My husband gives his life to you and this is how you pay him?

The BBQ Pit
1

Note: This is not a rant against the PA Air National Guard military personnel, nor is it a rant against the Air Force. It’s also not a rant against most civil servants, who are dedicated to their jobs. It’s against a specific subset of them.

It’s October 15, Airman’s payday. I open his leave and earnings statement, and surprise! He was underpaid by half. He got his base pay, incentive pay and partial housing allotment. He’s supposed to get FULL housing allotment and subsistence allowance. Fortunately, most of the people we owe money to are more than understanding. (It helps that they’re family.)

So, Airman goes to the pay office, where he’s blown off. The excuse: It was the end of the fiscal year, and the Guard just didn’t have enough money to pay him. He talks to his chief, and his chief goes over to the office, finds out that not only was this check shorted, but so was every other check he’s gotten since he’s been in the Guard. The supervisor in the pay office says he’ll go over all the records and fix the problem. Also, five hundred dollars will be deposited either on the 28th or 29th. (Yesterday or today.) I check the bank’s website, and surprise! No money. Fuck!

So I called his chief today, and he is not happy. Airman’s unit believes in taking care of their people. Military service can be a huge sacrifice not only to the member, but also to their family. So, the military command structure has been very good to us.

It’s the civilians I’m ranting about. You know, the people behind the desks with their cushy, protected jobs, who move pencils all day.

Why should you care that my husband is in Washington State, freezing his ass off, learning to eat bugs so if he goes into combat for you, he’ll make it home? Your paychecks are correct each time, I bet. When the end of the fiscal year comes, and the unit is out of money, your checks aren’t short. You don’t have to worry about a thing! On the other hand, my husband has to pay for his meals and housing out of his own pocket, then put in his voucher. This costs real money. He’s still got a family to support, and this costs real money, too. And, I’m looking into WIC to make sure our baby has enough to eat.

So, listen up, you incompetent bitch: Either you learn your job and get it right and pay my husband what he works so hard for, or you can explain yourself to the unit command. Because if my husband ain’t happy, the command ain’t happy. And they sign your check!

Robin, one pissed off military wife

2

This seems to be a frequent and recurring problem. I don’t know that many in the service or the reserves, and nearly all of them have horror stories to say about being underpaid, or unpaid, at all.

I knew a person once who received absolutely no pay whatsoever for 7 months! He and his family survived only because the Major in charge of his …unit, command, whatever it’s called - gave him a huge interest-free personal loan.

At the end of it all, there was no apology, no one gave a shit. He got his check, and then they shorted him again on month 8. It took a year before he could count on regular pay.

I’d be interested in knowing - is this a common thing? Because like I said, I know I guess 4 people in the service, and all 4 of them have had something like this happen to some extent. :confused:

3

Can you contact your Senator or Representative?

This is just appalling stuff. Our military should not have to worry about getting stiffed on their paychecks.

Wish I had more to offer than sympathy.

Regards,
Shodan

4

My stepson had a huge problem getting paid as well…he fought for months and months. Possibly more than a year. As a matter of fact, I’m STILL not sure it’s all sorted out and he’s been in the Army for almost two years now.

5

It happens often. Considering DFAS has to write out LESs and pay millions of employees, I’m suprised it doesn’t happen ‘more’ often.

The only good thing about it, and it’s not really a great thing, but you “do” eventually always get your money. My supervisor, a Staff, didn’t get his BAH for half a year. They finally gave it to him in one lump sum. He just had to complain enough.

But that’s the way these things work.

Sorry to hear you’re having DFAS troubles Robyn. Hope AD is doing well in survival school.

6

BUGS?! He has to eat bugs?! Shit.

::salutes in Airman’s direction::

7

Oh yes the payroll system for the military is screwed up. But so is almost any government payment. My expierence was with a college benefit I recieved because my retired from the military father died while I was in college. My dad was in the service for over 20 years and I was supposed to recieve some cash to help pay for my college. First off the vetrens in the office didn’t even think I should get anything because I ‘never served a day’. (like every child has Christmas in a different house every year) Then the Reagan adminstration tried to cut the benifit so they could buy some B-1 bombers. So basically after a year I got a huge check and after being flush for while my friends thought I had a pretty good deal. (of course I would give them the cash to have my dad back)

Oh and MsRobyn with the thread title I thougt the Airman had FUCKING DIED!!! Jesus you scared the crap out of me!!!

8

Well, at least we know where the problem started. It started with the civilian clerk in the pay office who screwed up the initial data entry. She tried to enter information, and when it rejected, basically said, “screw it”. The office supervisor now has to go back to Day One and start all over again.

I, myself, have had few pay problems, unless you count the time my old ship sent my pay folder, with my records and those of five or six other people who couldn’t get paid until their records were sent back to the ship.

Robin

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Zebra, apologies for the scare. Airman’s fine; I talked to him this morning.

Robin

10

How does he sound with bug parts stuck in his teeth? No worries, I’m sure he’ll gargle before he gets home.

