Pentagon fails to figure out how to pay back troops’ personal expenditures

Woodmonkey · 10-03-2005, 13:15

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Soldiers still waiting for armor reimbursements

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Nearly a year after Congress demanded action, the Pentagon has still failed to figure out a way to reimburse soldiers for body armor and equipment they purchased to better protect themselves while serving in Iraq.

Soldiers and their parents are still spending hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars for armor they say the military won’t provide. One U.S. senator said Wednesday he will try again to force the Pentagon to obey the reimbursement law it opposed from the outset and has so far not implemented.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said he will offer amendments to the defense appropriations bill working its way through Congress, to take the funding issue out of the hands of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and give control to military unit commanders in the field.

“Rumsfeld is violating the law,” Dodd said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It’s been sitting on the books for over a year. They were opposed to it. It was insulting to them. I’m sorry that’s how they felt.”

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conlor · 10-03-2005, 18:43

I know my nephew bought a vest, and the thing to carry water, before going back for his second tour. It's a small price to pay for feeling safer, but it would be nice if they were reimbursed. They shouldn't have to buy these things themselves.

Snowden · 10-03-2005, 19:12

This is outrageous. When the Republican party is out of office after 2008 (if it retains a majority in Congress after next year's election to begin with), it may be a generation before it gets another chance to lead over the Democrat Party. Why? Ask any Liberal thinker. This is only one of the many complaints that is surfacing again and again. Our army was the best-armed and supported in the world not long ago.

We know this is not the first administration to cut down on supplies for the armed services. But it certainly is the worst time to have under-supplied troops. There simply is no excuse, and Rumsfeld's comment that you go to war with what you have does not apply when you are the party starting the actual wartime fighting. A defensive war, yes - you have no choice. In an offensive war, the troops should be well-armed and well-supplied from Day One.

It also seems that only those troops with families that can buy them what they need are going to be given what they need - and that is done by their families, not the government that is sending them to war.

jonathan_ddr · 10-04-2005, 17:14

I saw several squaddies purchasing bits of uniforms and kit to take out with them to Iraq on a visit to my local surplus store. I also made sure that my mate that was being deployed had body armour, I told him if he got out there and there was none for him let me know as I will send him some as a another friend had a set with the plates in and he is a civvy.
It seems that private purchases is a common place thing, but I do not hear of the MOD reimbursing the squaddies.

Actually my friend commented that we as civies have more military kit and are better equipped than the average squaddie albeit they have real guns.

Jon

Woodmonkey · 10-04-2005, 17:33

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Originally Posted by Snowden

This is outrageous.

It is outrageous and none of this can be blamed on Clinton. Bush keeps signing bills loaded with pork and that money could have been used to buy the troops what they need. They need things like body armor, those new 'canteen's' for water etc. There is no valid reason that soldiers and families should have to buy these things out of pocket, and not to reimburse them is wrong.

Woodmonkey · 10-04-2005, 17:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonathan_ddr

I saw several squaddies purchasing bits of uniforms and kit to take out with them to Iraq on a visit to my local surplus store. I also made sure that my mate that was being deployed had body armour, I told him if he got out there and there was none for him let me know as I will send him some as a another friend had a set with the plates in and he is a civvy.
It seems that private purchases is a common place thing, but I do not hear of the MOD reimbursing the squaddies.

Actually my friend commented that we as civies have more military kit and are better equipped than the average squaddie albeit they have real guns.

Jon

There too? There's plenty of money in both countries for social programs and welfare, but not for the soldiers?

In this country, social programs and welfare are not mandated in the Constitution .... defense is though, and part of that is equipping soldiers with what they need.