Thousands of CA soldiers forced to repay reenlistment bonuses

Right. It's the California Guard, under directorship of the governor of California, Jerry Brown, and who he appoints, who messed things up to begin with, however.

Full circle of responsibility. It all comes back on the one party weasels that run California, but in state military personnel will have to pay for Brown's sins.

 

This is the answer and it's perfectly simple and easy to understand.

 

It becomes a left/right issue when deep blue California is the only state in the union that tried to scheme it's way past the system.
Retention of troops is a problem everywhere...Idaho, Alabama, Texas, Washington. You name it.

However only California, apparently, thought they could get away with something and I don't think it's a coincidence that the leadership in California
either failed to keep an eye on the problem or thought they could slip by.
It may not be overtly a matter of politics but I think it is a matter of the rot and moral decay that has seeped deep into California's political DNA through
their bizarre whacked out uber leftist state leadership.

 

The bonuses were paid in 2005 under the Governator (Schwarzenegger), genius. A staunch REPUBLICAN, in case you forgot. It's usually best to actually understand a topic before bloviating on it...

 

Actually it's not only happening in California;

The National Guard Bureau, the Pentagon agency that oversees state Guard organizations, has acknowledged that bonus overpayments occurred in every state at the height of the two wars.

But the money was handed out far more liberally in the California Guard, which has about 17,000 soldiers and is one of the largest state Guard organizations.

 

In general, if you receive money that was not owed you, you can be required to return it - even if both parties didn't recognize it at the time of the deal. There are even statutes of limitation on this kind of claim.

This isn't just the military or just the government.

I'm wondering who had the right to decide that the government not collect.

I agree it's the right decision to let the troops keep the bonuses, but our government isn't set up to allow some unelected official to forgive hundreds of thousands of dollars on the grounds of "they deserve it".

I bet court cases will fail. It would probably take legislative or executive action to fix. I hope they appeal to their congressmen and Obama and make as much noise as possible

 

WEre they to make a Fox and Friends appeal, and make known they could be useful, Fox would scream that it was unfair.

 

I lived there at the time and Arnold was only a "staunch republican"
in a California sense but your insults get you no replies anyway for your trouble.

You may catch on but I doubt it.

 

Yes. As idiotic as the one party that presumes to rule over California is, this has nothing to do with them. Likely, the bonus payments were so high here in California because the cost of living is so high. It's also the largest guard in the US, and, if you RTFA article you'd see that they just concluded the investigation. California may be just the first state in a long line of investigations.

 

The OP had ither been fooled by the article or is MUS,!

OP title sats that CA soldiers are being forced to repay their reninlistment bonuses. California is a state. We all agree? Ok good.

Then the OP chains that the Pentagon is forcing the bonuses. The Pentagon is a federal entity that has jurisdiction of the military from all states and territitories not just California.

So why are you claiming in your title that it California military who are being firced to give up their bonuses?

Why did you post this thread which is MUS. ???

 

Wow, I didn't realize that Jerry Brown was governor in 2008. Did you read the article? Did Jerry go back in time, sneak by Arnold, and appoint the Adjutant General at the time?

Much as I hate the one party rule in this state, you are a fine example of why your "side" can't win against them. In fact, it was your side that pushed the Prop 14 which resulted in the one party we have today. Great job.

 

republicans control congress, write a bill to address this, what are they waiting for?

 

So why didn,t the OP say that thus pertains only tonGuard units. . .? It must also have to do with California and California rules.

The giggle is misleading.

 

Obama has politicized the Pentagon. It's Obama's yes men who run the Pentagon.

FYI:
When you see the word "Pentagon" it's not referring to the uniform military but the civilians who run the Pentagon.

 

The California National Guard is part of the Armed Forces of the United States. It is also under the direct control of the Governor of California who appoints the Adjutant-General of the California National Guard. There may, possibly, be some politics at play, here. Or, it could just be that the recruiters in California were playing more fast and loose with the bonuses than recruiters in other states. The latter seems to be the case.

 

The Pentagon?...Aka/Joint Chiefs of Staff. Now who handpicked them again. Oh yeah.....that would be BO peep the Democrat.

 

No to all the above.

Thank you. If you think Prop 14 is the cause of the mess that California is
in today then your opinion doesn't count for much and you should pat yourself on the back for the "great job" that makes the "Golden State" such a smelling
cesspool.

