Originally Posted by
rickair7777
There are other forms of compensation besides cash...service people usually feel they are part of something larger, and they are generally respected for what they do.
Also even junior enlisted pay is not that bad...when you factor in benefits, tax-free allowances and any specialty pays they progress about the same as an RJ pilot (specialty pay is the key...some skills have recently gotten retention bonuses near $200k).
I totally agree that there is more to it than pay. To most in the service, it's all about serving their country.
How is it that a service member can be making less than 30K a year before hazardous duty pay in a war zone and a private contractor can go do the exact same job flying a UAV for less than half of the period of time as the service member and make 150K for that 6 months? Is either of those two individuals more experienced than the other? Maybe. Is one more of a professional than the other?