Posted on 06/03/2010 3:04:58 PM PDT by blam
US Army Charges Sniper For Lost Gear After He Was Shot
Vince Veneziani
Jun. 3, 2010, 5:17 PM
Image: Seattle Weekly
Sniper Gary Pfleider was wounded while in patrol in Iraq back in 2007. A sniper shot him through his left leg and he didn't think he was going to make it. Luckily, he pulled through and received a Purple Heart for his bravery in combat according to Seattle Weekly.
But that's not the only thing the Army awarded him with. They also gave him a bill for more than $3000 because of the gear he had to leave behind after being shot.
Seattle Weekly: Last June, the Army sent Pfleider a bill for more than $3,000. Technically, the clothes and weapons his unit had to leave behind after he got shot were the responsibility of his commanding officers.
Pfleider claims he got sworn statements from his bosses that he was no longer liable. The government says he may have misfiled them, or they may be lost. It's issuing a ruling on Friday to determine what Pfleider owes.
Luckily, strangers from all over the country have reached out to Pfleider, offering to pay his debts off. But Pfleider won't accept the money. He's busy waiting for a response back from the military on why he owes $3000 in the first place.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I wonder if Gary Francis Powers has completed paying off the U2 he lost?
This is a disgrace - but understandable with the current Commander in Chief.
The sad thing here...is that every single GI is carrying $3k minimum in gear on him...as he deploys. And it could be way more (laptops, radios, etc). Imagine a Normandy landing today...with 1,500 troops wounded...and hundreds of millions in gear assessed as “lost” and some jerk committed to taking the money back from the wounded guy recovering. The minute we had computers to track equipment...we created a trail that will punish guys. Something isn’t right about this.
I’m sure Pres Bush was to blame. </sarchasm>
shaking head
With the kenyan doing all he can to blow morale and the military doing this, I’m not sure how much longer we can depend on people to voluntarily sign up. Incentives are melting away.
Tell me again why we should trust government bureaucrats to run our health care system.
SOMEBODY has to pay for 0bamacare.
I’ve never heard of this website. How accurate are they?
This does not surprise me. I was in the Army close to 40 years ago, and if you lost or damaged any of your issued equipment, you had to replace it or sign a document called a “statement of charges” where the cost was deducted from your pay. This could run from damaging the front door of your wall locker to flipping a jeep. Don’t remember this happening in combat situation, but I’m not surprised.
I've never had a question about them. They were quoting from the Seattle Weekly anyway. See here.
A private was out on field maneuvers when he stumbled across a deep chasm among the brush. Quickly reaching for a low hanging tree branch, he let go of his weapon and watched as it fell into the dark below. After he returns to his command, his Sergeant starts yelling at him for his misadventure and for his missing weapon.
“That was a $1500 rifle and you will pay for it out of your paycheck over the next 5 weeks!”
“Sergeant, if I were a tank commander, would I have to pay for a tank I lost in combat?”
“You better believe it private!”
“Sergeant, I thank you for explaining a long held mystery for me.”
“And what would that be private?”
“Sergeant, I now understand why the Captain goes down with his ship.”
Unfortunately, this is typical Military/Government bureaucracy! They have little knowledge about anything except regulations. No actual human interference desired or expected.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Gary_Powers
The services each have procedures to collect and forward an evacuated person's belongings. Part of that process is recovering back into unit custody any government property that the person was issued. This recovery is supposed to be recorded in the person's service record. If an equipment item cannot be recovered and the loss can be honestly attributed to combat, the unit can certify it as a combat loss and write it off unit records. There are statements for the record that have to be submitted and it seems that these are what are missing in this case.
Unfortunately, it is now three years after the incident, the unit was a National Guard unit (knowledgeable people and records could be anywhere now), and he is out of the service. So some clerical genius, lacking the appropriate records, has decided the proper thing to do is dock his social security pay and federal income tax return.
What happened to the service advocates that were supposed to buffer wounded warriors from this kind of nonsense?
Ok, but this pretty much looks like one blog reposting a report from another blog.
Happy 59th birthday, Jean. (It’s okay.)
After KVAL News received an e-mail from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington that said Pfleider was not being billed for gear, but for another reason, KVAL News contacted Pfleider again to ask if he had ever received notification of this overpayment.
“I did not,” he said. “I was under the impression that (the gear) is what I was being charged for. And that was documentation and information that was given to me at hand from two seargents at my old unit because that’s information they were given.”
Pfleider told KVAL News a Defense Finance and Accounting Services spokesman told him they mailed three notices about overpayment to him, but he never received them. Based on the paperwork he had and conversations with soldiers in his former unit, he believed he was being docked for equipment.
Pfleider said he was not being overpaid and has paperwork to clear up the discrepancy.
KVAL News wanted to discuss Pfleider’s case with Defense Finance and Accounting Services, but a spokesman said Pfleider had to waive his privacy rights.
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/95522579.html
I find this story suspect,,,, ya,,, on paper,, it could be true,,, one call from this guys congressman would make it all go away.
From what I understand it already went away.
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