The top Marine who last week told Congress that pay cuts were good for discipline apologized to his troops in a letter for "a mistaken impression that I don't care about your quality of life and that I support lower pay for servicemembers." He then dropped them all and demanded 20 pushups.

Most military bigwigs might beg Congress not to reduce their troops' pay. But they're not the Marines' top enlisted man, who told a Senate panel to slash away Wednesday. His Marines could care less, he said, because they just "want to know into whose neck do we put a boot next."