Posted on 10/28/2016 3:29:26 PM PDT by Kaslin
For the last three years, retired California National Guard Master Sgt. Bill McLain’s wife, Terese, has repaid a bit of his enlistment bonuses to the Pentagon with a caustic note.
Each month, she writes “blood money” on the $100 check — the token amount the McLains pay on the $30,000 debt they deny owing — that she sends to the Pentagon. “Shame on you. Extortion,” she writes on the envelope.
The Pentagon cashes each check.
Facing a groundswell of public outrage, the Pentagon scrambled this week to temporarily suspend its demands for thousands of California Guard soldiers to repay enlistment bonuses and other incentives they were given to go to war.
But McLain and other soldiers who were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan may still be required to repay their bonuses, one of several apparent exceptions in the proposed Pentagon solution.
Two weeks before McLain left to fight in Afghanistan in early 2013 — his fourth combat tour in a decade — the National Guard garnished his entire $3,496 monthly paycheck for the enlistment bonuses it claimed he was improperly given five years earlier.
“I had nothing,” the 55-year-old retired special forces soldier recalled Thursday about leaving his wife and two stepdaughters without his salary while he went back to war. “They took every nickel.”
McLain managed to get the wage garnishment lifted, but his troubles were just beginning.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Who are these blithering idiots at the Pentagon!?
And how many times have the Federal Government clawed back from civilian employees?
The blithering idiots at the Pentagon are doing the will of the punks who favored communist soldiers over American soldiers in the 1960’s.
They couldn’t stand the fact that their Communist brothers were being killed by Americans, and they still hold American soldiers in low esteem now.
IMHO
Trump should offer to make their payments for the next few months and promise them that, when inaugurated, he’ll get that crap straightened out and refund every penny of what they paid, plus interest.
After all, if the Zerobama administration has so much extra money that they can fly pallets of it to our enemies in Iran, they can eat absorb the amounts of the bonuses earned by our fighting forces.
The Snake is rotten from the HEAD (Hussein Obama) down to
the tail. THE BUCK STOPS WITH OBAMA. HATRED OF THE MILITARY
would be even worse under Hillary Clinton.
*** “Who are these blithering idiots at the Pentagon!?”***
The same ones that want you to find and produce an obscure piece of paperwork that you may or may not have received years ago that they have no record of but at the same time do not deny that you were there at the time.
When you are deployed it isn’t like you carry around a file cabinet to keep a hard copy for the future. Circular File was usually strategically located right next to an exit.
I am so fed up with the VA
Someone here on FR said “You want to FIX Welfare? Make it as hard to get Welfare Benefits as it is to get VA Benefits”
I agree
*** I’m a little torn about this. These guys knew what specialties were getting retention bonuses and which were not supposed to. It’s kind of like getting too much back from the IRS. Not to diminish their service in any way. It’s a tough one ***
At the time I would have asked for CASH up front for my Signature and today I would Tell them to PACK SAND
It isn’t like them SOB’s keep their Word.
My Initial Contract with the Navy (circled and initialed by my Mother, since I was 17 and she had to Sign my Contract) said “Government Healthcare at No Charge for Life”
My Mom was sold and she signed ... 44 years later I am still trying to get them to hold up their end.
F’em
Secy of Defense Ashton Carter. Career something or other. I think he’s a little armchair general shit who doesn’t give a damn about our servicemen and women.
If my father-in-law was still alive and in command (he turned down a Brig/Gen two step jump to be with his family after 10 years in the Cold War field), plus Iwo Jima, etc., he would have had Carter, Dempsey and even SecyNav Mabus shot for cowardice and dereliction of duty.
He would not brook these spineless technocrats who haven’t a clue on how to fight a war or treat their people.
I have more respect for the No. Vietnamese senior officer defectors I interviewed in So. Vietnam than I do for Obama’s DOD wimps and pansies.
Understand completely.
Never heard that about welfare & VA benefits. Good one.
And yet our elected officials live high on the hog and find new ways to misappropriate (steal) our tax $$$ and divert it ino their own offers every chance they get. Still haven’t found that $6B yet have they? I can only guess...
btt
You mean the one that Hillary Rotten Clinton lost?
They were not in the Army, they were in the California National Guard
The California Army National Guard is under the ultimate command of the Secretary of the Army and POTUS.The California Air National Guard is under the ultimate command of the Secretary of the Air Force and POTUS.
When they received their federal activation orders for overseas duty, they were fully in the US Army and has subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice has any other active duty member of the Armed Forces. Not one whit less until their release from active duty.
I think Ash Carter came out the other day and said they were going to stop doing this.
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