How Much Did You Get Paid When You Joined The Military? My Take Home Pay Was $457 a Month as a (Army) Private in 1990?

According to the pay chart, my gross pay was 726.00 per month in '92. Take out taxes and Montgomery GI Bill and I had next to nothing. Good times.

I entered ad an E-1 1060 a month, and 26,000 enlistment bonus with 10,000 after reporting to my permanent duty station and the rest over the next 3 years.

I went in as E-2 got paid 702 a month forget what take home was after taxes.

in 67 i remember $98 a month, every 2 wks $42, enough for a haircut n a slice of lemon meringue pie n a chocolate milkshake. then wait another 2 weeks. this is what gets me. in 68, combat pay was $55, in Desert storm it was $55. i guess going into combat was still a cheap thrill.

Back before JUMPS (shortly after the dinosaurs went extinct) we didn't get an LES. Our pay was calculated on a yellow "pay card" held at disbursing. It was a form peculiar to the Navy Department and identical to what my father had to calculate pay for the ship's company as a Supply Corps officer in 1943-45. We carried them to our next duty station and on leave on my way to RVN I went to an Air Force disbursing office. Fortunately, Dad had showed me how to "work" it. The AF DisbO said, Lieutenant, I have no foggy notion what to do with this thing, but if you can tell me the amount, where to record it and where to record the DSSN (Disbursing Station Symbol Number), I'll pay you whatever you say. But it's your problem if it's a wrong amount." I got paid and when I reported in to my unit in RVN, the DisbO was amazed that an Air Force DisbO had done it right. I didn't bust his bubble. I don't recall the base pay, but BAS was $47.88 (identical to 1945) and BAQ w/dep was $110.10.

...mine wasn't anymore then that in 1985, when I joined as an E-1 Private. It's funny in a strange way, how I've come full circle...I make that every two weeks now...it's been rough.

I enlisted as an E3 in 1984, base pay was $695/month. With a wife and 2 kids, after deductions my taxable income for the year was a negative $500.

It wasn’t about the money , I loved being a soldier , I loved serving , that’s the difference between my generation and todays snowflakes

In 1980 as an E-2 I made 654.00 a month, being married I also got 280.00 a month for separate rations , and I got A variable housing allowance and basic allowance for quarters of 500.00 or so , it wasn’t much , we were broke 2 days after payday. Every month . When I was stationed over seas we didn’t even get overseas pay .

In January 1971 I was making $134 as an E1 but never knew it since I didn't get paid until after boot camp. The number I remember is receiving $65 twice a month as an E2 and then seeing that an E4 made $105. Found out that he had been promoted from E2 to E4 by extending his enlistment for two years. So I decided to do the same thing when I finished training. After getting to my first duty station I was taking home $120 twice a month and sending $100 a month home. Best paying job I had held to that point. Funny thing is that my take home pay, after allotments, rarely varied from $120 twice a month over an almost nine year career.