81–90 of 155 posts
"Robert D’Andrea, a retired Army major and Iraq veteran, was told to return a $20,000 bonus he received in 2008 because auditors could not find a copy of the contract he says he signed." How is this possible? If private businesses could do this, it would be mayhem.
What employers are legally able to get away with this?
"Robert D’Andrea, a retired Army major and Iraq veteran, was told to return a $20,000 bonus he received in 2008 because auditors could not find a copy of the contract he says he signed." How is this possible? If private businesses could do this, it would be mayhem.
I'm not a veteran, I'm a desk jockey. I didn't like the foreign entanglements we've been involved with over the past 15 years. But that's not the point here. When young men and women volunteer to fight and die for our country, and are made promises by the system, these promises should be honored. This behavior by the California National Guard is disgusting.
If I'm extended an offer of employment including a $10,000 signing bonus, sign, take the job, receive my bonus, complete the job as agreed, and the contract expires and I go on my way... The company doesn't get to come back to me years later and say "Oh, oops, I actually forgot to have my boss sign off on that bonus I gave you. You need to give it back."
If you broke agreements with your financers on where/how that money was to be spent, that's your problem. Our contract was still valid - you have broken your contract with your financer and you can deal with the penalties.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would think that the fact that they paid him should be de facto evidence that he signed a contract for the money, and that the burden of proof would be on them to show that the contract was invalid for some reason.
Based on the amount, they can probably determine what kind of bonus it was (special forces, radio operator, etc.) and then determine if he was eligible for any of those bonuses.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hardly, the vast majority of jobs in the US Army are non-combat. You shouldn't paint with such a broad brush, many who serve do so out of a sense of duty to the nation, to escape a bad situation including poverty or get out of a dying town, and/or to gain access to higher education through the use of tuition assistance and GI Bill programs.
How do you get to enlistment age in modern western society, where every second movie and video game is about military guys blowing things up and massacring wave after wave of lemming-enemy, without thinking that the army is there to kill people? If you're in a non-combat role, you're still there explicitly to support those in a combat role.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you get to enlistment age in modern western society, where every second movie and video game is about military guys blowing things up and massacring wave after wave of lemming-enemy, without thinking that the army is there to kill people? If you're in a non-combat role, you're still there explicitly to support those in a combat role.
Maybe some people don't limit their horizons to what you can learn from video games.
Wasn't clear from the article; did someone or a group of people break the law so that these ("illegal") bonuses could be paid? Basically, who (or what org) will be held accountable for this so that it won't happen again?
At least a partial answer is there, but presumably there are lot more people involved: > Army Master Sgt. Toni Jaffe, the California Guard’s incentive manager, pleaded guilty in 2011 to filing false claims of $15.2 million and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison. Three officers also pleaded guilty to fraud and were put on probation after paying restitution.
As an Army vet myself, the truth is is that the Army will never miss an opportunity for fucking you over. Its the nature of the system. If you can make it to 20 years, you are some combination of exceptional/lucky/broken from years of fuckery. "We just can’t do it. We’d be breaking the law" Yeah, I'm sure the California National Guard tried really, really hard not to go after their bonuses.
Can you go into more detail? I'm not trying to dispute what you say, but as someone who's never been in the military, I'm curious what kind of trouble soldiers are likely to run into.
I was enlisted in the late 90's and stationed Germany. I had a POV (personal vehicle) that I had to license/register. I had to drive to a neighboring facility to get to the license office. The office was closed, for some stupid reason (they where short staffed, and someone was out sick). The Area Military Police where in the same building, and I (stupidly) stopped a the desk sargeant and complained. I was escorted in to see the MP Sergeant Major, who yelled at me for a while, and took my ration card and confiscated my license plates (for no reason other than he could bully a lower enisted).
So this all meant I had to leave my car, and take the train back to my home base. I was late, and got into a lot of trouble for that. Then, I had to beg and finagle to go back and get my car properly licensed a week later, when I was supposed to have already had it done. This all contributed to me getting a reputation as 'shit bag', do nothing low life of a private. You get a lot hell when you have that type of reputation; a lot of 'extra duty' and unfair treatment. Like being ordered to crawl through mud in near freezing weather, with no change of clothes and no oppurtunity to dry off for DAYS.
But yeah, normal humans can't comprehend; fuckery. The term "fuck fuck" games from the reddit link is very fitting.