Outrageous!

[ScottP]

Like many soldiers wounded in Iraq, Spc Robert Loria's injuries were caused by a roadside bombing. It happened in February when his team from the 588th Battalion's Bravo Company was going to help evacuate an area in Baqubah, a town 40 miles north of Baghdad. A bomb had just ripped off another soldier's arm. Loria's Humvee drove into an ambush. 

 

When the second bomb exploded, it tore Loria's left hand and forearm off, split his femur in two and shot shrapnel through the left side of his body. Months later, he was still recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and just beginning to adjust to life without a hand, when he was released back to Fort Hood. 

 

AFTER SEVERAL MORE MONTHS, the Army is releasing Loria. But "clearing Fort Hood," as the troops say, takes paperwork. Lots of it. 

 

Loria thought he'd done it all, and was getting ready to collect $4,486 in final Army pay. 

 

Then he was hit with another bomb. The Army had another tally – of money it says Loria owed to his government. 

 

A Separation Pay Worksheet given to Loria showed the numbers: $2,408.33 for 10 months of family separation pay that the Army erroneously paid Loria after he'd returned stateside, as a patient at Walter Reed; $2,204.25 that Loria received for travel expenses from Fort Hood back to Walter Reed for a follow-up visit, after the travel paperwork submitted by Loria never reached the correct desk. And $310 for missing items on his returned equipment inventory list. 

 

"There was stuff lost in transportation, others damaged in the accident," Loria said of the day he lost his hand. "When it went up the chain of command, the military denied coverage." 

 

Including taxes, the amount Loria owed totaled $6,255.50. The last line on the worksheet subtracted that total from his final Army payout and found $1,768.81 "due us." 

 

"It's nerve-racking," Loria said. "After everything I have done, it's almost like I am being abandoned, like, you did your job for us and now you are no use. That's how it feels." 

 

 

link

[catbirdseat]

That sucks the Great Green Weenie.

[sexual_chocolate]

Blah blah blah outrageous outrageous up in arms blowing a fuse and shit.

 

Ever thought: Don't join the army?

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Blah blah blah outrageous outrageous up in arms blowing a fuse and shit.

 

Ever thought: Don't join the army?

 

Seems like we treated our veterans much better after WWII, and that would be a worthy standard to meet...

[sexual_chocolate]

Actually, I wonder if "we" did....

 

Or is nostalgia for the "good ol' days" coloring the perception?

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Actually, I wonder if "we" did....

 

Or is nostalgia for the "good ol' days" coloring the perception?

 

I was thinking of things like the GI Bill - education, housing programs for vets, a good VA benefit. Nostalgia? Don't know - seems like everyone agrees on this - at least I have not heard anything to the contrary.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Actually, I wonder if "we" did....

 

Or is nostalgia for the "good ol' days" coloring the perception?

 

Of course I did gloss over your point about our modern volunteer army.

 

Back in WWII, many did volunteer, but many were drafted...

[Dru]

The Bonus Army and its Historical Significance The United States Army fought no major wars in the 1930s, but actions that it undertook in that decade contributed importantly to the development of the U.S. as it is today. In particular, the so-called Bonus Army incident led to specific and lasting changes in both the publicly perceived role of the United States Army and the way in which war veterans are treated in the U.S. These changes resonate well beyond the military. At the conclusion of World War I (WWI), veterans’ groups pressured Congress to approve a cash payment calculated on the basis of the number of days soldiers spent on duty.1 A version of this “bonus” was approved in 1924, with the caveat that payments were to be made in 1945 rather than immediately.2 Under this compromise, veterans were issued Adjusted Service Certificates guaranteeing their future. Less than a decade later, however, the nation’s descent into the Great Depression and a Congressman named Wright Patman intervened. The Depression brought great economic pain; WWI veterans, like the rest of the population, suffered from high unemployment and food shortages. Although Congress in 1931 allowed veterans to borrow against their future bonus payments, Patman pushed further, introducing a bill to authorize immediate bonus payments.

1 Donald J. Lisio, The President and Protest: Hoover, MacArthur, and the Bonus Riot. New York: Oxford UP, 1994, 7. Except where noted, details of the Bonus Army incident in my summary are drawn primarily from the Lisio book and Jennifer D. Keene, Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2001, 179-204. 2 Ibid., 7-8.

