Defense Secretary suspends Pentagon’s demand that soldiers repay bonuses
The Defense Secretary for the Obama administration, faced with a political uproar over the Pentagon’s aggressive efforts to recover bonuses given incorrectly to soldiers a decade ago, has suspended the recovery program.
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The Defense Secretary for the Obama administration, faced with a political uproar over the Pentagon’s aggressive efforts to recover bonuses given incorrectly to soldiers a decade ago, has suspended the recovery program.
Don’t worry. There will soon be another story about some equally horrible government corruption that abuses innocent American citizens. The well of the government is deep, and its ability to do harm is quite endless.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
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3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
We have to keep in mind that the effects of this one are over; the bureaucracy will be slow to react and when it does, it will come out in weird ways.
In the meantime, credit ratings have been ruined, houses have been sold to pay back the government, and people have gone deeper into debt trying to pay back. Who’s going to pay for all the extra interest they have been paying due to new debts and lower credit ratings?
And that’s not even getting into the emotional turmoil all this has caused.
I am Retired Army. Sometimes you have to first step back and take a deep breath – then review the issue/story.
Something is seriously wrong here behind the scenes.
A multi-million retention/re-enlistment program (funded by DOD) than is totally exclusive to the California National Guard????
Federal funds given to a State (California) agency with no Fed oversight or directive on use?????
A retention/re-enlistment program that appears targeted to senior personnel (NCOs and Officers) where quite a few appear to be reaching (or have reached) their 20th year (eligible for retirement).?????
No indication that these bonuses are tied to any actual critical Tech MOS – just apparently warm bodies.???????
In my career, I received a total of 32K in bonuses.
Availability of retention bonuses usually ends around your 12th to 14th year – logic is your are on the road to being a “lifer” with a commitment to the pension – no further incentives necessary.
Exception being “critical skills” – usually (but not always) highly technical, where “experience” is not readily replaceable.
Little info on this story is actually available. All we have gotten is the teary eyed sob story stuff. This could just as well be a deliberate ploy to take everyone’s eye off the money trail. Something’s wrong here. I have seen deliberate fraud and skimming in the past – especially with bonuses and student loan programs.
We are soldiers – not angels – Remember – this concerns solely California.
Could say much more – especially concerning the AGR – who are technically State Employees paid by funding from the Fed/DOD.
You’re right, hondo, there probably is more going on than meets the eye here. If I were to guess, I would say that the people handling the re-enlistment bonuses (in the Marines we called them career planners, I’m not sure of the term the Army uses) were probably the main perpetrators.
I think the recipients of the bonuses should not be asked to return the money until there is solid evidence that they did something wrong.
This started with the California National Guard, but I heard on the radio that it’s since cropped up elsewhere.
I’m not familiar with the money flows with the National Guard, but it wouldn’t surprise me if somehow this is related to shortages if money elsewhere in the National Guard. At my level funds were very segregated, but the higher ups often have ways to transfer funds between accounts.
Garry/Hondo:
Good points from both.
— from the un-attributed FOX news article:
“A federal investigation in 2010 found thousands of bonuses and student loan payments were improperly doled out to California Guard soldiers. About 9,700 current and retired soldiers received notices to repay some or all of their bonuses with more than $22 million recovered so far.”
That investigation was 6 years ago. These type of things are generally handled by an Inspector General, although Obama has refused to fully appoint & staff numerous IG office’s in the Fed structure. (and the Senate didn’t & doesn’t care, they let the executive branch do whatever they wanted.)
–If somebody has the time & inclination, finding that report would be enlightening.
Just thinking out loud– that time period there was $700 billion in “stimulus money” being forced into the word (above & beyond already budgeted funds.)— where & to whom all that money went– we will never know, and I mean never ever.
(In my area– Local & State government payrolls jumped for 4 straight years, pension funds were shored up, and a gazillion “non-profits” were funded with Federal largess to undertake all this social-engineering and cronyism.)
Some more details on this whole fiasco.
Appears to be a combination of fraud & mismanagement (at a level above the soldiers,) and the Feds have been on to this since before 2010, but they let the claw-back & harassment continue right up until now.
This whole mess bears continued monitoring.
http://www.marklevinshow.com/news/california-guard-vets-bonus-fiasco-months-of-uncertainty-ahead/