Despite decades of efficiency efforts designed to wring every flabby dollar from Pentagon spending, the cost of fielding one active-duty airman, sailor, soldier or Marine continues to climb.

The $57,000 it cost to field a troop in 1980 ballooned to $217,000 in 2010 — not including inflation. Sure, as the Congressional Budget Office notes in a new report, some of that increase was because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But the cost growth has been dramatic even once the wars’ costs are removed from the accounting: