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 Rebrooks 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.
Rebrooks 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 ...
A sure-fire way to get pay screw-ups fixed is to request an emergency loan from Army Emergency Relief. This triggers AER to contact the soldier's command, command contacts DFAS, etc. It gets the problem "on the radar" quickly.
I always give the benefit of the doubt to the US soldier who has been in battle. I think thats a good rule.
The Klansman brought it up at the Defense department hearing this morning.General Pace promised to get to the bottom of it.
There's no reason in hell the damn Army couldn't fix this immediately! Screwing this guy is pure unadulterated BS.
Remember you are hearing (or reading) one side of the story.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1573713/posts?page=47#47
Only one side of the story has been told.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1573713/posts?page=47#47
Only one side of the story has been told.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1573713/posts?page=47#47
Only one side of the story has been told.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1573713/posts?page=47#47
Discipline and regimentation are things like PT and obeying your officers. This is bureaucratic red tape - and it is not immediately evident to me, admittedly a civilian, that a 1LT would be expected to know how to navigate this bureaucracy - especially one who was wounded.
i support all our soldiers all of the time. Please keep in mind we have only heard one side of the story at this point.
Is this procedure common knowledge or would he have to be lucky enough to come across someone who would actually have the intelligence and caring to help get him squared away? My own experience with supply/disbursing/personnel pukes leads me to believe that nobody lifted a finger to help him.
It was most likely deducted from his separation pay.
Reports of survey are done at the unit level and if his commander does not ensure that it is done it won't happen.
Yes, please keep us posted on this one. I get very supportive of our service people, when it comes to our military serving in time of war. If this is a smear job by some liberal journalist used to promote antiwar sentiments and bash the President, then the Charleston Gazette, Eric Eyre is going to get an earful.
Just as someone should be accountable if the facts in this story are accurate, some journalist should be fully accountable for any errors, omissions or oversights he/she should have more fully investigated and reported.
He should have just called his congressperson's office -- THEY would have told the Army to go f*** themselves. Medics rescuing and transporting gravely wounded soldiers have better things to do with their extremely limited time than document the disposition of each piece of clothing and equipment removed from the wounded soldier's body. I wonder if these regulations-bots also deduct the cost of missing body armor from the death benefits of soldiers who are killed in action.
Don't assume a 1LT knows crapola about the army - It's his FIRST promotion, and usually no more than 2 years in.
No this was probably a low level DOD employee making the call to garnish this guys pay.
It is also about adhering to the rules and regulations. Because of the necessity and great importance of discipline on the battlefield it must be part of every aspect of the military, even off the battlefield. It evens descends to the level of how a soldiers places his socks and underwear in his footlocker and how his uniform is hung in a locker during basic training. Another important part of a soldiers training, especially that of an officer is responsibility for his actions as well as those of his subordinates. If he can't be responsible for his own actions then he certainly can't be responsibility for those of his men as he is supposed to be.
This guy is looking more and more like a whiner or else the newspaper is doing a hit job on him.
You don't get to tell the other side of the story. The vest is trash, since it was hit with shrapnel a year prior when the soldier was in the explosion.
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