(US Rep) Markey pushes to keep combat wages (big gap)

[Justice]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/10/12/markey_pushes_to_keep_combat_wages/


When Marine Lance Corporal James Crosby was wounded during a rocket attack in Iraq in March, paralyzed from the waist down by shrapnel, he was earning $2,500 a month.

But Crosby's pay plunged as soon as the 20-year-old Winthrop native was evacuated for medical treatment to Kuwait, then to Germany, and a military hospital in Maryland. As Crosby recuperated from a series of operations, losing 50 pounds in the process, he and his wife, Angela, struggled to stay afloat on $1,300 a month.

Crosby spoke yesterday at a news conference outside his Saugus apartment to announce a measure that would allow those recuperating from war injuries to keep earning extra wages and benefits they received while in combat.
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So the combat pay you receive ends when you return wounded. Great. How many wounded do we have? How many wounded who are reservists, who took a cut in pay from their regular job when they became active, going from worker pay to combat pay and then were wounded -- forcing them to take a further cut in pay from combat pay to non-combat pay.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. and lets not forget

the fact that Bush's buddies in Congress have CUT benefits to disabled veterans. I keep thinking of those wounded guys in F911, especially the guy who lost both hands. How is he supposed to survive? Or is he to be thrown on the trash heap because he's expendable? Will we soon see disabled vets on street corners, tin cups in hands, begging?

[hippywife]

3. In all likelihood

you're seeing them now. Just from different wounds received in different wars. This will just be adding new blood to the ranks of the homeless vet.

[truthisfreedom]

2. hey bush, pottery barn rule invoked: you broke 'em, you own 'em.

now pay for 'em. they're hurting. you did it. you fix it. shithead.

[pelagius]

4. I live in a military town...

...and the outrage about cutting veterans benefits and extending tours of duty is palpable. I hear from angry military families since I'm a known "lib'rul" in a community leadership position. Even allowing for the fact that people unhappy with the Administration are more likely to vent to me than people who like this President, I'd say that * is in trouble with our military families.