Overpaid for sure. Looking at pay scales means nothing. BAH + BAS at Fort Benning amounts to $13,600/year ($9,000 for housing @ $750/month and $4,600 for food @ $386/month). Add that to the scale and it makes a huge difference. Basically no bills, except for the BMW, Mustang GT, Mercedes, or Corvette that the 20-yo E2 owns - yes, the barracks my unit uses has about five BMWs, at least three Mustangs, and one each of the others that I have personally seen. Add to this free health care and a $400,000 life insurance policy and the pay is even better. Very few of the enlisted people can do as well on the outside, especially if they only have a GED and/or criminal or drug histories. And there are PLENTY who fit those categories.
Despite what the TV commercials show you, most people in the military spend at least 95% of their time in an office or motor pool doing simple tasks. They are rarely doing intense "Army training." I say this as someone who spent the early years of my career in the infantry including time in Iraq over a dozen years ago when there was an actual war going on. The person working the take out window at McDonalds during the lunch hour is working a helluva lot harder than 95% of the military, and doing it for probably less than half the pay and no benefits.
The military should devise different pay scales based on MOS. People in infantry, armor, cavalry, etc., deserve to be paid better than some POG who spends 20 years just sitting at a desk. These are usually the ones who never shut up about their "deployment" to Iraq or Afghanistan where they did the same thing - sat at a desk for 12 months. It's amazing how many war stories these guys have despite never leaving the FOB. On the other hand, I was on patrols five or six days per week in some really $hitty areas where you didn't dare hit a pothole or it could be the last thing you ever did. And yet, if we had the same rank and time in service, we both were paid equal down to the penny. Until we factor in "separation pay," which I did not get because I was single. The married guys pocketed I believe an extra $250/month on top of hazardous duty pay, etc.
Bottom line is the military is paid far more than we deserve for the amount of work we do, especially in noncombat roles. The thing is, nobody in Congress, whether Democrat or Republican, would dare advocate for a pay cut for our "heroes" in uniform lest they get destroyed by the public who thinks we put our lives at risk every day. Police officers in America are at much greater risk on a daily basis than our military.
