Home > Re-enlisted National Guard Soldier never received $15,000 bonus as promissed

Re-enlisted National Guard Soldier never received $15,000 bonus as promissed

by Open-Publishing - Friday 16 December 2005
3 comments

Wars and conflicts International USA

December 13, 2005 By Kelly Kennedy, Army Times staff writer [Excerpts]

After re-enlisting during his second tour in Iraq but not receiving a promised $15,000 re-up bonus, Sgt. 1st Class Carl Latson says he won’t re-enlist ever again.

In January, the Spanaway, Wash., soldier signed a six-year contract that was supposed to get him a $15,000 bonus - tax-free, since he signed up in the war zone.
But when his 13th year of service ended in March, the check never made it to the bank.

Latson’s contract contains the $15,000 bonus, but the Army said the bonus was for regular active-duty soldiers only.

Last month, after hearing there had been a mistake, Latson hired a lawyer. Sen. Patty Murray,D-Wash., and another member of Congress got involved.

Then, the Defense Department announced it was rushing through a change in its bonus policy to allow Guard members who are on full-time active duty to be eligible for re-enlistment bonuses while in a war zone, just like other troops.

"I feel like they threw up a smoke screen," Latson said. "I had a congressman and my brigade commander calling me saying we are getting our bonus. (But) when I asked when, it was, ’I will get back to you,’ or, ’We don’t know how to pay it.’."

Latson’s lawyer, Mark Clausen of Seattle, said no one has given him a date for the bonus, which should have been paid in June, nor has he been told whether the Army will pay Latson’s lawyer fees.

Latson said some soldiers in his unit immediately received their re-up bonuses when they returned from Iraq, but others, including some under his command, are still waiting. He knows 10 other Guard soldiers who also did not get their bonuses; as many as 1,500 soldiers may have been affected by a policy that denied re-up money to members of the Active Guard and Reserve.

Latson said he gets e-mails and phone calls from those soldiers asking him to find out when they are going to receive their bonuses. He said some are facing financial hardship because of the late bonus.

"We should not have to fight, but I will for the future of these soldiers," Latson said.

"Like I have told my attorney, I want to go ahead with filing the lawsuit, and if I don’t get anything out of it, and I have to pay my attorney fees on my own, at least the soldiers get their bonuses."

http://www.militaryproject.org/article.asp?id=784

Forum posts

  • Latson is likely to become another casualty of friendly fire or just go missing in action.

  • WELCOME to the TRUSTED corporation run states of SOVIET AMERIKA. In this new Corporation based form of COMMUNISM, soldiers are treated just like the old soviets were... With drug addiction, mind control, fear of reproach, no real job to look forward to when out and a confusing set of commands and directives that is designed to allow them to kill innocents in a range of "setups" that are designed to allow the killing of innocents on a massive scale. Then the land and oil will be parceled out and the pipeline is already almost complete from Iraq to the HOMELAND... Then after the control the oil the will execure their real plan...

    Hey its time to let the CAT OUT OF THE BAG... The ENTIRE MIDDLE EAST and ALL MAJOR OIL PRODUCING REGIONS Will have pipe lines going to the "HOMELAND" and from their — THOSE in the HOMELAND will PRICE FIX the OIL in the NEW York Oil investment houses SO they can drive the ECONOMY of the US, CANADA, EUROPE, and a GOOD part of South America from A SINGLE ENERGY RESOURCE COMMODITY. In this way not only oil but all industries that depend on oil will be in the power of the Elite Bankers and they will the place a ID chip system in place after which they will dismantle the governments and will create a borderless mass area of slave countrys under the guise of a New World Order and will barter transfer labor, resrouces, and energy on a whim between slave regions and make the Neo-God-corporations supported by this essentially the modern NOBLE class and the entire rest of the world the techno slaves and the labor slaves... Using the implants which will have a termination feature which is being hidden in the implant any dissdents of malcontents will "SUDDENLY get ill" and DIE, and with the latest in MIND CONTROL they will be able to detect Infered levels to detect anger, discontent and other emotions and thus we all will be part of a modern techno slave society led by pedophiles , murderers, and techno freaks all willing to DO what they must to AVOID being herded into CLASS of SLAVES which will have no rights or personality traits other than their functions. Average life span before "in body" chip termination will be 30 years or less to allow for new younger less educated slaves to come on line and ensure no historical truth is passed from one generation of slaves to the next.. And without a history of what is happening this can be perpetrated forever.

    simply put. They are inSANE. And they are failing that is WHY they NEED all these PROTECTIONS like a LOW ECONOMY and the PUKE-face Patriot rACKET to help their little plan along... but hey when the troop begin to wake up.. which is NOW... then lets see what happens ... WHEN its OVER and they come back to a massive ECONMIC COLLAPSE and CORRUPTION.. I AM SURE all those men that KNOW how to USE a GUN are going to "SUPPORT the TROOPS"!

  • Stupid enough to enlist once, stupid enough to enlist twice, stupid enough to go to iraq and die so that cheney gets richer.
    Too bad he didn`t get a trade/craft.

    Or are all the carpenters and plumbers from Mexico?

    [http:

    http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/74078]