////Current compensation (pay and allowances) for a married Army PFC (E-3) at Ft. Drum, NY is about $3500 per month, before standard deductions, assuming that he or she chooses to live off-post in Killeen. Out of this, he pays for rent, transportation, food for himself and family, and so forth. This is within the income limits for a family of 3 to get food stamps in New York////

Brooks! Read what you just wrote. A "private". A "private". A private is the lowest ranking on the totem pole. Of course they don't make much money. But guess what?? If you're a private, you can actually get advanced in rank and make more money!!! It's been known to happen a time or two. Why, it even happened to me. I left boot camp an E-1 and left the Navy six years later an E-6!!! I was making some pretty good scratch by that time. If I stayed in. I could have left an E-8 or maybe an E-9!! Who knows--I could have struck for officer and left an O-3 or 4 like my chief did.

Basically, if you're the same rank coming out than when you went in, you're a loser. That shouldn't happen to anyone. Everybody moves up.