Bureaucratic Tour de Force
As penny-wise, pound-foolish military pen-pushers demand enlistment bonuses back from wounded GIs:
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.
To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up to $30,000 in some cases.
Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.
One of them is Jordan Fox, a young soldier from the South Hills.
He finds solace in the hundreds of boxes he loads onto a truck in Carnegie. In each box is a care package that will be sent to a man or woman serving in Iraq. It was in his name Operation Pittsburgh Pride was started.
Fox was seriously injured when a roadside bomb blew up his vehicle. He was knocked unconscious. His back was injured and lost all vision in his right eye.
A few months later Fox was sent home. His injuries prohibited him from fulfilling three months of his commitment. A few days ago, he received a letter from the military demanding nearly $3,000 of his signing bonus back.
“I tried to do my best and serve my country. I was unfortunately hurt in the process. Now they’re telling me they want their money back,” he explained.
May make sense to the accounting department. Recruiters everywhere must be banging their heads against the wall. Then, there’s the line unit morale issue.
Neptunus Lex: Howlingly stupid!
Blue Crab: justifiable outrage, a lot of it from people who don’t give a damn about soldiers. I think he might mean people like this.
Hot Air: Pentagon backpedalling furiously.
Here’s the bill to correct this and an earlier Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story on same.
Given the fact that the news so far appears to be limited to a couple of cases, it’ll be interesting to see how widespread this idiocy has been. The TV news report says “perhaps thousands” but doesn’t provide any detail to back that up. Prior idiocy of this sort included denying combat pay to wounded soldiers upon being medevaced out of the war zone.
UPDATE: It was a mistake. No kidding. Report still has nothing to offer on why, how, extent, etc.
Here’s a prior case, somewhat different circumstances, where the Pentagon is arguing with soldiers about whether their traumatic experiences screwed them up or they were alreadythat way.
Topics: military
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:48 am on Wednesday, November 21, 2007
8 Responses to “Bureaucratic Tour de Force”
Leave a Reply
Trackback URLYou must be logged in to post a comment.
November 21st, 2007 at 9:20 am
Where to begin? Damn, I really do NOT want to post something that comes close to Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
My brother enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the onset of WWII (he was underage at the time) in fact, my mother yanked his ass out until she realized that come hell or high water Chuckles (Chuck) was bound and determined to do his patriotic duty protetcing this great nation of ours.
Chuck served on a cruiser in the Pacific and was involved in many a battle (who wasn’t) saw many friends buried at sea, was obviously present when broadside unloading on Japanese positions, or their warships (which by the way, were constant) and partook/witnessed almost unending ack-ack on enemy aircraft.
Trying to shorten this epic, when Chuck returned home safe and sound on the OUTSIDE, he had a few problems on the INSIDE, moody, angry, restless and ‘gun shy’ (meaning anyone tossing firecrackers, took their life in their hands, were they around my brother) whereas before Chuck tossed the damn firecrackers.
Chuck ducked for safety when awakened by loud thunder claps (kinda reminded him of those broadsides that were cut loose) whereas before, the damn fool would be playing football, in those loud thunder claps (genes of the family made me do the same thing).
My brother was and forever will be a hero to our family and to his nation (Chuck died 3 years ago). I loved my brother, most of the time. As brothers usually do to their younger brothers, he taught me how to box. Chuck was the boxer, I was the boxee.
When I asked him my mother’s real name (not just Mom) he told me and added “go ahead, call her Mary”. My ears still ring, these many years later from the slap that ensued.
At any rate, Chuck did suffer from the ailment(s) that now emotionally afflict some of our brave men and women. Thank the Big Boy upstairs, none of the physical ailments from a severe wounding.
He didn’t bother our Pentagon for his emotional trauma. He dealt with it, but had he and were to be faced with this bungling, idiotic Pentagonites of today, of dunning, docking of pay today, knowing Chuckles as I did, we would have looked at each other with nothing being said and we’d have been on our way to D.C. and upon arrival, would have started taking the Pentagon apart, piece by piece.
Chuckles married and was eventually surrounded by 6 women….his wife (Mary, although I never called her that see above, I called and 5 daughters (literally screwed himself out of a seat in the car).
The idiots of todays Bureaucratic Tour de Force, should be exposed (give us names) and tied to trees, (poor trees) fired and/or both. Elsewise Tour de Force just may be met with Viva La Revolution.
November 21st, 2007 at 9:26 am
OH…I called Chuck’s wife..SIS…damn these long posts…I also would have (even with spell-check, that’s for sissies) spelled protecting, in the proper manner.
November 21st, 2007 at 10:00 am
FWIW, published Army enlistment bonus regs DO allow these guys to keep the cash. The enabling wording is “beyond their control” or something like that. I read the specifics a few days ago. This will be sorted out very quickly and profuse apologies will be given.
November 21st, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Have these asshats stopped passing out contracts to their ‘best buds’ for $600.00 toilets, (or was that just for the seat covers?) yet?
Cut that crap out and Hillary could give the whole damn WORLD, health coverage.
November 21st, 2007 at 1:24 pm
I remind people all the time that they must remember that, while the face of the military is your neighbor’s son, or your fellow worker’s daughter, first and foremost, the military is a government bureaucracy. It operates better than most, but it is a bureaucracy–with everything that implies. Asshattery is, unfortunately, one of the defining characteritics of a bureaucrat.
November 21st, 2007 at 1:29 pm
I don’t see why this needs legislation to fix. The service personnel chiefs (3 star in case of the Navy) or even the first flag/general officer in the chain ought to be able to call BS on this and over-ride it with the stroke of a pen.
November 21st, 2007 at 1:31 pm
As a currently-serving military officer with 19+ years in, let me say that this reeks of some admin bureaucrat who lives in a cubicle with no clue to the big picture interpreting regualtions without thinking. Once news of this gets to actual decision-makers and leaders, rather than unthinking rule-followers typing TPS reports, it will be rectified with profuse apologies.
November 21st, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Go read “The Tank” over on NRO. Sounds like this is being rectified.