Letter to the editor

I have enjoyed Milt Zall's column in the past. However, his recent intervention against pay raises for the military was apparently ill-informed because he equated military and civil service work conditions as a basis for equal increments, and thus unwelcome.

His column of May 21, 2001, "Equal raises for all," was abusive in alleging that military personnel claimed "that military personnel walk on water and deserve higher pay."

He provides no quotations to substantiate such inflammatory assertions. The quotations he cites from letters seem to be reasonably calm statements from military personnel that their working conditions are tough for them and their families.

The abusive comments were unwarranted, and an apology is in order. If he is unable to frame a publishable apology, I recommend that he be reassigned to topics where his lack of military knowledge and apparent lack of sound judgment are irrelevant

For your information, I still do not recall with fondness the years when civil servants doing the same work as I was were making roughly twice as much in aggregate pay, including housing and other allowances. And they often received large annual percentage pay increases. Where was Mr. Zall's call for equal pay then?

Name withheld upon request