The women and men that have honorably and faithfully served in our armed services will be short changed if the current retirement system is changed.
If a service member who has served 20 plus years has to wait until age 55 to collect their retainer pay, the armed services will have a serious short-fall of knowledgable and experienced officers and senior non-commissioned officers.
Looking back to past attempts to modify the retirement system resulted in reduced recruiting and retention. Ships were unable to get underway because they lacked the personnel to properly man the ship. Our other services also had similiar issues.
Our service members serve with the knowledge that they are going in harms way! Let's continue to support them with a retiremement system that honors that risk.