{"id":1459,"date":"2016-10-26T12:07:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T18:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/?p=1459"},"modified":"2016-10-26T21:53:27","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T03:53:27","slug":"what-the-federal-government-is-demanding-from-california-veterans-will-make-you-sick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/10\/what-the-federal-government-is-demanding-from-california-veterans-will-make-you-sick\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATED: What the federal government is demanding from California veterans will make you sick"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 507px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/533929283\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/533929283?et=A3mFaUOkTqRIksQLLvBMBw&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=RkHBbx9G5E5Dlg1lnjzqCR0mmMzDtSqYUmJ-d9mJ2xE=\" width=\"507\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>UPDATE:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Good news! \u00a0Thanks to the public outcry, <a href=\"http:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2016\/10\/26\/secdef-tells-pentagon-to-immediately-stop-collecting-bonus-repayments-from-troops\/#ixzz4OFojnNmh\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">a great development<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Secretary of Defense Ash Carter instructed the Pentagon Wednesday to\u00a0stop\u00a0trying to take back\u00a0bonuses from California National Guard troops, who earned these lump sum payments when they enlisted to deploy in Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>ORIGINAL:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ten years ago, the California National Guard had an urgent mission: recruit as many new soldiers as possible to meet the Defense Department\u2019s enlistment goals for the War on Terror. Thousands of brave men and women were enticed with sign-on bonuses of $15,000 and more and went on to serve their country with the extra security of a pocketful of money when they returned. But now, the Pentagon wants its money back.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>From the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/nation\/la-na-national-guard-bonus-20161020-snap-story.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>LA Times<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Nearly 10,000 soldiers, many of whom served multiple combat tours, have been ordered to repay large enlistment bonuses \u2014 and slapped with interest charges, wage garnishments and tax liens if they refuse \u2014 after audits revealed widespread overpayments by the California Guard at the height of the\u00a0wars last decade.<\/p>\n<p>Investigations have\u00a0determined that\u00a0lack of oversight allowed for widespread\u00a0fraud and mismanagement by California Guard officials under pressure to meet enlistment targets.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And the individual stories hammer home the travesty of it all. For instance, Christopher Van Meter, a 42-year-old former Army captain, and Purple Heart recipient for sustaining injuries from a roadside bomb, was forced to refinance his home in Manteca, California to repay his $25,000 reenlistment bonus plus a $21,000 student loan repayment the Army said he should\u2019ve never received.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople like me just got screwed,\u201d he told the <em>LA Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Former Army master sergeant and 2008 Afghanistan veteran Susan Haley, 47, feels \u201ctotally betrayed\u201d by the government she gave 26 years of service to and fears she may have to sell her home to repay her sudden \u201cdebt\u201d of $20,500. Currently, Haley sends the Pentagon $650 a month which amounts to a quarter of her family\u2019s income, according to the <em>Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ll get their money, but I want those [six] years back,\u201d she said of her reenlistment.<\/p>\n<p>Then there\u2019s Army Sergeant First Class Robert Richmond who suffers from permanent back and brain injuries from an exploded roadside bomb during one of hundreds of missions he carried out in Baghdad in 2007. Richmond said he was surprised to receive a letter in 2014 ordering him to repay the $15,000 bonus that helped him so much during a tough divorce. The Army said he received the money by mistake because he was ineligible due to his long military career.<\/p>\n<p>So far, Richmond has refused to repay the bonus through several appeals, but the Treasury Department is breathing down his neck and attached interest and penalties making the total amount due nearly $20,000.<\/p>\n<p>And the stories go on and on.<\/p>\n<p>The California Guard said they\u2019d be more than happy to \u201cabsolve these people of their debts\u201d but insist they would be breaking the law if they did. Col. Michael S. Piazzoni said at the height of the War on Terror, the Pentagon switched gears and decided to pay the soldiers up front and then determine the eligibility of the recruits later. Though this scheme played out at stations across the nation, the bonuses were most liberally handed out in California.<\/p>\n<p>As the <em>Times<\/em> reports, investigations into the improper payments began in 2010 and while a few officers have been charged, the real punishment is falling on the backs of soldiers:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Army Master Sgt.\u00a0Toni Jaffe, the California Guard\u2019s incentive manager, pleaded guilty in 2011 to filing false claims of $15.2 million and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison. Three officers also pleaded guilty to fraud and were put on probation after paying restitution.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of forgiving the improper bonuses, the California Guard assigned 42 auditors to comb through paperwork for bonuses and other incentive payments given to 14,000 soldiers, a process that was finally completed last month.<\/p>\n<p>Roughly 9,700 current and retired soldiers have been told by the California Guard\u00a0to repay some or all of their bonuses and\u00a0the recoupment effort\u00a0has recovered more than $22 million so far.<\/p>\n<p>Because of protests, appeals and refusal by\u00a0some to comply, the recovery effort is likely to continue for years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Shame on our federal government for how they are treating these brave soldiers who gave up so much to defend our freedoms. This is a national tragedy.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is nothing short of heartbreaking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2673,"featured_media":1461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UPDATED: What the federal government is demanding from California veterans will make you sick<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is nothing short of heartbreaking.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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