Quote:
Originally Posted by GatorFarmer
Those are the REMF (google it) officers. Most people aren't officers, and even many officers don't have the cushy jobs. Anyone in a combat arms position who is enlisted is going to be essentially broken after their 20 years. Enlisted folks spend a fair amount of time doing hard physical labor.
I know one guy who's only a Lance Corporal in the Marines. His knees are already shot and he's looking at having to have surgery on a leg as a result of wear and tear on his body from deployments. All he knows how to do is to be an armorer and how to fight. What's he got waiting for him when he gets out?
Guys who did their time in duties far to the rear, contracting, and other such things can get lucrative defense jobs sure. But they are the minority.
My wife plans to retire at 20 years. She's already getting to be in rough shape thanks to the wear and tear of Navy life, which isn't even as bad as many jobs in the Marines or Army. What she has to look forward to is an entirely inadequate pittance of a 20 year pension and a lifetime of physical limitations as a result of service.
|
I don't take offense too often, but I will at your use of "REMF" this time. The term "REMF" was meant to be, and still is, a derisive term and I think you used it intentionally that way.
I don't know why you think that a combat support or combat service support branch is no less in harm's way than an infantry colonel sitting in a headquarters. I'm sure this is based on your own extensive military experience, however I can tell you from personal experience as an Ordnance officer who's been shot at and had fellow combat service support soldiers killed by hostile fire, that your MOS has absolutely nothing to do with the enemy who snipes at you or fires an RPG at your vehicle or detonates an EID. He could care less whether you were an infantry officer or a doctor. All he cares about is the flag on your right shoulder.
And as far as only the contracting types getting defense jobs, you obviously don't understand what Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, CSC, and the others want when they hire us. It's not because some guy understands the FAR; they're a dime a dozen and I can hire a college kid to learn that. The defense contractors want the domain knowledge, experience, and understanding of how the military works so they can use that expertise in developing the systems they bid on and build. You can't teach an entry-level systems engineer the nuances of the Army logistics system, for example, and how it's really used in the field without having guys with the experience who've "been there, done that" and understand how it's used in real life. You can't teach a college kid how to make improvements on a system that he's never used in the field or at sea. That's what defense contractors pay for. I, for one, make it a point to seek out the retired NCOs and warrant officers for exactly those reasons. I just came off a contract where, other than the IPT Lead and a few other guys who had been pilots, all the technical leads were retired or former NCOs. If you take a drive down Garrisonville Road you'll see all the defense contractors who, for the most part, are hiring retired NCOs and officers for their experience with the USMC and Army because they have combat experience and understand how their customer (the Army, Marines Air Force and Navy) work.