 

I see you didn't bother to read the article.

- - - Updated - - -

Again, you didn't read the article.

- - - Updated - - -

Again, you didn't read the article.

 

It was an offered re-up bonus in that they signed up for an extension of their agreement they got the big check as a bonus then now they want the money back with interest. I say this is bad form do they want people to join the National Guard if not they are doing a good job.

 

Let me see, how to explain this. The National Guard is not regulated by the state. They are regulated by the United States Army. The governor of a state can call them up for a state emergency, but they do not answer to the state. The unit's retention officer get's directives from the Army through their chain of command on what bonuses are available, and to whom. They are usually limited to certain MOS's and ranks. In the Marines, all reenlistment packages have to be approved by HQ MC, but the Army allows unit commanders to approve them.

This article is about individuals in California, but I would bet that other area's probably had the same problems. When I got out of the Marines, I was subject to a similar problem. Back in the late 90's they were drawing down the numbers of Marines. This means a lot of Involuntary Discharges. That is those of us that were coming to the end of our current enlistment, we would submit a reenlistment package. It was denied, and you were authorized severance pay. As a 13 year Sgt, I was caught up in this mess. I say mess, because no one seemed to know what the actual formula that they were using. On my last day in the Corps, I got my check. I was expecting about 15 grand, but the check that I got was over 30 grand. I refused to sign for it until I was assured by the base Dispersing Officer, the Admin Chief and my Commanding Officer that the amount was correct. Two years after I got out, I received a letter in the mail from Marine Corps Dispersing In Kansas City. I owed just over 13 grand. They had done an investigation, and determined that the Admin Chief had intentionally screwed up all the Involuntary Discharges Packages to hide the fact that he was doing the same thing on his own separation package. He used a code on all of them that basically changed the packages to medical discharge packages. Now, nearly 20 years later, I am having problems getting an actual medical disability package approved. Even though I paid back the overage, and everyone admits that I have medical conditions that resulted from injuries that occurred during my military service. I have actually had to hire an attorney.

So, shortcuts have nothing to do with the state.

 

Let's put this in easier to understand civilian terms.

Let's say that a bunch of salesmen work for a division of GE known as Digital Energy. The manager of Digital Energy offers these salesmen a 1% commission for their efforts on top of their salaries. The salesmen sell millions of $$ worth of equipment and are given tens of thousands of $ as their commission.

10 years later, the head of GE determines that Digital Energy wasn't authorized to give commissions to their sales people. Many of the salesmen retired or left to work for other companies.

In what world are these salesmen responsible to repay GE for the commissions they received?

The manager of Digital Energy should be fired and if GE wants to sue that manager for repayment of the commissions, that's their right. The Pentagon should be after the California National Guard for repayment of the reenlistment bonuses that they stole from the Pentagon. The guardsmen agreed to reenlist and took the bonus in good faith and fulfilled the obligations of that agreement. Let the CNG cough up the money, even if that means screwing every tax payer in California. Why welch on the soldiers because they are the little guy and can't effectively fight the CNG and the Pentagon?

 

You know, I Googled the topic, and found articles from NY Times, LA Times and ABC. Obviously, Fox is not the only ones to think it is unfair. And again, I saw nothing in the articles about being caused by Liberals, or that the outrage was only limited to conservative leaning vets. So, you have taken a topic about a bunch of Army Reservists that are getting a royal screwing, and turned it into a left/right issue. But then again, that is what you do isn't it?

 

Wow! How terrible for sure. Is this coming from the left or right? Sorry, saw this on my phone and didn't have the ability to reference/confirm.

 

Uhh...yeah, it does. The article says that most of cases being pursued are from the CA Guard but it makes clear that the Pentagon is the one pursuing them and is pursuing them throughout the country. In any case this is bull(*)(*)(*)(*), these people sent literal bales of shrink wrapped money to Iraq at one point and now they can't afford to forgive some debts they defrauded these soldiers into taking? I think Obama needs to step in here with that pen he's always bragging about, it would do wonders for his legacy.

 

Prop 14 is a huge part of why the California Assembly and Senate is now super-majority Democrat. Republicans were already hanging on by a thread when Top Two was pushed by Abel Maldonado.

It's people with a propensity to spout off with wild theories while totally ignorant of the facts of the problem and based just off the headline of an article that makes California and pretty much every government a cesspool. Congratulations.