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Wow! A scathing report via a survey of 2,300 active-duty troops - from Military Times, no less - indicates the nation is failing its troops and veterans. This is a must read!
1. Morale indicators are declining in nearly every aspect of military life: lower overall job satisfaction, diminished respect for their superiors, and a declining interest in re-enlistment now compared to just five years ago.
2. Civilian support is subsiding as bonuses, pay raises and combat incentives are all fading away. Troops anticipate that it will get worse, not better.
3. Disappointment with the healthcare system - which is a HUGE perk to joining the military - continues to surge, with a majority saying they'd rather receive care at privately run facilities.
RallyPoint team, does this survey accurately portray the perspective of our active duty force?
http://www.militarytimes.com/longform/military/2014/12/07/americas-military-a-force-adrift/18596571/
1. Morale indicators are declining in nearly every aspect of military life: lower overall job satisfaction, diminished respect for their superiors, and a declining interest in re-enlistment now compared to just five years ago.
2. Civilian support is subsiding as bonuses, pay raises and combat incentives are all fading away. Troops anticipate that it will get worse, not better.
3. Disappointment with the healthcare system - which is a HUGE perk to joining the military - continues to surge, with a majority saying they'd rather receive care at privately run facilities.
RallyPoint team, does this survey accurately portray the perspective of our active duty force?
http://www.militarytimes.com/longform/military/2014/12/07/americas-military-a-force-adrift/18596571/
Posted in these groups: 
Morale
Morale
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 21
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"We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful.
We have done so much, for so long, with so little, that we can now do anything with nothing."
-Anonymous
We have done so much, for so long, with so little, that we can now do anything with nothing."
-Anonymous
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Capt Richard I P.
Sgt Matthew Johnson there's lots of quotes out there with bad sourcing that people will tell you were said by one famous person or another to make them more powerful. My most disappointing orphaned quote was by Archilocus: "In combat we do not rise to the level of our expectations, but fall to the level of our training." No good sourcing for that one, but it is still a very pithy and true quote. If you're interested in tagging someone by name add an "@" tag before typing their name, before I learned how I would type their full name also like you did above. It gives you extra 'points' and more importantly sends the person you tagged a notification so you can call peoples' attention to posts you want them to read.
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Capt Richard I P.
SP5 Jeffrey Hurd that was one of the attributions. Citations point to a specific source document or verifying observers, and appear to be lacking for this quote-for both of its attributions- (hence its attribution to multiple people.)
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Begin rant:
1. I feel everyone will always think they deserve to be paid more. Look at the fast food workers asking for $15 an hour for an entry level job that isn't designed to support a family. I do think Soldiers feel under appreciated, but when you have been at war for 13 years, our economy "crashed", and Congress can't make a decision about anything so we end up with funding cuts in areas that were only supposed to be a threat and never happen, it makes sense the rest of the country doesn't want to stand behind the troops anymore.
2. What do we have to show for our 13 years at war? We are back in Iraq, areas of Afghanistan have been retaken by terrorist, and the country in woefully in debt.
3. Civilians and politicians don't understand the physical and mental effects of being at war for so long, so veterans aren't being cared for as they should.
4. Being at war for so long has allowed people to exploit the system (military contractors, local businesses feeding off high intrest rage loans for service members, stolen valor, etc.)
With all of this going on everyone seems to have forgotten about Joane down range with a family back home, Joe back home waking up from nightmares, and new guy trying to jump into training for a mission without equipment to train on that he will be required to use down range.
I believe we have created a society of "Me". It is what can you and the country do for me, not what can I do for my country. Right now, Americans want to focus on supporting their families, not families in a foreign country.
Rant complete
1. I feel everyone will always think they deserve to be paid more. Look at the fast food workers asking for $15 an hour for an entry level job that isn't designed to support a family. I do think Soldiers feel under appreciated, but when you have been at war for 13 years, our economy "crashed", and Congress can't make a decision about anything so we end up with funding cuts in areas that were only supposed to be a threat and never happen, it makes sense the rest of the country doesn't want to stand behind the troops anymore.
2. What do we have to show for our 13 years at war? We are back in Iraq, areas of Afghanistan have been retaken by terrorist, and the country in woefully in debt.
3. Civilians and politicians don't understand the physical and mental effects of being at war for so long, so veterans aren't being cared for as they should.
4. Being at war for so long has allowed people to exploit the system (military contractors, local businesses feeding off high intrest rage loans for service members, stolen valor, etc.)
With all of this going on everyone seems to have forgotten about Joane down range with a family back home, Joe back home waking up from nightmares, and new guy trying to jump into training for a mission without equipment to train on that he will be required to use down range.
I believe we have created a society of "Me". It is what can you and the country do for me, not what can I do for my country. Right now, Americans want to focus on supporting their families, not families in a foreign country.
Rant complete
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Underpaid? Please. Some of you haven't been around long enough to remember the lean years in the 90's, much less the late 70's, but pay has skyrocketed in the 2000's as lawmakers tripped all over themselves to show how patriotic they were by voting for bigger pay raises than the pentagon wanted. Now the pendulum is swinging the other way. I do remember. We have been here before.
More troubling is the austerity in training budgets. Our force will degrade rapidly if we can't get bullets or conduct exercises.
Underappreciated? I don't think so. You can't walk around anywhere in uniform for over a decade without people going out of their way to thank you for your service. It is a good thing, if perhaps a bit overdone.
Troops have gotten used to be able to have basically all the money they wanted to buy whiz-bangs not on their unit MTOE, train to the limits of their commander's imagination and ability to forecast, and a mission (and with it the focus) that endless operational deployments provide. It is no longer going to be the case (mercifully), but I don't think we're going to be out of a job.
Now is a time for NCOs to roll up their sleeves and execute some Sergeant's time training. It costs next to nothing, and is plenty effective at making Joe better and keeping them engaged. If they want to bellyache, they will do as they always have. But I refuse to let changing conditions dictate what I do, nor use sequestration et al as an excuse to not do my job.
More troubling is the austerity in training budgets. Our force will degrade rapidly if we can't get bullets or conduct exercises.
Underappreciated? I don't think so. You can't walk around anywhere in uniform for over a decade without people going out of their way to thank you for your service. It is a good thing, if perhaps a bit overdone.
Troops have gotten used to be able to have basically all the money they wanted to buy whiz-bangs not on their unit MTOE, train to the limits of their commander's imagination and ability to forecast, and a mission (and with it the focus) that endless operational deployments provide. It is no longer going to be the case (mercifully), but I don't think we're going to be out of a job.
Now is a time for NCOs to roll up their sleeves and execute some Sergeant's time training. It costs next to nothing, and is plenty effective at making Joe better and keeping them engaged. If they want to bellyache, they will do as they always have. But I refuse to let changing conditions dictate what I do, nor use sequestration et al as an excuse to not do my job.
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