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The part that seems to escape you is that enlisted quarters are not worth the value of single BAH. Not even close. That BAH is calculated based on the average rent+utilities of a 1 bedroom apartment, not a 115 square foot dorm room subject to inspection at any time. Since you mentioned camp...

Straight up, the senior enlisted member (or Officer) of any service, let alone the USMC which has been in the thick of OEF/OIF over the last decade, should not go before Congress and testify that 'we never had it so good' and 'lower pay will add to discipline.' That is deplorable. His job is to...

Anytime I've interviewed a new sailor reporting aboard without a college degree, the GI bill was almost always mentioned as a reason for enlisting. Those with college degrees were mentioned steady paychecks in a bad economy and have a few years experience as a technician to put on their resumes...

The store in question will have a corporate legal team that works for them. That team is contracted. They get paid regardless of whether or not some ambulance chaser threatens to sue for 'lost wages' in a job OP doesn't even hold with a pending criminal trial. The legal team will say that all...

Retainer costs for a civil attorney who will get laughed out of court. Prosecution gets wind that OP threatened litigation with a pending criminal suit and uses it against him.

I agree. The whole threaten lawsuit sounds dubious. The store didn't book OP for a felony, the police did. All the store did, according to OP, was call the police when they suspected that theft occurred. You also can't sue for legal fees in America just because you won a case. It's been the...

Others have given you sound advice. I will just reiterate that you need to stop using any sort of social media. Delete your facebook, your twitter, whatever you have. The prosecutor, if he/she is overzealous, will use whatever you have on the web to paint a picture of you as a self-serving...

I understand your point that people shouldn't be paid higher just for having families. However, if you want to freeze pay then you shouldn't be surprised if more mid-grade officers leave when dual earner household income with two college-educated adults with careers in their upper 20s/lower 30s...

Jeez, it's the 21st century. Even grumpy old guys like Bill O'Reilly have figured out that if you want to solicit responses to something, you include a hyperlink to an email address. I'll also be sure to tell guys underway to log onto USNI blog to post their thoughts. Oh wait, they don't have...

I think that where this line of thought misses the mark somewhat is that, as people become older and more senior, it's not just about personal income but household income. Plus, over the course of a 20 year career, the inability to purchase and build equity in a home is a huge financial hit...

I already did. I also spread the word to people I know in the sub force. I may be cynical about the outcome but a few minutes to write a thoughtful response couldn't hurt. I hope that people on this board follow suit, although the USNI post didn't have any contact information to submit formal...

1) Both CDR Snodgrass's paper and VADM Moran's response concern officer manning and perception of command at sea throughout the fleet. I just don't think a JO's name on the top of that same white paper gets nearly the same attention, which is unfortunate, and as mentioned I have seen flag...

I meant no disprespect to CDR Snograss's distinguished service record (and yes I looked it up because I didn't know if you were referring to Generation Kill), just that a good point is a good point regardless of who makes it. ADM Richardson as COMSUBFOR noted a lot of those issues and wanted...

CDR Snodgrass isn't a JO. Had this been written by a JO, there is a much higher chance that it would've been discounted outright but not before ridiculing the author. But he's also not the first officer to say/notice what he did, he's just the first to get any real attention for it. The cynical...

A signed piece of paper giving you permission to do something. Most commonly used for leave and special liberty, but can be used for other special circumstances as well, e.g. a no shave chit gives you permission to not have to shave. The background for vitamins: The staff doesn't want people...

A good financial advisor can certainly help you, but there are a lot of traps out there, too. You can educate yourself via the internet on the basics in a few hours, followed by some books if you want to go past that. As a single O-1/O-2, all roads are going to point to you paying off whatever...

I think that the bigger issue is why many officers are describing command at sea as a 'pain' instead of a privilege. I'm not saying people should do it for free, but an O-5/O-6 salary is not exactly peanuts. I don't think the money is the issue here, and I don't think DH bonuses make or break...

You just gotta be careful sometimes, and posting an occurrance that happened once in a blue moon might paint the wrong picture. People tend to hear what they want to hear, just like when an enlisted recruiter tells someone that they can apply for a commissioning program after they get to the...

I made that comment because it certainly seemed like some posters took my argument that way. I understand people's point -- that do be a successful leader, you don't need to be a technical major. I agree. My theory is that if they have to be selective about paying for your college education...

I should have used the word 'operational' which has a broader meaning, but I wrote tactical because I had just posted that link about LT Ekelund, and that was a tactical problem. My answer is that people keep linking technical majors with leadership qualities; I don't think that they are...

You can disagree all you want, but the fact is that there are many professions where a private education from a reputable school (doesn't have to be ivy league) gets graduates hired at a higher rate and higher starting income than public schools, and will net them overall higher career earnings...

Oh god yes. Also, how to do linear programming in excel, can help with watchbills if you get a CO who is nitpicky about who stands watch/duty with who.

I think there are parallels in the SWO community as well, from what I can gather in conversations with SWOs. But their community is a lot less anal about fixing broken stuff, probably because they don't sink and crush if the ship stops moving. That is correct, and it's something that a lot of...

Yes, probably not a good source for investment advice. Also, I found this nifty calculator: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html?_r=0 And Suze Orman can answer your questions on why a condo may not be a good idea...

