Military Coalition Cautions Compensation Committee

Representatives of The Military Coalition, a grouping of 35 military and veterans organizations, testified Aug. 31 before the Defense Advisory Committee on Military Compensation. They advised the committee to move carefully in considering a conversion of the military pay system to a civilian model. They also challenged assertions by Defense officials and others that military personnel costs are rising out of control, particularly in the case of retirees and survivors. Steve Strobridge, coalition co-chairman from the Military Officers Association of America, said that too often military people are treated as commodities from which to extract maximum service at minimum cost. The other co-chairman, Joseph Barnes from the Fleet Reserve Association, said the Coalition believes it is unwise to abandon the traditional military institutional model and adopt a civilian-style system with skill-specific pays and different pay scales for different specialties.