Lawmaker: Combat pay cheating must stop (Ticket Punchers)

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Army Times

A senior lawmaker wants to launch a major congressional investigation of what he sees as fraudulent claims for combat pay and benefits by people making only brief trips into a war zone.

Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, House Armed Services air and land forces subcommittee, accuses midgrade and senior service members of planning trips into Iraq and Afghanistan that have little or no practical purpose other than to qualify them for a month’s worth of danger pay and combat zone tax exclusions.

“I am outraged,” he said in a Tuesday interview. “This has got to stop. There are people out there being shot at every day for real, not for some made-up reason. There are people cheating, and they know who they are if they are making up reasons to visit the war zone just for the benefits.

“I am talking here about honor. How much is your honor worth?” he said. “If you went in a combat zone just for the pay on a made-up mission, it is not the same thing as being in a combat zone.”

Currently, service members qualify for a month of danger pay if they spend any amount of time in a combat zone, even just a few minutes. They can also qualify in some areas simply by flying through the airspace over a combat zone — even at heights well above the level that ground fire could reach.



Read more: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/05/military_dangerpay_fraud_070523w/

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

1. OMFG, quit picking on what the servicemen and women get paid, focus on HALLIBURTON.

:mad: MKJ

[brentspeak]

2. Good point. Halliburton, and Bush/Cheney's other cronies, have been fleecing the taxpayers

to the tune of a few hundred billion dollars. And Abercrombie wants to go on a crusade against a few service members?

[brentspeak]

3. I spoke too soon: Abercrombie has been going after Halliburton, etc.

He's the one who introduced the War Profiteering Act of 2007, to crack down on crooked contractors.

http://www.house.gov/list/press/hi01_abercrombie/crooked_contractors07.html

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

7. self delete.

MKJ

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

8. on edit, I struggle with the front line of bureaucracy in the military, in which

a few predatory officers use the periphery of battle to get their street cred and those who do the heavy lifting (enlisted) get only what those who are above them in the chain of command can offer.

And, then there's HALLIBURTON.

[RamboLiberal]

10. Because they are getting a months worth of combat pay for a few hours

in a "combat zone". They are not out there humpin' in the heat with body armor and a Kevlar helmet on or in a vehicle risking getting hit with an IED. They are cheating the taxpayer and their fellow soldiers. It was the Army Times that reported it not some liberal rag!

[RamboLiberal]

4. I'll make you a bet it's officers and not some little PFC who are

doing this. This kind of thing went on in Nam as well so some of these guys could get a prized combat infantryman's badge. I'm not picking on the lowly enlisted on this post and I bet the congressman isn't either. The article clearly says this is senior and mid-level (read officers) who are pulling this shenanigan - next stop for them will be the one of the defense companies like Halliburton.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

5. This is an old dodge, use to...

Get qualified for a Combat Rifleman's Badge, too. If you want to get up there in rank, you need one of them.

[RamboLiberal]

6. Yep - that's why I put in ticket punchers - figured the Nam DU vets

would know exactly what was happening here.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

9. Very popular with pencil pushers...

Who never would have a chance to command or serve in a combat unit. Go over to the war zone, go into the general vicinity of hostilities, maybe a cap or two gets busted, bingo. CRB.

Christ, sitting on your ass in The Green Zone, by the pool, Mai Tai in hand, when a mortar round drops a half-mile away might be all you need.

[saigon68]

13. Seen it before and ITS TRUE

Pentagon asshats on 3 day fact finding missions fly into Saigon on the 31st and leave on the second--- Result 2 months of tax exemptions and 2 months combat pay.

[Toots]

12. To get a CIB one has first to be infantry and second actually be in a firefight

You don't get one by flying over a country or visiting a PX in Nha Trang...You do however get Hazardous duty pay just by visiting the country and also overseas pay. It also looks good on your record that at least some time was spent in country..CIBs though aren't handed out quite so easily.

[atreides1]

14. It all depends

On who does the write up for justification, just like any other award or decoration!

[Bandit]

15. You jmust be Infantry to receive an Infantry badge

You also must have been in Combat of some sort. People do not get written up for a CIB. It is not a medal for merit or heroism. It is like a marksmanship badge only considerably more valued. It is worn above the Medal of Honor and all other medals. Sort of like Silver Wings. You don't get those for groundpounding. You must be doing something in the air and you also don't get written up for them either.

[stillcool]

11. He's right about one thing...

this has got to stop,...something's got to give..:nuke: Maybe we should cut out the middle-man and go straight to the owners...

Only in Western Europe and United States largest companies are top MNCs
Most of the largest American and European companies in terms of revenues are also the largest in terms
of foreign assets. The largest American companies, by revenue, are GM, Ford and Exxon. By foreign
assets, the largest American companies are Ford, GE, Exxon and GM (data of the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD).
Shell, which is the only European company among the ten largest by revenues, also had the largest
foreign assets ($79.7 billion) in 1995 (Fortune Magazine and UNCTAD).