Wounded US soldiers fighting off military debts: report

In one case the Army demanded a soldier repay a 2,700 dollar enlistment bonus because he only served two years of a three year tour -- even though it was a mortar blast in Iraq that cut short his service, according to the ABC News report.

In another case, the army mistakenly continued paying a combat bonus to a soldier while he recuperated from a roadside bomb that nearly severed his leg -- then sought to get 2,000 dollars of it back.

"By law, he's not entitled to the money, so he must pay it back," Colonel Richard Shrank, the head of the US Army Finance Command, was quoted as saying.

The cases were unveiled in a report by the Government Accountability Office, which oversees public spending for Congress, according to ABC. The GAO report is to be released Thursday.

The report "found hundreds of wounded soldiers were turned over to collection agencies for military debts incurred though no fault of their own," ABC said.

Source

About headlines and content that has changed after it was added to this site - see disclaimer here

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.