Soldiers still waiting for armor reimbursements

[Eugene]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9524109

Soldiers still waiting for armor reimbursements

Pentagon fails to figure out how to pay back troops' personal expenditures

Updated: 4:02 a.m. ET Sept. 29, 2005

WASHINGTON - Nearly a year after Congress demanded action, the
Pentagon has still failed to figure out a way to reimburse soldiers
for body armor and equipment they purchased to better protect
themselves while serving in Iraq.

Soldiers and their parents are still spending hundreds and sometimes
thousands of dollars for armor they say the military won’t provide.
One U.S. senator said Wednesday he will try again to force the
Pentagon to obey the reimbursement law it opposed from the outset
and has so far not implemented.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said he will offer amendments to the
defense appropriations bill working its way through Congress, to take
the funding issue out of the hands of Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld and give control to military unit commanders in the field.

“Rumsfeld is violating the law,” Dodd said in an interview with The
Associated Press. “It’s been sitting on the books for over a year.
They were opposed to it. It was insulting to them. I’m sorry that’s
how they felt.”

<snip>

more...

[Kailassa]

1. Rimfeels cares ...

Wouldn't it be cheaper to just bribe a few more teenage illegals to sign up? Who needs conscription or body armor when the poor are driven by desperation to enlist?

[zbdent]

2. I wonder how quickly the Red Cross is going to get THEIR

reimbursement . . .

[Moderator]

3. kick

[struggle4progress]

8. !

:kick:

[buzzsaw_23]

4. Troops Wait For Body Armor Reimbursements

Troops Wait for Body Armor Reimbursements


Friday September 30, 2005 12:46 AM

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Nearly a year after Congress demanded action, the Pentagon has still failed to figure out a way to reimburse soldiers for body armor and equipment they purchased to better protect themselves while serving in Iraq.

For Marine Sgt. Todd Bowers that extra piece of equipment - a high-tech rifle scope bought by his father for $600 and a $100 pair of goggles - turned out to be a life or death purchase. And he has never been reimbursed.

Bowers, who is from Arizona but going to school in Washington, D.C., was shot by a sniper during his second tour in Iraq, but the round lodged in his scope, and his goggles protected his eyes from the shrapnel that struck his face.

``We weren't provided those going to Iraq,'' he said Thursday. ``But they literally saved my life.''

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5311714,00.html

[bballny]

5. Don't hold

your breath

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. Short answer..... give the troops nobid contracts.... then they can

afford to get all the stuff they need to go to work... safely.

[deadparrot]

7. But...but I have a magnet made in China on my car...!

I support the troops!