Well, this is matched by another SNAFU that just makes the military look horrible:
He lost an arm in Iraq; the Army wants money QUOTE
Middletown – He lost his arm serving his country in Iraq.
Now this wounded soldier is being discharged from his company in Fort Hood, Texas, without enough gas money to get home. In fact, the Army says 27-year-old Spc. Robert Loria owes it close to $2,000, and confiscated his last paycheck.
...
AFTER SEVERAL MORE MONTHS, the Army is releasing Loria. But \"clearing Fort Hood,\" as the troops say, takes paperwork. Lots of it.
Loria thought he'd done it all, and was getting ready to collect $4,486 in final Army pay.
Then he was hit with another bomb. The Army had another tally – of money it says Loria owed to his government.
A Separation Pay Worksheet given to Loria showed the numbers: $2,408.33 for 10 months of family separation pay that the Army erroneously paid Loria after he'd returned stateside, as a patient at Walter Reed; $2,204.25 that Loria received for travel expenses from Fort Hood back to Walter Reed for a follow-up visit, after the travel paperwork submitted by Loria never reached the correct desk. And $310 for missing items on his returned equipment inventory list.
\"There was stuff lost in transportation, others damaged in the accident,\" Loria said of the day he lost his hand. \"When it went up the chain of command, the military denied coverage.\"
Including taxes, the amount Loria owed totaled $6,255.50. The last line on the worksheet subtracted that total from his final Army payout and found $1,768.81 \"due us.\"
\"It's nerve-racking,\" Loria said. \"After everything I have done, it's almost like I am being abandoned, like, you did your job for us and now you are no use. That's how it feels.\"
recordonline.com coverage When I first read this I was livid - once you lose a limb in the military, I really believe all monetary debts should be considered paid in full - in fact I don't think we could give this guy ENOUGH money for what he, and other wounded vets, have gone through. It's bad enough he's being blamed for the military's screw up in overpaying him, but to charge him for equipment that may have been destroyed in the very attack in which he lost his arm?!
As it turns out, like a lot of stories in this genre, the media attention worked, for this soldier at least.
Army takes action on soldier QUOTE
Middletown – Outrage over Army Spc. Robert Loria's struggle to get home after losing his arm in service for his country prompted the Army today to take action.
Responding to pressure from Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Saugerties, and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, the Army said it would release Loria on medical discharge beginning immediately, both men said.
The Army has also agreed to waive most of the debt against Loria and to help him file proper paperwork for the rest of it.
Aides to Hinchey and Schumer said the Army was going to forgive the $2,408 in excess Family Separation allowance the military erroneously paid Loria as well as a $310 charge for equipment issued to Loria that was damaged or lost in the attack in Iraq. And the Army was also going to help Loria refile his travel papers to make sure he does not get saddled with paying back advance travel money used to travel from the base at Fort Hood, Texas, to a follow-up visit to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Follow-up coverage This is great for this guy, but how many vets are caught up in this kind of beauracratic nightmare? And how many of them can count on their Rep or Senator to go to bat for them?
And then reading the problems some of the homeless vets in the original story have faced, it seems clear that when the administration failed to account for the possibility we might not be accepted with open arms in Iraq, they likely also didn't think to beef up the VA - and ironically, with the improvements in battlefield technology that are leaving far more wounded and fewer dead than in previous wars, the VA is going to be hit proportionally harder for this war.
Isn't this kind of thing more important than privatizing Social Security?