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August 23, 2005

What News?

Remember last spring, when the Army (alone among the armed services) fell short of its recruiting goals?

Today, Ralph Peters in the NYPost notes that news of the military's demise was greatly exaggerated:

Now, as the fiscal year nears an end, the Army's numbers look great. Especially in combat units and Iraq, soldiers are re-enlisting at record levels. And you don't hear a whisper about it from the "mainstream media." For all the left's understandable concern to reinforce the message that it "supports the troops", their hard-left leadership - as we noted last week - holds the military's rank and file in utter contempt (and reserves worse for its generals, whom Hollywood has long caricatured as bloodthirsty amoral closeted fascists, except when the likes of Anthony Zinni and Hugh Shelton support their talking points).

And, Peters notes, you can expect no better this time:

Of course, we'll hear stammering about an "army of mercenaries"— naive, uneducated kids lured by the promise of big retention bonuses. That's another lie told by the elite to excuse themselves from serving our country in uniform.

The young men and women who have been through the crucible of combat — often on repeated deployments — are hardly naive.

And, notes Peters, they are re-enlisting in immense numbers, in proportion to their units' time in combat.
Their education levels exceed the American average. And, as of Aug. 2, the Army had spent a 2005 total of only $347 million on Selective Re-enlistment Bonuses — that's weekend walking-around money for America's Fortune 500 CEOs.

Big bucks for risking your life? Not hardly. Only 60 percent of soldiers get any re-enlistment bonus. For the overwhelming number whose skills merit an extra incentive, bonuses runs between $6,000 and $12,400 per year of contracted service — per year of facing death, wounds, separation from family and uncertainty as to whether you'll ever see that family again.

A total of 643 soldiers with very special capabilities, from special operators to doctors, got an average payment of $57,000 — a fraction of what the private sector offers them for doing the same jobs at far less risk.

No, they don't do it for the money.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by Mitch at August 23, 2005 12:32 PM | TrackBack
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