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MILITARY OFFICER
JUNE 2012 $4.75 THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF MOAA | ONE POWERFUL VOICE®
WWW.MOAA.ORG Standing Watch
U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, defends the homeland through multifaceted monitoring of potential threats to U.S. security 50
MOAA STORMS THE HILL TRICARE fees, force cuts, and more are addressed 29
COMBATING SKIN CANCER Servicemembers are at spe- cial risk for this disease 62
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Funding these liabilities should be a prerequisite to sending our troops into action.
more respect and support.
we owe our defenders
—Capt. Eugene Cooprider, USA-Ret. ” As a nation,
Behind the Plane The cover of the June 2012 issue is a real work of art. As a coast artillery brat, it was quite a thrill to recognize the features of old fortress Monroe, where we spent the required amount of time in the 1930s. —Col. Bruce Carswell, USA-Ret. via email
“Unfunded Liabilities” As a Vietnam combat veteran amputee, I was outraged to find out that my receipt of prosthetic limbs, hearing aids, and other medical devices, as well as treatment for wounds and diseases incurred as a result of my service, are deemed by some bean counters in Washington to be categorized as “entitlements” and “unfunded liabili- ties” [“Are You an Unfunded Liability?” Washington Scene, June 2012]. The only way to avoid these unfunded liabilities is to do away with our military and rely on the good intentions of our na- tion’s enemies. I hope the economists are at least smart enough to realize the con- sequences of that. Our enemies know that wounding and maiming our troops has far greater financial consequences than even killing does, as well as undermining the public will to continue military ac- tion. As a nation, we owe our defenders more respect and support. Funding these liabilities should be a prerequisite to sending our troops into action. —Capt. Eugene Cooprider, USA-Ret. via email
“Are You an Unfunded Liability?” … se- verely distorts the notion of an “unfunded liability.” Contrary to the article’s stated premise, unfunded liabilities are not, in fact, people. An unfunded liability is simply the amount, at any given time, by which future payment obligations exceed the present value of funds available to pay
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them. Significantly, the term is agnostic and offers no judgment as to the value, importance, or necessity of the cause of the future obligations. After constructing a glaringly false
premise, your article then goes on to condemn economists who (correctly) point out that wars often incur unfunded liabilities. The fact that some of those liabilities, funded or otherwise, might be veterans’ benefits is as obvious as it is irrelevant — remember, just because an activity generated a liability does not mean it wasn’t worth it or that the liabil- ity shouldn’t be fully paid. This gaffe might pass without notice in a lesser publication, but it is beneath the standards of MOAA and insults the intelligence of MOAA’s members. Worse, this sort of unsophisticated reporting hampers efforts at reasonable and criti- cal analysis of the true cost of war — an important pursuit and one to which MOAA’s members certainly are well- qualified to contribute. Most disturbingly, your article ap- pears to deliberately bend the notion of an unfunded liability in order to generate some measure of paranoia among your members. [Economists say people are li- abilities!! They’re out to get us!!] Although your article fails to identify its source, I’m confident that no economist views people as unfunded liabilities. To paraphrase your article, this “is a perfect illustration of how distorted the world can look when viewed through an economist’s a special-interest group’s prism.” —Lt. Col. Michael R. Strobl, USMC-Ret. via email
Hindsight Is 20/20 The picture on page 65 [“Combating Skin Cancer,” June 2012], of the team search- ing for ordnance on the islet of Enjebi (Enewetak) [Repub-
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