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MILITARY OFFICER

JUNE 2015 $4.75 THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF MOAA | NEVER STOP SERVINGTM WWW.MOAA.ORG Changes in Europe Given shifts in global

security, has the drawdown of U.S. troops in Europe gone too far? 54

MARKUP WATCH A House subcommittee rejects DoD’s proposed pay and benefit cuts 31

The Russian armor divisions will be going through

“

for their pre- deployment briefings in the post theater!

the identified U.S. forces are getting dates

Warsaw on their way to Prague while

—Col. Bill Reals, USA (Ret)

”

MICKEY AND MORE Orlando, Fla., boasts art, foodie trends, and, yes, theme parks 60

U.S. Forces in Europe [“European Downshift,” June 2015] was very accurate and well done in regard to the European downshift and the fact we have gone too far. We do need to have for- ward deployed forces in Germany. They need to bring back two [brigade combat teams] and a combat aviation brigade that is going to be sent to Alaska and forget about unit rotations. I served in Germany during the Cold

War. It is what counterbalanced the Rus- sians. The potential scenario is quite simple. If the Russians decided to take back their former Eastern European coun- tries, or parts thereof, the Russian armor divisions will be going through Warsaw on their way to Prague while the identified U.S. forces are getting dates for their pre- deployment briefings in the post theater! We forget 1968 and the Soviet airborne di- vision in Prague in a matter of hours. —Col. Bill Reals, USA (Ret)

South Coast (Calif.) Chapter, Life Member via email

The article on the imprudent troop re- ductions in Germany and elsewhere in Europe in the June issue of Military Offi- cer magazine is of immense interest to my 84-year-old mother Katharina Joswick, who still vividly recalls the war years in her birthplace of Weiden in der Oberp- falz (near Grafenwoehr), Germany, where she ultimately married my late U.S. Army father, who was at the inception of his military career in Germany in 1948. … Since my father’s death in 2007, my mother and I have continued to return to Germany every autumn and to visit installations such as Grafenwoehr, Vilseck, and Baumholder, where my father was stationed between 1961 and 1964 as a Nike Hercules [missile] offi- cer. That Baumholder is on the verge of being slated for closure is appalling and

14 MILITARY OFFICER AUGUST 2015

unthinkable given the precarious politi- cal climate in Ukraine and in the former Soviet empire.

—John J. Joswick via email

Retirement Reform Concerning the June 5, 2015, [Legisla- tive Update] article, “Will Troops Accept New Retirement Reforms?” As a retired military professional, I personally think going from a pension plan for the active duty to a 401(k) vehicle is a bad idea. We are not civilians who seek employment in an organization with the sole mission of making a profit by selling products and services. We are soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen who seek to become part of the profession of arms, to defend the Constitution of the U.S., and — within this context — protect our way of life. That is a huge difference, and loyalty to the military and from the military back to the serviceman is the key pillar. When I was a kid, my dad and all my friends’ dads worked for companies they saw as part of their identity. They were professionals in their field who usually had deep loyalty for their company that had a culture of lifetime employment as a norm with a pension at the end of the day. Conversely, the company benefited by hav- ing a loyal workforce. Employee competence and customer service was higher in past decades; today it usually stinks — the direct result of the disappearance of pensions. Today, the gen- erations that have never known the pen- sion have little loyalty to their company. It is not unusual for them to jump from company to company half a dozen times in just the first decade after college. Maybe that does not matter to the CEO in this new age, but it sure does [matter] where the profession of arms is concerned. It takes decades to grow of-