Lt. colonel writes plea to help 'pink slip' soldiers

She is right. There is no political will to fix what sequestration did to the military. Why? Because the President gets to blame Congress and Congress gets to blame him. The House sure isn't interested in doing anything other than complaining about how bad things are as they hope no one notices they are behind all of it.

Commentary: Lt. colonel writes plea to help 'pink slip' soldiers
Army Times
By Lt. Col. Amanda Rossi
Jul. 14, 2014
[Editor’s note: The following is a letter to the editor.]

The reduction in force in the Army ranks has historical precedence. The Army grows to fight a war and when the war is over — the Army shrinks. This is no different than what occurred after the First Gulf War and others, except now we are turning our service members out into a less-than-ideal economy that does not seem prepared to absorb them within the labor market.

It isn’t just young officers that will be thanked for their service and asked to leave. Noncommissioned officers will be told to do the same. Young troops with young families will struggle to find pay and benefits equal to that of what they have enjoyed in the military. It’s going to be hard for many.

The drawdown is going to happen and is happening. There’s no political will to reverse the decision. There’s not likely to be any substantive political outrage over sending pink slips to the battlefield. Clearly no one considered the effects of the doubling down of transitioning from the battlefield to home while simultaneously transitioning from Soldier to civilian. We did a poor job of preparing our troops and their families for the reality of what was to come. Now all we are left with is how well we take care of our transitioning troops. We need to get at least that much right.
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