Jump pay changes insures continuity
Stars & Stripes reports that the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, Maj. Gen. Erik Kurilla, recommended changes to jump pay regs to insure that paratroopers can rely on their hazardous duty pay when they can’t jump due to conditions beyond their control;
Paratroopers are required to jump once every three months as a standard for remaining proficient on airborne operations…Now, paratroopers can jump twice during a six-month period, including two jumps within the same month to keep pay for two consecutive, three-month periods if there are waivers for nonavailability of aircraft, adverse weather, absence for military training or education for less than 179 days, combat operations or a deployment. In lieu of jumping, paratroopers must attend airborne refresher training during the waived period to maintain proficiency.
I remember during those wonderous Carter years when we would jump three times in one day (once for the previous three month periods, once for the current period and one for the next period) in order to stay proficient in the days lacking money for aircraft. That was for a measly $55/month.
Category: Army News
Two questions:
First?
And wasn’t $55 back in those days worth like $10,000 today?
Not quite, but it was ten cases of beer and a carton of cigarettes.
So $219.80 (10 cases of beer) + $70.03 (carton of cigarettes) = $289.83
You guys were over paid back in the day…says the man who hasn’t gotten jump pay since 2007 when he went to airborne school.
It was tax free so add 10% for value.
Smokes and beer didn’t cost that much back then. Cut the cost by about 40%. That leaves room for Polish or hot dogs and fries with all the fixings.
I REMEMBER SMOKES AT $2.50 A CARTON OR .25 A PACK,don’t remember how much beer was but we drank a lot of it.They backdated jumps all the time in the 70s when busy elsewhere.
A carton of cigarettes at sea in 1959 was ONE DOLLAR!!
A better deal was $1.00 cartons of cigarettes outside the then four mile limit aboard ship.
that would be 11 cases of PBR at Fort Drum, course they had to give you more alcohol there so you wouldn’t be tempted to kill the native population….
Don’t forget…it was $110 for Commissioned officers.
I’ll leave it to others to figure out the reasoning.
My very first ever First Sergeant used to tell me stories about the Army in the 1970’s that usually invovled 1911’s, lots of booze, and a general hatred of the officer corps.
So my guess is because officers, had to pack their own chutes to avoid auguring into the ground at a high rate of speed.
Because at one time, the Army in it’s infinite wisdom was of the opinion only officers could jump master. They changed that pretty quickly, but never corrected the discrepancy in pay. BTW, to all those currently on jump status, when was the last time you saw an officer perform jump master duties? Those officers chasing their star or wreath do not count.
My experience is over 15 years old but it was normal for pretty much the entire JM cadre to be enlisted. Maybe one captain or a really squared away LT but that would usually be it.
One of the cool things about being a JM was that the JM’s within a unit become a sort of “shadow cadre” that is more about competence than it is about rank. Rank didn’t really matter much, we had some jumps where the op order was written by a Corporal (who was the overall JM) and one of the subordinate JM’s under him was a CW3, while the stick JM’s were typically E-6’s and E-7s.
It used to be $110 for officers. I guess we needed twice the financial motivation to jump out of a perfectly fine flying airplane. I often wondered why we didn’t get double the EM combat pay, as well. I could have earned another $1K for my time in the Viet of the Nam.
But in 1976 $55.00 more a month was a nice chunk of change. Ah the Carter Years, they sucked, Big Time!
A PFC’s pay was bumped from $300 to $330 a month in early ’77.
1976….hmmm..as an E5 just over 4, my base was $558 a month…$55 more was like a gift from above…so to speak…I think it was that year or the year before that the Army phased out Pro-Pay…for some MOS’s that was as much as $75 a month..good thing Jimmy only had 4 years to devastate the military…..
When I was promoted to E-5, my pay went up $22/month.
Was a PFC (USMC) so I was at $412.00 per month!
My first pay voucher was for $305.00 (with no jump pay). I had to take $150 to buy a money order to pay back the money my dad loaned me when I left Utah for the Benning School for Wayward Boys.
Younguns, when I enlisted in 1960, E-1 pay was $78.00 a month, Jump pay was $55.00, and Flight pay, (crew chiefs could draw both in the Airborne era 101st.),was progressive with rank. An E-4 under 4 years made $112.00 plus $55 jump pay, plus $65 flight pay, and if he was squared away, and at P-2 on proficiency pay, another $60.00.
In 1968 base pay was $102.30. Smokes were, I think, about a quarter Stateside. When I went with 3rd Med at Hansen, smokes were a dime or 90 cents a carton. Was in Publix yesterday and eyeballed smokes while wife was in line. Cheapest carton was roughly $60 and the most expensive was a brand I never heard of at $93. Glad I don’t smoke any longer. Also glad I don’t drink. If I could do one or the other w/o ill effects I think I would smoke. I still consider myself addicted although I last drank in 84 and smoked in 85.
I quit in 1997 when Los Angeles AFB commissary stop selling smokes and they became too expensive for me to justify the exorbitant $21/carton cost.
Now they go for nearly $100 for the same thing in CA, and $15/pack in NYC.
yep, in ’59 it was also 78.00, e-1, a little later as an E-3, I jumped to 120.00 ? or was tht E-4…………..the mind is a terrible thing!
