Nasty Rumor that I HOPE is not true.
But I'm afraid it might well be...
This morning, a woman called in to Edd Hendee's show on KSEV and informed Edd that her friend's husband, who is deployed to Iraq, has not been paid in a month, and that he had been ordered not to discuss it. The wife of course was under no such obligation to keep quiet. When I heard that I thought to myself that it could not possibly be correct, or if it is, it can't be widespread. So I asked around. I discovered that a woman here at work has three cousins in Iraq, two Army, one Air Force, and none of them have been paid in over 5 weeks as well. This no longer sounds like a rumor, this is starting to sound like fact. And if it IS a fact, someone's head needs to roll. This is UNACCEPTABLE.
These men and women have signed a blank check for their very lives in service to this country. They often have spouses and families back home that depend on that income to eat and pay the rent. Soldiers are not paid a great deal for their sacrifice to begin with. To screw them out of a paycheck their families need to survive is simply unconscionable. If you know of anyone who is deployed to Iraq who has not been paid. Please let me know. I've been in contact with Congressman Ted Poe's office and they will ask around, but at this juncture no constituent who has not been paid has contacted them so their ability to look into it is limited. I urge all servicemen and women who's paycheck is in arrears to contact their respective congressmen and let them know about this.
This morning, a woman called in to Edd Hendee's show on KSEV and informed Edd that her friend's husband, who is deployed to Iraq, has not been paid in a month, and that he had been ordered not to discuss it. The wife of course was under no such obligation to keep quiet. When I heard that I thought to myself that it could not possibly be correct, or if it is, it can't be widespread. So I asked around. I discovered that a woman here at work has three cousins in Iraq, two Army, one Air Force, and none of them have been paid in over 5 weeks as well. This no longer sounds like a rumor, this is starting to sound like fact. And if it IS a fact, someone's head needs to roll. This is UNACCEPTABLE.
These men and women have signed a blank check for their very lives in service to this country. They often have spouses and families back home that depend on that income to eat and pay the rent. Soldiers are not paid a great deal for their sacrifice to begin with. To screw them out of a paycheck their families need to survive is simply unconscionable. If you know of anyone who is deployed to Iraq who has not been paid. Please let me know. I've been in contact with Congressman Ted Poe's office and they will ask around, but at this juncture no constituent who has not been paid has contacted them so their ability to look into it is limited. I urge all servicemen and women who's paycheck is in arrears to contact their respective congressmen and let them know about this.
posted by Rorschach at
10/06/2009 12:56:00 PM
6 Comments:
I believe a lot of bad things about this president and congress, but this strains all credulity. Honestly, I don't buy it, especially as no evidence is provided.
Let's deal in honesty. There's enough to attack the Dems for without having to make things up.
And on the very slim chance that this *is* true, well, I'll eat my digital words and join the feeding frenzy. I just don't believe the DoD would *not* pay someone, and a gag order on the topic doesn't strike me as realistic.
A couple of quick thoughts:
1) It's hard to prove a negative - Have you stopped beating your wife today?
2) I think somebody has confusion over the military's policy with respect to posting on blogs (particularly from theater) and a specific gag order about a pay problem.
3) Lastly, if somebody out there really wants to help fix the problem, have the affected soldier contact his/her Inspector General. IG communications are privileged communications. The IG will work in a non-attributional manner to get the problem fixed. In all likelihood, the pay problem can be caused by a variety of factors and the IGs can cut through the red tape to get the problem fixed. That is why they exist.
From my informal surveys so far Darren, I myself have been told of three who have not been paid, and one who has been, which would indicate that it may not be theater wide, but a 3:1 ratio (of an admittedly small sample) so far is not trending well. I am told that there are about 8 DoD payroll processing centers that all payments go through. It is entirely possible that it is simply a glitch and one processing center has gone through a computer upgrade/failure and it has delayed all paychecks from that center. Maybe some idiot decided to deploy that German Weapon of Mass Confusion, SAP, and has completely screwed things up.
I would add that it is also plausible to me that soldiers were told not to talk to the press about it in order to avoid embarrassment for the military and/or the administration. You'll note the slapdown that McChrystal got when he spoke out of turn. Obama likes to talk a good game (about the only thing he's really competent at.) but he doesn't like it when people point out his failures (and there are so very many to point out.).
Seeing as how I'm just north of Ted Poe's district, and am slightly familiar as a constituent to Kevin Brady {Ted's felow Congressman}, I'm sending this posting plus the link to Mr. Brady's office ...................
Semper Fi'
DM
This is what many government employees will ultimately face when the funds dry up. The options are: work for free, go on strike, or find other employment.
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