That's old gouge from the days before TSP had a Roth option. EDIT: If you're a single O-3/O-4, traditional TSP or IRA might be something you look into. It depends on where you think you'll be for tax liability at 60 years old.

A caveat there too: You generally need a min of $10k to put into a fund to get vanguard's 0.1% rates. Otherwise, you end up about 0.15-0.2%. If your plan is to invest in index funds, which it probably ought to be, then TSP can't be beat. The only reason to venture into Vanguard is to invest in...

And do it into TSP, their fees/surcharges can't be beat. although maxing it out for the year by putting 1500/mo into roth tsp might be a bit tough for a new Ens.

Sound advice, particularly for anyone who is planning on transitioning out of the Navy after a first tour. It becomes a lot more difficult to take that leap with children. Had a guy who was ready to leave the Navy, his wife got ill so he reenlisted just so he didn't incur thousands in healthcare...

Yes, I understand your point that officers do not need STEM degrees to be successful, not even nukes, which I think you guys keep wrongfully harping on because the nuke training pipeline teaches it to you anyway. I've provided several non-nuke examples of where technical knowledge has been...

Kids are not that expensive only if you assume that they will always be perfectly healthy, they never need any dental work, and you never do anything outside the house other than visit free parks. Then there's the 1/2 million you need to build up in investments for the projected cost of private...

That's the point. Having a non-technical degree doesn't bring anything extra to the table in this area. Nice strawman. My claim is that if the Navy has to be more selective with whom it awards NROTC scholarship money, it makes sense to me why it would select technical majors over non-technical...

I was being hyperbolic, but this is generally something you cannot keep to yourself as a DIVO, even if you think you can tactfully resolve it. You need to make sure your CoC knows that someone felt discriminated against and what you did to handle it, and if the resolution was simply to tell the...

I'm coming from the perspective that a DH from any degree can produce a satisfactory eval/fitrep. The style of writing and diction used to produce evals, fitreps, and instructions is significantly different from the style one would use to critique literature. For example, I was frequently...

So is your point that leadership is an innate quality, and that the Navy is wrongfully filtering out talent by excluding non-technical majors? If so, how do you effectively screen for this in 17-29 year olds who typically apply without having significant management or leadership experience? Or...

Also, the scholarship isn't about which course of study is more difficult. If you think reading works of fiction and writing papers for hippies is the pinnacle of higher education, then fine. But the scholarship is about which course of study will bring value to the Navy, and the ability to...

The unit CO. Exercising good judgment in these situations is part of his job description. If the about to be DIVOs on here think that they'll just tell people to stfu for feeling discriminated against then they are going to get a lot of people in trouble.

I got a 4/5 on the English ap exam without actually taking the course. It's called reading comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar, skills you learn way before 12th grade. Do well on reading comprehension (the most heavily weighted part when I took it) , memorize the monkey notes for several...

Your claim is absurd. You have a sound grasp of the English language by 8th grade (in most cases). Everything after that is reading books and writing an essay on the lessons it's supposed to teach. Also, if you don't agree with the status quo on these lessons, you won't get an A. I'm not saying...

I don't think that 15 year old NNPS data is relevant to the entire Navy. I'm not a tech major, but there are numerous times where I would've been able to apply that knowledge if I was. If the ship is in trouble and needs to perform sailor alts to get home safe, you might be glad to have...

Yes, there is fierce competition among the tech giants and they will pay top dollar to recruit quality talent (CS/EE/software engineering with a high gpa from a reputable private university).

I can't tell from the details of the story -- what if the student was actually an atheist who posted the verse to be sarcastic, and the people who complained were Christians who took offense?

No one's telling you to stfu. There's just a distinct difference between outdoors public spaces and schools/universities -- or, in the case of the Navy, a ship. I think that Flash would agree that writing that quote on a white board is relatively benign. But the fact is that it made people...

No, you argued that the school's action was 'nonsensical.' I simply posted two scenarios in which the school district's actions were very sensible 1 - to keep order among students and 2 - because schools, as government run institutions, ought to follow the flag code. In order for you to believe...

I was 16 once, too. Can you tell me with 100% certainty that these students didn't wear shirts with American flags in order to just get a rise out of Latino students? And in order to stop a potential fight, the school made them cut out their antics? And then in order to avoid 'losing,' the...

For accounting purposes, NUPOC candidates count as 'enlisted' until they commission. I kept my BAH, which was calculated based on my NRD location, throughout OCS. Priors kept their BAH, too. So unless something has changed, you should keep receiving BAH as a prior enlisted candidate. You can try...

You can't do that. You might offend him.

All the more reason he doesn't belong in his current position. His judgement is clouded by a time that has since passed. There's nothing wrong with pointing out an error in judgement or good order and discpline when one occurs, but there is something wrong with thinking that a subset of the...

1- While 29 people is not a lot in the aggregate student/staff pool at USAFA, it may be a significant amount higher than the people who normally complain. It usually takes quite a bit to get people to file a formal complaint, even if they don't actually like something, so it's not surprising...

So how does each community ensure that it gets enough O-4s, or any other rank, to fill all of its billets? Also, how does it ensure that a guy who screened in an admin board doesn't get passed over for a guy who didn't?

Sure, but that implies that there is a connection between statutory boards and administrative boards, ie we need X SWOs to serve as XO at sea, it's an O-4 billet, here is our list of selectees. Which is how I thought it worked, but the way I interpreted AOCM's post is that at statutory boards...