Turns out that soldiers who have been
wounded in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere are now facing combat once
they have arrived home -- except this time the battle is with credit agencies sent by the US Government according to this article in the Washington Post.
His hand had been blown off in Iraq, his body pierced by
shrapnel. He could not walk. Robert Loria was flown home for a long
recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he tried to bear up
against intense physical pain and reimagine his life's possibilities.
The
last thing on his mind, he said, was whether the Army had correctly
adjusted his pay rate -- downgrading it because he was out of the war
zone -- or whether his combat gear had been accounted for properly: his
Kevlar helmet, his suspenders, his rucksack.
But nine months after Loria was wounded, the Army garnished
his wages and then, as he prepared to leave the service, hit him with a
$6,200 debt. That was just before last Christmas, and several lawmakers
scrambled to help. This spring, a collection agency started calling. He
owed another $646 for military housing.
"I was
shocked," recalled Loria, now 28 and medically retired from the Army.
"After everything that went on, they still had the nerve to ask me for
money."
Although Loria's problems may be striking on their own, the Army has
recently identified 331 other soldiers who have been hit with military
debt after being wounded at war. The new analysis comes as the United
States has more wounded troops than at any time since the Vietnam War,
with thousands suffering serious injury in Iraq or Afghanistan.
"This is a financial friendly fire," charged Rep. Thomas M.
Davis III (R-Va.), chairman of the House Committee on Government
Reform, which has been looking into the issue. "It's awful." Davis
called the failure systemic and said military "pay problems have been
an embarrassment all the way through" the war.
Army
officials said they are in the process of forgiving debts for 99 of the
331 wounded soldiers, all now out of the military. The other cases have
not been resolved, said G. Eric Reid, director of the U.S. Army Finance
Command. Complex laws and regulations govern the cancellation of debts
once soldiers leave the service, he said.
Part of
the problem is that the government's computerized pay system is
designed to "maximize debt collection" and has operated without a way
to keep bills from going to the wounded, Reid said. In the past seven
months, a database of injured troops has been created to help prevent
that. Now, he said, the goal is to make "a conscious decision . . . on
the validity of that debt" in every case.
Early this
year, the Army reported that, in looking at a two-month period, it had
identified 129 wounded soldiers -- still active in the military -- who
had debts. Those were resolved. But the Army cannot pinpoint the full
number of wounded active-duty troops with debts.
The
House Government Reform Committee has for several years been looking at
pay problems among service members. Last spring, the committee asked
the Government Accountability Office to investigate debt among the
war's wounded and whether troops were being reported to collection and
credit agencies. The findings are due early next year.
Although
efforts are being made to correct such problems, Rep. Todd R. Platts
(R-Pa.) said that for some troops, "we've so mismanaged their pay that
. . . we've sent debt notices while they're still in combat, in harm's
way." Hounding wounded troops is unfathomable, he said. "For even a
single soldier, this is unacceptable," he said.
It took intervention by Sens. Hillary
Clinton and Chuck Schumer, and Rep. Maurice Henchey (all Dems. from NY
where Loria lives) to intervene with the Pentagon to get this cleared
up, after Loria and his wife spent months dealing with this mess. The
man lost his hand and his biggest worry was losing his car or house
because of these extra payments, instead of worrying about the therapy
required to get better. That is so wrong! And
it should not take phone calls from Senators to get it through
someone's head that our wounded veterens deserve better treatment than
being treated like a deadbeat. For shame!
All of a piece, my dear. Recall that Bush and the Pentagon fought
vehemently to cut both combat pay and family survivor benefits right
after the invasion of Iraq. Remember that Bush and the Pentagon wanted
to slash veteran's benefits--particularly medical and disability--based
on the idea that the soldiers could just use the private sector like
everyone else. Remember that the Pentagon was billing wounded soldiers
for their meals while in hospital.
So
the fact that the Pentagon is sending collection agencies after wounded
soldiers is no surprise whatever. It's all part of how Bush has always
supported the troops.
His hand had been blown off in Iraq, his body pierced by
shrapnel. He could not walk. Robert Loria was flown home for a long
recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he tried to bear up
against intense physical pain and reimagine his life's possibilities.
