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Fri 14 Oct, 2005 07:37 am
Quote:I don't know how much you want from me. I already gave you one arm and a part of a leg
Quote:His hand had been blown off in Iraq, his body pierced by shrapnel. He could not walk. Robert Loria was flown home for a long recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he tried to bear up against intense physical pain and reimagine his life's possibilities.
The last thing on his mind, he said, was whether the Army had correctly adjusted his pay rate -- downgrading it because he was out of the war zone -- or whether his combat gear had been accounted for properly: his Kevlar helmet, his suspenders, his rucksack.
"I was shocked," says Robert Loria, now 28. "After everything that went on, they still had the nerve to ask me for money." (By Dominick Fiorille -- Middletown (N.y.) Times Herald Record)
But nine months after Loria was wounded, the Army garnished his wages and then, as he prepared to leave the service, hit him with a $6,200 debt. That was just before last Christmas, and several lawmakers scrambled to help. This spring, a collection agency started calling. He owed another $646 for military housing.
"I was shocked," recalled Loria, now 28 and medically retired from the Army. "After everything that went on, they still had the nerve to ask me for money."
Although Loria's problems may be striking on their own, the Army has recently identified 331 other soldiers who have been hit with military debt after being wounded at war. The new analysis comes as the United States has more wounded troops than at any time since the Vietnam War, with thousands suffering serious injury in Iraq or Afghanistan.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/13/AR2005101302166.html?referrer=email&referrer=email
This is the real benefit of an all-volunteer army. As adults they freely accepted the risks, so they should have no cause for complaint now, right?
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr