Written by G. Ross Stephens   

Calling the U.S. armed forces a ‘voluntary military’ is only partially correct; perhaps totally incorrect. Our military is augmented with mercenaries supplied by some of the 200 corporations around the world that provide security forces – the U.S. has been hiring at least 50 to 60 private militias. Hires come from the U.S., the UK and elsewhere. Further, there is a very real question as to whether the U.S. military itself has a mercenary military organizational structure – ‘Guns-for-hire.’

We have the world’s most highly paid and pampered military. Examples of base pay for a Private is $16,800, Master Sargent $44,800, Major $80,700, bird Colonel $82,250, and Lt. General $130,800, but there are many types of extra compensation, mostly untaxed.

Though there are more goodies for officers, research is necessary to find the untaxed extra-comp. It’s not only housing and meals subsidies or allowances, medical care, support for continuing education, golf courses and other recreational facilities, heavily subsidized officer’s and enlisted clubs, PXs, but also extra-comp for almost anything they do. The pay scales for various ranks do not include these items.

Some wag noted, “When the Air Force builds a new airfield, the first thing constructed is the golf course.”

Then there are the re-enlistment bonuses ranging from $4,000 to $90,000 untaxed. Bonuses for officers of $40,000 to $45,000 are not uncommon. Sometimes they can even pick their initial duty station. In the Navy sailors get extra-comp for going to sea . . . or any other unusual duty.

When I was in the Navy toward the end of World War II, at a rank equal to that of a buck sergeant, I was paid $78 per month and later $96 – nothing else. [A buck sergeant is the lowest level of sergeant.] Adding these extras, a buck sergeant now has an annual income that can exceed the national median household income. After serving, I received the GI Bill, but there was no extra-comp for going to sea or otherwise. There should not have been.

Our career military has become a distinct social class, largely socially separated from the rest of society beyond those of the military-industrial complex – a sort of ‘Junkers Class’ of privileged professional military [Junkers existed in Germany prior to World War II].

With military bases and procurement contracts in every state and congressional district, they have a lock on the maintenance and upgrading of military appropriations. We have yet to see any real ‘peace dividend’ from the winding down of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Our military structure is organized so they must use corporate-provided private armies [mercenaries] in order to augment the regular military at multiples of the cost of maintaining a member of the costly voluntary military. At other times they call up the part-time soldiers from the National Guard even when they are needed for disaster relief at home.

These corporate militias are largely made up of former military, particularly Special Forces, Rangers, Navy Seals, etc. In fact, there is at times an incestuous relationship switching personnel back and forth between the Army or Navy, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and a private army like Blackwater/Xe/Academi (or whatever name they now use).

The military is burdened with a disproportionate number of ‘flag ranked’ officers, Brigadier General/Rear Admiral and above. The biggest overrun is three- and four-star generals (Dina Rasor, Truthout|Solutions 1/5/2012).

During World War II, when active-duty military numbered 12.1 million, there were 8.6 enlisted personnel for each officer; by 2010 the number is 5.1. with only 1.4 million on active duty. For this same period, the number of officers per million military increased from 103,900 to 163,300; enough for a 2.2 million military.

Some of this increase is due to technology, but most may be the result of a structure that depends on mercenaries to augment the dearth of enlisted personnel. For taxpayers, this is a very expensive option costing three- to four-times that for regular military personnel.

No one keeps tabs on the number of mercenaries used in Iraq and Afghanistan, but at one point the Los Angeles Times reported there were more contractors than regular military involved in these conflicts. Many corporate mercenaries are hired by the Department of Defense (DOD), but also by the State Department, the CIA, and other war related agencies.

Compared to the use of the ‘citizen military’ supplied by the draft during World War II through Vietnam, the cost is so monumental it has bankrupted the country.

The Pentagon’s books are a total mess, but set up to over-emphasize needs claimed to be critical. These books are in such bad shape they can’t be audited. Nevertheless, only about one-fourth of its expenditures go for voluntary military personnel; the rest is for hardware, contractors (50-60 percent of outlay), operating equipment, and the 5,211 military bases around the world (DOD, 2012 Base Structure Report).

Waste, cost overruns, and corruption are endemic.

For example, the Pentagon initially said it wanted 2,443 F-35 fighter planes at a cost of $137 million a copy. The current estimated cost is pushing $400 million each, three times the original estimate not counting maintenance costs expected during the lifetime of this weapons system. Boeing charges $1,678 for the rollers used in cargo planes that actually cost them $7 each (Dave Gilson, Mother Jones, Jan.-Feb. 2014) .

As we exit Afghanistan (or not), the Pentagon is leaving behind 85,000 tons of equipment worth at least $7 billion. Something similar occurred in Iraq. Your tax dollars at work.

Corporation-provided private armies are not subject to the military code of justice, thus less controllable in conflict situations

It is increasingly hard not to think of our entire military structure as a bunch of mercenaries, ‘guns-for-hire,’ with corporations milking the nation of its resources – all in the name of patriotism. The U.S. has become a ‘garrison state’ – where the government and the economy are geared for war.