Hey everyone,
Some of you may have heard about the "Let's Bring 'Em Home" Project, but if not, there's a website (www.lbeh.org) where you can make donations of money or frequent flyer miles to help junior enlisted (no officers!) servicemen and women get home for the holidays. The project is run by a guy named Ernie Stewart, a former US Air Force non-com, and a woman named Kat who works for an airline as a ticketing agent. They try to match up the donations with soldiers who can't otherwise afford to get home.

If you're so inclined to help these folks out, please do. At least check out the site and see what you think. It's not a scam, and all the money collected goes towards airfare (totally nonprofit).

The site isn't intended to be political in nature, so if you have strong views for or against the military, the war in Iraq, etc., it is not the place to debate such issues (and hopefully this thread won't become one either).

Again, the site is http://www.lbeh.org

I just don't understand the no-officers bit. My background is that I was an army brat for the first 15 years of my life. My dad was enlisted, so I totally get being broke and not being able to afford it as an enlisted man. However, I had an uncle in the Air Force who was an officer, and, especially at first, he didn't have a lot of disposable income either. I feel for all those second and first leutenants, and some captains, that can't afford to come home either. Is there a specific reason other than finances that they disclude officers?

http://www.dfas.mil/money/milpay/pay/2003paytable.pdf

this is just base pay and does not take all of the other income streams into account.

Officers definitely have more disposable income than the average enlisted man, especially if they are in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. etc.

When I was in Bosnia (as an E-4) and everyone in my unit was getting hazardous duty pay, seperate rations pay, some sort of overseas pay, and we didn't have to pay any taxes while we were over there. The officers were definitely bringing in beacoup money. They should have enough to get themselves home.

Also, it was an understanding that Officers and NCO's are supposed to be looking out for their troops. It wouldn't send a very good morale message if "Private Smith is stuck in the war zone because he doesn't have the means to fly back, when Captain Joe Blow, his Company Commander, gets to fly home for free, and spend a few weeks relaxing while his subordinates are getting ambushed on a daily basis.

That was a pretty interesting table, its nice to see that there have been some pay raises since my dad left the service about 13 years ago. I guess the gap is a little bigger than I was led to believe. The only officers that would possibly need some assistance would the the young second leutenents, and I'd be willing to be the majority of them don't have a wife and kids to support, giving them a pretty good living for a single person. They currently make about what my dad did when he left the service, and he was working on 20 years service with a wife and 2 kids to support. Its amazing how little we pay our defenders of freedom.