Soldier pays for armor

[Mithras61]

Soldier pays for armor

Army demanded $700 from city man who was wounded

By Eric Eyre
Staff writer

The last time 1st Lt. William “Eddie” Rebrook IV saw his body armor, he was lying on a stretcher in Iraq, his arm shattered and covered in blood.

A field medic tied a tourniquet around Rebrook’s right arm to stanch the bleeding from shrapnel wounds. Soldiers yanked off his blood-soaked body armor. He never saw it again.

But last week, Rebrook was forced to pay $700 for that body armor, blown up by a roadside bomb more than a year ago.

<more>

http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/2006020623

[Pirate Smile]

1. This needs to become a huge deal. Send this local story out to

all the Corp Media, AAR, columnists, etc.

This needs some big time press exposure.

Shameful.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Pirate Smile]

21. Damn! I missed it. What in the world did they say?

[Pirate Smile]

29. Ed Schultz is discussing this on his show and is speaking to the

soldier's Mom.

edit to add - The soldier's Mom just said she got a call from Sen Rockefeller and said they are lucky to have two great Senators from their state - WV.

Schultz said Sen Byrd brought this up with Rumsfeld at a Hearing today. Rumsfeld said he would look into it.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. So all the big hoopla we heard last year about this...

and nothing has changed. Those few soldiers we heard about, when their senator fixed their bill, they just left everybody else to deal with the same instead of fixing the policy. Nice of them. :mad:

[HereSince1628]

3. You lost it, you pay...whadya think this is Halliburton?!

[Javaman]

20. nope, pottery barn...n/t

[Sperk]

4. he should have paid in all pennies.......with a pic.

n/t

[LynnTheDem]

5. He knew when he signed up...

that his "commander in chief" would lie him to a war of aggression!

He knew when he signed up that he'd have to pay for his body armor if he lost it!

He knew what he was signing up for!

He should be thankful he doesn't have to pay for his medical care!

SUPPORT THE TROOPS! Make them pay for equipment they let get bombed!


Did I mention this is fucking SARCASM?

[SIU_Blue]

6. shameful. just shameful.

In other news, halliburton gets another no-bid contract...

:grr:

[magellan]

7. "Fleece the Troops"

That's what Bushbots support.

[Earth_First]

8. It's been some time since I was in the Army...

however, we used to write equipment off all of the time as "field losses". Sometimes the equipment wasn't never even lost, just misplaced in cages. Why wasn't this soldier able to claim this as a field loss?

This is disgusting.

[Mithras61]

9. He just wasn't in logistics...

and the supply group apparently didn't file the paperwork (gee, I wonder why... maybe they had other things on their minds...)

[AllegroRondo]

26. Heck yeah.

I was in during the first gulf war, and we did "field losses" for tons of equipment. We had guys come back and out-process the post before leaving, just give them a canteen and say the rest was "field loss." "were you in Kuwait?" "yup" "sign here, have a nice day"

He needs to talk to his unit supply sergeant, this is outrageous.

[tanyev]

10. Pentagon to families: Go ahead, laugh

When the stress of the war in Iraq becomes too severe, the Pentagon has a suggestion for military families: Learn how to laugh.
With help from the Pentagon's chief laughter instructor, families of National Guard members are learning to walk like a penguin, laugh like a lion and blurt "ha, ha, hee, hee and ho, ho."

No joke.

"I laugh every chance I get," says the instructor, retired Army colonel James "Scotty" Scott. "That's why I'm blessed to be at the Pentagon, where we definitely need a lot of laughter in our lives."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-01-12-pentagon-laughter_x.htm

[AnneD]

11. DEM's (leader's that want to keep their jobs)...

Need to start jumping all over this like white on rice.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

12. The army of one.

Gawd, I'm so proud of our DOD leadershit.

[Ilsa]

13. Okay, so if a navy pilot has to ditch his F/A 18 Hornet in the water

without a witness, does he or she have to cough up $39 million for the plane?

This is such bullshit. Yeah, like he needs his kevlar back home

[Dragonbreathp9d]

14. This needs to be out for everyone to see

what a disgrace

[sarcasmo]

15. In reality when you are in the service you are the property of the

Military. If this guy lost a limb are they too asking him to repay for their lost limb, since of course he is Military property. Another fine example of the ASSHATS treating their troops like GARBAGE.

[exlrrp]

16. Simliar happpened in Vietnam War

When I was discharged in Ft Bragg, I had to pay for a ccouple of items that were missing from my kit.
I also had to pay back 3 days of leave that were given to me by the Army in error.
If youre no further use to the Army (wounded, discharged, etc) they show you the door pronto.
The worst story I heard about this was from a friend of mine--also a grunt.
He had been riding shotgun on a convoy on a fuel tanker truck in Vietnam that overturned into a paddy. He saved the driver, risking his own life. A year after his discharge he was given a bill by the Army for about $15,000 for the tanker truck!! I am NOT making this up, he showed me the letter!! It turned out that in the accident report, the driver claimed that my friend had been driving!! ( my friend wasn't in the trnasportation unit and didn't even have a a military drivers license!)
He went to a lawyer who, for free, wrote the Army, basically telling them to get stuffed. Tha Army canceled the whole thing, it was an embarassment.
This was a 2 tour Vietnam vet with many medals--and the Army used this way to tell him Fuck You Very Much For your Service!!

