yourviews

MILITARY OFFICER

AUGUST 2015 $4.75 THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF MOAA | NEVER STOP SERVINGTM WWW.MOAA.ORG SkilledForce

Army Reserve soldiers show prowess on missions

ranging from

cyber defense to medical

exchanges 56

exactly what DoD senior leadership and the politicians are doing now.

401(k)s purely to save money and transfer financial risk. And that is

moved from pensions to

“ Business —Col. Floyd Herndon, USAF (Ret) ”

Retirement Changes Having failed to privatize Social Security, the Republicans are going through the back door to privatize military retirement and add a few bucks to the coff ers of the investment banks. Since the military is overwhelmingly Republican, I expect the attempt to become law. But is it a good deal for the military retirees? Of course not. It stinks for the same reason it did with Social Security. MOAA should fi ght it, not embrace it. —Maj. Joe Bejsovec, USAF (Ret) Life Member via email

Lt. Col Harold Knudsen, USA (Ret), very eloquently made the case for no reform [“Retirement Reform,” Your Views, August 2015]. However, the bottom line is that business moved from pensions to 401(k)s purely to save money and transfer fi nan- cial risk. And that is exactly what DoD se- nior leadership and the politicians are doing now as a short-term expediency. —Col. Floyd Herndon, USAF (Ret) Life Member via email

Travel Preferences “Pro or No?” August 2015, was an excel- lent article. Mark Cantrell [describes a] style of independent travel [that] exactly matches our own extensive travels. Yet, Mr. Cantrell correctly states that this is not for everybody. Many like the comfort of getting others to decide where they go [and] how long they stay and having the safety net of an available agent to solve unexpected glitches. Our friends recently returned from a

one-week Alaska cruise and loved every minute of their experience. In fact, when they returned home and went out for din- ner, they commented, “The service here was not as good as what we just enjoyed on

16 MILITARY OFFICER OCTOBER 2015

the ship.” On the other hand, on one of our several Alaska vacations, we independently fl ew to Juneau, jumped on the “Alaska Marine Highway” (a state-run ferry sys- tem), and visited many places our friends had been but loved spending time in small southeastern Alaska towns, without the invasive, overwhelming crowds from three or four massive cruise ships in port. Addi- tionally, the ferry took us to fi shing villages whose ports were too small to accept any cruise ships. As Mr. Cantrell stated, each of us has our own comfort zone. Mr. Cantrell correctly mentioned Trip

Advisor as a wonderful source of travel information. I might add that in order to avoid a single complainer’s opinion on a hotel or restaurant, we read about 10 comments to get a balanced picture of an establishment. For example, we saw one posting, “This is a terrible Italian hotel because the people at the front desk do not speak English.” We ignored this one! I would like to point out some recent changes (improvements) to travel. These days, there are many discount airlines in Asia and Europe which have taken us from one end of the continent to the other for under $100, allowing us to go to places unknown to us. There are also many intercity buses (coach) lines which off er luxury executive seating, hot towels, cappuccino, classical music on supplied headphones, etcetera, which took us around Europe for under 10 euros a ride! —Col. Marvin Feldman, USAF (Ret)

Mayport (Fla.) Chapter, Life Member Jacksonville, Fla.

Lesson Learned An avid reader of your monthly maga- zine, I fi nd the Lessons Learned articles to be especially relevant and thought- provoking. The article titled “The Tree Stump” in your August 2015 edition was no exception.