I am very sorry to be the one to tell you this, but the average time in service for E-7 is 12 years. |
I'm a military spouse. The housing allowance helps us, so I'm not sure what your point is. |
I'm OP, I'm a military spouse, and I was simply curious about the wealthy families we've run across. |
Yes they are. There are military schools that give scholarships to military children. Then they also get college free. |
Don't know what you mean. DC is full of military people. It's a hub. |
Some wealthy families have a tradition of at least one per generation choosing military service. Some wealthy families have daughters who marry military officers. Either way, they got the Benjamins. |
I think the PP means this forum is not generally military friendly. |
My spouse and I both got out at 8 (dual military, both service academy graduates). The majority of our former peers that we know that are staying in until retirement are…very average. Many of them were open about staying in until retirement simply to get retirement pay. Nice people, but very average in intellect, skill, and ambition. This label is true for both the ROTC graduates and the service academy graduates that we know; only OCS and prior service officers defy this trend in my experience. They definitely don’t have many options for stable pay and benefits at the level that they have in the military, although laughably more than a few have commented that they could have been “CEO level” if they had gotten out pre or post company command. Their wives are also to this day, even post GWOT era, the most into the “I am a military spouse! Thank me and my family! We serve too!” culture, way more than the enlisted wives that I knew. There are of course exceptions to every generalization. A small minority are exceptional. On the enlisted side, it was actually inverse in my observations. My best NCOs and soldiers overwhelmingly stay until retirement. They also did more combat deployments than officers, often deploying every other year for years until they became drill instructors and spent even less time with their families before going back to the deployment cycle. They and their families did this on low pay and in moldy, section 8 quality housing. But similarly I think there were financial considerations in the decision to stay in until retirement for them too. It was a very hard life for both the service member and their family, I’m not sure feelings of obligation towards fellow service members or an abstract patriotism without a financial incentive could sustain the typical person through 20 years of that level of sacrifice. |
Where are all these military children getting free college? IF the parent has GI Bill benefits available and IF they transfer these to their child, they could have the benefit. But that assumes a few things. One, that they did not use the benefit themselves first. Two, that they want to incur the additional 6 year service obligation the transfer requires. Lastly, the benefit is capped and would really only cover a 4 year school for one child. If military kids are widely getting college for free in other ways, please enlighten me. I’d love to know for the future! |
You get more of them in DC area because they are more likely to be Academy grads who end up doing a tour in this area. Academy grads are more likely to come from a wealthy family or be married to a spouse who is independently wealthy. |
Please name these schools. You are truly clueless. |
The benefit is capped, can be split and gets any kid using it instate tuition https://www.va.gov/resources/in-state-tuition-rates-under-the-veterans-choice-act/ |
+1. Please name these mythical military schools. My spouse served the additional 6 years required in order to be able to transfer Post 9/12 GI Bill benefits to our two children. Each child has 18 months of college funded by the GI Bill. The other 2 years we paid from 529 accounts and personal savings. |
|
The Post 9/11 GI Bill benefit is not a scholarship. The service member had to fulfill extended service obligation. In my spouse’s case, that included living in a safe house in Kabul, Afghanistan, with fighting and explosions regularly occurring around him. So….it wasn’t exactly a piece of cake for some people. |