Re: HORROR Stories of what Coalition troops must endure in IRAQ or Afganistan! (bpwrightwv)
This is total BS. The Army knows exactly when soldiers are leaving combat zone, and they routinely screw up and overpay for a couple of months. <p>But quite honestly, it is hard for Soldies to know when they get overpaid. They are off fighting a war, pay is going into their bank account back home via direct deposit. Their wives are back home spending the money and paying the bills. <p>The problem isn't that they got overpaid and the govt should get their money back, it is how they are taking it. In the air force, they usually take it back spread out over 1-2 years. The Army is taking it all at once, and some guys aren't getting a pay check for four months. <p>I saw the Nightline interview on TV where Colonel who was put in charge of a team formed to specifically to fix this problem had to dance and evade questions for 10 minutes instead of giving honest answers. Felt sorry for him. He said he didn't think it was widespread...<p><I>Shrank was asked if it had happened thousands of times. "I, no, I do not think thousands of times," he said. "It happened, one time is too many." <p>Shrank could not name an exact number, but the Army told "Nightline" that 5,549 soldiers, or about one out of five soldiers who were removed from battle for medical reasons later had payroll problems.</I> <p>This has happened to me before, I'll get overpaid for a Temporary Duty, or when I moved on base they didn't stop my off base allowance in time, but unless you are checking your paycheck on-line (they don't issue pay statements on paper anymore), you may not notice until their is a bunch of money missing from your paycheck. <p>At any rate, it is crap that the Army screws up, doesn't tell the soldier that they did, and then forces him to deal with their mistake when he gets no money. Very difficult to deal with normally, really hard when they are injured in a hospital on the other side of the world from their finance office. <p>shame...
