Email this page to friends About the Author Gene Thomas Gomulka is a retired Navy Chaplain with over 30 years of pastoral and military experience. Having received the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award from the Secretary of the Navy "for literary achievement and inspirational leadership," his goal is to promote better military marriages. To learn more about his recent works, The Survival Guide for Marriage in the Military, and his Marriage and Military Life inventory for dating and married couples, visit the Survival Guide for Marriage in the Military Website. Gene Gomulka Archives Deployment Center Spouse & Family Benefits and Resources Military Opinions Index

Dear Gene-Thomas, My husband is an E-4 and we have two children. The money I make to supplement our income is offset by the $1,600 we pay a month for child care on base. In addition to exceeding our monthly Base Allowance for Housing (BAH) by $300, the high summer temperatures have increased our utility bills, not to mention how increased gas prices have made my husband's commute to base even more expensive. While we have a budget that we follow, I don't know how we are going to make ends meet after having learned that I'm pregnant ...

Jane

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Dear Jane,

Your letter raises an important question in regard to just military compensation. According to a report issued in July by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), military compensation increased by 29 percent since 2000. Their report was similar in many respects to a report issued in February of 2005 by Steven M. Kosiak from the Center of Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in which he wrote, “Attracting and retaining sufficient numbers of personnel, with the right talents, skills, and levels of experience, will require providing competitive compensation packages.”

Both reports noted how, unlike civilian compensation packages, military compensation “is heavily skewed toward non-cash, and especially non-cash deferred, benefits.” According to the reports, non-cash benefits such as medical benefits, base housing and retirement pay, account for more than half of military compensation for the average active duty service member. Unfortunately, these non-cash benefits do not help pay for groceries, child care, utility bills, and mental and dental expenses for family members that exceed TRICARE limits.

One of the reasons that military members are financially challenged and complain is because compensation increases are being eroded by skyrocketing health costs that account for 28 percent of their compensation. Hence, while military compensation may have increased by 29 percent since 2000, health care costs alone increased 69 percent in that time to $23 billion in 2004. As a result of these increases, military quality of life and the ability of families like your own to pay their daily bills has not improved accordingly.

According to the GAO report, the wages your husband earns to support you and your children are supposedly "competitive" with private sector wages, exceeding salaries or wages of 70 percent of Americans of similar age and education. W hen comparing what military personnel make in relation to their civilian counterparts, however, GAO not only failed to compute “overtime” pay earned by many civilian employees (e.g., police officers), but also did not identify certain critical differences associated with “human costs” paid by military families.

Given current rotation schedules, Marines can face up to three 6-7 month deployments to Iraq in the course of a four year enlistment. This 18-21 month time in Iraq can be exceeded by soldiers, some of whom are already on their second 12 month deployment in four years. Would those who wrote the GAO report lead us to believe that the $15,000 to $20,000 in bonuses that military personnel are being offered are “competitive” with private sector bonuses for unaccompanied employment in Iraq? How much value would GAO attach to each of the 14 Marines who died in one day while riding in their poorly armored AAV? When a service member is killed and his family is given $400,000 in SGLI Insurance, how long will that amount sustain a mother with three small children?

As a chaplain who was deployed at sea for 20 months during a particular 24 month tour of duty, I witnessed many marriages dissolve that caused tremendous pain and suffering. If a service member loses his wife and three children who cannot cope with his being away, how much money from his “competitive” military salary will go into paying child support for his three children until they are 18? As a result of his divorce, how much of his retirement pay will he collect after a 20 to 30 year career when half of it will be going to his former spouse? These are just a few of the “human costs” that were never factored into the GAO report when they compared deployable military personnel who have very high divorce rates with civilians who do not face the challenges that young military families like your own deal with on a daily basis.

While retirement benefits are critical in promoting retention, I believe more up front cash compensation is also needed if service members like your husband will continue to risk not only their physical lives, but also their married and family lives. Recruiting and retention figures in the upcoming months will determine if, in fact, this belief is valid.

Gene-Thomas Gomulka

Columnist and author whose books are available at www.plaintec.net

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Have a question? Write Gene Gomulka at letters@plaintec.net

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