Here’s a little help with that CRS Thingy./smile
1959 Base Pay:
E-3 (Under Two Years) – $99.37
E-4 (Under Two Years) – $122.30
Something I never understood in the White Name Tape Army was that I, a LT, got $110 and enlisted got $55. We would both splat the ground the same. And, no, not because as an officer I had responsibility. More often than not the jumpmaster was a NCO…I was just another chump in the stick. Did get jump pay in Viet of the Nam (1/101 and 3/82nd) and never saw a chute.
and by the way, the $110 was sweet since base pay for a 2LT in ’63 was $222.30! Took a huge paycut when I PCS’d to a leg unit.
I let my language lapse…and that lasted until I saw my first paycheck without the language pay.
I couldn’t understand that in the “pickle suit” Army either, sj. The only explanation I ever got that half-azz made sense was the same one Frank Kapaun gave in his comment above.
Never thought it was right. But DA never asked me for my opinion on the matter, either. (smile)
Surprised this is an issue. We used Rule 3 to avoid losing jump pay under those circumstances.
OK, I’ll bite: when did it become verboten for two jumps in the same month to cover a 6-mo window – the previous 90 days and the next 90 days? It’s been well over 30 years since I was on status, but I seem to remember that was allowed under the regs.
I have to guess that it was accepted practice, but not codified. The only place I ever had to make up jumps was at Bragg. Everywhere else we jumped monthly, but they were smaller units with more local control over air assets.
Hondo,
I think the process you described will still exist with this new policy, but it will effectively make you a “pay hurt” at 6 months vice 3. If I’m reading between the lines you could basically get a full year and there for a full deployment out of this.
For example. Soldier jumps on 1 and 2 October, he is now covered for OCT to Mar. He must jump twice between April and the end of September to retain the pay.
01 Sep 71 – PFC Claw was in Vietnam drawing the following pay each month:
Base Pay – $180.90
Flight Pay – $ 55.00
Hostile Fire Pay-$ 65.00
Foreign Duty Pay-$ 9.00
Grand Total – $309.90
No Federal or State taxes being taken out, but FICA still was being taken out. Beer was a nickel a can, cigarettes $1.70 per carton (rationed).
Fast forward to 01 Apr 72, promoted to Spec4 and returned to CONUS (Fort Bliss). Couldn’t legally drink a beer or hard liquor (still too young), carton of smokes about $2.50-$2.75 (I think):
Base Pay – $346.80 and that was it.
Federal, State and FICA taxes now being deducted from monthly pay.
Was I clearing more money per month? Less money per month? Better off or worse off? Can’t remember. Too much water under the bridge since then./smile
Those were the days.
I had always seen guidance that a soldiers could effectively do this as a retro active measure (e.g. didn’t jump Jan to Mar, but jumped 2 times APR to Jun).
I’m not sure how I feel about the extra pay for JM’s, its a leadership responsibility that comes with the being an NCO or Officer in an airborne unit. This looks to me as just adding a whole other headache for commanders as they manage who gets the JM/Safety/DZSO duties.
Well, it’s good to see then LTC Kurilla survived and made it to MG after a certain “war correspondent” took up arms and nearly blew him up with a few shots to a propane tank
Went into Navy EOD as an E6 (under 9 years total service at the time). Started drawing demo pay while in EOD School, first demo day. Started drawing dive pay first day we breathed air underwater.
Fast forward – went to jump school 1.5 years after EOD School. Asked why there was no jump pay in my records. Told that Navy can only draw 2 “hazardous duty” pays.
Fast forward about 10 years. Things had changed a lot. We were under-manned Navy-wide, so we get pro pay; then they started giving you jump pay (plus the other two); then your pay went up according to which “badge” you wore (basic -nada), senior EOD Tech, IIRC was about $150 per month; Master Tech, got you $275 a month IIRC. Didn’t matter O or E.
Then if you deployed on a ship – my, my. For folks like me who had spent the majority of their Navy career, prior to EOD, doing shipboard time, it was another nice “bonus” – my last cruise I got $750 a month.
Of course combat pay was equal across the board.
OFF TOPIC…TOO LONG TO WAIT FOR THE WOT
I just retrieved my mail. Among the stuff was a letter from the IRS. The letter stated that the IRS misapplied $89.00 to my account, whatever that means, and I, therefore, owe the IRS more than $500 immediately. Huh? They made a mistake and I have to pay interest of $262 and a failure to pay penalty of $176. Cripes. I went off like a roman candle. The ridiculous interest and penalty are bad enough but you know why I am soooooooooo pissed? I have to spend anywhere from an hour to 2.5 hours on the phone with the IRS tomorrow to learm WTH this all about. Thank you. And, now, back to your regularly sceduled thread.
2/17 – a letter to all your congress critters, “cc” Idiots Responsiblefor Shit.
Worked for me a few years ago.
Four minutes of IRS menus for this: due to extreme call volume regarding your menu selection, we are are unable to take your call.
And so it begins. Did I mention I hate the IRS?
Call your senator and congressman!
Then again, before I left my last boat, I was drawing along the following:
E-6 over 10: $1742.70
Sea pay (over 7): $350
Sub pay: $255
Pro pay (SDAP): $175
Transferred to recruiting and saw a nice jump with BAQ/VHA/rats, even though I lost sea/sub/Pro pay.
Now E-5 and above get all that AND $100k reenlistment bonuses.
I got out in 1963 and got a “don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out”!! Plus being looked at by syphillians as some kind of vermin!!