One reason everyday costs are going up for service members and their families is that some expenses that used to be considered luxuries are now required for daily life, Sgt. Maj. Troy Black said. He is the senior enlisted advisor to Joint Chiefs Chair Air Force Gen. CQ Brown.
“If you’re in a room, you’re talking about pay and your assumption is, ‘Hey, why do these new service members get these expensive cell phone contracts?’ Well, because everything in the world is now digital. You either have a very expensive data plan or you can have WiFi,” Black said in a Military Times interview.
Black also spoke to the Pentagon’s competing budget priorities.
“We’re pulling back a little bit on the modernization lever in order to increase our readiness and be able to focus on quality of life,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we’re not modernizing, doesn’t mean we’re not maintaining readiness and doesn’t mean we’re not taking care of our people. But a dollar’s a dollar.”
Air Force photo by Senior Airman Madeline Baisey
