Pentagon leaders took steps to assuage retirees who are concerned about the possibility that their benefits are both unfair and unsustainable under the current climate of tight budgets. “There’s no immediate plan to affect retirement,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said July 31. And Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said that any changes in the system would be “grandfathered,” thus protecting beneficiaries under the present retirement system. Panetta’s and Mullen’s remarks came in response to negative reaction retirees expressed about a July 21 report by the Defense Business Board, a blue-ribbon panel of industry and government leaders who were appointed by the Defense Department to study business practices there. The panel concluded:
* The retirement system is out of date and is unfair, unaffordable, and inflexible;
* A revamped system would offer benefits to all military personnel and prove to be more manageable from a cost standpoint;
* The current system would require “dramatic” modifications, and likely still would be “unfair and inflexible”;
* And, any changes should be implemented gradually, as a matter of fairness for present recipients of military retirement benefits.
