doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com WOUNDED WARRIOR PAWNS HIS PURPLE HEARTS O/T

Anyone that ever spent anytime in the military can tell you that 18-20'ish soldiers,marines,airmen and sailors are not,as a rule,smart with their money.Alcohol,testosterone,buddies,etc. all conspire to make you spend it as fast as you get it in most cases. Most outfits have someone who serves as a "bank" for his less frugal buddies and loans money out on a regular basis.I can believe anything when it comes to money and the military.

I can write a book about lower level enlisted finances, but I'll just give you a paragraph or two. I've always been pretty good about numbers, so my financial life has been pretty problem free. However, in 1967, I went to work for my uncle on a two year contract. My first monthly check, before deductions, was $78.00. Uncle gives an automatic raise at two months to $87.00, before deductions. Sam (by now I'm getting a bit more familiar with him) sent me to school for a few months and I was lucky enough to be top graduate and got awarded a stripe and a pay raise to $131.00 a month, before deductions. Uncle Sam must have thought I was some smart fellow because he sent me back to school for another couple of months. Lo and behold, I was top graduate again and got another stripe and a raise to $214.00 a month, again, before deductions. Now, let me be clear about this. I got these raises and stripes, but none of my buddies got them because they were not the top graduates in their schools. Most of them, when I was making $214.00, before deductions, after six months on the job, were still making $87.00 a month. Now, if you were married, and somehow ended up in my predicament, you got a few bucks extra, don't remember how many, because I was not married at the time. When I got to the $214.00 level, I was on top of the world, because I was transferred to Fort Lee, Virginia which was close enough to go home on weekends, about 120 miles one way. I think I had the gas figured at about $3.00 each way if I really kept out of the gas pedal. The tolls through Richmond on I-95 added up to 85 cents each way. Do you realize that this is so little money today that computers don't have a "cents" key like a typewriter used to. I fixed the toll business by driving through downtown Richmond to avoid $1.70 in tolls each time I went home. I could go on, but you get the picture. We survived, but not because of any help from the U.S. Congress. Bill Murphy, U.S. Army Retired after two years service.

RWTF: Thanks for the call & the update. The American Legion is always there for our servicemen & women. I hope that our guys and your Christmas is GREAT!The lower enlisted pay grades never had enough spare money even if single much less with families. God Bless our men & women who guard the wall!

Best Regards and Merry Christmas, George

Bill: I know where you're coming from. I went from RDSN to RD3 & then RD2 in two years, not for the chevrons on my crow but for the few extra dollars every two weeks to help keep my family alive.

Best Regards and Merry Christmas.....George

I agree in principle with what you have said about Pawnbrokers- there are three segments of any economy that will always prosper in tough times: Pawnshops, Auctioneers and Funeral Directors-

I spoke at length with Bryan, he is not a Veteran, but he agreed to return the two Purple Hearts to the soldier in need. Not just so much due to the Holiday spirit (Scrooge sees the light, so to speak) but because he told me I didn't badger him to do this, as some other callers may have done- He also saw something about this on the News web, and had pretty much decided to do this anyway, so he is on my "good guy" list--

I recall a lot of the off-base Stateside car dealers, pawn shops, schlock jewelry stores- that preyed without mercy on the junior NCO's- and in the USMC you are that when you make E-4-- Corporal-- Read the story of our legendary sniper Gunny Carlos Hathcock when he was a a Pfc. or even L/Cpl and wanted to get married at LeJeune--his CO was strongly against this, and this was in 1962--

I do not follow the Huffington news line, so I am grateful to my friend George Lander for posting this here, for our response. We as a Country ask our young men to go into Harm's Way, but when they return, especially wounded, sometimes it seems that we "look the other way"-- Not in this case, however- Semper Fi!!!

I didn't have any trouble clicking on the link.
Did anyone else have a problem?

Pete

To add a couple of details to my story, I did not take another promotion for the rest of my two years, still made $214.00 a month, before deductions, until my ETS in November of 1969. I had been to school before being drafted, so I knew a little about money. Most guys didn't know. During the time I was working for Sam, I tried to figure out how service men managed to do all the drinking and gambling I had heard about and seen in the movies. In our little group, it was a very occasional thing to go out on the town. The on post beer halls and outdoor beer gardens were very inexpensive. I never did experience the gambling. Car insurance was impossible for me. To register a car on post, you had to show proof of insurance, so I had to hide my car and keep moving it. Once, a tow truck driver came into our building to ask about a car in the parking lot with no registration. He had parked the tow truck behind my Volkswagen, blocking it against a barrier. Several of my friends picked up the car and moved it over the barrier. When the tow truck driver came out of the building, his truck was blocking an empty parking space. It's just what you had to do to make it on $214.00 a month, before deductions.

Bill, when I was in Basic Training at Fort Polk, a friend kept his unregistered VW in a visitor parking lot, at a visitor housing complex, the whole time we were there and never did get caught!

Don, it was a GD nightmare. I was a law abiding citizen and couldn't own a car. I guess I somehow survived. I don't know how I got through the war. I guess we were patriots. Yes, we were patriots, and still are.

Eightbore, I don't understand how you were prevented from owning a car. You certainly would have been required to prove legal ownership (registration) of the car and minimum liability insurance but that standard would have been consistent with the state's civilian laws. And today most all states have a law requiring certain insurance to operate a vehicle. I agree that going to the Provost Marshal's vehicle inspection and registration process was a pain in the butt. Pay has always been miserable and will probably always be. Congress doesn't see the military as having an effective vote and finds it quite convenient to effect savings on military pay as a result. The junior enlisted grades were especially strapped - but they were draftees, provided room and board. The voluntary moves off post were certainly a problem for them unless someone else was helping them with money. I remember spending a disproportionate amount of my days trying to take care of the problems which arose with those who acquired families while still in the junior categories. Congress felt these were not supposed to bring along dependents as that entailed great cost for the supporting structure required. Have to remember about 2/3ds were juniors and were only minimally trained before their first enlistment expired. We were expected to be at least as much surrogate parents for these young people as their unit commanders and that was a very heavy load when you had 400 or 500 reckless, inventive, and generally rebellious youngmen with too much time on their hands. You had to love them but darned if they didn't bring tears of frustration more often than laughter.