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Sunday, October 23, 2016

Thousands of California soldiers forced to repay enlistment bonuses a decade after going to war

Short of troops to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan a decade ago, the California National Guard enticed thousands of soldiers with bonuses of $15,000 or more to reenlist and go to war.
Now the Pentagon is demanding the money back.
Nearly 10,000 soldiers, many of whom served multiple combat tours, have been ordered to repay large enlistment bonuses — and slapped with interest charges, wage garnishments and tax liens if they refuse — after audits revealed widespread overpayments by the California Guard at the height of the wars last decade.
Investigations have determined that lack of oversight allowed for widespread fraud and mismanagement by California Guard officials under pressure to meet enlistment targets.
But soldiers say the military is reneging on 10-year-old agreements and imposing severe financial hardship on veterans whose only mistake was to accept bonuses offered when the Pentagon needed to fill the ranks.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Talk about the big green weenie!

Anonymous said...

Oh really But the real reason for proof of theft of billions of DOD money, blown up in the attack on the pentagon. Which just happened to be the Pentagon office section investigating the so-called theft! and the ignorant keep chearing

Anonymous said...

Veterans fought / fight for illegals and lazy a##es to get free everything including filing taxes and receiving back more than seniors get on SSI made by fraudulent claims. They return this money and all the fraudulent claims for Medicare payments and other government payments before you even consider Vets repaying anything from a legitimate government contract. This includes Politians spending claims.

Anonymous said...

Do you believe your comments?

LastMohican said...

I went by a recruiting office by Outback tonight and noticed on their window an enlistment bonus of 40k. I was like damn, things have changed since I was in. I think I got 433.00 a month back then.

Anonymous said...

What's not said about military bonuses is that they are taxed just as income is, if not more. So, if repayment is necessary, I hope they only pay back what they kept, the gov't already got there share.