Wounded Soldier: Military Wants Part Of Bonus Back

Wounded Soldier: Military Wants Part Of Bonus Back -- ABSOLUTE LUNACY!!!

kdka.com

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―

The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.

To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up to $30,000 in some cases.

Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 21-11-2007 by chissler]

My god! This is freaking ridiculous.

Not only do they not pay these guys well enough as it is, but now they want them to give the money back when they get wounded?

Hell, if anything they should get MORE money.


This is a crying shame!!!!!


Jasn

kdka.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Shame im not amarican......

I just wanna rush right out and enlist......

My guess is the gov is gonna need that money to fund the upcoming draft....

See, it's not a question of forcing citizens to support our troops, it's a question of forcing our government to support our troops. These are OUR brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. We support them. The government just employs them, they look at them as nothing more than warm bodies used to throw at a problem. Sure the training is great, you don't want to lose an investment.

Did you know that the Army fines you for getting sunburned? Yep, you get fined for damaging Government Property, a friend of mine who's done two tours in Iraq told me this.

But Fox feels like he's already given enough. He'll never be able to pursue his dream of being a police officer because of his wounds and he can't believe he's being asked to return part of his $10,000 signing bonus.

You know that is a new low. These men and women gave part of themselfs for this counrty and now the counrty wants to take away more! This young man gave not only him self but his dream as well. Shameful, just shameful.

Out of the massive budget for defense, larger than all nation's defense budgets on earth combined, we can't spare the thousands of dollars promised these troops? Thats like a billionaire snatching pennies from children.

Almost half a trillion between the budgets for the wars and defense. What the !@#$% is wrong with the DOD?

KDKA contacted Congressman Jason Altmire on his behalf. He says he has proposed a bill that would guarantee soldiers receive full benefit of bonuses

This is somewhat encouraging, a Congressman has proposed a bill to address the situation. I hope there is plenty of public outcry to help move it along.

It is absolutely absurd that they would take back a signing bonus.

It is set up for the goverment to encourage wounded soldiers so they can have more money. That would make me feel so enraged if I was to give my physical health away to fight for our country and they could be so bold as to ask for money back.

The article reads that he only had three months left to fulfill his obligation, not that it matters, but come on..............

(shaking head in disbelief)

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, OP.

I do not see a reason as why our government is so cruel about this. They sacrificed their all for them.

Without our soldiers there would be nobody to say "Hey you piece of crap, you let your leg get blown off, I want some money back."

Without our soldiers, there would be nothing. No president, no government, no nothing! One day they will realize this. Maybe when Its to late.

[edit on 21-11-2007 by jca2005]

Puts a whole new slant on "fighting for your freedoms"

Don't you think?

This sounds like nothing more then a contract dispute. If you got a sign on bonus to work as a nurse, or tech support even, then get hurt, would you have to pay it back? You absolutely would. Sorry, but the government is just a big corporation, they have to conduct business just like anyone else.
If these people that got hurt, have to pay back the money, it should make not just them, but all the American People think, "why volunteer".

Throwing money at people is not an effective way to manage care, and support. This is just an example of the american people having no control on there government, and them doing whatever the heck they want too.

Cheers,

Camain

Originally posted by camain
This sounds like nothing more then a contract dispute. If you got a sign on bonus to work as a nurse, or tech support even, then get hurt, would you have to pay it back?

Hmmm... I guess the soldier should have read the fine print in the contract then. But isn't getting injured or more to the point, the potential to be in harms way part and parcel of being a soldier?

Agreed, this is lunacy -- proves how desperate the government is for money w/ the U.S. 9$ trillion deficit: zfacts.com...



[edit on 21-11-2007 by anhinga]

reply to post by Beachcoma


I think most of them should have read the fine print... then again we would probably be in a draft by now.

Can't be too surprised. We've got a worthless Congress who has done nothing this year other than try to steal our liberty and play games with the budget. They're trying to end the war by cutting back funding. However it is not the military's job to decide political matters. It's their job to fight. When the military expects to or already has their funding cut, and they have to decide between buying more bullets or honoring signing bonuses they technically are no longer obligated to, it's pretty obvious what route they're going to take.

It doesn't have to be right, or honorable, but it does make sense.

This is an example of how a corporate ridden government rules the nation and its military.

Actually the defense budget is outrageous because most of the money goes to finance the private companies working in Iraq.

Is not all for the military per say is haliburton private contractors blood sucking monsters that need the blood infusions.

At the expenses of our soldiers well being.

Soldiers are meaningless fodder to people in power. A lot of soldiers are from the bottom of the socio-economic barrel, that's why they're treated the way they are. They've been programmed with all this patriotic mumbo-jumbo to the point where it's actually a surprise to them when they get dumped on.

Besides, they'll just throw a few worthless medals a soldier's way thinking that he or she will just roll over like a dog.

Peace

I guess his Congressman is looking into it, but I am sure now that this has hit the news, it will get taken care of incredibly fast. They already seem to be backing off of it a bit. I think it'll shake out that it was an automated thing.

In the interview, the kid said they took about $2k out of leave that he still had remaining when he was medically discharged. Talk about a kick in the balls.

This is just an example of someone with thick glasses seeing that a contract was not meet without understanding why it wasn't met.

In the end theses guys/gals will not pay back a single penny.

This is typical DoD trying to get away with whatever they can from their troops. For us that are serving and those who already did they know what I'm talking about.

Now that they are taking a PR hit they are going to blame it on an: "old policy that was already in place and is now under review", thats how the DoD operates. In my case I been suffering from back pain since my last deployment and also diagnosed with a physical condition that I did not have prior to joining the military, now that my service is almost over, they want me to sign papers saying I had those conditions prior to joining the military, see if I do that I'm not elegible for any kind of veterans disability compensation or any other medical service that I will need related to those conditions.

My point is to me this nothing new, just check the about face that they going to do becauase of the bad PR. The DoD and the VA suck at taking care of veterans.

Good Lord...This is so offensive it aint funny

You pay someone a bonus to sign up to the military cos you can use their skills...They get injured on the job, can't work anymore in the capacity that you thought at the beginning, and you ask them to repay what you paid them upfront ??

Are you kidding ???

Has the US military heard of workers compensation ? Its a common thing outside the US for almost every worker in any industry...

This is disgusting...Regardless of the morality of the why they should have been there, they served their country in good faith and get treated like this ?

I really hope the Australian Govt hasn't treated recently returned service people like this, if they have, I'm going to be a rocket up their arses...

grrrr

But a bad feeling inside tells me there are a number of recently serving Australians who have suffered similarly....That really gets my goat...

reply to post by SimiusDei


I saw a report about that the other day. It really ticked me off! Called my represintitive to protest! She said she was on it already and i was far from the first to complain about his situation! HE HAS BEEN WRONGED BUT, WE WILL MAKE IT RIGHT!