Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America is asking us to lobby Congress to stop billing Purple Heart recipients for a prorated portion of their signing bonus.
Paul's email recaps the story:
I'm writing today to ask you to please take a minute to help us out on an important issue that is affecting wounded servicemembers.
When Jordan Fox was serving as a Private First Class in Iraq in May of this year, he was injured by a roadside bomb. The attack left him with a back injury and blind in his right eye, and as a result, the Army sent him home. A few weeks later, to his surprise, they sent him a bill for nearly $3,000.
The Army demanded that he return part of his enlistment bonus because he had been injured and medically discharged before completing his enlistment. Jordan had signed up to serve his country and was injured in the line of duty, and now the Army was asking for its money back.
flip
Capt. Rieckoff continues,
Fortunately, there's a new bill gaining momentum in Congress that would ensure this doesn't happen to others in his situation. Pennsylvania Congressman Jason Altmire has introduced the "Veterans Guaranteed Bonus Act" (H.R. 3793), and IAVA is making a major push to ensure it gets passed as soon as possible. Please take a minute to send a message to your Representatives urging them to support it.
Rep. Altmire's bill would require that all wounded soldiers receive full payment of bonuses.
Right now, the bill has at least these cosponsors:
Cosponsors [as of 2007-10-20]
Rep. Shelley Berkley [D-NV]
Rep. Robert Berry [D-AR]
Del. Madeleine Bordallo [D-GU]
Rep. Nancy Boyda [D-KS]
Rep. Robert Brady [D-PA]
Rep. Bruce Braley [D-IA]
Rep. Corrine Brown [D-FL]
Rep. Christopher Carney [D-PA]
Rep. Charles Dent [R-PA]
Rep. Joe Donnelly [D-IN]
Rep. Michael Doyle [D-PA]
Rep. Brad Ellsworth [D-IN]
Rep. Barton Gordon [D-TN]
Rep. Phil Hare [D-IL]
Rep. Tim Holden [D-PA]
Rep. Darlene Hooley [D-OR]
Rep. Henry Johnson [D-GA]
Rep. Walter Jones [R-NC]
Rep. Patrick Kennedy [D-RI]
Rep. Harry Mitchell [D-AZ]
Rep. Patrick Murphy [D-PA]
Rep. Donald Payne [D-NJ]
Rep. Jon Porter [R-NV]
Rep. John Sarbanes [D-MD]
Rep. Carol Shea-Porter [D-NH]
Rep. Heath Shuler [D-NC]
Rep. Clifford Stearns [R-FL]
Rep. Bart Stupak [D-MI]
Rep. Betty Sutton [D-OH]
Rep. Ellen Tauscher [D-CA]
Rep. Edolphus Towns [D-NY]
Rep. Timothy Walz [D-MN]
Rep. Zach Wamp [R-TN]
Rep. David Wu [D-OR]
Rep. John Yarmuth [D-KY]
Not too many R's? Big surprise. Is your favorite Dem missing from the list? Make a call, send an email.
Let me mention another soldier on the lousy end of this blanket policy. If you regularly read Daily Kos, you might have caught the diary from a year ago March in which we met a young hero, Kevin Stonestreet
(picture) (story). Kevin was medically discharged early after an IED attack. During the attack, he exposed himself to enemy fire to help fellow soldiers. He was awarded a Purple Heart.
Kevin was discharged without a dime in his pocket, and assigned a collection agent to hound him for the "debt" of his pro-rated bonus. Although Kevin had accrued back-pay and leave, the Army deducted all of it from his signing bonus "debt." The last I heard, Kevin was working at a SoCal auto parts store to survive, pay child support and pay back his signing bonus.
Please help Kevin Stonestreet, Jordan Fox, and the thousands of other Purple Heart recipients and others with early medical dischrages who we are indebted to, by contacting your member of Congress.
Oh yeah, this is rightfully an afterthought - because, after all, we should do this simply because it is the right thing to do, but listening to my GOP in-laws over Thanksgiving, the press on this is even sinking into the 25 percenters. The joke was that Bush has almost made them Democrats. It's a moral just cause, and a political slam dunk.
Update: Googling around just now, I found another version of the same thing:
Army specialist Tyson Johnson of Mobile, Ala., had just been promoted in a field ceremony in Iraq when a mortar round exploded outside his tent, almost killing him.
"It took my kidney, my left kidney, shrapnel came in through my head, back of my head," he recounted.
His injuries forced him out of the military, and the Army demanded he repay an enlistment bonus of $2,700 because he'd only served two-thirds of his three-year tour.
When he couldn't pay, Johnson's account was turned over to bill collectors. He ended up living out of his car when the Army reported him to credit agencies as having bad debts, making it impossible for him to rent an apartment.
Sadly, this has been known for at least 18 months. These people really need our help to make sure Congress gets the job done this time.
Here's another story of a young woman MP from Washington State (KOMO TV link - be sure to click on the link for the video):
Some soldiers who were wounded in war are now being ordered to pay back part of their signing bonus.
For a 20-year-old Washington soldier, death and destruction was too much.
The MP was working blockades in Baghdad. One day she was so traumatized by what she saw, she had to be airlifted out.
"She saw more combat than I saw in 2 years," says war veteran Skip Dreps. He's the director of the Northwest Paralyzed Veterans of America. It's Dreps' mission to make sure every soldier gets what they've earned.
"She was medically evacuated to the Baghdad hospital; within one week she was sent to Madigan Army Hospital in Washington, and within a week sent home with a personality disorder - and a week later sent a bill," says Dreps.
The threatening letter Kari got warns if she doesn't repay $2,505.70 of her enlistment bonus, the Army will send a bill collector after her. The Department of Defense is clear: the amount owed is considered the "unearned portion of her enlistment bonus".
Raw Story compilation of Fox's story.
And from the "where have we heard this before" department:
Oct. 14, 2004 --
Following inquiries by ABC News, the Pentagon has dropped plans to force a severely wounded U.S. soldier to repay his enlistment bonus after injuries had forced him out of the service.
Army Spc. Tyson Johnson III of Mobile, Ala., who lost a kidney in a mortar attack last year in Iraq, was still recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center when he received notice from the Pentagon's own collection agency that he owed more than $2,700 because he could not fulfill his full 36-month tour of duty.
Oh sure. All a mistake. It'll never happen again.
I'm so pissed off, I could spit nails.