Road Trip: Marysville, WA 98270 to JBLM (tacoma, WA 98433)

[40Garand]

It was decades before that...

...bit good joke...

Call me a bitter Dodgers fan.

 

[K-22]

A$$ grass or cash

Think the saying was A$s, grass, or gas.

 

[P7M13]

Prefer the derailment part of this thread.
Loved listening to the Boss in my teens. Saw him at Masonic for the Darkness tour, and at the Joe for the River tour. His concerts were four hours of sweaty, ear drum popping, solid music. Stopped listening to him after moving out west.
Put him on my play list 20 years later, and thought, "man, what the hell did I like about this music?" Though, some of his ballads are still timeless to me, Thunder Road, & Spirits in the Night.

 

[DLS]

I'm still wondering if @Haymaker2021 ever got his free chauffeur service?

 

[gmerkt]

Requirements: I dont want to drive the distance. you cover gas and transportation for me.

I get full access.

I'm still wondering if @Haymaker2021 ever got his free chauffeur service?

Okay, I've seen this pop up several times and I've wondered as well. It looks like he's in Bellingham, will drive to Marysville to meet up. Then someone else would take over driving. And I think the quid pro quo is that he can get on base when maybe others cannot. Which is my take on it.

It's only been recently that some non-retiree veterans can get PX and commissary access. Those with a service connected disability now have access, and I assume that also gives them access to the installation. There was a time since 9-11 that I couldn't get onto McChord without an on-base sponsor. I'm not sure what the restrictions are now. I have a VA card with service connection noted on it, as yet haven't bothered to travel to Naval Station Everett or JBLM to have a look-see. It's on our list of to-do's when we have time.

About shopping in those little surplus shops in Tillicum just outside the main gate. Bargains are real hard to find. Soldiers make too much money these days and the stores know it. The Quick Stop GI Surplus, stay the heck away from that one. The Korean lady who owns it thinks everything in her store is made of gold. The Foxhole across the street, no bargains.

 

[User 1234]

Soldiers make too much money these days and the stores know it.

Why Do Military Members Qualify for Food Stamps?

Many feel the fact that military families need food aid is shocking.

www.military.com

The chart is monthly pay, before taxes. It does not include the housing allowance.

 

[Stomper]

Saw that myself. Interesting arrangement, as it seems there's nothing in it for the driver short of Haymaker's pleasant personality. I get that hangin' out by myself.

Oh, who the hell am I kidding? I can't even stand my own damned company!

You may just like yourself a bit more if'n you started brushing your teeth at least weekly….

 

[gmerkt]

The chart is monthly pay, before taxes. It does not include the housing allowance

I'm not saying they make too much money for what they do. I'm saying they make too much money for those little shops off post to have low prices. In days gone by, soldiers used to go to these shops and sell their duffel bags and other equipment to make it to the end of the month. I still have a radio that I bought from a fellow soldier. He paid over $20 for it in the PX, later in the month sold it to me for $5 so he'd have cigarette money.

When I was an army private, my initial pay was $112 per mo. Off post shops knew soldiers were skint and could only pay so much. Mail order jewelry firms made a living selling rings to soldiers on credit, knowing they could never pay the whole price up front. And none of them could get a credit card. This was when military labor was cheap because to some degree, it was compulsory. When men had to serve involuntarily, the government could get away with paying them whatever low amount they wanted. The shoe is on the other foot now; the army has a hard time recruiting and it isn't just about pay.

Your pay scale in post #26 is limited to service members who have up to 2 years service. Above Private E-2, the pay goes up with years served.

Re. the food stamp thing. I didn't know anything about benefits from having dependents when I was on active duty. I was single and nearly all of the first term soldiers I served with were as well. But that brings up a good point. If a soldier enlists as a young, single person, he isn't supporting a family and won't need food stamps. If a man who is several years older and has dependents when he joins up as a private E-1, well, the baggage he has brought along with him is going to cost more to support, even with BAH and whatever. So this might be the situation where a service member needs food stamps.

Or, the soldier gets married in order to get the BAH, wants to move off-post, etc., So he does it, acquires a wife and maybe some children along the way, doesn't make rank as he might've expected and he's in a hole.

Or the soldier has an expensive car to make payments on, so he needs the food stamps to pick up some of the slack. There are many potential explanations for soldiers needing food stamps.

 

[CamoDeafie]

92 Yankee sometimes have good deals. Quick Stop has those totes on the entry full of random crap for $5 each, rarely good stuff in there but you never know. I've never been able to confirm anything on that one shop with the Rangers signage and such because he's apparently never open on the weekends the Fox Hole... I got two of the 1980s OD ponchos there when they were $5 each many years ago but honestly most everything in that shop is more expensive than Ebay. Used to have good prices on uniform pieces during GWOT but apparently word got out and collectors and the like just drove prices up on the other hand, its not as expensive as the surplus shops in Seattle near the Mariners field, I can't remember the names....I do want to take the kids to the Fort Lewis military museum when I can.

 

[gmerkt]

its not as expensive as the surplus shops

I was in Federal Army & Navy Surplus in Seattle last week. It's up the other side of downtown from the stadia, in Belltown. It's been there for ages. And I don't know why it's still in existence today. High prices on everything including the knock-off BDU's. Precious little of "real" surplus items. Several employees in the store but I don't know why.

.I do want to take the kids to the Fort Lewis military museum when I can.

The museum at Fort Lewis was a nice visit last time I was in it. However, it's been renovated since then. Which means that it may have gone the "interpretive exhibits" route. Where they take out most of the good stuff artifacts and replace them with lots of big pictures and poster boards of text. I'd check online first, look at contemporary images inside the building. Which used to be the American Red Cross office, built in WW1. They still have quite a few vintage military vehicles parked outside, not in the best of condition considering the elements here. Tank displays from the Six Day War in Israel hold up better. The quarter ton vehicles are stored under cover but are in ratty condition.

1. Leave plenty of time to get through the main gate on post.

2. Be sure to check to see when the museum is open, last time I was there it had pretty limited hours of operation. .



The date on this image reflects the last time I was there.

If you haven't already been, you might be interested in the museum at Fort Withycombe (Clackamas?) down your way. It's run by the Oregon Military Dept. I haven't been in that one since the late 1990's but I've read that it has expanded over the years since I was there.

Since you mention kids, I'll make one more recommendation. That is Fort Stevens out past Astoria. They have a smallish museum there, but the real interest in the open air nature of what used to be a US Army Coast Artillery post. Be sure to go way out to the end of the jetty where they used to unload ammunition ships. You can look back inland across the lagoon and see the pilings for the railroad that used to go all the way out onto the jetty. Don't go there in bad weather. But the place has tons of places for kids to run around and explore.