Carter suspends Pentagon’s demand of the return of cash bonuses to California soldiers

foxnews.com ^ | 10/26/16 | foxnews

[ColdOne]

DEVELOPING: The U.S. Secretary of Defense said Tuesday that he is ordering the Pentagon to suspend its effort to recover the decade-old reenlistment bonuses paid to thousands of California Army National Guard soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

About 2,000 soldiers were recently told they had to repay the cash bonuses that, in some cases, amounted to $15,000 or more.

Ash Carter, the secretary, said in a statement that there is a process in place to assist soldiers who seek relief of such obligations, and in this case, “hundreds” of Guard members have already sought and have been granted relief.

“But that process has simply moved too slowly and in some cases imposed unreasonable burdens on service members,” the statement read. “That is unacceptable.”

[polymuser]

Please, Lord, let Donald drain the DC swamp.

[DarthVader]

The political damage is done already. Looks disingenuous.

[thulldud]

They fly a plane full of cash to Iran, but demand payment for their screw up from soldiers who many served and paid the ultimate price in their foreign wars.

This is a government which has "plenty" of money for causes it favors (welfare, bailouts, "green tech", and such) but is in a sudden budget crunch when people who pay into a system for ~40 years look to get some little bit of it back ('Social' 'Security', yeah right).

Are we really surprised?

[zaxtres]

In military parlance for this FUBAR situation, you’re SOL.

[tbw2]

There should be a statute of limitations for debts like this.