Article

2008-07-06 Home Front: WoT

Marine moms, dads, often drop out of boot camp

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Posted by Steve White 2008-07-06 14:15|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 common sense, plus trying to support a family on the low pay is tough, especially in high rent or home price areas like San Diego

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-07-06 15:09|| 2008-07-06 15:09|| Front Page Top

#2 As a former active duty Marine (lo those many years ago), and with a son who is a Marine...I recall the words of OCS platoon sergeant: "You &@#^&#_@#, ()*&^%#$&&, ^@!($+$(#)$, son of a %&^@%#&^%@& 3rd lieutenant!!!! You have no wife. You are married to The Corps!!!!!"

Posted by anymouse">anymouse 2008-07-06 15:13|| 2008-07-06 15:13|| Front Page Top

#3 I don’t recall being a junior enlisted and having a family was ever ‘easy’. Back in the last year of Carter most of the military lived in gentile poverty. If your troops were fortunate enough to be stateside you’d find most of the married young troops pulling food stamps for their families. If you were overseas you did your best to make sure everything was accounted for in the COLA surveys so that the kids could just make ends meet because DoD and DoA[griculture] hadn’t worked out how to get them food stamps yet. That last year we finally got the first real raise in six years because it was an election year issue. Ronnie would see to it we’d get two more the next year and we would not be treading water as deeply as we had been.

However, back then the troops and their families got free medical and dental. It wasn’t necessarily from the top 50 percent of the medical or dental school grads, but it was generally adequate. Today, the young troop is expected to fork over money to pay for his or her family’s care to one degree or another. When we had a million under arms somehow we could make it happen, but with half as much our Congress, regardless of which party has controlled the place, has the wherewithal to spend massively on earmarks, but will nickel and dime these guys and gals today.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-07-06 16:08|| 2008-07-06 16:08|| Front Page Top

#4 Proc, we got foodstamps under Carter, and lived in "Substandard" housing.

Notice that the guy at the beginning of th article had to talk the recruiter into it, not the other way around.

Posted by OldSpook 2008-07-06 16:38|| 2008-07-06 16:38|| Front Page Top

#5 The only guys that dropped out when I went through in '91 were marshmellow loving, lazy soda suckers. A lot of people had kids (usually more than two) or were just out of high school. Only a couple that didn't fit that mold.

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2008-07-06 22:25|| 2008-07-06 22:25|| Front Page Top

#6 Practically speaking, for married with children entering the Corps, they might consider a two-tier enlistment, not as Marines, but as Marine Support Personnel. Semi-uniform rear area types that are in better condition that GS types who work as desk job contractors.

The idea is that MCSPs work jobs that will free up Marines to go forward, yet are not as bad as civilian blobs, and do things The Marine Way. In turn, this would give the Corps the ability to create a "surge from inside", without harming the non-combat support roles in the rear.

During normal circumstances, a lot of Marines are occupied in the rear area, keeping the machine working. But when push comes to shove, they can grab field gear and go directly to the front. MCSPs would be useful in normal times, but especially good during combat.

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-07-06 23:21|| 2008-07-06 23:21|| Front Page Top

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