The principal source of a good military is good sense

The principle source of a good military is good sense

Of late, there have been numerous front page headlines in major newspapers such as, The Commercial Appeal, USA Today, New York Times, and even on the CBS and ABC nightly news concerning; "morale in the military."
A study by The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), found that men and women in our armed forces are over worked and under paid, lack the proper resources to effectively carry out their missions, and expressed a deep lack of confidence in their leaders. The study did show that they still have a strong sense of duty and sacrifice.
The study concluded, "America's military is facing a potentially serious rift in the fabric of its culture, with attending damage to future operational effectiveness."
One major point centered around the fact that we have a smaller military, one-third smaller than during the gulf war, and deployment has increased 300 percent in the past ten years.
Another, perhaps more ominous factor, was that two-thirds of those polled in the study of 12,000 individuals expressed a lack of confidence in their leadership and in their personal trust of those leaders.
This, as you may have guessed, is an issue which 'ole Sarge' could not let pass without my two-cents worth of input.
I am shocked and amazed that this even comes as a surprise to our civilian leadership because all of the contributing factors have been in plain view for many years.
When half of the enlisted force structure in the military qualifies for food stamps, this indicates to me that, they are under paid.
When noncommissioned officers (sergeants) have to work second jobs to make ends meet, they are under paid.
When mid level noncommissioned officers and junior officers leave the military in droves, there must be a reason or reasons? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that those reasons are low pay, a booming civilian market, lack of advancement opportunities, broken promises, excessive deployment away from loved ones, inadequate or poor training (yelling bang! Bang! due to a shortage of ammunition or lying in the barracks due to a lack of transportation or fuel), selective advancement, insensitive leaders, and broken retirement commitments, just to mention a very small number.
For fifty years career military personnel were promised they would have free and complete medical care for themselves and their families after they retired. There is no such thing in existence.
A private in the Army can get out and make as much flipping hamburgers as he can lugging an M60 up and down hills all day or jumping out of perfectly good airplanes. A lieutenant can make five times as much in a middle management position in a large corporation. A special forces sergeant can make millions selling his - services!
As a senior leader, before I retired I had a steady stream of young wives come into my office crying about having no food for their children, inability to pay debts, and not seeing their husbands month after month after month. Even my own daughter saw her new husband only 5 months out of two years of marriage.
The problems of our military are very easy to correct, if our civilian leaders really wanted to.
All they have to do is; pay our service members a salary commensurate with their duties, (well above welfare), either increase the size of the military to adequately undertake all the deployment commitments or stop trying to police the entire world, provide a true quality of life for service families, return to free medical services, (like it was for scores of years), train the officers and noncommissioned officers to be true, dedicated leaders instead of opportunists, and most of all, stop breaking every promise that is ever made.
Our men and women in uniform are proud and dedicated. However, pride cannot feed one's children and pay one's debts, duty and sacrifice can and often does shatter or dissolve a happy family.
Just as in any civilian corporation, police or fire department, or educators, if we want the best we've got to pay for it!
(Militaris recte sapre est et principium et fons-The principle source of a good military is good sense! Gaius Julius Caesar, 54 B.C.E.).