Pentagon demands return of cash bonuses paid to California soldiers for going to war

Re: Government screws up...soldiers pay

Patrickt said:

The bonuses were what the recruiters said they should be so how would the soldiers know there was a problem. When didn't the generals and the auditors know there was a problem at the time. One should never underestimate the incompetence of the government.

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That's a rather broad brush. From what I understand is that these military folks who re-upped were defrauded by lying recruiters. Some of whom had these military folks sign the right documents for their bonuses then destroyed thousands of those doucments.

And it looks like government is what's going to fix this fraud.

Re: Government screws up...soldiers pay

Great news!


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.

Re: Government screws up...soldiers pay

Common Sense 1 said:

Great news!


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.

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Like I just said above your post, the recruiters defrauded them and the govenrment fixed it. This is good news.

Re: Government screws up...soldiers pay

Patrickt said:

The bonuses were what the recruiters said they should be so how would the soldiers know there was a problem. When didn't the generals and the auditors know there was a problem at the time. One should never underestimate the incompetence of the government.

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Well, I don't know how that worked. If it was advertised that "you get a $10,000 bonus for signing up, spread out over a year," then a soldier would notice if he were getting significantly more than that. But if he was just told "you'll get a bonus," then there's no way to know.

Example: When I checked my bank account balance once long ago, I saw an amount much larger than what I thought it would be. I knew there was a good chance that an error had been made. I called the bank to report a possible error, partly because I knew that the bank would catch the error sooner or later and I'd have to give the money back, so I couldn't even spend it. (Also, I knew it would be wrong to keep it; it would have belonged to someone else.) The bank checked, though, and it was my money. I was misremembering what amount I thought should be in the account.

Can't believe the govt is asking for the money back after this length of time. Tacky. Wrong. These guys won't be able to pay large sums like that, anyway.

Re: Government screws up...soldiers pay

Re: Government screws up...soldiers pay

poweRob said:

Pentagon chief suspends reimbursement for enlistment bonuses

The White House said earlier this week that President Barack Obama had warned the Defense Department not to "nickel and dime" service members who were victims of wrongdoing by overzealous recruiters.​

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It's utterly moronic it got to this point, or that it even had to.