Posted on 02/07/2006 11:44:45 AM PST by iPod Shuffle
February 07, 2006
Soldier pays for armor # Army demanded $700 from city man who was wounded
By Eric Eyre Staff writer
The last time 1st Lt. William “Eddie” Rebrook IV saw his body armor, he was lying on a stretcher in Iraq, his arm shattered and covered in blood.
A field medic tied a tourniquet around Rebrook’s right arm to stanch the bleeding from shrapnel wounds. Soldiers yanked off his blood-soaked body armor. He never saw it again.
But last week, Rebrook was forced to pay $700 for that body armor, blown up by a roadside bomb more than a year ago. - advertisement - Find a job today.
He was leaving the Army for good because of his injuries. He turned in his gear at his base in Fort Hood, Texas. He was informed there was no record that the body armor had been stripped from him in battle.
He was told to pay nearly $700 or face not being discharged for weeks, perhaps months.
Rebrook, 25, scrounged up the cash from his Army buddies and returned home to Charleston last Friday.
“I last saw the [body armor] when it was pulled off my bleeding body while I was being evacuated in a helicopter,” Rebrook said. “They took it off me and burned it.”
But no one documented that he lost his Kevlar body armor during battle, he said. No one wrote down that armor had apparently been incinerated as a biohazard.
Rebrook’s mother, Beckie Drumheler, said she was saddened — and angry — when she learned that the Army discharged her son with a $700 bill. Soldiers who serve their country, those who put their lives on the line, deserve better, she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wvgazette.com ...
ping
Do you really think this snafu would be cleared up without this article? The soldier says that his higher ups basically told him they didn't want to get involved.
Why did he pay it? He should have told the Army to go 'f' themselves.
Really? I saw it as a wounded soldier being blackmailed to pay up $700 OR ELSE he won't get out of the army.
Exactly. When my husband and son both deployed they made me promise that I would not, under any circumstances say anything stupid to the MSM....
Give me a break. The military is filled with beareucratic clowns and officers who won't put their own neck on the line for anything. Two of our guys went w/out armor for 7 of their 8 month deployment and only got 'we're working on it' from the higher ups who spent lots of time goofing off or sleeping.
Wonder if we can collect the $700 to send him?
I agree that they should be held resposible for thier equipment, but this is just plain wrong. Lets use a little common sense.
Yes, you are right...but I also agree that now that he's spoken to the press, he'll get his $700. Government bureaucracy at its finest.
i can't believe this. equipment lost in combat is rarely charged to soldiers through reports of survevy.
"This soldier will get his money back when the paper snafu is cleared up."
I love our fighting men, but if you think this will be cleared up without a fight, you're way wrong. The REMFs don't care. They're about paper, not battle. For this brave young man to get his $700 back, there will have to be a fight. It starts with this article.
"When you join the military the equipment you are assigned is your responsibility and lacking proof to the contrary that it was not your fault you must pay for destroyed or lost property. This soldier will get his money back when the paper snafu is cleared up. This is nothing but a not so subtle attempt to bash the military and by association the president."
You are absolutely correct. As a retired Army soldier who held a secondary MOS of 76Y for over a decade, what you said is the fact of the matter. This article is Bravo Sierra. :)
"When you join the military the equipment you are assigned is your responsibility and lacking proof to the contrary that it was not your fault you must pay for destroyed or lost property. This soldier will get his money back when the paper snafu is cleared up. This is nothing but a not so subtle attempt to bash the military and by association the president."
Exactly, a bureaucratic snafu that has an emotional pull because it involves a wounded soldier.
Something doesn't add up here...Before garnishment would occur there would be a quick investigation at his former command as to the disposition of the vest. On the DD-200 Survey form, the findings would be documented and he Commanding Officer makes a determination whether to "write off" the lost/damaged equipment or garnish the cost from the servicemember. What CO in his right mind would charge one of his wounded under these circumstances?
"What CO in his right mind would charge one of his wounded under these circumstances?"
None. This was some puke clerk who did this, not a CO. COs don't read every piece of paper and every discharge survey, for pete's sake.
This is a REMF SNAFU. Anyone who has been in the military knows what that is. I didn't get paid for 3 months after my transfer to a base in Turkey. Seems my paperwork was sent to Shemya in the Aleutians. I went in a different direction. The answer from the REMFs in the COs office in Turkey? "Nothing we can do, sergeant."
Yep, bureaucratic aristocracy in the rear... I would even suspect feminist soldiers (man or woman) involved in this snafu
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