[Barrett808]

17. Welcome to DU, exlrrp!

:hi:

[exlrrp]

18. Thanks!!

I appreciate the welcome
Anybody know how many times I need to post replies before I can make original posts?

[Pirate Smile]

23. I'm not sure anymore. Maybe a moderator can respond who would

know the answer.

Once again, welcome! :hi:

How did you find DU?

[Maeve]

24. They don't usually give out that answer--just keep posting eom

[Barrett808]

27. Geez, I didn't even know about that policy. n/t

[CheshireCat]

22. Have they pulled this page?

I get a "page not available" error when I try to link. Anyone else get this error?

[Mithras61]

25. It looks like they may be getting...

MySQL problems. They still have the story on their front page, but I got a MySQL "too many copnnections" error when I try to go to it.

[Hekate]

28. It's still up -- maybe getting a lot of hits, at least I hope so

Circulate widely, folks. Send to your Congress-critters and demand to know why this is happening. It's how DUers Support The Troops.

Hekate

[maddezmom]

30. kick

[harpboy_ak]

31. Army charges soldier for body armor destroyed in battle

Senator Byrd pinned the General's ears back about this today on C-Span...

http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/2006020623

Soldier pays for armor
Army demanded $700 from city man who was wounded

By Eric Eyre
Staff writer

The last time 1st Lt. William “Eddie” Rebrook IV saw his body armor, he was lying on a stretcher in Iraq, his arm shattered and covered in blood.

A field medic tied a tourniquet around Rebrook’s right arm to stanch the bleeding from shrapnel wounds. Soldiers yanked off his blood-soaked body armor. He never saw it again.

But last week, Rebrook was forced to pay $700 for that body armor, blown up by a roadside bomb more than a year ago.

He was leaving the Army for good because of his injuries. He turned in his gear at his base in Fort Hood, Texas. He was informed there was no record that the body armor had been stripped from him in battle.

He was told to pay nearly $700 or face not being discharged for weeks, perhaps months.



The DOD is damned efficient at billing soldiers for lost body armor, or sending collection agencies after them because the military overpaid them when they were in hospitals in Germany, outside the zone for battle pay, and no one told the payroll folks.

That's Rumsfeld, effective at moving paper but not at winning any wars.

[AndyTiedye]

32. Where Do They GET These People?

:wtf::wtf::wtf::wtf:

Where do they GET the people they are staffing the Army's bean-counter division?

[file83]

33. AmericaBlog raised $5,000 for this guy this afternoon - check it out

Here is the link:
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/02/we-raised-5000-for-body-armor-we-more.html

That guy will get all of it to - and he deserves it.

[northofdenali]

34. BASTARDS.

We lost 2 more Alaskan servicemen today :(

[Nothing Without Hope]

35. K & R. Every aspect of the whole history of the body armor issue

simply beggars belief. Every time you think that the lowest possible point has been reached, something like this comes along.

Some earlier low points (there are so many more):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2026405
1-6-06 NYT re secret study} - New Pentagon Study finds that withheld Armor Could've saved hundreds....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x102038#103387
1-10-06 re body armor that was available but withheld} - 2 Generals(Wesley CLARK & Claudia KENNEDY) return fire at W

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x158610
1-16-06- Pentagon FORBIDS troops to buy better body armor

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x162632
1-17-06 - Soldiers Told To Shed Privately Bought Body Armor or Lose Benefits?

[Withywindle]

36. WTF have we become?

I just...

:cry:

[Demit]

37. These people will rot in hell.

[Turley]

39. His unit dropped the ball

<i>In the past, the Army allowed to soldiers to write memos, explaining the loss and destruction of gear, Rebrook said.
But a new policy required a “report of survey” from the field that documented the loss. </i><p>This is not true. The Army has always required report of Survey. As he was medivac'd, someone in his chain should have performed this and noted the field loss. The guys at CIF are just doing their job as best they can. The screw-up was at this guy's unit plain and simple. <p>If he had requested the paperwork from his unit he probably wouldn't have had to pay. But I can understand why he choked up the $700 just to get out. I'd have probably done the same.

[Taxloss]

38. There's no pleasing liberals!

Whinging all the time about how expensive the Iraq war is, and then when the army tries an innovative way of bringing costs down, you all complain!

:sarcasm:

(Seriously: this is beyond belief. What next? Charging them for blood transfusions and prosthetic limbs?)

[Daphne08]

40. Shame, Shame, Shame! n/t

[gratuitous]

41. Gotta pay for those tax cuts somehow

I mean, if Lil George is going to run another half trillion dollar deficit, and the budget he submitted this week says that's just what he's going to do, they have to make some money back from somewhere. Seven hundred bucks from a wounded veteran here, cut a $255 social security death benefit there, and pretty soon you've "saved" a couple million dollars or so. Don't you want the government to save a couple million dollars? You tax-and-spend librul? You?