Low Speed, High Drag

So apparently some SEAL who went in on the Bin Laden raid can't read and doesn't understand how the system works after 16 years in the military. I find this difficult to believe for a couple of reasons.

Now, I don't know what they teach squids in general and SEALs in specific, so maybe he got told something different. Back was I was but a lowly enlisted trooper in the Army, it was pretty common knowledge that you don't get a pension unless you put in the full 20, disability excepted. It was also common knowledge that getting a disability pension was pretty goddamned hard, and you had to be clearly and obviously fucked up by your term of service.  A tendency to be startled by loud noises didn't make the grade. 

Likewise, the Army had all kinds of classes telling you what kind of transition assistance and benefits were available to you once you got out. I seem to recall they even had guys whose job it was to answer dumb questions about what to do with your life upon ETS. I think they were called 'transition counselors' or some such.  However, nobody was going to bust their ass making sure you went to the classes or talked to the counselors. The classes were provided, it was up to you to go and take notes and read the handouts.

Admittedly, I am relying on two layers of journalism filter here, so the truth may not be what was reported in Esquire or what was reported about what was said there. But from where I'm sitting, some SEAL is asking for special treatment because… well, I don't know, exactly. Thousands of soldiers, sailors, and airmen get out every year, and most of them manage to go on and do something productive with their lives. The fact that you can't perhaps says more about you than the system.