Losing 1 percent a year over a possible 24 years in retirement means a 24% overall reduction in retirement ..ie, if you go in the military at 18 and retire after 20 years, the new law reduces your retirement COLA until you reach age 62 (24 years). If the COLA is say, 1.5 % for any given year...you would only get .5% COLA raise. Added up over 24 years this effectively reduces the retirement you were promised by 24%. Seems to me with all the money we hand out for free to folks that won't work or give other countries, we could find a way to reward our veterans and not take away from them. By the way....not many folks get 30,000 a year in military retirement...I wish I did and I was in for 26 years.