Pentagon to Pay Troops' Travel Expenses

Yahoo News ^ | 02/12/2003 | By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer

[pageonetoo]

WASHINGTON - In an effort to bolster military morale, the Pentagon (news - web sites) soon will begin paying travel expenses for troops to get all the way home on leave from Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites).

[pageonetoo]

What do you think of this?

[StatesEnemy]

I think its about damn time... and the Airlines outta chip in for thanks to the taxpayers for bailing their sorry asses out.

[DC native]

Excellent. A much better use of my dime than free trips for smarmy politicians.

[Warthog]

I agree with this and the last poster. It is overdue!

[mylife]

Well, It is a nice thought and a nice thank you, However The 55 mil price is paid by the citizens.
I don't wish to seem ungrateful but The fair thing would be to fly the soldier back to the same place they departed from originally, back to their home station. Anything beyond return to home station should be paid for by the soldier. I imagine they have saved a few bucks up while deployed.

[baseballmom]

Excellent idea. Expensive, but excellent. I'd rather have my money going to get these people home, that for some BS pork with Byrd's name on it in West Virginia. Nothing against God fearing West Virginians.

[pageonetoo]

"Excellent. A much better use of my dime than free trips for smarmy politicians."


Gee, I wonder whom you are calling "smarmy"? If its the hildabeast, there are better, more descriptive terms! Smarmy is way too nice, and my 14 yr old daughter is watching me post, so I can't say what I would call it!!

[KC Burke]

Often, a soldier is deployed from a duty station and leave or end of tour he or she wants to see family in their home town rather than an empty apartment.

[pageonetoo]

I don't wish to seem ungrateful but..


You do! OUr Military units are SERVING, with LOW PAY, and HIGH HEAT, and very little to offer comfort!

And besides, this is chump change, in the overall scheme of things!

[tbpiper]

We had to bring our son home from Mosul for a family emergency last month and his trip was completely paid for. It was a great help.

[DC native]

crusty politicians?

[Doe Eyes]

I'd rather have my money going to get these people home

Hey, its not like they're raising your taxes to pay for this. They're just gonna borrow some more. Whoopee!!

[pageonetoo]

We had to bring our son home from Mosul for a family emergency last month and his trip was completely paid for. It was a great help.

Who paid, the g'umt, USO, or Red Cross?

[mylife]

Soldiers sign on the line and do what the military asks them to do, we take an oath of allegiance, not an oath that comes with personal qualifiers that we can add as we see fit.

As I said, it is a nice thought but the only obligation the military has is to return the troops to their home station.
While you are a soldier that is your home by contract.
should you wish to take leave and visit family, that is a personal matter and not an obligation of the military.

[mystery-ak]

YIPPEE!...forwarding this to Mike and his troops

[Newbomb Turk]

I think the US Military has finally figured out that without some small benefit increases there MAY be massive amounts of Soldiers who choose not to reinlist.

Mostly out of sheer economics not patriotism.

[Maigrey]

I wonder if this will be retro from Sept. 11?

My cousin would love that.

[mystery-ak]

...and it better be retroactive...this was a financial budern to a lot of GI's with families...

[mystery-ak]

...and it better be retroactive...this was a financial budern to a lot of GI's with families...

[mylife]

As expected, Congress has approved, without change, the base pay increases proposed by the Bush Administration. This means that all service members will receive a minimum base pay raise of 4.1 percent. Some members (mostly mid-level officers and mid-to-senior level NCOs) will receive an even greater "targeted" raise, ranging from 5 percent to 9.5 percent. This means the so-called "pay-gap" between average military wages and average civilian wages will shrink from 7.5 to 6.5 percent. Additionally, the act requires that minimum pay-raises in the future (until at least 2006) be above the average wage-increases for civilian jobs.

Military members who will receive "targeted" raises above 4.1 percent are: Grade/Years
of Service Percent
of Raise Grade/Years
of Service Percent
of Raise
O-6/14yrs 6.5% W-2/14yrs 5.5%
O-5 under 2 8.5 W-1/6 6.0
O-5/8 6.5 W-1/8 6.0
O-5/10 8.5 W-1/10 5.5
O-5/12 6.5 W-1/12 5.5
O-4 under 2 9.5 E-9/20 6.0
O-4/8 5.5 E-9/22 6.0
O-4/10 5.5 E-9/24 6.0
O-4/12 5.5 E-9/26 6.5
O-4/14 5.5 E-8/18 6.5
O-3/4 5.0 E-8/20 6.0
O-3/6 5.0 E-8/22 6.0
O-3/8 5.0 E-7/14 6.5
O-2E/4 5.0 E-7/16 6.0
O-2E/6 5.0 E-7/18 5.0
O-2E/8 5.0 E-6/8 6.5
W-3/14 6.0 E-6/10 6.0
W-3/16 6.0 E-6/12 6.0
W-3/18 6.0 E-6/14 5.5
W-3/20 6.0 E-5/6 6.5
W-2/10 5.5 E-5/8 6.0
W-2/12 5.5 E-5/10 6.0


The base pay raise will be effective on January 1, 2003, which means that military members should see the raise in their January 15th paycheck.