No defense for this outrageous spending

Seeing the front page of The Press (Sept. 9 issue) raised a sore point I've had for years, when one of my children, a U.S. Marine, was stationed in Okinawa. I was told that the Marine Corps hired local Okinawans for their security. I mean, U.S. Marines can't even guard their own base?

I wrote my congressman who in turn called the USMC HQ and was told it's cheaper to hire an Okinawan than to use our own troops. That's not an excuse; that's pure stupidity. Do you think a local Okinawan will be as conscientious as an active duty Marine?Now back to the Press's picture on the front page. Here's a trooper sitting on a barracks step that hasn't been painted since World War II. Heaven forbid what the inside looks like judging by the outside. You know our tax dollars will pay a civilian contractor thousands of dollars to repair/paint that barracks while we have a million-plus active servicemen, most doing one hell of a job on the front and rear lines, but the rest not doing anything but sitting around. Whatever happened to the old military when there was guard duty, latrine duty, kitchen duty and yes, even real military cooks?

A couple of years ago I was in Fairbanks, Alaska, at the U.S. Army base (Fort Wainwright) and guess what? Contracted gate security, I was told, got paid $100-plus per hour (including COLA, etc.). My God, even for Alaska that's a lot of money. (I doubt the Okinawans get that. They probably only get $75 per hour.) And we wonder why our economy is in the shape it's in.Now I don't begrudge our troops all the fancy perks they get, Big Macs, Subways, movies, satellite TV, etc., but hey, when I served my four years I had to pay to have my laundry done, to get a mandatory hair scalping every week, and if I wanted a tube of toothpaste I went to the PX, and everything was operating using military personnel. Even the commissary was run by military personnel. And you wonder why our defense budget is so outrageous.

Paul Underwood is a resident of St. Maries.