R&R soldiers have to pay their own way?

[MaineDem]

I'm sorry if this is dicussed somewhere else but I just got back from a luncheon and one of the guys there - a Vietnam Vet - said that the soldiers coming back from Iraq on that 14 day R&R have to pay up to $1000 to American Airlines for transport. Has anyone else heard this?

[Bunny]

1. For right now, they are being taken to

Baltimore for free. From Baltimore, they are responsible for their own transportation fees to their home towns. As time goes on, they are going to try to get them taken for free to other major cities in the US, closer to more soldier's hometowns.

[Cappurr]

2. You didn't have to do that in Vietnam

Hell....I flew for free courtesy of the government and I was a civilian. My return to the US was paid for by a private company because I left the government in RVN and started working for a private firm. But R&R trips were free....you could go to Austrailia, Hawaii, Japan......a whole host of places. I went to Tiwan.

[joycep]

3. I am so angry I just want to cry

I can't believe these bastards would be so sorry. Well, I can too- but as far as I'm concerned I hope they all drop dead. Anyone who would treat an American soldier like that deserves the worst. And they talk about us not being patriotic! I hope some dem with lots of money steps forward and starts helping them get home.

[DonP]

4. Used to be your choice

MAC (Military Airlift Command) flights were free, but you had to wait for one headed your way and hope for the best.

I flew from Alabama in the back of a C 130 to New Jersey in the middle of winter and damn it was cold back there!

Or you could buy a discounted fare on regular airlines. Given the choice of getting home a day or two earlier, most of us were more than ready to pay our own freight from Oakland or New Jersey.

They would fly you to a US point, relatively close to home, then you were on your own. That's the way it has been under every administration, not just this one.

Don P.