Saw Col. Tommy Franks on Letterman last night. Cool dude. Actually enlisted in the Army during Vietnam as a private, and worked his way up to 4 star Col. Pretty impressive. Anyhow…my question. Whats a 4 star Col. get pension wise, after 37 years?
Tommy Franks is a General.
So…you don’t know the answer? (and I just got through praising you the other day.
Well, although I should know this, I’m not real up on the specifics. But if you figure he’s maxed out on his time in service, hell get about 75% of his base pay which works out to roughly $9,000.00 a month. (Active duty pay chart)
Also, it’s technically not retirement pay. From an Army website:
Monty will be along shortly to clear this up and correct any mistakes I’ve made.
Paging Monty, please pick up on the white courtesy phone…
No extra information…just a great Onion Article…
“Tommy Franks Leaves Army To Pursue Solo Bombing Career”
'There’s so much more I can destroy on my own…"
lol
D.
Ol’ Tommy is going to be relaxing on a beach in Jamaica for the rest of his life not worrying about a damned thing =)
That is of course taking for granted that he can live with himself after all the people he has killed cough.
A factual reply to the last snide post would go something like this:
The U.S. Military is under the authority of the Civilian Government, and the people General Franks has killed in combat (or who have been killed by people under his command) were killed because the U.S. civilian government sent him there and told him to kill people.
He dropped out of college and was commissioned as a 2LT in the Army (he was never a Private) and was in Viet Nam in 1967 as an artillery officer, completed his college degree, was in Desert Shield/Desert Storm as Assistant Division Commander (Manuever) of the 1st Cavalry Division, then more recently Commander in Chief, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which has resposibilities in the Middle East (Iraq and Afghanistan). As ADC and CENTCOM, I seriously doubt he killed anyone personally, and I am not aware of any people he has killed outside of those he was order to under civilian authority.
Right, which gets back to my point. My statement was not one of politics but one of morality and conscience. shrug
I know ~I~ wouldnt be able to retire peacefully after having all that on my chest, but then again, I’m not a four star general so I dont know much about it.
alterego, General Questions is a forum that is dedicated to facts. Debating of morals is not permitted in this forum.
If you’d like to debate the issue, please do so in Great Debates, not in GQ.
GQ knows no morals; only facts. 
Thank you and welcome to the boards.
-xash
General Questions Moral’ator
Hey, UNCLEBILL. I based what I said as the OP, on what I listened to during an interview with Letterman. Granted, I gave him the wrong rank in my question, but explain to me how he was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant. He gave the impression that he just up and joined the Army. Letterman made the comment that ‘so, you were’t one of those instant leaders out of West Point’, and Franks agreed.
Franks got a commission through OCS.