benjam, no doubt things have changed since my time, pay was so low for some folks that they qualified for welfare (below poverty line I think was the issue), we payed into a superannuation fund but if you got out before retirement you got back exactly what you had paid in minus a handling charge - no interest earned. To top it off, if your family was in married quarters housing you had to get out if being sent into combat, you didn't requalify until you returned from your tour of combat. Oh, and you had to ask permission of the CO in order to get married, not a family friendly organisation was the military in my day.