Sunday, May 27th, 2012

A Squad Leader’s Yearly Salary or an Hour in an F-22?

By
Monday, July 13, 2009 at 2:50 pm

Something I didn’t know but Brandon Friedman at VoteVets did: a staff sergeant leading an infantry squad in Afghanistan makes, with combat pay, about $44,500 per year. And it costs about $42,000 per hour to fly an F-22, a fighter jet never used in post-9/11 combat at a time when the two wars the United States is fighting require a lot of infantry squad leaders and not a single fighter jet. This is all apropos of the vote this week on the fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill, which President Obama has threatened to veto because of all the money for the F-22 back into it as Defense Secretary Bob Gates tries to end the jet’s production line. Obama’s big ally on the effort to put the F-22 out to pasture is none other than Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), whom you may remember from the 2008 campaign, when he attacked Obama’s judgment on national security questions.

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Categories & Tags: McCain| National Security| Obama| | | | | |

Comments

5 Comments

zabjw
Comment posted July 13, 2009 @ 7:27 pm

Fast fighters didn't work in South Viet Nam and they don't work in Afghanistan. You need overhead loiter. This is a very appropriate blog article. Boots and bullets to protect civilian infrastucture building is the only way to win over the tribal groups of insurgent protecting areas.

strangely_enough
Comment posted July 13, 2009 @ 9:55 pm

But, it provides so many kickbacks, er, contributions, er, jobs in their districts…

Jon H
Comment posted July 14, 2009 @ 12:25 am

So, basically, we should only buy however many F-22s are required to serve the needs of Hollywood, assuming they can't be satisfied with CGI.

And we should of course charge the movie producers for the flight time.

Dick
Comment posted July 15, 2009 @ 4:18 pm

Ask the ground pounders what they would rather have – another Sargent or air superiority over their battlefield? Our enemies will soon have have an 8 to 1 fighter advantage over the US with our current 30 year old fighters, they will dictate terms our our surrender.

box cadeau
Comment posted September 6, 2011 @ 11:07 am

You can definitely see your skills within the paintings you write. The world hopes for more passionate writers like you who aren’t afraid to mention how they believe. Always follow your heart.

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