Saturday, October 15, 2005
Editorial: Wounded soldiers face financial fire
The U.S. Army should be ashamed of dunning soldiers for its own payroll mistakes, and for billing wounded soldiers who lose combat gear.
From the RoundTable blog
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A U.S. soldier who loses a leg in combat could face more hardship than an excruciatingly painful and long recovery. The Army just might bill him for failure to keep tabs on his combat boots and for transportation to the hospital.
If he refuses to pay, the Army could turn the account over to a collection agency to dog him daily until he repays Uncle Sam every blasted nickel.
Urban myth? Hardly.
The Army recently identified 331 soldiers -- wounded in combat -- who received bills demanding payment for lost combat gear, hospital transportation, housing and payroll errors. More troops may be on the mailing list.
Rep. Thomas M. Davis, the Virginian who heads the House Committee on Government Reform called the military debt "financial friendly fire," according to a Washington Post report.
Nothing's friendly in kicking the wounded by turning soldiers over to collection agencies for the Army's own billing mistakes. But it is just one more deplorable practice by an administration that:
n Used soldiers to fight the president's losing public relations battle by "deploying" them as pawns in a poorly scripted teleconference.
n Shorted the Veteran's Administration $1 billion needed to treat injured troops by failing to recognize that war brings casualties and that thousands would be injured.
n Failed to arm soldiers with proper equipment and body armor, then made them wait until just this month before issuing regulations finally allowing reimbursement for troops who purchased their own.
Hounding of the combat-wounded for money first came to attention last Christmas when Robert Loria's plight caught the attention of New York's congressional delegation. His debt was cleared in a matter of days. Congress held a hearing, and the Government Accountability Office was dispatched to catalog Army payroll errors.
But Loria's happy ending was shattered a few months later when a collection agency began calling. "I don't know how much you want from me. I already gave you one arm and part of a leg," Loria told The Post.
An arm and a leg aren't nearly enough for an Army that relies on an antiquated computer system. The Army claims it has now created a separate database of the injured so that its computer, "designed to maximize debt collection," will go a little easier on the recovering troops. Healthy troops are on their own in the fight against the machine.
The GAO found that more than 90 percent of the soldiers in some Reserve and Guard units have incurred payroll errors during deployment. Organizations such as the Wounded Warriors Project in Roanoke are attempting to put aggrieved soldiers in touch with the GAO to provide an accurate accounting of soldiers stuck with debts because of the Army's mistakes.
America owes those who serve in uniform, especially the wounded, an emormous debt -- not the other way around.
