Urk_VN
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Pentagon: It costs $850,000 a year per soldier in Afghanistan
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http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/28/one-soldier-one-year-850000-and-rising/?hpt=hp_t3
And the sad part:
CNN Article posted:
One thing is clear, the soldier impacts only a small percentage of that cost. A typical army sergeant with four years service makes a base pay of less than $30,000 a year.
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Abaddon_Ambrosius
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Pentagon: It costs $850,000 a year per soldier in Afghanistan
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That low salary for a buck sergeant is lame. It should be at least 45k or so IMO.
PS -- that's BASE pay. Doesn't include housing allowance, benefits, etc.
The concept however isn't new under the sun. The army spends a LOT in supporting its troops and in logistics to put you there, supply you, keep you there. Wherever "there" is. There's a reason they call you Government Issue. The Government is spending a LOT of money to put you somewhere to do... something. That's why, when the orders come down, you need to do that "something."
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Aerlinthian
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Pentagon: It costs $850,000 a year per soldier in Afghanistan
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I wonder what the cost per year per politician is.
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illmyrin
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Aerlinthian posted:
I wonder what the cost per year per politician is.
I like to measure that in grains of sand.
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Eager_Igraine
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Pentagon: It costs $850,000 a year per soldier in Afghanistan
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Urk_VN posted:
CNN Article posted:
One thing is clear, the soldier impacts only a small percentage of that cost. A typical army sergeant with four years service makes a base pay of less than $30,000 a year.
iirc my base pay in 1999 was about 18k, so 1k a year almost every year.
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Moe_Nox
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Pentagon: It costs $850,000 a year per soldier in Afghanistan
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I remember a thread a few months ago when someone was saying that soldiers pay should be cut because they were making too much.
I wish I could remember who it was because that's the kind of uninformed stupid that needs to be remembered and mentally evaluated.
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Ptilk
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Pentagon: It costs $850,000 a year per soldier in Afghanistan
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I made 539 dollars a month when I enlisted.
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Ashmaele
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Pentagon: It costs $850,000 a year per soldier in Afghanistan
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Ptilk posted:
I made 539 dollars a month when I enlisted.
$798 here. Most of my spending during basic was on haircuts ($4.25 each back then). I had like $1200 when I graduated from basic
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Elocism
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marines cant live without air conditioning
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Yukishiro1
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We hire truck drivers and send them to afghanistan and pay the contractor 150k a year per truck driver for it, about 100k of which goes to the truck driver.
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Eager_Igraine
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Pentagon: It costs $850,000 a year per soldier in Afghanistan
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Yukishiro1 posted:
We hire truck drivers and send them to afghanistan and pay the contractor 150k a year per truck driver for it, about 100k of which goes to the truck driver.
The troop draw downs that have been going on since the 80s were never about cutting costs, though they were advertised as such. It has always been about creating more private sector contracts at incredible expense to tax payers.
The easy evidence is in cost changes in shipping (as per your comment), food service & engineering / maintenance service, especially in forward areas.
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illmyrin
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The military of our nation has become a profit source for the corporations that have grown up around it. It leaks into our politics. It leaks into our water supply. It's the root of so many problems we all know about but it uses the US military as a shield and terrorism as a weapon against any rational reaction against it's parasitic ways.
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Modeeb
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$850k a year is just insane
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feelips
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I took home $360 per month when I joined. Now I take home over $3,000 per month after taxes.
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Thugoneous
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Note any lifer service member would love if they rolled all his allowances into his base pay. Sure we would pay taxes but the retirement check would be a lot more.
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Walker_ID
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Pentagon: It costs $850,000 a year per soldier in Afghanistan
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Abaddon_Ambrosius posted:
That low salary for a buck sergeant is lame. It should be at least 45k or so IMO.
PS -- that's BASE pay. Doesn't include housing allowance, benefits, etc.
The concept however isn't new under the sun. The army spends a LOT in supporting its troops and in logistics to put you there, supply you, keep you there. Wherever "there" is. There's a reason they call you Government Issue. The Government is spending a LOT of money to put you somewhere to do... something. That's why, when the orders come down, you need to do that "something."
unless ur married u aren't getting housing allowance or food allowance....they will probably receive imminent danger/combat pay but that is hardly anything....altho i do believe anything they earn in the middle east is tax free....and the "benefits" are a joke aside from the leave if ur allowed to actually take it...
