SwiftVets.com

[BuffaloJack]

[kate]

It was pretty disturbing to hear about this. Geezz , talk about bureaucratic snafus!

Jack-- see this thread at FReeRepublic

post # 32 is by Col Dan Baggio, U.S. Army Public Affairs

and at post #16 is a link to recently introduced legislation to address this
_________________
.
one of..... We The People

[BuffaloJack]

Thanks Kate. I hadn't seen that. Evidently this was an isolated case that some jerk reporter decided could be used to make the military look bad. And I fell for it. . If I could delete the post I would; I certainly don't want to help the media guy cast a bad light on our military.
_________________
Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71)

[dcornutt]

I would imagine there are probably a lot more cases of this out there that need fixing up.

When it takes an embarrasing media moment and a pending act of congress to get some help for a wounded vet or to get people to do the right thing for them...you know something's wrong. All anybody asks is to do the right thing. We know the system isn't perfect, and it's full of redtape and crap...that vets and their families have to go through. But, this is ridiculous. It's a shame really.

And I think the "FIRST" thing I would do is hold a Donald Trump "your fired" wienner roast for the Col. Then have his "replacement" look into the system that our Col has been managing here to find out why this has happened and actually how many it has happened to. I'm guessing we are going to find out that there been a lot more of these "computer glitches" than we know right now.

[LewWaters]

Unfortunately, this is the price with bureaucrats and their red tape. It doesn't excuse it, but too often, those in civil service become lackadaisical and who gets overlooked, lost or hurt doesn't matter to them.

This isn't the fault of a political party, just people who get in a job they know they will not lose.

It shouldn’t have happened, but corrective measures are being taken. I also hope measures are put in place so it doesn’t happen again.
_________________
Clark County Conservative

[kate]

Well there was obviously at least thiat one screw-up that this reporter highlighted.
? if there may be other cases

What's confusing the issue is this from
military.com which appears to be the current benefits situation.....

[Me#1You#10]

[dcornutt]

I'm quite sure politicians will be politicians and make whatever noise that benefits them. That's not the point. The point is if such things are already in place, and policy..that whom ever is directly responsible for this has "failed" to see that the systems and people under them and responsible for administering it were doing so properly.

I'm quite sure that they 'now' want to look into it and see what went wrong and make this all go away. I would also suspect this isn't the first time this has happened. That is usually not the case in these situations.

The attempt at new legislation being introduced is to now make it a "legal" issue and not a "policy" issue to pay our vets what they are owed.

edited for clarity

[GoophyDog]

Seems to be a lot of outrage over a non-event. I don't know about y'all but during my career I had at least three times where my pay was messed up due to a box not being checked or something equally stupid and I'm willing to bet this is simply a case of similar circumstances.

The automated pay system sees a termination of enlistment prior the contract term so flags the account as an overpayment and sends a notice of collection. Probably no human intervention at all. My guess is a box wasn't checked or a form not submitted when he was out-processed.

Come on we all know the phrase when it comes to military pay. S N A F U
_________________
Why ask? Because it needs asking.

[dcornutt]

I would not call having the top spokeperson at the pentagon doing media events and passing out a 1-800 number...an "isolated non-event".

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

Having this happen just once is a PR nightmare, of course - and the original story even cited official policy, which is that bonuses are NOT recouped from wounded soldiers.

It's certainly a non-event in terms of frequency. However regrettable it is that a wounded soldier should get this kind of notice, pay glitches and problems are constant - in the military and out. Goophy is right - it's an automated system with lots of opportunities for error. The wounded are not (unfortunately) immunized against problems with pay and allowances.

The fact that the military reacted so quickly (and with "overwhelming assets") should indicate that making practice fit policy on this issue is a high priority to them.

The current system was obviously failing someone and a publicized 800 number is a good safety net, in case it's happening more often.

Oddly enough, the story mentions only this one soldier and admits that even the congress critter who wants to "fix" the problem doesn't know of other cases where this has happened.

I'm skeptical, to say the least. There are just too many people in the press who are willing to go way out on the ragged edge for any scrap that puts the military in a bad light.
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[Me#1You#10]

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

Yeah, you won't catch me on military.com on a bet, these days.

And we haven't bought a Navy Times for a good ten years, either - seems like they were always among the first ones to print this kind of garbage.

They're hostile parasites - they exist because of the military, but they do more than the average bear to discredit or dishonor (or otherwise diss) the military and as an entity, will only be fulfilled if they have destroyed the military, even though it means that they have also destroyed themselves.

The media equivalent of tapeworm.
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[dcornutt]

The initial story did not say this was an isolated incident. It mentioned that these same stories have been circulating within the enlisted ranks for years...ie..that there is a high probablity that there are a lot more of these "isolated events" out there. And yes, the media is simply looking for this kind of story for their own reasons, and politicians the same. But, I think the larger point is ...that is all the "more" reason that these things should not be looked at as trivial, non-events that are being blown out of proportion. And the reason is obvious...beause of the damage these things can do in every direction when you dont' have systems in place to deal with them and don't get aggressive with these issues and resolve them ..when you are aware of them but instead wait until after the fact in front of media cameras after they've become full blown media events. Walter Reid comes to mind.

This is how I see it thus far:

1) It was mistake that this solider was ever sent such letter in the first place. (also known as: SNAFU, computer glitch, administrative error, red tape)

2) Staff/officers at administrative office did not know standing policy on this issue!

3) As a result, staff and officers failed to identify this as somekind of computer and/or administrative error and continued to insist that the letter was sent properly (ie..that he owed the money).

4) Because of this, as well as no other systems being put in place to recognize or catch this otherwise, it was never brought to anyone's attention up the chain of command until it was on the news.

5) Total failure in chain of command as to all of the above..resulting in embarrasing and damaging media event.

I think the Col. had best hope he can get the vast majority of those "glitches" called in on his "new" number...hopefully with personell who know policy and can get things working for them I say that because you can rest assured there's an entire army of politcal and agenda minded "journalist" out there right now looking for those very same soliders.

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

As I said, it's terribly regrettable that this occurred to even ONE wounded soldier. That the military reacted so quickly to fix it suggests to me that someone up high understands how egregious an error it was.

But I'm not following - I might have jumped the tracks somewhere... how would you surmise from the story that Jordan Fox encountered staff/officers who did not know standing policy? There aren't any from anyone in that story from staff or officers who don't know policy - in fact, there is a black and white statement that it is NOT policy to recoup bonuses from wounded soldiers.

There is no comment from Jordan Fox that indicates that he even ATTEMPTED to use the chain of command to question the mistake, much less that he tried the chain of command and was met with only recalcitrant disbursing officers. (The chain of command can only work when it's been activated, in either one direction or the other.)

I didn't read anywhere that any officer or staff continued to insist that the letter was sent properly. I only read that one story - and to me it said that ONE soldier complained to ONE journalist about notification that he was required to return part of an enlistment bonus. What am I missing?

The title of that story indicates that this is a problem that affected more than one person, but there was nothing in the story itself about anyone other than Jordan Fox.

Even the congressman that wrote legislation to "fix" the problem said that he didn't know of other similar cases.

I hope it's as isolated an occurrence as it looks. There was another incidence of some sort of paperwork snafu back at the beginning of the war. I don't remember exactly what it was, something that affected dependents of deployed - the military had to change its systems and practice to match policy. Apparently it worked because you don't hear of that problem happening any more. It will be fixed this time, too.

These "journalists" need to realize that the entity that has deposed two sponsors of terror and begun to establish democracy in two outlaw countries in the last five years isn't really going to need much in the way of guidance from snotty civilians to keep its pay and allowances systems straight.
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother