Troops DO NOT Have To Return Enlistment Bonus Money
I read about this a few days ago and It sounded too ridiculous to be true.
U.S. troops wounded in Iraq are being ordered to repay the bonuses they got for signing up, after war injuries cut short their service. Troops, their families, veterans, and lawmakers are calling the practice disgraceful.
Fox News Channel had "breaking news" about this today. According to a spokesperson, they have not asked anyone to return enlistment bonus money. A phone number was shown so anyone who did return bonuses could get their money back. I cannot find the article or the number yet. I will look again later and hopefully I can find it.
This is from an earlier story regarding the requests to return bonuses.
A spokeswoman for the Missouri National Guard said its enlistment agreements already guarantee bonuses to troops wounded during service, combat or no combat, provided the injuries did not result from misconduct.
Military policy specifically prohibits the recoupment of bonus pay from wounded troops, unless the pay results from misconduct.
Still, Fox got the letter.
Most cases of this type have to do with the practice of discharging troops for
pre-existing "personality disorders", instead of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder. The military will then often stop bonus payments and even try to recoup payments already made to the troops. But the presidential commission on care for wounded troops led by veteran and former Senator Bob Dole and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donn Shalala identified the "personality disorder" issue as a problematic practice in need of review.
***UPDATE 11/26/07 9:26PM***
Here is the following statement from the Dept of Defense regarding enlistment bonuses.
If you are wounded in combat and discharged as a result, you will not have to pay back your enlistment bonus, Defense Department officials said here today.
“Bonuses are not recouped simply for one's inability to complete an enlistment or re-enlistment agreement through no fault of the military member,” a policy statement said.
Pentagon officials re-stated their policy after a wounded soldier in Pennsylvania received a bill from the Army. Jordan Fox was a private first class in Baqouba, Iraq, when he was wounded in the explosion of an improvised explosive device. Fox suffered vision troubles in his right eye and suffered a back injury when the bomb went off in May.
Fox was medically discharged and went home to his town near Pittsburgh. The Army sent him a letter asking him to repay $2,800 of his $7,500 enlistment bonus. He received a second letter telling him the Army would charge interest if he didn't make a payment within 30 days.
“Department policy prohibits recoupment when it would be contrary to equity and good conscience, or would be contrary to the nation's interests,” according to the Defense Department policy statement. “Those circumstances include, for example, an inability to complete a service agreement because of illness, injury, disability, or other impairment that did not clearly result from misconduct.”
Department policy on recoupment also establishes that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the secretaries of the military departments “shall remit or cancel any and all theater debt incurred by military members who were medically evacuated from a combat zone due to injury or illness, except in the event of clear misconduct.”
Army officials said Fox will not be required to pay back any enlistment money he received. “By all accounts, his case seems to be an isolated one,” Army officials said. Anyone who does have an issue can call the Wounded Soldier and Family Hotline at 1-800-984-8523.
