Dallas Man Gives Away $5,000 to Servicemen

ABCNEWS.GO.COM ^ | 22 December 2005 | AP

[TheDon]

A great example of Scrooge after his ghostly visits.

[daviscupper]

You might be right but I think he did it from his heart. And I bet the recipients could tell he was very sincere and were happy to receive it.

Heck, whenever I just walk up to a young marine or soldier say "thanks for your service" they always beam with appreciation. They seem so grateful for the acknowledgment that it makes me a little sad. I don't think enough people do it.

Bottom line, I would not criticize anyone for acknowledging our servicemen and women in any way that they can.

[dd5339]

A nice warm fuzzy for you!

Semper Fi

[lesser_satan]

Huh? I've helped out a friend in the ARNG to the tune of about $2000 since she's been activated. I think you might want to check your facts.

[burzum]

That is the most retarded statement about Military is a federal employee and can't accept gifts.

I take offense to your statement. That is how I was trained when I was in the Navy. Accepting gifts can show bias and can result in an IG investigation. Under no circumstances were gifts allowed from individuals. As far as CARE packages, perhaps the Navy does it differently. Our CARE packages consisted of only letters, but perhaps that was due to space considerations.

[\/\/ayne]

One gifts to the military:

I think the difference is that gifts sent through an authorized charitable organization or the military are known and therefore safe but handing out cash directly to someone is a little iffy because it bypasses the system. I believe the man is sincere but burzum makes a good point. A good person to call for any questions would be a base or post public service officer.

[burzum]

Huh? I've helped out a friend in the ARNG to the tune of about $2000 since she's been activated. I think you might want to check your facts.

I've looked up the applicable regulation: 5CFR2635.204 This CFR was referenced in DOD Regulation 5500-7.R The Joint Ethics Regulation section 2-202.

Your gift would be acceptable under section (b) Gifts based on a personal relationship.

It appears that the gentleman giving the cash away was also aware of this article because section (a) Gifts of $20 or less. Since his gifts were $20, the military members accepting the gifts are exempt under the ethics regulations. The lesson here, I guess, is that if you are to give cash to a military member you do not know, you must give them $20 or less, though there are additional exemptions.

[PAR35]

Goverment employees can generllay accept gifts of up to $20/occaision $50/year. So if he only gave one $20 bill to each person, there shouldn't be a problem.

See, generally, http://www.usoge.gov/pages/common_ethics_issues/common_ethics_issues_pg2.html#Anchor--Gif-60385
Scroll down to "Gifts from Outside Sources"