"All
governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed."
-I. F. Stone
U.S. Soldiers
Betrayed by Their Government
Pentagon Orders Soldiers to Return Enlistment Bonuses
By de Andréa,
Opinion Editorialist for
‘THE BOTTOM LINE’
“Here is
a check for $30,000, sign this contract and spend the next 6 years in combat. You might come back missing arms, face or your
legs, maybe even your life, but at least you have $30,000.
10
years later nearly 10,000 soldiers are threatened
to be sent to the Gulags or to give back the money paid them for their
reenlistment.
A decade after the California National Guard
offered bonuses starting at $15,000 to as much as $55,000 to soldiers if
they would reenlist for 6 years and serve on combat tours, the Pentagon is now
demanding these soldiers repay the money or face legal consequences, according
to a report from the Los Angeles Times. What!
Is Obama’s support the enemy fund running a little low???
Soldiers Ordered to Return Bonuses
The
California Guard’s use of monetary incentives in the mid-2000's to boost the
declining enlistment rosters while facing two wars enticed nearly 10,000
soldiers to reenlist. But years after the Contracts were made, the government
decided that California Guard officials mismanaged the agreements and allowed
for widespread fraud. As a bitter thanks for their service, thousands of
soldiers have been ordered to repay those bonuses.
"Shame on the callous Pentagon decision makers who simply dictate
pay back, while not thinking through the effect it will have on service
personal and the fallout of bad publicity in the communities in which they
live."
"At
the end of the day, the soldiers ended up paying the largest price," Maj.
Gen. Matthew Beevers, deputy commander of the California Guard, told the LA
Times. "We’d be more than happy to absolve these people of their debts.
We just can’t do it. We’d be breaking the law."
I can’t help but wonder if it occurred to
them that violating a good faith contract is breaking the law…
According to Col. Michael S. Piazzoni, a
California Guard official who supervised the audits, the Guard paid much of the
money upfront while the system spent the next several years analyzing whether
or not the agreements were even above board. The soldiers with whom the Guard
made the agreements primarily were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
When the National Guard Bureau investigated
the bonus payments across the country, the Pentagon agency found that bonus
overpayments took place in every state. But California engaged in the
highest levels of overpayments and incentives dangled in front of the soldiers to entice them to
reenlist.
The unpleasant
discovery of the error in California was made 10 years ago, and was given to Senator
Barbara Boxer who dropped the ball.
Moreover the Pentagon still ordered approximately 9,700 of the soldiers
to repay the bonuses. So far, $22 million has been returned. But the repayment
initiatives have left these soldiers bitter, broke, and betrayed, while many
began filing appeals or flat out refusing to comply with the Pentagon’s orders. And the media failed to report it until now.
NOTE: Someone should have told these soldiers that Senators no
longer represent anything, they just represent themselves. Read the 17th amendment.
Robert Richmond recently told the LA Times he reenlisted
as a Special Forces soldier when he learned that he ostensibly qualified for a
$15,000 bonus. After being deployed to Iraq in 2007, Richmond served in the
town of Hillah, which was part of an area known as the "Triangle of Death." Richmond was left with permanent brain and back injuries
after a roadside bomb exploded near him.
When Richmond learned that the Pentagon had slapped him in the face with
an order to repay his bonus or face "debt collection action," he
could not believe it. "I
signed a contract that I literally risked my life to fulfill," Richmond
told the LA Times. "We want
somebody in the government, anybody, to say this is wrong and we’ll stop going
after this money." After
refusing to pay the bonuses and filing several appeals, the Treasury Department
informed Richmond that his "unpaid $15.000 delinquent debt"
has now risen to $19,694.62. The U.S.
Federal Government has obviously taken on the role of LOAN SHARK!
One retired colonel
slammed the deep injustice handed to the California guardsmen. "This is not the way to treat soldiers.
I can fully understand how soldiers in the article felt 'betrayed, screwed,
frustrated, and overwhelmed,'" retired Col. James A. Lake told
Life Zette. "Shame on the callous Pentagon decision makers who simply dictate pay
back while not thinking through the effect it will have on service personal and
the fallout of bad publicity in the communities in which they live." Lake,
who served 26 years in the United States Army, served as a battalion commander
for active and reserve recruiting during the 1980s. Noting that it was
"very common" for recruiters to offer incentives to entice men and
women with highly sought-after occupational skills to enlist, Lake said the
incentive program was "necessary" for recruitment efforts. "The article appears to outline clearly
that there was fraud and bad management at the National Guard level in
administrating the incentives. Whether it was the pressure of meeting quotas or
just pure ignorance, the enlistee should not bear the responsibility to pay
back that which was given," Lake said. "The only exception would be if the
enlistee knew that the integrity of the incentive program was being
breached."
But
good luck getting even a thankyou from this Communist Government. Our soldiers will be lucky if they aren’t
sent to the Gulags’.
Note: Did you know that
these soldiers had to pay income taxes on these bonuses? I wonder if these Marxist Fabians will be so eager
to pay the taxes back…
Probably
not!
Watch videos identifying this Issue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NdnXj7jOy4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDsHi6VJcYI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m767HOo99w0
Thanks for listening my friend!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDsHi6VJcYI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m767HOo99w0
Thanks for listening my friend!
-
de Andréa
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1 comment:
Just read your article...yesterday on the news it was announced that the government is not going to go after these soldiers and collect their bonuses after all. That was good news. I agree that it was horrible for them to take back the bonuses but good sense has prevailed.
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