Pentagon has reneged on $15,000
Bonus
The News Tribune
LES BLUMENTHAL
Published: October 16th, 2005 12:01 AM
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has reneged on its offer to pay a $15,000
bonus to members of the National Guard and Army Reserve who agree to extend
their enlistments by six years, according to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Seattle).
The bonuses were offered in January to Active Guard and Reserve and military
technician soldiers who were serving overseas. In April, the Office of the
Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs ordered the bonuses stopped, Murray
said.
"This is outrageous,' the senator said in a telephone interview.
"It makes me angry that this administration has broken another promise to
our troops.'
A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, confirmed the bonuses had
been canceled, saying they violated Pentagon policies because they duplicated
other programs. She said Guard and Reserve members would be eligible for other
bonuses.
Krenke said some soldiers had been paid the re-enlistment bonuses, but she
was unsure how many or whether the money would have to be repaid.
Murray's office said that as far as it knew, no active Guard or Reserve
members had received the bonuses.
A Murray spokeswoman, Alex Glass, said Krenke's explanation was
unacceptable.
"They can spin it anyway they want,' Glass said. "But this
is a promise they are trying to explain away.'
The bonus offer was part of the Pentagon's effort to retain Guard and
Reserve members at a time of declining enlistments in the regular Army.
Army officials have said they face the toughest recruiting climate since
1973, when the draft was dropped and replaced with an all-volunteer
military.
Roughly 3,400 members of the Washington National Guard's 81st Armor
Brigade were serving in Iraq at the time the bonuses were offered.
The bonuses were tax-free because they involved soldiers stationed
overseas.
"As in the private sector, bonuses are quite effective in keeping
talented people with high demand skills,' Krenke said in an e-mail
response to questions.
Murray, a leading Capitol Hill critic of management of the Pentagon and the
Department of Veterans Affairs, said she didn't know why the bonuses were
dropped but suspected it was connected to the tight federal budget.
"It feels like every day I wake up to something else gone
wrong,' she said. "And it all goes back to this administration not
planning adequately for the Iraq war.'
Krenke said the decision to end the bonus program had nothing to do with
budgeting.
The senator said she first learned the bonus program had been canceled this
summer from members of the Washington National Guard. In late August she wrote
officials of the Pentagon's National Guard Bureau demanding an immediate
explanation.
The decision to cancel the bonuses had caused "tremendous
uncertainty' among Guard members who had been counting on the money after
they decided to re-enlist, Murray said in her August letter.
In a two-paragraph reply to Murray, Donna Warren, the National Guard
Bureau's congressional liaison, said the bonus program had been scrubbed
by order of the Office of Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. Warren said
it had been discovered that Defense Department regulations prohibited such
bonuses, but she offered no elaboration.
Warren said the bonuses remained a "critical issue' and that
officials of the Guard bureau were "aggressively engaged' in
discussions with the defense secretary's office.
Murray said Warren's response was inadequate. Earlier this month she
wrote Thomas Hall, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs. Murray
asked not only for a further explanation, but also asked Hall to reverse
himself and reinstate the bonus program.
Krenke said the Pentagon would have no comment on Murray's letter to
Hall.
Murray said she expected a quick response and would pursue the matter
further if Hall's response were insufficient.
Les Blumenthal: 202-383-0008
lblumenthal@mcclatchydc.com
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