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Originally Posted by GAsux
Do you think Reservists who are called up to serve extended period of active duty time, often times at a pay cut from their civilian jobs should not be entitled to the same life insurance as their active duty counterparts?
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Although I agree that they are being short-changed in many areas, I can't really empathize on this particular point. It is a volunteer army and all this is explained. Actually, it's one of the few things that they do bother to explain properly. When you get deployed, your job is safe but you will be receiving a government salary. that is all. Sour grapes when deployment actually happens doesn't cut it. Nobody put a gun to their head. It's all part of the deal they gambled on.
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Originally Posted by GAsux
Additionaly, to some degree I would agree with you with regards to the Guard/Reserve stereotype. But it's really no different than the interservice stereotypes. And when it comes to fighting the war, all that shit goes away. When you're serving side by side with a Reservist and getting shot at, I'm pretty sure you're not worried about whether he's got his Van Halen shirt on under his uniform instead of his reg shirt.
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I was just using the shirt as reference because I thought that it brought clarity to the point of an active duty soldier's mindset. Yes, I believe that a lot of this attitude will fade in combat but, at the same time, I think that basic feeling of disdain will not completely go away. Trust me, I've met some guardsmen/reservists that are great at their job and are quite enthusiastic, patriotic, ect. The majority of them probably were active duty at some point in their lives. I'm not talking about specific cases. I'm talking about an attitude that is, more or less, institutionalized.
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Originally Posted by GAsux
But again that's completely off track of the whole point to begin with. The point is, its asinine for the administration to stand in front of the country and say "we support the troops" and "we are giving them everything they need to do the job" only to turn around and deny them those very same things.
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Absolutely, and the reason that the guardsmen/reservists feel the brunt of this is because of the "outsider" attitude I discussed earlier. I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying that it IS.
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