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| 2004-12-11 | |
| Specialist Robert Loria of Middletown lost his arm in Iraq, but instead of a farewell paycheck from the U.S. Army he got a bill for nearly $1,800. On Friday a platoon of New York lawmakers came to his rescue. Loria found himself stuck in Fort Hood Texas this week when Army officials claimed he owed them money for travel expenses to a hospital and lost equipment. Several lawmakers — Rep. Maurice Hinchey and Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton — interceded on behalf of the 27-year-old veteran after his irate wife, Christine Loria, told the Times-Herald Record of Middletown about the problem. Loria was wounded in February. But as he was about to leave the Army this month, officials told him he had been overpaid for his time as a patient at a military hospital in the Washington area, and claimed he still owed money for travel between the hospital and Fort Hood, and $310 for items not found in his returned equipment. Instead of a check for nearly $4,500, Loria was told he had to pay nearly $1,800. "Christmas is coming up, and we are severely overdrawn because of this," Christine said angrily. "It turned out his getting wounded wasn't the worst thing this year to happen — this was," she said. Clinton, Schumer, and Hinchey said Friday the Army has dropped the billing demands and will allow Loria to return home today or tomorrow on leave before he is discharged. Clinton's office said late Friday that Army officials were now looking at cases of 19 other injured veterans who may have had payroll snafus similar to Loria. "This man has already made such a sacrifice, and then they just put him through the wringer," said Schumer. Clinton blamed the problem on someone in the bureaucracy being unwilling to help him with the paperwork that the Army insisted upon.
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| Posted by:ranters should joint the army |
| #16 O-6 is a big bird. I was enlisted until I moved into the "G" ranks And the troll-name that posted this article doesnt realize that a large chunk of us here served, and a fair amount of us saw combat. Doesnt surprise me some REMF screwed the guy on paperwork. There always have been and likely always will be rules-bound pencil-pushing jerks like that that in the military, especially outside of combat zones. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2004-12-11 6:24:38 PM |
| #15 O-6 is a big bird. I was enlisted until I moved into the "G" ranks And the troll-name that posted this article doesnt realize that a large chunk of us here served, and a fair amount of us saw combat. Doesnt surprise me some REMF screwed the guy on paperwork. There always have been and likely always will be rules-bound pencil-pushing jerks like that that in the military, especially outside of combat zones. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2004-12-11 6:24:38 PM |
| #14 ranters should joint the army Twenty years in the USAF, including six in the Strategic Air Command that kept you free, asshole. When did you do your time? Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2004-12-11 11:36:40 PM |
| #13 If I'd been smarter I might of joined the Army, but since I'm not I joined the Corps - so says my dad who was in the 101st. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-12-11 10:59:46 PM |
| #12 From all that my son has told me it's clear that one thing the new, modern All-Volunteer Army has retained from back when I was in (1970-1973) is bureaucratic screw-ups. It's probably a sacred tradition. I have a stack of letters written during the Civil War by some great-great-great-great uncle of mine; and his gripes were essentially the same as mine, and my son's. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2004-12-11 10:24:48 PM |
| #11 ranters should join the army A lot (I'd wager most) of us on this board already did, fuckwit. |
| Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) 2004-12-11 9:39:47 PM |
| #10 I didn't "joint" the Army or any of the other services and it is one of the dissapointments of my life. I am lucky enough to now get to work with military personnel in my job, supplying them with equipment that keeps them out of harm's way yet gives them the ability to kill the enemy with great precision. I am regulary impressed and always thankful for the service that they and all veterans have given this country. |
| Posted by: Remote Man 2004-12-11 8:25:48 PM |
| #9 Mrs D! You shouldn't know about that! LOL |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-12-11 8:14:43 PM |
| #8 With a really big roach clip. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-12-11 7:57:44 PM |
| #7 how do I "joint the Army"? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-12-11 7:45:47 PM |
| #6 Got my 20 in. Betcha ranters should joint the army doesn't. |
| Posted by: Fred 2004-12-11 7:13:56 PM |
| #5 Its not just a possible uniform REMF anymore. There's been a lot of transfer of admin to GS civilian positions, especially in finance and personnel. And Rummy is big on that type of tranfer. With the Congressional ceiling on the number of active on service, I can't blame him trying to maximize combat arms troops, but it also takes out the old 'WTF' from the Warrent Officer when he sees something like this going across his desk. An old WO or NCO usually would have thrown a fit in the command. A call to the organizational CSM would have meant a lot of personal attention to anyone who did something stupid like this to a troop. and ranters should joint the army : Already did my twenty, how about you? |
| Posted by: Don 2004-12-11 7:03:59 PM |
| #4 O-6 is a big bird. I was enlisted until I moved into the "G" ranks And the troll-name that posted this article doesnt realize that a large chunk of us here served, and a fair amount of us saw combat. Doesnt surprise me some REMF screwed the guy on paperwork. There always have been and likely always will be rules-bound pencil-pushing jerks like that that in the military, especially outside of combat zones. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2004-12-11 6:24:38 PM |
| #3 O-6 is a colonel??? |
| Posted by: Rafael 2004-12-11 5:39:10 PM |
| #2 I did join the Army, jackass. It was the summer of 1969 and I was still a British subject at the time. I flew to New York, enlisted, and had a year in Vietnam and a Purple Heart before I took the oath of citizenship. I went in at E-1, and stayed on in the Army Reserve until I finally retired at O-6 in 1999. I also saw minor combat in Desert Storm in 1991 and some similar but much uglier action in Somalia in 1993. I have never regreted any of it and I would go back in a heartbeat if they would have me. I seldom mention my military record here because, frankly, I do not accept the totalitarian left's claim that the right to speak in favor of certain viewpoints is reserved solely for those who served. The entire "chickenhawk" controversy is a red herring, a leftist authoritarian effort to limit the opposition's right to speak by requiring a kind of authority that many do not have. ZF is right, either join the jihadis, shut up, or quit setting self-serving limits on the right to speak and think. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2004-12-11 5:22:41 PM |
| #1 ranters should joint the army Liberals should join the jihadis. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-12-11 4:04:38 PM |