The price of freedom is minimum wage

Let us think, for a second, about a nation without a military-a nation unprotected.

Let us dive into our imaginations, just for a moment, and try to imagine a nation with no defense against foreign and domestic enemies.

Now follow me on thid journey, where our nation, our America, our country, has no army, no Navy, no Airforce and no United States Marines.

Our way of life would be under constant siege. We would be a battleground for anyone who wanted to invade our hard-earned countryside.

Our streets would be littered with the dead; their blood would lie in puddles beside them.

Death and destruction would be a new familiarity. We would not know the meaning of peace and freedom because we would have none.

Our lives would be blistered with a pain for loss, which we, spoiled Americans, only see about on our TVs or read about on the front page or our papers.

Hopefully, we can all agree on the importance of our great military. So I have to ask, with the highest of curiosities, why, in God’s great nation, does our military make less money than a common laborer?

My point here, folks, is not to take away from the importance of other jobs, but to merely object to the low, low wages, in my opinion, of one of the most important jobs in our nation, the military.

For the sake of personal experience, I will speak mostly about the reserve pay, as I just ended six years and one deployment in the United States Marine Reserves.

For my last drill period, which was Sept. 17-20, 2009, after being enlisted for six years, I made a measly $8.55 an hour.

I had earned the rank of corporal and had the privilege of operating a fire team and then a squad of Marines, as both roles were leadership positions.

And yet, after six years, I had earned my way to a leadership position that paid just $8.55 an hour.

The way the military pay works is based off of time enlisted plus your rank. We are not paid by the hour or by the job, (as I was a rifleman in the infantry and made the same amount of a Marine with the same rank and the same amount of time enlisted, who had the job of doing paperwork in an air-conditioned office).

With no real set hours of work for the day (or if there is a limit, it was rarely known or upheld), we could work all day and through the night, making the same amount of money as if we had only worked eight hours a day.

For example, my last drill in Sept. was a “seven driller,” when a single drill is defined as four or more hours of work.

Our “seven driller” lasted from Thursday the 17th at noon, until Sunday the 20th at or around 4:30 p.m. That’s roughly 76 hours. Now, I factor in the six hours of sleep we got each night and I’m left with 58 hours of work. Everyone still with me?

Now, 58 hours is what we worked in just over three days.

I made the same amount of money working 58 hours, as I would have made working any amount less than or greater than that because we are paid based on how long we’ve been enlisted and what our current rank is.

“Some nights I have to be up for an hour or so for “fire watch,” which is where we walk around the area and make sure everyone is safe and protected,” said Lance Corporal Justin Miller. “Sleep is something I worry about when I get back home.”

Now, some people may say that we get other benefits that make up for that lack of money, and you’re right-to some extent, we do.

After my deployment to Iraq, I was able to receive the REAP (reserve education assistance program) and now I make $530 a month while I’m in school.

That added bonus is good, but if I didn’t go to school then I wouldn’t be using it. The GI BILL can pass money along to family, but again, it’s a bonus that doesn’t directly help the service member unless he uses it himself.

“Yeah, I get the GI BILL,” said Lance Corporal Doug Moore. “It helps out, but not nearly enough, in my opinion.”

There’s a myth that we have our food, medical care and housing paid for. Parts of this are correct, but it’s not so simple.

I’ve had a drill period in the past where I didn’t even get paid because they took that money to pay for the MRE’S (meal ready to eat, field chow) that we ate on our previous two-three week annual training period.
I pay into my medical care and I also pay into a life insurance, which is a whole separate issue in itself.

The Government will pay our families $400,000 if we are killed, (there are stipulations, of course) but the fact is, with being deployed to a harsh combat zone for 10 months and making just around $20,000, I am apparently worth more to the government dead than I am alive.

With the most common rank in the military being a Lance Corporal, I calculated how much an hour they would have made after being in the marines for two years, compared to the same “seven driller” and they would have made $7.05 an hour.

That is below minimum wage, folks.

That’s what they are paid to do, one of the most important jobs in the country, protecting our way of life. And we thought our nine to five was rough.