I wish I'd re-upped. I'd have eight years til retirement. I'd have deployed to Bosnia and Gulf War2 (my old unit did both), And I'd probably have made Warrant Officer by now. Oh well. |
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