Send troops home! To their bases!

First, let me say that I have no problems with troops; in fact, I commend them for their service...sure, many are arrogant fucktards, but most are both respectable and respectful. My problem does not lie with the troops...it lies with the military and their use of subsidized housing.

Hawaii is only so big and the island of Oahu holds the majority of the population. Obviously, there is a limit to the amount of houses that can be built on an island...and yet, the state finds room to keep building. Why? Because the U.S. military keeps sending troops here! I am sure that I am not the only person to notice the tremendous rise in military personnel within the past five years. When i'm stuck in traffic, who do I see next to me? a guy with a crew cut wearing fatigues. Has anyone driven into a shopping center near a base during lunch time? I say driven, because most times it is next to impossible to find parking. So what am I trying to say? We are overcrowded...there isn't enough room on this island for the amount of troops staying here. Here's another point to my rant...want to know why traffic is so bad??? because the majority of troops are NOT living on base...

I don't know how many people know this, but troops are given a housing allowance to live off base. We're not talking about a couple hundred bucks...nope, most times the allowance is enough to pay for a nice 2-3 bedroom home. I had a friend who was only a E-4, which is a somewhat low rank in the military; he was receiving 1500 bucks a month for housing. Oh, but he must have had a wife and family, right??? Nope, single guy living in a three bedroom town house with his girlfriend. Oh, but there must have been 100% occupancy on base housing...right? Nope. Most people have overlooked this fact, but on-base housing is EMPTY, and I say this with capitals letters. For those that don't believe, get a guest pass and go ahead and take a look; a few years ago, schofield closed down a golf course so they could build more homes...most of those homes remain vacant. So why do the troops decide to live off base? wouldn't it be an easier drive to live a minute away from their workplace? Well, there are rules when you live on base...and I guess most of the troops don't want to follow rules. So it comes down to this, there are houses on base that WE, the taxpayer, bought...but we have to pay AGAIN for the troops to live off base because they don't want to have to abide by rules. Oh, but thats not the final payment either...

Imagine that you're a landlord; you are charging a local family 1200 dollars a month rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in Mililani. Then the soldiers start coming in and you KNOW that they can afford more than 1200 dollars a month...so what do you do? "oh sorry ah, I gotta raise da rent. You can still pay 1600 a month, ah?" So the rent goes up to 1600 dollars, because of course you want to make more money...that's 400 dollars more in YOUR pocket. By having this subsidized housing allowance, we are allowing the landlords to charge OUTRAGEOUS rent because they know the military can pay for it, but the local family is shit out of luck.

So what can we do? Hell, I don't know. Write to your congressman. Write to a news channel. We have to do something, because this is out of control. I just took my dogs for a walk around the block. Within that block, I saw 10 houses with military people outside, and over 20 cars with base stickers on the front. So I said it before and i'll say it again: send the troops home...to their bases!