As far as the office supervisor needing to fix this, I am fully confident you know the squeaky wheel story. If you can be just enough of a pain in their asses to make them do it to get you off their back, but not enough of a pain to piss them off, you could get YOUR MONEY faster. Maybe a personal phone call every other day to get a progress report on YOUR MONEY?

11

I had $700.00 taken from my income tax return one year because Milpay screwed up and lost a set of 14 day orders that I turned in 4 years earlier. The original incident was years ago when I was a young (read:stupid) Lance Corpral in the Marines and didn’t keep a copy of the orders for myself. I finally gave up.

I spent this summer in Saudi Arabia with the AF. When I got back I had about $750 on my Travel card. I did a split dispersion and (surprise!) the travel card never got paid. I came out of pocket $500 last month, but don’t have the other ($300 now with late penalties.) So… While I’m on orders for 9 days starting this friday I can’t stay in lodgeing, because my card is suspended for being late. I’ll have to sleep on the coutch of a friend on base.

The military, ya gotta love it… cause there’s no other reason to do it.

Tell Airman I hope he “escapes and evades” well in WA.

12

Is Airman on AGR / Title 10 active duty now, or is this Washington state trip just AT or drill?

13

In the private sector, if an employer is out of money at the end of a fiscal year, the employees get laid off. It’s up to the individual to decide if this is better or worse than them paying what they can and promising to try to make up the difference later. Both are horrid to deal with when you’re on the recieving end of the check, or lack thereof.

Enjoy,
Steven

14

My god-this is how we support our military?

:frowning:

Good luck and send my regards to Airman, MsRobyn.

15

MsR: You’re dealing with two groups of incompetents. I say this as a retired Personnelman First Class (that’s the equivalent of a CBPO TechSgt). First off: the ship’s Disbursing Office certainly could have, and definitely should have, payed you and the others who were without field pay records. The Leading Chief of the Disbursing Office should rot for not enforcing minimum standards in his division.

Next: The Airman’s unit certainly can issue what’s called a health & welfare payment. Either that or and advance of pay. Nowadays, though, there’s no real reason to do that. The new JUMPS (new as of two years ago) is supposed to be set up so that if there’s a major foulup with the Servicemember’s pay, that can be corrected and paid within two working days.

If I, or the people I supervised, were that derelict, I would fully expect the person I’m shafting to do the “instant climb” up the chain of command. That’s where you say to the person screwing up, “Let’s go speak to your supervisor.” When that supe doesn’t fix it, “Let’s all go speak to your supervisor.” Pretty soon, the whole gang’s on the commanding officer’s porch.

16

Make that “an advance of pay” please.

17

Not getting the pay that’s due to you sucks mightily. Hopefully it all gets straightend out quickly.

But, MsRobyn, I do have to say that this thread is really rubbing me the wrong way.

Now, I know you qualified this rant at the very beginning, and I also realise that the mini-rant I’m about to go off on does not necessarily apply directly to your personal views, but I am so tired of hearing folks in the military refer to us “civilians” as a different class of person. If civilians are so damned obnoxious, then why bother protecting them?

Also, while I truly value the career that those in the military have chosen (for the most part), it is a job. While there’s a high potential for risk (depending on the political flavour du jour and world events), theoretically soldiers and officers are compensated for this in their pay. I don’t think the fact that Airman is in the military has any bearing on the current paycheck snaffoo, as the title of this thread seems to indicate (somehow because he’s in the military, he’s more entitled to receiving accurate pay).

Again, Robyn, I’m not intending to make a huge deal out of this, but it bugs me that you seem to feel that a big part of this problem is that it’s being handled by civilians, and the implication that if you didn’t have to worry about civilians not doing their jobs and not having enough respect and gratitude this wouldn’t have happened.

18

Join the US Military!

Base pay: 1,022.70 /mo
BAH: 429.60 /mo
BAS: 262.50 /mo

Total 1,714.80 /mo (before taxes)

Be seperated from your family!
Be shipped crappy places where the locals probably hate you!
Be sent to war at any moment!
Etc, etc…

They are certianly NOT compensated for what they go through starting at 20K / year. There’s hunderds of reasons to be in the service, some noble,some selfish, but anyone in the US military for the money is an outright loon.

What little money they get, they are “more entitled to arrurate pay”, as are others serving the community for little pay at great risk like police and firefighters.
http://www.dfas.mil/money/milpay/pay/01-2002.pdf

19

Well, Sgt. J made the point I was going to make.

Regarding the OP: We are lucky in that we’ve only had a pay screwup once, and it seemed to be taken care of fairly quickly, but I belong to a military wives’ community online, and I know of at least one girl on there who mentioned that her husband has never gotten his BAH. We haven’t had to deal with BAH yet, because we’ve been in base housing in both places we’ve lived, but in this upcoming move we’ll have to live out in town, and I am just hoping that something like that doesn’t happen.

20

Bugs? eewww…
MsRobyn, tell AirmanDoors Mr. Singular and I are in Washington state (Bellevue) and would be proud to serve him a lovely meal of Ahi Tuna frajitas and pumpkin cheesecake, with nary a bug in sight, just a big dumb dog that will worship him.

Good luck to both of you!