Bush Winning The Hearts Of Soldiers........

[Diego in Seattle]

Guardsman re-enlists, Pentagon kills bonus
Officers from state try to restore $15,000 benefit

By SAM SKOLNIK
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A Department of Defense decision to renege on war-time promises to pay bonuses to more than a dozen re-enlisting Washington National Guardsmen has sparked outrage from prominent elected officials and state National Guard officers working to rectify the situation.

According to a state Guard spokesman, Maj. Phil Osterli, at least 15 Washington National Guardsmen and women signed re-enlistment forms promising them a tax-free $15,000 bonus in return. Many of them were stationed in Iraq at the time, he said.

But Pentagon officials have said in published reports that the bonuses were canceled because they duplicated other programs and were prohibited.

Sgt. 1st Class Carl Latson is one of those in the Washington National Guard directly affected. The Spanaway man, a 13-year military veteran who said he has served both in Operation Desert Storm and in the current Iraq war, re-enlisted in January for another six-year term, which would have taken him close to retirement from the service.

Latson, 35, said Friday that the bonus was a big incentive to re-enlist. At the time it was offered, he was serving in Iraq as an enlisted aide for a general at the Balad Army base near Baghdad.

He signed a re-enlistment form Jan. 17, just after he took the oath from his commanding officer. "For a 6 year reenlistment/extension I will receive a total bonus of $15,000," reads the official Army National Guard form.

After serving two years active duty with the Navy and the last 11 years with the National Guard, Latson said, "I re-enlisted because the opportunity was there to finally get a bonus."

Latson, who served in Iraq most recently from March 2004 to March 2005, said he has been counting on the money to help buy a house and to support his 11-year-old daughter. He said he knows at least 10 other National Guardsmen in the same boat.

"It has made a significant impact on my life," said Latson. "For them to offer a bonus when we're at war, when we're risking our lives, and then to turn around and not pay it when we return is the wrong message to send to me, to any soldier. It's not fair."



The state Guard is fighting the Pentagon's sudden reversal on the issue. Osterli said the state Guard's recruiting and retention commander, Maj. John Sharrett, is in Washington, D.C., arguing to National Guard and Pentagon brass that the reversal is unwise and unfair.

"We're clearly concerned about this issue and want to make sure these soldiers get what they deserve," said Osterli.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is also lobbying Pentagon officials. She first learned that the bonus program had been scrapped this summer, according to The News Tribune of Tacoma. She has since written officials with the National Guard Bureau demanding an explanation.

Latson has retained a lawyer, Mark Clausen of Seattle. Clausen said that for now he's working "up the chain of command" of the locally based military to see if he can find relief for his client that way, before pursuing other legal remedies.

He began by sending a letter this week to Col. Michael McCaffree of the 81st Brigade Combat Team at Camp Murray in Tacoma, Latson's unit. The letter was copied to 14 other officers in Seattle and Tacoma.

A Pentagon spokesman declined comment Friday.

Latson said that regardless of whether he gets the money promised him, he's made one decision. He plans to quit the military long before retirement age.

"I'm to the point now where I want to get out," he said. "I'm just really disappointed."

====================================

As if the Bush administration doesn't have enough problems enlisting soldiers.

[tough love]

I'm to the point now where I want to get out," he said. "I'm just really disappointed.

Welcome to the club - Awakening America.

[Diogenes]

Soldiers re-enlist beyond U.S. goal
By Dave Moniz, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Soldiers are re-enlisting at rates ahead of the Army's targets, even as overall recruiting is suffering after two years of the Iraq war.
The high re-enlistment rates would make up about one-third of the Army's projected 12,000-troop shortfall in recruiting, although the re-enlistments won't address some key personnel vacancies, such as military police and bomb-disposal experts.

Army officials attribute the strong re-enlistment rates to unprecedented cash bonuses and a renewed sense of purpose in fighting terrorism. Some of the record bonuses are tax-free if soldiers re-enlist while in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Re-enlistment bonuses range from as little as $1,000 to as much as $150,000, depending on the type of job and length of re-enlistment. The $150,000 bonuses are offered only to senior special operations commandos who agree to stay in the military for up to six more years. The average bonus is $10,000, said Col. Debbra Head, who monitors Army retention at the Pentagon.

