Band-Aid

This is going to be a follow up post to  my last one.  Pretty much just my thoughts but the information is out there for you all to look up if you wanted to.  Basically I had my rant on here last week about Obama taking money away not only from veterans but from current soldiers overseas.  This upset me beyond belief.  Many of you may think I am crazy but when I was asked by a friend to describe my time in Iraq in one word, I said "Fun."  I am not sure what you all are thinking when I say that but it was.  My company was awesome, we did what we had to do, not only to get the job done but to have fun doing it.  We had to be over there so why not make the best of it.  Yes it sucked, it was extremely hot, wet, dry, smelled really bad and even cold.  Yes it does get cold in Iraq.  I had bombs blow up very close to where I was sleeping, IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) stare me in the face and even rockets fly over head that sounded like they were going to hit me in the back of the head.  All and all I had fun.  Regardless if I had fun or not, every solider is different and everyone has had the same experience as I did.  It was scary as well, I just feel it is wrong to take money away from them when they have no real choice to be there or not.  Yes, they signed up knowing they would be going overseas at some point but pay them for their sacrifices.  Also the money I almost wasn't going to get pays my bills and I count on that money every month to live.  The government did fix the problem temporarily by raising the debt ceiling.  Something I am glad they did because I do not have to live under a bridge now, but this has happened before and the same issue will arise again until the figure out a way to fix the problem not just prolong the inevitable.

Obama Does NOT Care About the Military or the Safety of the United States

After reading the title of this blog I can't even imagine what all of you are thinking especially if you have read my last several posts.  As you can see I do not like our "Amazing" President (lots of sarcasm here), for many reason most of pertaining to the military.  Now before I go further into why I am Obama hating today in this post I have a question to ask and would love for all of you to answer this while you comment on this post. While I was in the Army as an E-4 specialist (my rank when I was retired) I was receiving  $2,193.90 per month.  When a soldier is deployed to a war zone like Iraq or Afghanistan they receive combat pay/hazardous duty pay which is a whopping $225 per month.  That is the pay the government gives us to get shot at.  The pay is not taxed which is where the majority of our extra money comes from. I spent 14 months in Iraq and was shot at by snipers many times but was not close enough to make all that worried but still makes you duck your head and your butt hole pucker a little bit.  I had rockets fly over my head which sounded like it was coming right for my head and also my convoy was blown up once while over in Baghdad, Iraq.  Now I did say I was not going to get further into this post http://patdollard.com/2012/02/obama-pulls-combat-pay-for-u-s-troops/.  It is a short article if any of you would like to read that as well.  If a soldier gets into a fire fight for lets say four hours they will receive that pay for that day.  Lets do the math take the monthly rate of $225 and divide that by 30 days, $7.50 is what those brave sacrificing men and women will receive for getting shot at for hours.  My hatred is not just deriving from this but also I am on the Post 9/11 Chapter 33 G.I. Bill which pays for my schooling, gives me $500 a semester for my books and also pays me BAH (Basic allowance for housing) which allows me to go to school and not have to work  a ton a hours to pay my bills and be able to focus on school.  If things do not get changed or fixed by the first of the month I will not receive my BAH money which is a little over $1,500 a month living in Pittsburgh that pay is based off where you live and the cost of living, so it varies from state to state and city to city.  I also will not receive my retirement money or my disability money which I get because I was medically retired due to injury.  I do not know how you all feel about this but would love your comments on this.  It is a very important topic to me because of my ties to the military and the effect this has on my life, but has an effect on all of you as well.  If this stays in effect until another President changes it or Obama wakes up not as many people will join the military which will cause America to become more vulnerable to attack in the future.  If I do not receive that money I can not pay my bills and my car will be taken and I will have to move to the closest warmest bridge I can find.  I feel that Obama is single handily putting many veterans on the streets if this is not fixed they are Americans just like everyone else.  I also feel that the veterans should be held in a little bit different light for the sacrifice they gave for this wonderful country we live in today but if this keeps going the way it is going.  America will not be too wonderful anymore.  Please comment and tell me what your thoughts are, no matter what your feelings are let me know.  Thank you.
with out asking you all the question I wanted to ask but I felt like I had to give you a little bit more information to allow you to answer the question to the best of your ability.  With all this said would you go to Iraq or Afghanistan and get shot at for $2418.90?  I would guess that the majority of you would not.  When military personnel get into fire fights they can last from anywhere between minutes to hours.  Obama is taking the combat/hazardous duty pay away from all deployed soldiers.  The article I am using for this blog is