I'll give you another kick in the groin - Adm Mullen, Chairman of the JCS, is already talking about cutting active duty pay and benefits to meet the administration's budget targets for 2023. He's saying it would be a mistake to cut back on hardware or any of the gold-plated weapons programs, that the better choice is to cut pay and benefits.
Let's see, he's an O-8 to O-10 with 40 years service, and probably already has a cushy job lined up with a defense contractor when he retires in the near future - he sure as hell won't be hurting from any pay cuts.
Yeah, still in the middle of two wars, with an all-volunteer force, and you're telling the guys having to fight those wars they need to look forward to pay and benefit cuts? Smooth move Cochise, I'm sure THAT will help reenlistment and recruitment big time.
And I guess someone forgot to tell the Adm that all that expensive hardware is nothing but JUNK if you can't keep trained experienced PEOPLE to operate it.