From Oct. 1 through June, the Army had re-enlisted 53,120 soldiers, 6% ahead of its goal of about 50,000 for that period. At that pace, the Army would finish the year 3,850 troops ahead of its target of 64,162.

Re-enlistment rates the past three years have been at least 6% above the service's goals for the 500,000-member active Army. There are about 105,000 Army soldiers in Iraq, including members of the National Guard and Reserve.

"The biggest thing is that soldiers believe in what they are doing," Head said.

The re-enlistment rate has remained strong even though the Army has accounted for 1,179 of the 1,750 U.S. troops killed in Iraq, according to USA TODAY's casualty database.

By contrast, the Army through June was about 15% behind its goal of recruiting 80,000 soldiers by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. The Army has said it faces the roughest recruiting climate since the start of the all-volunteer military in 1973.

The bright re-enlistment picture won't fully compensate for the recruiting problems, Head said, because the Army needs new troops to fill its lower ranks and has limits on how many senior soldiers it can keep.

Thirty-five percent of Army re-enlistments have come in combat zones, said Maj. Gerald Conway, who oversees retention policies for the Army.

About 60% of all soldiers who have re-enlisted this year, Conway said, have received cash bonuses of some kind.

Michael O'Hanlon, a military analyst at the Brookings Institution, said the bonuses have encouraged soldiers to re-enlist, but that many soldiers are committed to fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sgt. 1st Class Edwin Allbaugh, a member of the 75th Ordnance Company in Michigan, said he re-enlisted because his job makes a difference and "I work with a great group of guys." Allbaugh's unit, which disarms and destroys improvised bombs, is about to deploy to the Middle East.

[Variable]

As if the Bush administration doesn't have enough problems enlisting soldiers.

There's no excuse for what happened to those guys, but those types of things happen under every administration. You've just never heard about it before because those stories would have never made the press during any other administration than this one.

Anyway, soldiers constantly get screwed on re-enlistments. The most common way is with choice of duty station. When you re-enlist you give a detailer your list of commands that you'd like to go to. Very rarely, but occasionally, you put in for Hawaii or someplace like that and get it. You sign your papers and right before you're ready to ship out you find out that the Pentagon just lowered staffing requirements for that command, or they gave the post away to some senator's son or some such. Now you're really fu*cked because there's no way your second and third choices will be available at the last minute. In the Navy this usually meant that you'd be shipping out for Diego Garcia, which is an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean with nothing around for thousands of miles.

What also can happen is similar to what happened to those guys. The pentagon has re-enlistment bonuses for a lot of skilled military jobs, but all are subject to change without notice, depending on how many people with that skill that they want to retain. You get the bonus when your next re-enlistment starts, not what it is when you sign the papers. Unfortunately, you have very little recourse when something like this happens, as you are not allowed to sue the military for damages while you are on active duty.

[Mikey]

I think Diego Garcia would be better than Fallouja. You could probably get a lot of reading done.

I met a bunch of Navy guys who were stationed on San Clemente Island when we went camping out there last summer. That's pretty isoloated too, but they do two weeks on and two weeks off. Most of them thought it was the best duty possible. The fishing and diving are pretty good out there.

[Variable]

The problem with Diego Garcia is there's nothing to do outside of the base, so you're stuck with the bar or the base theater for entertainment. Hell, there isn't even some decent local snizz to bury your face in!

A good duty station in the Navy is one where there's lots of time off and lots of recreational stuff to do. A place like Guam is a perfect example. You've got tropical working hours so you're off by 1 or 2PM every day, there's world class diving, world class muff and bars galore. San Clemente sounds like the same deal. Two weeks on and two weeks off is a sweet duty rotation. Plus, as you know, if you're bored in the San Diego area, it's your own damn fault. Tons of outdoor rec activities in the area some?