Wall Street wants your military pension

The Young Farmers Coalition recently put out a fantastic report about the barriers that keep young people from starting farms, and how these affect America's food future. With the average U.S. farmer around 70 years old, some estimate that a quarter of our nation's food producers will retire in the next ten years. Recruiting new farmers is crucial, yet these young farmers cite lack of capital and poor access to healthcare as their primary struggles in starting new enterprises.

T and I are fortunate enough that we likely won't have to worry too much about either of these things. When I deployed to Iraq a few years ago debt-free, I put my entire tax-free paycheck for a year and a half into savings, a substantial amount that will likely be the down-payment for our farmland. And next year, T will hit 20 years in service and will be able to retire at the ripe old age of 38. We will have access to affordable healthcare through the Tricare for Military Retirees program, which charges a premium of about $500 a year for the entire family. We will have a small but steady monthly income from that pension, which will ensure that we'll have enough capital flow to buy gasoline and salt and coffee while we get our farm into the black. In short, the sacrifices we've made for the Army over all these years will translate into the perfect combination of benefits for starting a farm. We've earned them.

You may already know that in this age of federal deficit, Congress has been considering cutting benefits for military retirees. (I guess the $1,200 a month we will receive after five deployments and two decades away from our families just isn't fair to all of the other taxpayers.) But you may not know that this idea, and other similarly ridiculous ones, is the brainchild of the Defense Business Board -- a closed group of highly paid, Wall-Street bred civilian corporate advisors to the Department of Defense. Today's headline article in Mother Jones magazine, "Inside the Corporate Plan to Occupy the Pentagon," says that "a report from the board argued that paying soldiers and their families for 60 years after 20 years of service was "unsustainable," adding, "The 'Military Retirement' sacred cow is increasingly unaffordable." The board called for scrapping the system in favor of a mandatory 401(k)-style account whose savings could "be invested in higher yielding equities and bonds."

Clearly, this bunch of Wall Street investors are selflessly attempting to save the government money by advising the existing military pension system be scrapped, and instead invested on Wall Street.

Right?

As to their argument that paying people for 60 more years after they serve 20 is unsustainable, I first of all disagree with their math. The youngest a person can retire after 20 years of service would be 37, and very few veterans will live to be 97 years old. But more importantly, I think that the all-volunteer force is hopelessly unsustainable without the 20-year pension. Many of our most experienced, senior leaders are soldiers who are only staying in "till I hit my 20." Changing retirement benefits to require 30 years of service -- or, as the DBB recommends, eliminating them all together in favor of a corporate-style 401(k) plan -- would cause many of our most seasoned veteran leaders to decide that sticking it out for five or ten more years just isn't worth it. Even if we instituted the wildly unpopular option of a draft, this wouldn't solve the problem. Recruiting has really never been a problem -- lots of young people in America want to join the military. Giving up four years of your life and possibly a major limb in exchange for an almost-free college education is a big attractor. The problem is retention. It takes a particular type of person to want to stay in an organization which requires extraordinary sacrifices that are simply not comparable to any civilian job, not even police or firefighters. We are already offering bonuses of $35,000 or more to try to entice leaders to stay in after eight or ten years of service.

But hey, I'm a beneficiary of the current system, so what do I know. If T lives to be 97, the total cost to the government for his pension will be about $850,000. When you consider that a single brand-new F-22 Raptor costs $350,000,000, cutting benefits instead is clearly the way to go.

Operation Recovery

Operation Recovery is the latest political action hosted by Iraq Veterans Against the War. What it demands is simple: that troops suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress, Traumatic Brain Injury, or Military Sexual Trauma not be forced to deploy again. We are in our tenth year of war, folks, and some people -- including my partner -- are facing their fifth tour.

All soldiers have an inherent sense that the mission comes first, and that their personal problems should wait. This is something they must overcome internally before they can seek help. Once a soldier has made that difficult decision, they should not be blocked by their commanders. They should not be forced to deploy again. They should not be turned away from seeking mental health services. We should be proactively seeking out veterans who may need a hand up to keep them on their feet. Instead, we are turning away those who voluntarily seek help. What do you think is happening to all those who can't speak out?

The epidemic of soldier and recently discharged veteran suicides is no real mystery to me. People argue that the military has changed, that it's not as bad as it used to be, and that the soldiers who complain are just "malingerers" -- people who feign ailments or purposely injure themselves to avoid duty. Let me say that if this is the improvement, I'd hate to see how it used to be. Take these examples:

*Jeff Hanks, denied treatment over and over again. He finally went AWOL on the day he was supposed to return to Afghanistan, and was committed to a mental health institution. Only the inpatient commitment was enough to stop his unit from arresting him and forcing him to return overseas, and he is still currently facing AWOL charges.

*SPC Kirkland, a soldier who was sent home from Iraq because he was believed to be suicidal, then ridiculed by his Rear Detachment chain of command and left alone in the barracks, where he killed himself.

*Suzanne Swift, a soldier who was sexually assaulted by members of her unit the first time she went to Iraq. Rather than go after the perpetrators or offer services to her, her unit demanded she deploy to Iraq a second time with the same individuals. When she refused, she was charged with desertion.

These are just a few published examples. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, more that we may never know about. Despite what the military Public Affairs Office puts out about taking mental health more seriously, the truth is that soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines are still routinely denied care and punished for speaking out. But as these examples show, some courageous veterans are refusing to be silenced. Please show them your support.

What you can do:

*Educate yourself and your community about the problems of veteran suicide, and the lack of care we are receiving from the military. You might start by reading some of the articles or watching videos linked from the Operation Recovery webpage.

*Print the free flyers and post them on your college campuses, military bases, Veteran's Affairs buildings, or any place where young people congregate, to let returning veterans know they are not alone. Post them at your natural foods store, yoga class, or farmer's market to draw attention to the issue for veterans and non-veterans alike.

*Host a traveling "Operation Exposure" art show.

*Request a veteran speak to your college class, book club, church, or other group. Connectting with your local veterans groups is a great way to find speakers, as well as determining what needs are most great in your particular region.

*Sign the Pledge of Support. I don't personally like putting my name on the internet as a petition signatory, but I know that lots of other people view it as a symbolic act.

*Host a film screening that will generate discussion about veterans and traumatic stress. I have heard good things about Stop-Loss and The Ground Truth, but I haven't yet personally seen either.

*Write to your Congressional representative and tell them to make mental health care for returning veterans a priority. Demand that they investigate access to care for current servicemembers.

*Donate. Lots of people don't like to give money, and that's ok -- the above options might be better suited to you. But if you support the cause and don't have the time, energy, or gumption to do any of those things, donating can be a way to help. Donated money allows us to bring traveling art exhibitions around the country. Donated money also allows us to provide travel scholarships to veteran's retreats, so that we can get to know each other. For some veterans isolated in their own communities, these trips that are fully funded by strangers are their only chance to interact with other veterans and can be tremendously healing.