Much has been made in the media recently about the jump in re-enlistment bonuses being offered to members of the military to entice them to remain in the Armed Forces. People have said that bonuses are too high, that it is just another example of defense spending gone out of control. In my humble opinion, we can’t pay our troops enough. We ask these men and women to die for us. We ask them to kill for us. We ask them to leave their families, to miss months out of their children’s lives, to endure extreme hardship to defend our freedom. How do you put a price on that?

It might be hard to imagine how much we would pay to have someone live their life defending ours, but the government has done it. I thought it would be enlightening given the current public debate over bonuses and raises to talk about how much our military members really make. Since so many in this country see military pay as another issue to debate, let’s talk money.

In the current year, a brand new E-1, a bottom of the military food chain Private, makes $1203 a month. That works out to be $8.00 per hour for a 40 hour week. Of course as anyone who has been associated with the military knows, no service member actually works only 40 hours week. An E-3, a Lance Corporeal, makes $1534 a month, or roughly $10 an hour for a 40 hour week. Now perhaps working for eight or ten dollars an hour doesn’t sound so bad. It is higher than minimum wage and often our troops live in barracks and so don’t have to pay for housing. But for those who are married and have to worry about feeding their family on a salary of $8 an hour, the decision to serve this country can mean struggling to put food on the table. And that is a disgrace.

But let’s put this in perspective. The same Privates and Lance Corporeal who are making less than $10 an hour are the ones we are asking to fight for our freedom. They are willing to go for days without sleep, without hot meals, without showers. They are willing to go to a foreign country, to pick up a weapon and kill, to put their lives in danger and face death for less money than a fast food cashier makes.

But the truth is that they aren’t doing it for the money. They sign up because they believe in something. They believe that this country is worth fighting for, worth dying for. They believe in the most fundamental principles of this great nation and they are the ones who are willing fight to protect those principles and those of us who enjoy them.