yeah, no kidding. Gov't pay sucks. Military needs to DIVERT the funding they currently get towards helping out those than need it, ie lower ranking personnel. My friend who's getting an MD at USUHS (In Bethesda, MD) gets nearly 40K for being a STUDENT (granted a medical student), and he owes the navy 7yrs afterwards. . .seems werid he starts as an officer and there are guys there that work forever and barely make half of that. . .