Army: Wounded Vets Will Get All of Their Bonus Money

Army: Wounded Vets Will Get All of Their Bonus Money
By Spencer Ackerman - November 23, 2007, 11:51AM



After learning from the media that a wounded Iraq veteran, Private First Class Jordan Fox of Pennsylvania, was asked to return his enlistment bonus when an IED prematurely ended his soldiering career, the Army has emphasized that its policy is not to recoup those bonuses. But it doesn't know how the snafu occurred. And that raises concerns that other wounded soldiers might lose their benefits through a different bureaucratic mix-up.

Apropos of Paul's good question on Wednesday about recruitment bonuses -- are they paid up front, allowing them to be partially withheld if soldiers are unable to complete their tours? -- we have an answer. Bonuses are paid incrementally, for the most part, except for military jobs facing a "critical shortfall" of personnel.

That means infantrymen are probably going to get their bonuses on the installment plan, though Army spokesman Paul Boyce -- who has the unfortunate assignment of fielding reporters' calls on the Jordan Fox story post-Thanksgiving -- says that wouldn't "necessarily" be the case. "It depends on the situation for the individual soldier," he explains.

So what percentage of recruitment bonuses are paid up front? Boyce doesn't know, and says that there isn't a system in place for determining that percentage "at this time."

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If it's just for signing up, it should be paid all at once, right at the beginning. There's a risk, of course, that someone will take the bonus and skedaddle, but doesn't the military screen for that sort of thing?

If it's meant to entice someone to serve through their entire hitch, then why not just raise everyone's pay? Bring it more in line with, say, the mercenaries of Blackwater. That way there wouldn't be quite so much disparity between the volunteer and the mercenary soldiery. And isn't it preferable to have people sign up voluntarily?

And if it's meant as a further ruse to deceive young men and women, along with the Myth of Redemptive Violence and the True Meaning of Patriotism, then the policy of casting it out there and reeling it back in seems just all of a piece.