Shame On The Military! Treat The Troops Right
Posted by: From Arkansas in Are You Kidding Me?, Commentary, It Ain't Sorted, So What, It's A Rant, Shame of America on Jan 04 2008
Welcome back!
While this is just one story concerning the way a soldier and his family have been treated, this is not a unique story. The fact is that many more military personnel are being treated this way. What way are we talking about? Withholding pay without an explanation, lack of good insurance, lack of ability to resolve problems with payroll. Here is a letter that one wife of a soldier has sent out to the media in hopes of getting the attention it needs so that their situation can be resolved. It is the hope that if the attention is put on this case, perhaps others who are going through similar problems can be helped as well. And for all this, the Shame of America Award goes out to the financial office of the military at McGuire AFB.
Here is her letter to the media. (Her name is blocked out):
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Hello. My name is **** * and I am a military wife. My husband is in the Air Force and stationed at ******** with a small Air Force unit, ********. We have been stationed here since June of 2005. My husband was recently diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. It took years to finally get a diagnosis. This was taken before the medical review board to determine whether or not he was fit to stay active duty. My husband wanted to stay in. All he needed was a medical treatment plan to manage his pain. The review board jerked us around for months saying they were going to discharge him, then they decided they wanted more testing done.
We were moved into on post housing in November of 2007. One week later, they told him they were discharging him on February 4, 2008. My daughter has been bounced around from school to school just this school year alone and now is a wreck that we will have to move again.
What I am writing to you about, however, is the lack of financial support that the military offers its personnel. The Air Force unit’s finance office is actually at McGuire AFB in NJ. They have ruined us by screwing up my husband’s pay… as well as other people’s pay from what I hear. There have been pay periods when my husband didn’t get paid at all. The past two pay periods, my husband has only receive half his pay. They currently owe us more than $1200. We can’t seem to fix this however because when we call the finance office on base, no one answers the phone. This has been going on for days. We have bills to pay and no way to pay them.
If that isn’t enough, I would like to point out how they treat the personnel that they are discharging. Military pay is low to begin with. We barely scrape by most months. They are only giving him 20% disability pay which adds up to only $200 a month. In addition, they offered him $63000 in severance pay. What they didn’t tell us until recently, that his disability pay will be confiscated and applied towards paying back the severance. So we won’t see any disability pay for a good 30 years.
Is this how you treat someone that has sacrificed their life and family for duty? At one time, being a military family was something to be proud of. There was support, benefits, etc. Now, being a military family is one of the most miserable things to be. There is no support anymore and no benefit at all. Health care is non-existent for the most part. Housing isn’t affordable. Pay is far too low live reasonably on. And when they force you out, they basically throw you to the wolves.
My husband will not be able to work much once he is discharged which leaves me to work full time, take care of the kids and everything almost entirely on my own and hope that I can make enough to pay the bills and put food on the table. He didn’t want to be discharged. They are forcing the issue and giving him absolutely nothing to work with after it happens.
I don’t know if this is a story you would be interested in or not and I know nothing is going to change what is happening but I just wanted to get the word out on how the military treats their members these days and how they are absolutely destroying this family.
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Is this going on in the American military? YES! Should it? Absolutely NOT! It is time to get the word out that this type of thing has no business happening when the troops are overseas fighting and dying for those of us at home. These families sacrifice enough. They do not need to be robbed of their pay in the process. What can you do about this? Get the word out!!!
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2 Comments
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I agree wholeheartedly that this sort of nonsense should not go on in America. Our soldiers and their families should be treated as the treasure that they are. We owe them a debt that we will never repay, but we should make every attempt, nonetheless.
Let’s be sure and place the blame for low pay and benefits where it belongs, on our so-called representatives and senators in Washington.
“Let’s be sure and place the blame for low pay and benefits where it belongs, on our so-called representatives and senators in Washington.”
Yes, I agree with you, Walter! It is nonsense. And it should be blamed on those who are responsible. And those are the same people who get some pretty healthy paychecks of their own.
We need to honor our troops regardless of what they are doing. They put their lives on the line for the rest of us. It is not their faults where they have to go and what they have to do. They should be treated, like you said, as treasure.
Thank you for your wonderful comment.