Retirement Pay

There has been a lot of talk recently about modifying retirement pay for the military.  Something to chew on, as the nation and the military looks at and considers military budget cuts and the ultimate downsizing of personnel also known as "force shaping".  Lets just say for example you have 8-10 years more or less of time wearing the uniform.  You have done your best, did what you were told to do and gone into harms way in order to defend America.  Now the time comes to reduce the size of the military for what ever reason.  You might get lucky and get a decent "severance" package.  Then again you might not.  As the way things sit now, your retirement that you have built up will not follow you to your new job!  Lost are many years of potential savings and worst case, in these troubling economic times, a life ring upon which you could keep you family afloat.  So if "taking care" of our service members who have answered the call and are now asked to leave, is putting them behind their "peers" with respect to financial independence in their golden years, then who ya, bring on the 20 yr only retirement program!