Glad That’s Settled

The 10th Quadrennial Review is out.  This commission is notable for not including any enlisted people on it:

DoD Reports Pay Gap Closed

Tom Philpott | March 13, 2008

A new Department of Defense study of military compensation finds no pay gap exists today between service members and civilian peers.

But the study, conducted over the last two years, advises Defense leaders to adopt a new tool for comparing military and private sector compensation so that service members learn to appreciate the full value of their more favorable package of pay, benefits, allowances and tax breaks.

The study of the 10th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation (QRMC) also calls for changes to key elements of cash compensation

I know that the services are great for pay and benefits  compared to what the average 19 year old with no college could get at the burger place.  But then, those guys don’t routinely sleep in the parking lot answering the phone (CQ), go away to burger camp for months at a time and then there is the whole Iraq and Afghanistan thing. 

To be fair, what do CEOs responsible for the amounts of people, equipment, life and death that generals are get?  I bet it’s more than a two-star’s pay.   I’m guessing that the commission did not compare an infantry sergeant’s pay to that of a CACI guard in Iraq.

I used to get handed a piece of paper each year telling me how much my pay was really worth.  I always wanted the dollar it cost to produce it rather than the information on the paper.  I suspect that many of our troops feel the same about this study.  Instead of trying to convince troops how great their pay is with these studies, I’d like to see them consider and report on the continuum of cost and pay for the life of the troops, especially the wounded, and figure that into the planning budgets.  For good measure let’s throw in the cost of the new GI Bill and make sure we show the returned value (about seven dollars  back into the economy for every buck spent) and see how that works out.

U.S. officers: Al-Qaida survives in Iraq

At what point do these "U.S. officers" talk about a real plan for getting rid of Al-Qaida or whatever from Iraq?  All I ever hear is that they are there and that they’ll be there for awhile (weeks to hundreds of years).  That’s not a plan.

Al-Qaida is in Iraq to stay, according to military leaders and other officials. The militants are weakened, battered, perhaps even desperate, by most U.S. accounts.

Is the plan to allow these "weakened, battered, perhaps even desperate" guys to tie up tens of thousands of Americans in this country forever?  What sort of plan is that?

Wired Ponytails

Spent last night at the VA undergoing a “sleep study.” The very courteous staff, headed by Dennis, wired me up from calf to pointy head and then watched me sleep in one of three rooms the VA has set aside for this purpose. Apparently, while sleep apnea is not new, the means of detecting it have only been around for a few years.

So I was very happy that I shaved and don’t have much hair because they use a pretty strong glue to hook all this up. They let me read for a bit then it was lights out and try to snooze on your back. I was in and out but with no clock in the dark room and not wanting to risk the wires on moving enough to check the phone I was very lost. About two (he said) Dennis came in and had me don a CPAP mask. That was okay but even more alien and I was glad when he let me know that I was done and it was about 05:30.

He removed all the leads, declined to make much of a diagnosis, deferring to the doctor who will eventually look over the 800 pages of chart that he said ran. They monitor leg movement, eye movement, breathing, heart rate, and all kinds of stuff. It really wasn’t all that bad but definitely disconcerting. If it pays off in a better night’s sleep I am all for it. More to come…

Update: Sixty Minutes is all over it this week:

Loathing and Romance at SXSW

Austin’s biggest music and movie festival is here again.  Sixth street is full of everything from half-drunk college students and Soldiers to Korean drummers beating the bushes for patrons to their showcase.  Among them are the old liberal warhorse Phil Donahue and the subject of his unlikely movie – Veteran Tomas Young, inspiration for “Body of War.” 

Young is and wants to be a force in the nation’s anti-war movement.  Joining the Army after 9-1-1 to fight the Taliban and Al Quaeda in Afghanistan he was instead sent to Iraq where he was shot and paralyzed five days later.  Whatever one’s thoughts are about the continued occupation of Iraq and the uses of war as an instrument of policy in the future the film highlights an important point – people fight wars and people suffer the effects of war.  By intercutting the votes and speeches of politicians from all sides of the aisle voting for the AUMF in 2003 with scenes of Young and his recovery Donahue hits hard at the mythic allure of battle.   

Too bad that Donahue did not have available the President’s words from a teleconference this week where he said to officials in Afghanistan “It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks.”  The President, who’s made a single visit to Afghanistan since the start of the war there (sneaking in in March 2006), might want to spend a little more time both in body armor and with Veterans like Young before he waxes too poetic about war.  At least he hasn’t sung or danced about Young’s catheter. Yet

Oops – Can I Have My Allowance Early?

At what point do you NOT put your expected costs into the budget?

Guard expects recruiting funds to run out in April http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0208/022908cdam1.htm

DoD is using General Blum to pound Congress to approve the next 100 Billion-dollar-plus supplemental.  He probably does need the money, since DoD only pursues an immediate recruitment scenario of lowered standards and cash payouts instead of properly resourcing, deploying, and caring for the troops. 

During the hearing, Blum shared concerns that he only has enough funding to fill 67 percent of the required full-time Army Guard positions. Those posts, Blum said, have become critically important for processing troops for deployment and running other day-to-day operations of his heavily used force.

Blum likened preparing for and responding to domestic and overseas commitments with an inadequate full-time force to an understaffed fire department. “We’re supposed to do that with two guys in a firehouse and it isn’t going to work that way,” he said.

Separate from all the politics surrounding the war, use of supplementals, and big-iron programs sucking dollars out of the grandkid’s piggybanks, why do we trust these guys to spend this money properly when they have no idea what they need, no priorities or accounting for the spending, and darn little accountability when the allowance goes awry?

Takes All Types

And they are off! I think we just fell behind the powercurve here (although at least one of our blood drives was put on by the coordinator)

TECHNOLOGY | March 10, 2008
Facebook Is Extending Its Network to Blood Donations
By PETER S. GOODMAN
The social networking site will tap its roster of millions of users for mobilization in times of blood shortages.