Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Is This How the Pentagon Supports the Troops?

PFC Jordan Fox served his country proudly in Iraq. He joined the Army, served as a sniper, and survived heated machine gun battles and an IED. As is the nature of war, he was wounded. You'd think Fox would've gotten a medal, or a purple heart, but instead, the DoD sent him a bill, for the repayment of his signing bonus.

No, I'm not making this up:

The injury forced the military to send him home. A few weeks later, Fox received a bill from the Department of Defense, saying he owes the military nearly $3,000 from his original enlistment bonus because he couldn't fulfill three months of his commitment.

"I tried to do my best and serve my country and unfortunately I was hurt in the process and now they're telling me that they want their money back," Fox told CBS station KDKA-TV.

This is apparently not an isolated bureaucratic foul-up. The military is allegedly demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.

PFC Fox's case has been settled for the most part, but the fact that is still happening, or that it happened at all is an outrage. President Bush, and Secretary Gates need to kill this thing at the root, and see that those who guard us while we sleep are not screwed over when they're wounded on the battlefield, and return home.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

CALL YOUR LOCAL CONGRESSMAN/WOMAN AND ASK THEM TO SUPPORT THE VETERANS GUARANTEED BONUS ACT OF 2007 (H.R. 3793)!! THEN CALL YOUR LOCAL SENATORS. The ONLY way to stop this madness is to get the DOD policy changed! over 200 US Congressmen/Women support this Bill...MAKE IT LAW!!!!

Anonymous said...

Amen. The real scandal in this war is how our soldiers are treated.I'm surprised Pelosi et al aren't making this a MAJOR issue. This is wrong and dangerous for the future of America's military. Who's going to want to fight if they get screwed over so much?