Thousands of CA soldiers forced to repay reenlistment bonuses

“These bonuses were used to keep people in,” said Christopher Van Meter, a 42-year-old former Army captain and Iraq veteran from Manteca, Calif., who says he refinanced his home mortgage to repay $25,000 in reenlistment bonuses and $21,000 in student loan repayments that the Army says he should not have received. “People like me just got screwed.”

In Iraq, Van Meter was thrown from an armored vehicle turret — and later awarded a Purple Heart for his combat injuries — after the vehicle detonated a buried roadside bomb.
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I have no words to aptly describe this betrayal by our government in going after the veterans. Approximately 10,000 of them forced to repay bonuses by the Pentagon causing them great hardship. 10 years later

https://www.google.com/amp/www.lati...onal-guard-bonus-20161020-snap-story,amp.html

 

Only those soldiers that can properly represent, are called heroes by the right. Those military that don't go hard right are considered suspect, and weak.

All those that answer our call to arms, deserve respect, and care.

 

What planet do you live on? Democrats control California. This is liberals attacking the soldiers as if that was new.

 

Yeah sure. We believe in NOT sending those we don't want to FIX, or respect. IF we do send BOYS, we care for them. NO BAIT AND SWITCH.

 

Good God can you focus even for a second? This is California going after these soldiers attacking them for serving and collecting the money offered to them. Liberals run California.

What part of that is making your head hurt?

And considering all the times liberals have tried to ban ROTC from college campuses and vandalize recruiting offices your lies about liberals respecting soldiers are even more transparent.

 

When governments overspend, they will use the power of the state to gather resources and will destroy lives in the process, which is why The People must maintain control of OUR government.

 

Rightwingers only love the military when they can use them to attack the left. Been that way for years. Maybe one day our brave soldiers will see them for what they really are.

 

Hey genius it says right in the article the Pentagon is demanding the money back. Since when is the Pentagon in California?

 

Look who is screwing over GI's here, ALL GI's. It's the one party state of California.
That should tell even you something.

By the way, how is it going with Obama fixing the VA? Gotten anywhere yet? But seriously, try and use your noggin to wonder why only California military personnel are being dunned by the government. You might learn something.

 

Is the Pentagon in California?

 

Does the Pentagon run the California Guard?

 

That story has the CA national guard brass sounding like total (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*) bags. They sentenced a SGT recruiter to 30 months of jail, two officers got probation for the misappropriation of enlistment bonuses then hired 42 auditors to go after the 1000s of vets.

Obama should do one good thing before leaving office and write an Executive Order absolving these debts not just in CA but whole country. It's disgraceful

 

Correct. Only the cash hungry political class is depraved enough to cheat the troops out of their enlistment bonus. "Everyday Americans", left to right do not have that kind of contempt for servicemen and women.

See the VA scandal for an even more grotesque example - bureaucrats let veterans die in order to collect their bonus money/bounty.

 

The Pentagon is who is demanding the money back.

 

Sounds great. If anyone else got $46k in free government money, some of you would be up in arms. But it's a veteran who voluntarily signed up then received taxpayer money, and now he apparently deserves more of it.

 

I am confused, so was this money overpaid to them in error, or money promised to them and not paid?

this makes a diffence, if it was a error like a bank error depositing 20k in my account and I spent it and later they found the error and took it back, I only have myself to blame

if they promised them the money then changed their minds, they need to pay them.. period

.

 

Money was paid up front as incentive for reenlisting. Now the government is saying many received it in illegally due to the National Guard officials offering the bonuses when they shouldn't have

 

liberals think our soldiers should get more then they do, we think there should be a "war tax" anytime we send our soldiers to war and that money should be used to take care of our soldiers when they come home

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was it done in error though, if they told them that is what they woudl get and they got it, then they should let them keep it

if they told them they would get 10k and accidentally depositing 20k, then they have to give the extra 10k back

sounds like your saying they were promised the money, but the ones promising it did not have the right to do so, if so... I say let them keep the money

punish the recruiters that profited off of it illegally, not the soldiers that enlisted

.

 

What? What's free about it? The government needed people to reenlist and put themselves in harms way to fight their wars. Who said he was asking for more? Man had to put himself in debt to pay back money given in what he thought was good faith. What is wrong with you?

 

And the best way to control is by controlling the law of the land. With the 9th amendment and Article V we can do this, but we must agree upon the law of the land which protects unalienable rights to control government and stop it from being destructive to them.

 

No, you throw (*)(*)(*)(*) and (*)(*)(*)(*) on them when they return because your kind is a bunch of sub-civil savages when it comes to anything political. Vietnam ring a bell.

 

It's free because he didn't have to do anything but sign his name for it.

What's wrong with me is I have a job, and I don't appreciate my money being taken from me to give out freely. I don't care if it's to Shaquita and her crotch fruit or this guy.

 

Why in the world would you attempt to turn this into a left/right issue. These Army Vets were reenlisted under a program designed to allow retention of soldiers. The problem is that the Unit(s) in question was stretching the rules to include people that were not supposed to be included. Unfortunately, this is not all that uncommon. A retention officer has quotas to meet. So, he/she cuts corners. Eventually the military audits the program, and those that were not eligible for the program, get's a bill for the overage. It has nothing to do with any party affiliation. or ideology. Frankly, I think that the retention officers should be held responsible for making these type of shortcuts, but they are usually already out of the military by the time these mistakes are found.

 

These folks took money to which they were not entitled. The government wants it back. What's the beef?

 

Psst. Hey Genius, then why is it only happening in California?

And in reference to the pentagon what party has the presidency? Didn't really think that through did you.

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That's a complete lie. Name one bill the Democrats supported in votes that would increase the pay of soldiers.

just one Fresh Air.