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Thugoneous
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Pentagon: It costs $850,000 a year per soldier in Afghanistan
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Walker_ID posted:
unless ur married u aren't getting housing allowance or food allowance....they will probably receive imminent danger/combat pay but that is hardly anything....altho i do believe anything they earn in the middle east is tax free....and the "benefits" are a joke aside from the leave if ur allowed to actually take it...
There's single house allowance. in the Navy they reserve it for E5 and above and E4's over 4 years, there are other exceptions too. Everything called an "Allowance" in the military pay system isn't taxed.
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sweeny_comodore
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Pentagon: It costs $850,000 a year per soldier in Afghanistan
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Moe_Nox posted:
I remember a thread a few months ago when someone was saying that soldiers pay should be cut because they were making too much.
I wish I could remember who it was because that's the kind of uninformed stupid that needs to be remembered and mentally evaluated.
my neighbor is e-7? (highest grade enlisted)
he makes 60k+ and we pay for his house on top of that.
hes being shipped out on a sub in june i think.
hes due to retire in 10 years.
hes a welder.
soon to be a cook.
for 60k/yr.
hes flat out told me before that theres no way he could afford to live the way he does on civilian pay in the same field.
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Walker_ID
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Thugoneous posted:
Walker_ID posted:
unless ur married u aren't getting housing allowance or food allowance....they will probably receive imminent danger/combat pay but that is hardly anything....altho i do believe anything they earn in the middle east is tax free....and the "benefits" are a joke aside from the leave if ur allowed to actually take it...
There's single house allowance. in the Navy they reserve it for E5 and above and E4's over 4 years, there are other exceptions too. Everything called an "Allowance" in the military pay system isn't taxed.
of course there is single bah/bas .....but u don't collect that when you are deployed as a single person when your housing/food is supplied....and as far as being tax free in the ME i wasn't talking about just allowance...i was referring to everything including base pay and bonuses.
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_Enkidu_
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Well, that's not because the soldiers cost a lot, it's because the weapons cost a lot. Basic artillery rounds run about $10k a pop and an MLRS rocket is about a quarter mil. A combat fire mission can easily top a few million by the time the cease fire call comes in.
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Thugoneous
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sweeny_comodore posted:
my neighbor is e-7? (highest grade enlisted)
he makes 60k+ and we pay for his house on top of that.
hes being shipped out on a sub in june i think.
hes due to retire in 10 years.
hes a welder.
soon to be a cook.
for 60k/yr.
hes flat out told me before that theres no way he could afford to live the way he does on civilian pay in the same field.
E9 Highest grade. http://www.dfas.mil/dms/dfas/militarymembers/pdf/MilPayTable2012.pdf
His job as a Master Chief would be to run a department which depending on the sub be around 15-20 people. He should be busy dealing with officers and managing people and if he's cooking he's not doing his job. If he's a Master Chief he's been in 18-20 yearsish. Also I don't think they have E9 Cooks onboard subs, at least I haven't seen it from the manning I've looked at. Changing jobs in the Navy is a big deal, they generally don't like to do it past E5 because they don't want a supervisor who doesn't know wtf his job is.
His housing allowance can be found here: http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/site/bahCalc.cfm
I'll let you figure out how much basic allowance for sustenance is and you'll be able to ballpark exactly how much he makes.
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Thugoneous
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Pentagon: It costs $850,000 a year per soldier in Afghanistan
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Walker_ID posted:
of course there is single bah/bas .....but u don't collect that when you are deployed as a single person when your housing/food is supplied....and as far as being tax free in the ME i wasn't talking about just allowance...i was referring to everything including base pay and bonuses.
Yes you can, if you maintain the residence. If you buy a home on single BAH and are paying your mortgage with your stuff your BAH isn't going to stop.
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Walker_ID
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Thugoneous posted:
Walker_ID posted:
of course there is single bah/bas .....but u don't collect that when you are deployed as a single person when your housing/food is supplied....and as far as being tax free in the ME i wasn't talking about just allowance...i was referring to everything including base pay and bonuses.
