Pulling a Wells Fargo.

[CarlV]

I guess that could become a standard phrase. Anyway, this how we take care of our own. Sad.

David S. Cloud

Short of troops to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan a decade ago, the California National Guard enticed thousands of soldiers with bonuses of $15,000 or more to reenlist and go to war.

Now the Pentagon is demanding the money back.

Nearly 10,000 soldiers, many of whom served multiple combat tours, have been ordered to repay large enlistment bonuses — and slapped with interest charges, wage garnishments and tax liens if they refuse — after audits revealed widespread overpayments by the California Guard at the height of the wars last decade.

Investigations have determined that lack of oversight allowed for widespread fraud and mismanagement by California Guard officials under pressure to meet enlistment targets.

But soldiers say the military is reneging on 10-year-old agreements and imposing severe financial hardship on veterans whose only mistake was to accept bonuses offered when the Pentagon needed to fill the ranks.

“These bonuses were used to keep people in,” said Christopher Van Meter, a 42-year-old former Army captain and Iraq veteran from Manteca, Calif., who says he refinanced his home mortgage to repay $25,000 in reenlistment bonuses and $21,000 in student loan repayments that the Army says he should not have received. “People like me just got screwed.”
Link

Nice, huh? I wonder what they are doing about "Gold Star" soldiers.

Carl

[donquixote99]

Interesting question. Likewise, do you get some credit if you got some part or parts blown off?

Total crock. They took the money in good faith.

[Pio1980]

The reasons this happened aren't dissimilar to WF pressure to recruit new accounts. The perpetrators of the pressure are imo accountable.

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[nailer]

Our elected leaders?

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by CarlV

I guess that could become a standard phrase. Anyway, this how we take care of our own. Sad.



Nice, huh? I wonder what they are doing about "Gold Star" soldiers.

Carl

No doubt they will go after the parents, we really need to kick out the Secretary of the Army, in addition to being a misogynist he now is just plain mean.

[Pio1980]

Originally Posted by nailer

Our elected leaders?

No, the unelected appointed leaders that applied the pressure thru unrealistic goal setting.


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[nailer]

Fielding the ground forces required once the nationalistic popularity of the war had worn away was not an easy task. A professional military is the cause of this abuse of soldiers no longer needed and abusing no longer needed soldiers is an American tradition.

[Pio1980]

Originally Posted by nailer

Fielding the ground forces required once the nationalistic popularity of the war had worn away was not an easy task. A professional military is the cause of this abuse of soldiers no longer needed and abusing no longer needed soldiers is an American tradition.

Part of the cost not accounted in warhawking without forsight.
I never had to suffer for being a vet, either by being the symbol of sombodies' 'something', or by Conservative cost cutting (other then Graham-Rudman under Reagan reneging on dental care). I accept the hearing aids and Tricare as a sort of apology.

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[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by Pio1980

No, the unelected appointed leaders that applied the pressure thru unrealistic goal setting.


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It must be noted that the unelected, appointed Secretary of the Army serves at the pleasure of the President.

[sheltiedave]

This is fraud, committed knowingly and with forethought, by the Guard recruiters.

As former military, I know the conditions these veterans served in, and the sacrifices they made because they honorably committed to a contract in order to gain a financial advantage at the beginning of their reenlistment period. They should be able to retain the paid bonuses.

Visiting financial ruin upon vets who honorably served is Kafkaesque, immoral, and an example of a military without a mind.

Oh, you served in Afghanistan and/or Iraq, and you survived? Congratulations, now return that bonus.