Posted on 11/11/2003 10:56:27 AM PST by steppenwolffe
The Army has frozen the pay of a Fort Campbell Green Beret who is dying of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the soldier's family learned over the weekend.
According to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the federal agency that handles the payroll for all of the U.S. military branches, Staff Sgt. James Alford's pay will be withheld until the family makes legal arrangements to name a guardian for him.
''The second they have the right paperwork in Indianapolis, they will receive back pay. We'll send them a special check,'' said Roger Still, DFAS spokesman. The agency has an office in the Indiana capital.
That's well and good, but family members wonder why they were not given more notice. The staff sergeant's last paycheck was deposited in his account on or about Oct. 31.
''Why didn't they tell us about this before? It's just another slap in the face,'' said Gail Alford, the soldier's mother.
The brain-wasting disease, which has no known cure, attacks the human brain in the same way ''mad cow'' disease affects cattle. The 25-year-old soldier from the Army's 5th Special Forces Group, who has shown symptoms for about a year and a half, lies in a semi-comatose state at the home of his mother and father, John Alford, in Karnack, Texas.
A story about the terminally ill man, who was demoted because his superiors in Iraq did not realize that his bizarre behavior was caused by CJD, appeared in Sunday's edition of The Tennessean. Alford's rank has been reinstated.
The finance agency's action caught the soldier's parents and his wife, Army Spec. Amber Alford, off-guard, leaving them wondering how they will pay his financial obligations for a protracted time without a paycheck. ''We aren't rich people. I quit my job to take care of my son, and now we're faced with all this,'' said Gail Alford, a licensed vocational nurse who had been employed by a local hospital.
''We were using his money to take care of him. I'm like, 'What do we do?' He has a lot of things that have to be purchased that aren't paid by the military.''
According to documentation sent to the family by DFAS, the soldier's pay was frozen because he has been declared incompetent. Even though the staff sergeant signed papers authorizing his mother to have power of attorney to handle his finances while he was deployed on numerous overseas missions, DFAS said that was not sufficient.
While in many cases, the soldier's spouse would hold power of attorney, Amber Alford has often been away during the past two years, receiving special training for her Army job. Both husband and wife were in Iraq when the staff sergeant was sent home in April.
''They just told me that I've got to go to court and do it that way. They couldn't tell me why the power of attorney wasn't good enough,'' Gail Alford said.
(Excerpt) Read more at tennessean.com ...
''They just told me that I've got to go to court and do it that way. They couldn't tell me why the power of attorney wasn't good enough,'' Gail Alford said.
Because if the guy is in a semi-comatose state, he is unable to grant a power of attorney.
IMHO, the family shouldn't have too much difficulty in naming someone as a guardian, and they could gets an expedited hearing within the next two weeks if it is financially critical...
It's too bad that the man is sick. And it's also too bad that the family had to go running off to the papers....
Sheesh, it's been all of 10 days since his last check and they're already running off to the papers. This is ridiculous.
Getting a guardian appointed for someone who has already been legally declared incompetent should be a trivial process. It sounds like the payroll folks are being as cooperative as they can be given the legal situation involved.
That's right. To stay in effect during incapacity the power of attorney has to be "durable."
(1) If/ The power of attorney mentioned is durable, meaning that it continues in effect when the person who made it is incapacitated, there is zero legal need for a guardian.
(2) A guardanship under Texas law is not a "trivial" matter. It involves a filing a lwasuit, serving the prospective ward (even if the Sheriff has to go to the hospital intensive care unit to do so), appointing an attorney to represent the prosepective ward, posting a bond to protect the ward from the wrongful actions of the guardian, and an annual report to the probate court of what actions have been taken. Guardianships are time consuming and expensive. Perhaps this NCO failed to execute a durable power of attorney and made a guardianship necesary, perhaps the Army is out of line -- you cannot tell from this story.
Exactly what the paper wants you to think.
They could have reported the military rules and regulations as it pertained to this subject, including when the family was notified [in writing no doubt], but they chose to make it into a unforgivable sob story.
How about those that are facing foreclosures?
Should our citizen soldiers be expected to face bankruptcy in order to defend their country?
It depends. I, when I was a reservist, showed up once a month in uniform to do the necessary paperwork. One of the reasons I was in the reserves was because I was underemployed.
So, now that the military needs these people, suddenly the lifestyle they are enjoying isn't worth the expense?
I don't have too much sympathy for these folks. I'm sorry, but having been underemployed for two years, and then told to take a hike 'cause there are other Lieutenants who want to join the reserves, that's part of the risk you takes when you join up.
If you live beyond your means, you have to pay the consequences. Period.
OK... so basically, reservists/NG's (especially in this thin-stretched military) should discount the PR campaign that pronounces "1 weekend a month, two weeks a year", and realize that any semblance of financial security is a fairy-tale while serving our country.
That attitude will do wonders for re-enlistment.
Perhaps. All I know is it took Ronald Reagan to increase the fundage for military pay so that those on active duty could raise themselves above qualifying for food stamps.
Anyone who signs up for the reserves is fooling themselves if they buy into the pr advertisement that doing so is for no more than one weekend and two weeks a month. It's the breaks of Naval air.. No one is drafting them.
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