Where's the Coast Guard?  We can't win service rivalry bingo without them in the thread.

They're here.



The WAHTF has a lot of prior and current service members.



 

Bingo!

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I double checked to make sure that you'd posted.  


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......you have soldiers right out of their parents home, never had any financial responsiblity..get an automatic 6k and they go nuts.....the issue I have with aafes is they can get your command involved..that doesnt happen to civilians......


I know this is way off track from the original post but AAFES is a huge crock.  Not only do they target young, inexperienced service members, but now they target the young, inexperienced spouses.  Not only is there a Star Card but now there is a Take It Home Card as well.  And when they allow an individual/family to not only have both cards but to have multiple accounts with both cards that is specifically targeting in my opinion.  

Yes, there is individual responsibility.  But I put AAFES right up there with Pioneer and Omni loans.  They are predatory and target a specific audience.  To say they donate back to the military community is moot.  They are doing so by standing on the necks of the inexperienced and then utilize the chain of command to get their payment.

And for background, I'm at 25 years of Active Army.  I currently am a Command Financial NCO which, for those that may not know what the position is (it is normally only local installation) I help Soldiers, leaders and units with personal financial training and personal budgets, and am a link between the individual Soldier, their unit and Army Emergency Relief/Army Community Service.  I have one Soldier and his family which has three AAFES credit lines...two Star Cards and one Take It Home Card.  Total indebtedness for those three accounts is just shy of $15,000.  And he is the most extreme example and but only one example of many.

(1) Same boat when I started my career as an Infantryman.  Most of our guys were not married and lived in the barracks.  A few of the SPCs (E4s) and most of the SGTs and above were married.  Now it almost seems like there are more families in the Army than single Soldiers.  Almost wish that the "...we'd have issued you a family if we wanted you to have one" mentality would come back.  Most in the Army seem to be here more for the welfare system (I know, I'll catch a load of shit for that) than service.  

(2) The family thing happens more and more in the Army than when I came in years ago.  And the biggest issue is when guys do a "marriage of convenience" just to get off post.  Blows my mind that you would tie yourself to someone just for the extra funds and freedom of off post living.  I'd delve off into the Soldier that married his drug dealers cousin to get her medical coverage and him reduced rate drugs and got killed in Asskrackistan and she got ALL of his benefits but that would take more time than I can type.

(3) There is training for it.  Problem is getting Soldiers and their leaders to get the Soldiers to the training.  Lack of discipline at multiple levels is the main issue here.  When new Soldiers inprocess the unit they are supposed to come through my office.  Most of the time their leaders say that they have too much work to inprocess.  So they get thrown into the mix immediately.  And it's not just my office that's skipped.  It's most.  Again, lack of discipline at the leader levels all the way up is the big issue here.  I can only stand on the desk of the CSM so long to get things to change.  

In the end, most of the people I see simply want simple solutions to problems they caused, a free handout, and sympathy.  And that includes their leaders.  They want me to fix their Soldiers issues and to be able to be hands off.  Without chain of command support they will never fix themselves.  As far as sympathy goes with me, it's found in the dictionary between shit and syphilis.