Controversial HuffPost Story on the Military's 'Lavishness'

The Huffington Post writer David Wood is under attack and his write-up has spread like wildfire across Facebook shares in military communities everwhere. Read the introduction that has caused scrutiny from this excerpt below that ran on Jan. 30 in the Huffington Post.

For more than a decade, Congress and the Pentagon have lavished money on the nation's 1.3 million active-duty troops and their families. Salaries and benefits soared far above civilian compensation, military bases and housing were refurbished, support services like day care, family counseling and on-base college courses were expanded.

Read this Rebuttal,Lifestyles of the Rich and Camouflaged by an Army Spouse

Another Rebuttal: The Luxury of Being Wrong begins with this - David Wood enjoys something most members of the US military do not. He has the luxury of performing poorly in his job and living to tell about it.... 

Facebook comments on the article

Elaine Blaisdell-Taylor This author is so out-of-touch it's laughable. But, he has a pulitzer prize so that gives him credibility, right? I invite him to go live in the 'lavish' four-plex I lived in at Fort Leavenworth and then write a follow-up article. I'm sure he'd find the black mold inviting. Oh and by the way, he can f-off. I know that's not ladylike, but this article makes me want to fight like a man and talk like one too!

Rebekah Gleaves Sanderlin According to this story, a conventional Army E-8 with 10 years of service and no specialty pays is making $85,000 a year. Commence laughing now.

Bianca Strzalkowski's response to the "lavish" story on The Huffington Post: So, a very ignorant man wrote a very ignorant article about how lavish the benefits of our military are. I emailed this "journalist" in hopes that I can provide him with the true depiction of our lavish lifestyle. We'll see if he responds, but I doubt it. Link to his article is in the comments. Here is her email:

"Dear Mr. Wood,

Clearly, you knew when you wrote your Huffington Post piece that you would strike a nerve within the military community and with anyone who has ever cared about someone who serves. I am the wife to a Gunnery Sergeant (E7) in the United States Marine Corps; currently he is forward deployed to Afghanistan and we have 3 boys. Since your interpretation of our lifestyle is incorrect, I thought I would invite you to come watch our life here in Jacksonville, NC for a few days. Emotionally life is definitely not lavish. My days are spent like most working parents in America, driving kids to school & sports, making meals, cleaning and doing homework as a single parent household but they also include explaining to my 6 year old why his Dad can't be at his soccer match. Or, when I have had to comfort my 4 year old who screams out for his Dad in his sleep. My nights however ARE unique; for example, last night a helicopter crashed in Afghanistan killing 5 service members. My husband is a crew chief and because the news did not say what type of aircraft, I laid awake throughout the night wondering if someone would be coming to tell me my husband was dead.

However, when the news came that it was an Army aircraft, I was not relieved. Instead my heart broke for the 5 families who just lost their hero. The 5 families that will be planning a funeral. The 5 families who will never again see their husband hold their child or feel their embrace.

Financially life hasn't seemed lavish either. We have spent the last 13 months paying a mortgage on an empty house at our last duty station. Also, at the rank of E5, we had to get our dinner from a food bank in Yuma AZ or eat MREs because I could not find employment when we moved.

I am not angry at your comment about our "lavish" benefits, rather I am jealous. I would love to be that ignorant to the realities of military life, especially on days like today where the only luxury I long for is a living, breathing husband. I invite you to look at our financials, to see the whopping $4400 per month paycheck my husband makes after 14 years of service. He is an E7, and unless he will be receiving a $40,000 raise by E8, your calculations are wrong. I have attached the current pay chart for your review.

I feel you owe my peers an explanation as to why, after 11 years of continued sacrifice, you sir feel it is your right to attack the only part of the population always giving. You didn't feel the need to evaluate the benefits of the welfare recipients or the illegal immigrants but the Armed Forces. I would really value the opportunity to have an honest conversation with you to understand your viewpoint. I promise you, there is nothing lavish about our commissaries or moving every 3 years to duty stations with no job opportunity for spouses or truly worrying every day if you are going to become a widow.

Next time, before you put something so hurtful out, can I respectively ask that you fact check?

Very Respectfully, Bianca M. Strzalkowski

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