Yes you can, if you maintain the residence. If you buy a home on single BAH and are paying your mortgage with your stuff your BAH isn't going to stop.
i havent had to deal with this issue personally as the times when i was deployed was when i was single living in the barracks....but i know there is a clause built into leases that allow you to break your lease if you are called away for various reasons like deployment or eas(i did use it for my eas)
or perhaps it was covered under a different allowance like cola or family separation? i don't remember it was too long ago
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Eager_Igraine
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Pentagon: It costs $850,000 a year per soldier in Afghanistan
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sweeny_comodore posted:
my neighbor is e-7? (highest grade enlisted)
he makes 60k+ and we pay for his house on top of that.
hes being shipped out on a sub in june i think.
hes due to retire in 10 years.
hes a welder.
soon to be a cook.
for 60k/yr.
hes flat out told me before that theres no way he could afford to live the way he does on civilian pay in the same field.
So your neighbor the e-9 (looks like e-7 tops out at roughly $50.5k) is making 60k a year? Looks like he has at least sixteen years in service. Are you really bent out of shape about someone who has been working in a career field for sixteen years and they're (finally) making $60k? Really?
Al quick look at salary.com suggests the median income for a welder III (at least four years experience) in $46k.
as usual, you are a maroon.
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sweeny_comodore
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Pentagon: It costs $850,000 a year per soldier in Afghanistan
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Thugoneous posted:
sweeny_comodore posted:
my neighbor is e-7? (highest grade enlisted)
he makes 60k+ and we pay for his house on top of that.
hes being shipped out on a sub in june i think.
hes due to retire in 10 years.
hes a welder.
soon to be a cook.
for 60k/yr.
hes flat out told me before that theres no way he could afford to live the way he does on civilian pay in the same field.
E9 Highest grade. http://www.dfas.mil/dms/dfas/militarymembers/pdf/MilPayTable2012.pdf
His job as a Master Chief would be to run a department which depending on the sub be around 15-20 people. He should be busy dealing with officers and managing people and if he's cooking he's not doing his job. If he's a Master Chief he's been in 18-20 yearsish. Also I don't think they have E9 Cooks onboard subs, at least I haven't seen it from the manning I've looked at. Changing jobs in the Navy is a big deal, they generally don't like to do it past E5 because they don't want a supervisor who doesn't know wtf his job is.
His housing allowance can be found here: http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/site/bahCalc.cfm
I'll let you figure out how much basic allowance for sustenance is and you'll be able to ballpark exactly how much he makes.
e-6
is that chart monthly or per pay period?
hes changing jobs because this is the only way they let him stay in after the downsizing this year.
his choice was gtfo or go cook on a sub
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Thugoneous
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Per month. E6 CSs are undermanned.
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Groucho48
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That's kind of a misleading number.
Harrison said the center arrives at its figure by taking "the amount of money spent in Afghanistan for a year and dividing it up by the number of soldiers."
He believes Hale's estimate is lower because the Pentagon removes some costs, like construction, from the Afghanistan spending and divides that lower number by the number of troops.
Hale's estimate is the 850,000 one.
Now, I'm sure the actual cost is pretty high, but, this is a very sloppy way of figuring it out.
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eodoll
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Yukishiro1 posted:
We hire truck drivers and send them to afghanistan and pay the contractor 150k a year per truck driver for it, about 100k of which goes to the truck driver.
I know a couple guys that took jobs as translators, they were being paid between 160k and 180k. Which means the other half goes to the company that sourced them, so the govt is prob paying 400k per translator.
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paulg_68
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This sort of number is always deceiving. If we didn't have soldiers in Afghanistan, would we reduce the size of our military? Probably not. We'd just station them somewhere else where they would be using up enormous amounts of resources anyways. Same goes for a lot of the equipment that they are using there. We buy our soldiers new equipment all the time regardless of whether they are in combat. Granted we probably upgrade them more often when they're in combat compared to peace time, but some portion of the equipment cost isn't specific to Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is super expensive, but $850k/soldier is not the real number.
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smellymotor
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the amount of support that deployed american servicemen get is far far greater than what any other country gets. The guys i know that have been to Iraq/Afganistan couldnt beleive how sweet the americans had it compared to them.
I think our soldiers are paid much more though, especially on deployment
anyone else find it a little worrying that we have weapons that cost $50K just to fire it? doesnt seem like a sustainable way of fighting a war to me
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Thugoneous
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It is if you only need to fire it once.
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