Originally Posted by
dr dre
Well I'll say I disagree with that point, but you seem to be saying it's that point alone which determines that the military should be honoured or recognised more in our society above emergency services.
I could as easily say that the people in the military are already well rewarded via pay and benefits, in all cases they are paid while training whereas almost all civilians aren't (case in point pilots) and receive allowances when they are deployed. Therefore they already receive a much larger reward than one group who puts their lives on the line for us, emergency services volunteers. Volunteers do what they do for zero monetary reward (or in some circumstances very small allowances but nothing substantial).
Isn't that enough to place them in the highest league of those who are recognised in our society?
I've always found this very interesting. I think you'll find that those who are commanding KC-30's and similar sized jets, flying in some pretty "interesting parts" of the world, staying in usually worse accommodation and for months at a time are earning considerably less than their commercial counterparts. China Southern certainly has recognised that fact and capitalised on it quite effectively! I can't comment on a lot of other trades as I don't have that much involvement with them, but I think you'll find that the average digger isn't exactly flush with coin.
I've also always been intrigued by the rare disdain I've seen in some of my GA mates when it comes to being paid to learn how to fly. Granted we aren't paying for it, but I'm yet to see any school in Australia that you are on a daily renewable contract with (maybe cadetships, I'm honestly not sure). Pilot's course was pretty brutal, we started with 18 and finished with 11. Given the context of how the ADF employs those skills they've invested time and money into giving you, I think it's a fair trade.