Posted on 02/07/2006 11:39:42 PM PST by jamese777
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.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at wvgazette.com ...
That's called getting screwed. It wasn't his responsibility in the first place. Someone else was supposed to take care of it back in Iraq. They dropped the ball and some pencil dick officer at Hood failed to fix the problem. don't tell me an officer can't do that. I know damn well they can. This Lt was on his way home after being wounded on duty. The officer that failed to fix this should be sent N of Canada to count melting snow flakes.
He could "hand walk" it through in less than a day of course. Or he could wait the week or more for it to go through proper channels. Or if he's that anxious to leave he could just pay the $700. I guess he chose door number three.
Eric Eyre is a bottom feeder loser.
No! So he could leave on time as planned!
That's what your ROD time is for. You are supposed to check to see if you have all the correct paperwork accomplished. If not, then get it done. Otherwise, you could be held up on the day you are supposed to leave. As he found out. Would you rather the NCOIC of the Central Issuing Facility have to pay the $700? 'Cause he would have to if he just let the item go missing from inventory without the proper paperwork from the person it was issued to. The Lt chose to pay the money. His decision.
This ain't within the NCO's authority. It is within the battalion commander's authority to fix the problem. It's plain to see this soldier's vest was trashed when the bomb went off. They wanted documents from other people, wherever the hell they were that the event actually happened. As if he faked the whole show to steal a friggin' vest. Since Rummy got an earful today, I hope he has this uncaring commander issued a canoe, paddle and a kick off to go find the friggin' vest he's so damn worried about.
From the story: "Rebrook said he tried to get a battalion commander to sign a waiver on the battle armor, but the officer declined."
I wish you'd quit crayfishing and tell us what you really think..... LOL.
< Where can we send a few bucks? >
He's been on all our local radio talk shows and has all kinds of offers to give him the money. It's taken care of. Even the mayor of Charleston called in and said he would pay it personally.
( forced to pay $700 )
According to the REAL story, shouldn't that be OPTED to pay and doesn't it feel good that we have the MSM hunting for stories like this for us?
Tsk tsk. Now, now.
We can't let facts get in the way of a Good Story about a heartless, stupid beauracracy! The story is MUCH better when a poor, wounded soldier is steamrolled by the heartless, ungrateful, cold, remoreseless military machine.
That said, I know nothing about this kind of paperwork...I am only an ex-swabbie...we never needed body armor (thankfully). You sound like you understand this, which is in contradiction to most of us who read this article or hear about it from the MSM, which is constantly dredging to find these things. No surprise there.
Thanks for adding your viewpoint. I think everyone agrees he shouldn't have to pay, but the story is being spun a particular way for a particular reason, IMHO.
There, that's better.
Mark
He was only making $80,000 a year in Iraq tax free plus he is a 1st Lt. and receives good pay when not in Iraq plus he will receive disability. You send him some money, the story is bogus.
The "statement of charges" investigation shouldn't take that long, as the circumstances are well documented. However, there still has to be an investigation and a statement of finding.
If he is a 1st Lt. he has probably served as a Exec. Officer and knows full well what is required for processing. He had 8 months to correct the problem. He has probably processed people himself. A 1st Lt. can get things move pretty quick. Are we suppose to believed that a West Point graduate is not aware of army procedure. A Battalion Commander is not going to sign a waver for anyone without know the facts unless he is bucking for a court marshal. The Lt was trying to short cut procedure based on rank. Why did he have to scrounge money? A 1st Lt. makes good money. $80,000 a year tax free while in Irap.
Keep in mind that there are officers who care about their men and then there are ........(unprintable)
You don't want to know!
Where in the world did you get that figure about 1st Lt pay?
Sounds like typical military finance SNAFU. Army finance is notorious for screwing up military pay. And believe me, it takes forever to fix a pay problem. BTW, most stateside finance offices have a majority of civilian workers, which is part of the problem, due to the fact that GS employees are seldom held accountable for their mistakes.
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