The Army Comes After Vets

This is the kind of thing that only the military gets away with.
The Pentagon is demanding thousands and in some cases tens of thousands of dollars back from California soldiers who received enlistment bonuses for signing up to fight for American freedoms in the war on terror. The Pentagon is even demanding pay from enlistment bonuses all way back to a decade ago.... close to 10,000 soldiers are being ordered repay their bonuses and also are being charged for interest charges and are being threatened with wage garnishments and tax liens if they do not repay.

This is due to the Pentagon determining that the California National Guard mismanaged their money while under pressure to meet enlistment recruiting targets.
So, let me get this straight. California's National Guard screwed up and offered bigger (or more) bonuses than they were entitled to do under the law. National Guard soldiers, who are not all of them expert lawyers or familiar with the intricacies of budgets, accepted what looked like explicably generous bonuses given how much retention trouble the military was having at that particular moment of the war. Now, Big Army wants the money back -- and it wants it back from the soldiers, even if they're no longer in, not from the National Guard that mismanaged the money.

Accountability in government is a great concept, but these are not the people who screwed up. This is making the little guy pay for the big guy's mistakes. Pay through the nose for them.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is obscene.

Valerie

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Yes, push the responsibility up, not down.

Ymar Sakar said...

I'm sure it'll all go into the right pockets, such as Shinseki's VA.

After all, Demoncrats got quite a cash out bonus from the Fall of Saigon.

Eric Blair said...

How did the Democrats get a "cash bonus" out of the Fall of Saigon?

They tried something like this shit with me when I got back from the 1st Gulf War, when I got a letter from the DOD explaining that I had been overpaid during my mobilization, and please send the money back.

But, being the pendant I am, I had kept note of every receipt and date and amount I had been paid, and when totaling it up, based on my grade, time in service and COLA, I determined that the Army actually still *owed* me money.

So I wrote that all out in a letter, even showing my math, sent it back, and didn't hear from them again, until about a year later, when I got letter from from the DOD that explained that the SedDef (Cheney at the time), had directed that anybody who was thought to owe less than some amount wasn't liable for it, and have a nice day.

Thanks, Dick.

Anonymous said...

But Hey Just Pay the Tax! its okay!, since they are not "Friends of Bill" and they live Fly over territory.

Latest presidential poll: Military overwhelmingly choosing Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/09/latest_presideinntial_poll_milit.html


Just SHUT UP , and just PAY your damned taxes.

........Hillary’s attitude toward America has for years been implicit in our ruling class in New York. Having little in common with the rest of the country, they speak of most of it as Flyover Land, a realm of intellectual darkness and barbarism separating Manhattan and Hollywood. So far as I know, this is the first time the elites have had the confidence, if not necessarily the judgement, to say it plainly.

Let’s not delude ourselves. America is ruled by the Five Cities, Boston, New York, Washington, Tel Aviv, and Hollywood. The rest of us just pay taxes. The heart of the beast is New York, the Ivies being its nursery and Washington its storefront.............

http://fredoneverything.org/ready-ronald-mcdonald-or-lucretia-borgia-in-the-long-run-we-are-all-dead/

-Mississippi



Ymar Sakar said...

How did the Democrats get a "cash bonus" out of the Fall of Saigon?


Since you think you consider yourself superior than me and know more than me EB, you can easily answer that question yourself.

I hold to no obligation that I need to help you do anything.

Let’s not delude ourselves. America is ruled by the Five Cities, Boston, New York, Washington, Tel Aviv, and Hollywood. The rest of us just pay taxes. The heart of the beast is New York, the Ivies being its nursery and Washington its storefront.............

One thing is not like the others in that list...