1

Patman’s efforts to hasten the bonus payment resonated with struggling veterans across the country.3 Up to an estimated 20,000 veterans and sympathizers converged on Washington, DC to demand passage of the bonus bill. Demonstrations and peaceful marches began in Washington in May 1932. The demonstrators took shelter in several ramshackle buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol, and in a shantytown on the Anacostia Flats, east of the Anacostia River. President Herbert Hoover refused to meet with the leaders of what had come to be known as the Bonus Expeditionary Force, or Bonus Army. After passing the House, the bonus bill was soundly defeated by a Senate vote in mid-June. Nevertheless, the daily marches continued. On July 28, Secretary of War Hurley ordered the police to evict the veterans from the buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue, which were scheduled for demolition.4 Fighting broke out as the police moved in to enforce the eviction order, escalating into a riot in which two veterans were shot and killed. Local officials quickly requested the intervention of the U.S. Army. President Hoover deployed the Army to disperse the crowd. General Douglas MacArthur led the troops in, using heavy-handed techniques to chase the marchers across the river to the Anacostia Flats. Once there, MacArthur exceeded his orders and destroyed the shantytown in the Flats, driving the Bonus Army from Washington.

[ScottP]

Blah blah blah outrageous outrageous up in arms blowing a fuse and shit.

 

Ever thought: Don't join the army?

I don't care how the guy ended up in Iraq, suffering wounds like this shouldn't result in wages being garnished by the Pentagon:

 

link

[sexual_chocolate]

I was thinking of things like the GI Bill - education, housing programs for vets, a good VA benefit. Nostalgia? Don't know - seems like everyone agrees on this - at least I have not heard anything to the contrary.

 

Shit, that's all starting to sound like socialism to me. Kinda like social security: Work hard, retire, and expect to get something in return for making this country work.

Good-for-nothings.

[chirp]

Stupid fucking america. (lower case for a reason)

I live here but I aint' gonna give an inch when they come for me.

 

WWED

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Shit, that's all starting to sound like socialism to me. Kinda like social security: Work hard, retire, and expect to get something in return for making this country work.

Good-for-nothings.

 

Nice try.

 

Government has a legitimate role, including national defense. Indeed defense is one of the few roles explicitly mentioned in the constitution.

 

Any soldier who defends this country, deserves to be compensated. This is not about "working hard" - its about sacrificing - and being willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice - in defense of the country. Those who make such sacrifices don't deserve to be f**ked over by our bloated bureaucracy.

 

As for "Work hard, retire, and expect to get something in return", well, sir, nobody is stopping people from saving and investing on their own. The problem is that so many want a nanny state to do it for them, whether it be from lack of discipline, lack of self-confidence, fear, or whatever.

 

Edited December 11, 2004 by KaskadskyjKozak

[cj001f]

Y'all do know our great war mongering President cut Veterans benefits at the same time he decided to go to war?

[pope]

Let's not forget why we started this conflict!

 

We're supplying armored vehicles as fast as they can be produced!

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Y'all do know our great war mongering President cut Veterans benefits at the same time he decided to go to war?

 

I've heard arguments on both sides of this. One explanation I've heard for this is that since WWII vets are dying off quickly, there is less need for VA services and cut-backs are legit. Also, cuts in bureaucratic excess would make sense to me. Comments? Do you know the specific breakdown and size of these cuts?

Edited December 11, 2004 by KaskadskyjKozak

[mtn_mouse]

Actually, I wonder if "we" did....

 

Or is nostalgia for the "good ol' days" coloring the perception?

 

I was in the army during the good old days of the vietnam conflict in the 70's. The army treated us like shit then too. Same today. Same song, different verse. Why are people surprised??

[ScottP]

Just read in todays Seattle times that the Pentagon reversed itself on billing Robert Loria after intervention from a number of senators.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Just read in todays Seattle times that the Pentagon reversed itself on billing Robert Loria after intervention from a number of senators.

 

I wonder how many other "Robert Loria's" there are though.

[ScottP]

I am sure there are many.

[cj001f]

I was in the army during the good old days of the vietnam conflict in the 70's. The army treated us like shit then too. Same today. Same song, different verse. Why are people surprised??

My greatgrandfathers quote, after volunteering for WW1, was "never trust the government". Maybe that was because he had to issue orders as medical officer reminding soldiers "soldiers are not to defecate while standing on the latrine seat"

[sexual_chocolate]

I think it's pretty straight to say soldiers have always been treated like shit, more or less?

 

Perhaps it's the only way to get people to do the attrocities that "war" requires....

 

As compensation, you drill into them the notions of "honor" and "sacrifice" and "duty" and "service", internal reward systems more powerful than anything external perhaps....

[G-spotter]

I was in the army during the good old days of the vietnam conflict in the 70's. The army treated us like shit then too. Same today. Same song, different verse. Why are people surprised??

My greatgrandfathers quote, after volunteering for WW1, was "never trust the government". Maybe that was because he had to issue orders as medical officer reminding soldiers "soldiers are not to defecate while standing on the latrine seat"

 

it's no use standing on the seat

the crabs in here can jump 10 feet

[archenemy]

Loyalty to the country always.

Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.