:icon_roll
I would comment further, but your last post sums up my comments:
usmarinemike said:
Sage advice, my friend, sage advice.
-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
Flight Pay... WTF?
- Thread starter MAKE VAPES
- Start date
:icon_roll
I would comment further, but your last post sums up my comments:
Sage advice, my friend, sage advice.
Money, schmoney ... you can always get more money.
I never knew anyone who "got in" because of $$$ and I never knew anyone who "got out" solely because of $$$ ....
I guess you guys never saw these:
I never knew anyone who "got in" because of $$$ and I never knew anyone who "got out" solely because of $$$ ....
I guess you guys never saw these:
A-4's, that dude on the right looks like he is looking for some $ with his hand out and all.... provided the alternative between $650, $1171 or a nice warm hand shake plus a glass of milk, which is he reaching for?
Naaaaaaaaa ... it's an extended hand offered to help a shipmate come aboard ... but then you knew that anyway ...
The we I speak of is Marine 2ndLt's after TBS. Being a prior doesn't mean all that much in the grand scheme. I'm one of the last to exude my priorness unless someone is treating me with total kid gloves or brings it up without my prompt.
Let me make it clear here that I have no intentions of digging on Navy O-1s or how the Navy does business (although I do find many aspects quite peculiar). What I am saying is that TBS is more about leadership than it is about all the yut stuff the Navy guys like to talk about. In fact, it is quite an awesome experience when you cut out all the BS. That's an experience that the other studs don't have. Not that they aren't good men, future combat pilots, and future CNOs and all that good stuff, just that they haven't been fully steeped in the institution yet. I could start a whole new thread about the differences, and the goods and bads, and how so many people on this board say that the Navy doesnt value real leadership the way it values the check in the box leadership and why, but that's not the point.
I could say any number of things at this point, but if I go any further I'll get a whole dump truck of STFU dumped on me. I'm going to have to experience flight school and its people before I can pass off my opinions as credible.
Now about that flight pay...
Well, I think you drank the Kool-Aid on that one. I'm glad I get the honor of going through flight school with these military professionals perhaps I can join their ranks one day.
Drinking the Kool-Aid is the only out you have around here. It's the only drug besides sleep and booze that makes all the BS go away. I hate hangovers and there arent nearly enough opportunities to sleep so I did what I had to do. Mustache and all. And I'll probably regret that sweet tat after graduation.
In case you weren't aware of how you are coming off.
Hmmm....I don't actually remember complaining about military pay (for me) not being adequate.
The Marine "fix" may be completely illegal. I don't really know enough about it, but it is out there in the MARADMINS (or some other yut yut message) what the rates were adjusted to. I can't speak inteligently on that topic so I won't try--thus breaking a long standing internet tradition of pontificating about something with no information...haha.
I'm surprised about Flash not seeing people coming back with the huge per diem checks in the P-3 arena. I have met some (seen the toys, in fact) in my short time on Whidbey. Could be the exception to the rule, I don't know. The Gallup poll is still on the back-burner. In that same vein I knew a few Captains at TBS who were in Jordan living the 4-star life thanks to their per diem, so it isn't just the P-3 types.
Any P-3 guys who can verify that the swet per diem is still alive and well in your land? I *heard* they were working on making it not such a good deal because of the frequent deployments. Again, need someone who knows more than me about it. I'm really just asking because I am curious.
If you were to deploy to a place with high per diem for the entire six months, say, Bahrain, you'd be pulling in $124/day, for 180 days that'd be $22,320. That's a lot of green - but you're going to spend a lot of money there. I've never been there (currently P-3s don't deploy to Bahrain), so I'm not sure how little you can squeek by on - but i'm sure if you ate raman ever day you could save a lot of money. People do this, and they save a lot of money.
Usually though, you spend a fair chunk of your per diem. Usually the per diem is directly related to how much food costs in the area. Sometimes you lose money. I spent nearly two months in a place where the per diem was $45/day but the breakfast buffet alone was $15 and hotel laundry (our only option) was hidiously expensive. Usually there was little money left over for beer (but we'd make it stretch).
No doubt, P-3 per diem is a good deal compared to paying for meals on the boat. You couldn't survive on BAS at most of our det sites because the OPTEMPO often precludes you from getting your meals at the galley. When you go to mil bases you usually get partial per diem as well, so you don't make as much.
Yeah, yeah, yeah ... but here's the deal breaker:
When the P-3 guys would show up in CUBI at the O'Club & pool w/ their "very nice & friendly" wives ('course any "round-eye" -- and ESPECIALLY a BLOND -- female looks "very nice & friendly" after 5-7 months on cruise) ... and flaunt them in our faces .... we forgot about the per diem .... :censored_
BUT from the "what goes around/comes around department":
.... while the P-3 boys were somewhere in the So. Pacific -- or worse in those days -- Diego Garcia w/it's crushed coral runways and Quonset Hut facilities -- the P-3 wives started showing up in Hong Kong when the ship/AirWing pulled into port for a week.
Per diem??? WHAT per diem ... ???
Who cares about per diem !!! They can keep their per diem ... we'll take their wives ... 
I know that coming from a MID it probably means even less than coming from an SNA, but in the interest of being objective and with regards to the BAS issue:
It would seem to me that pointing out any disparity between P-3 and Tailhook should serve only to illustrate that some folks are having to pay for their meals on deployment and others arent. The argument shouldn't be whether or not to 'take away' the P-3 per deim, which is what it seems that this disscussion was leaning towards. In my opinion, which Im sure means little, the focus should focus on changing the situation such that olks on the boat didnt have to pay for meals. Pointing out this disparity to a congressman on the House Armed Services Comittee (who would be the one to bring it up to, not only your personal congressman unless they are one and the same), would be a good way to get the BAS raised.
It might be easier than one thinks in this enviornment. Dems are likely to want to try and gain support in the next two years among military, because they generally dont have it, and raising pay is a good way to do that. Buying new weapons makes a few folks happy, but raising pay is a way to get a lot more votes.
As far as the flight pay goes, when discussing the effects of inflation it might be worth while to ask if the 25k a year bonus existed in '87. I dont know, so I am asking, but it would seem that if the bonus did not exist the flight pay would probably work out in the end.
Just some thoughts.
It would seem to me that pointing out any disparity between P-3 and Tailhook should serve only to illustrate that some folks are having to pay for their meals on deployment and others arent. The argument shouldn't be whether or not to 'take away' the P-3 per deim, which is what it seems that this disscussion was leaning towards. In my opinion, which Im sure means little, the focus should focus on changing the situation such that olks on the boat didnt have to pay for meals. Pointing out this disparity to a congressman on the House Armed Services Comittee (who would be the one to bring it up to, not only your personal congressman unless they are one and the same), would be a good way to get the BAS raised.
It might be easier than one thinks in this enviornment. Dems are likely to want to try and gain support in the next two years among military, because they generally dont have it, and raising pay is a good way to do that. Buying new weapons makes a few folks happy, but raising pay is a way to get a lot more votes.
As far as the flight pay goes, when discussing the effects of inflation it might be worth while to ask if the 25k a year bonus existed in '87. I dont know, so I am asking, but it would seem that if the bonus did not exist the flight pay would probably work out in the end.
Just some thoughts.