He's served in Germany and in Bosnia and never considered requesting an absentee ballot. The fact that neither presidential candidate's message resonates with a half dozen soldiers interviewed at Fort Knox doesn't surprise John Rickey, an Army spokesman at the post. Only one-fifth of Congress has a military background, according to the latest online Congressional Directory, and Rickey said soldiers feel that politicians lack understanding about military life. Yet the state of military preparedness is a major issue in this fall's presidential race. Bush criticizes the current administration for cutting military spending, which has fallen 40 percent since the height of the Cold War, while quadrupling the number of military missions on foreign soil.
Republicans say the cutbacks have hurt soldiers' morale.
The largest defense cutbacks, his campaign has said, were put in place by former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney at the end of the last Bush administration. And Gore says soldiers received a 3.7 percent pay raise in the past year, the largest since 1982. A Clinton administration policy started this year will keep soldiers' pay increases slightly higher than civilian wage growth. Soldiers also receive free housing, free health care and reduced prices on groceries and other goods. The candidates' pledges, however, have not persuaded soldiers like Goodnight to stay in the military.