thedrifter
03-02-04, 07:13 AM
02-26-2004
From the Editor:
Sailing to the ‘Golden Circle’
By Ed Offley
I have nothing but the deepest respect for the men and women of the U.S. Navy. During the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, they served diligently as their flattops mounted day and nighttime air strikes in support of the Army soldiers and Marines on the ground, and they endured long months at sea with scant liberty port visits.
I also have the highest admiration for military leaders who consciously look after their people, and go the extra mile to get them recognition, rewards and benefits to make their service more tolerable.
But what the Navy did in terms of awarding “imminent danger pay” and “combat zone tax relief” for the crews of the carriers USS Harry Truman and USS Theodore Roosevelt and their escort ships – and perhaps many other warships still unknown – was nothing short of criminal fraud.
Here’s what happened: Last spring, Congress directed that all military personnel who spent any amount of time in a war zone would be entitled to a “combat zone tax exclusion” for that month. This meant that even if the person found himself or herself in such a designated area for just one day, he or she could keep all of the money normally deducted for federal income taxes for the entire month.
The same situation occurred in terms of receiving “imminent danger pay,” a bonus of $225 per month regardless of rank. The law provided that each enlisted person or commissioned officer receive the monthly bonus no matter how short – e.g. one day – he or she was physically present in a designated war zone.
In a third category, any sailor who won a re-enlistment bonus while serving in a designated war zone would receive all of the money tax-free.
The eligibility rules originally covered the time span from Apr. 11 through Aug. 1, 2003, but now have been retroactively changed to March 19, 2003, the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom
The problem confronting Navy leaders was that the legislation did not cover naval crews serving in the Eastern Mediterranean, including the Truman and Theodore Roosevelt strike groups. The unspoken premise was that while their work was arduous and important, the ship’s crews were no more exposed to danger – combat aircrews aside – than if they were engaged in routine training off the Virginia Capes.
But rather than lobby for a change in the law, the Navy essentially went looking for a loophole large enough to drive a Nimitz-class carrier through.
And they found a beauty.
Remember Kosovo? That little war we fought in 1999 did more than give us Slobodan Milosevic and Wesley Clark. It also gave the Navy a chance to pump the taxpayers’ money into the pockets of its sailors.
As reporter Matthew Dolan of The Virginian-Pilot reported last week, the geographic area surrounding Kosovo – including the northeastern Mediterranean north of the 39th Parallel – was still legally defined as an operating area where military personnel were eligible for the war zone bonuses and tax relief.
Never mind that combat ended in Kosovo four years ago. Never mind the ongoing hunt for Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, or even the global maritime crackdown on international smugglers itching to sell WMD materials to the highest bidder. Make your course 000 and full steam ahead for the 39th Parallel!
Once a month, the Virginian-Pilot, reported, the two carriers would break off whatever they were doing and sprint north to enter the Kosovo imminent danger zone. Sailors called it for what it was: “running for the money.” They called the 39th Parallel “the golden circle.”
The carriers actually ran the gauntlet in the months before Operation Iraqi Freedom even kicked off, the newspaper revealed, with the Truman making separate runs in January, February and early March to qualify for the tax-free status.
No one even knows how much money the Navy skimmed from the U.S. Treasury while condoning this runaround, but it is well in the millions. The 5,000 sailors on the Truman earned a total exceeding $3 million just in the $225 monthly bonus for those three trips to the “golden circle.”
My question: Why didn’t any alarm bells go off in the Navy Inspector-General’s office or Navy JAG?
Six months ago, I received a furious email from a U.S. airman stationed in Kosovo, who wrote about the ongoing abuse of the one-day-in-theater rule by USAREUR and NATO staff officers (“The Grunts Patrol, the Generals Junket,” DefenseWatch, Sept. 30, 2003). The airman wrote:
“What I am talking about here, are the frequent interlopers from staff positions (O-4s through O-10s) throughout the military who Blackhawk into Bondsteel to eat lunch, shake a hand or two, and its wheels up by sundown – all the while collecting the same hostile fire pay as one of us who spends the entire month here. As if this were not enough of a slap in the face, they also get the month’s tax-free status. ... One of the preferred tricks is to come on the 31st of the month and leave on the 1st of the next month, thus gaining two months of benefits for two days.”
The Navy, of course, remains defiantly unrepentant over carrying out an identical scam on a fleet-wide basis.
“We are absolutely delighted to be able to get this pay into the hands of all those hard-working sailors who were there during the opening phase of the war,” said Vice Adm. Gerry Hoewing, the Chief of Naval Personnel. “They were among the first to sail in harm’s way, and they certainly deserve this.”
I couldn’t say it better than the e-mail I received from a retired Army combat arms officer who has a DoD civilian job in the Norfolk area, who learned of the scam when he overheard several sailors gloating over the extra money they were getting: “Incredibly unethical behavior on a huge scale!!!” he wrote. “I’m outraged by all of this. The leaders who encourage and do these things should be disciplined.”
It seems that the U.S. Navy cannot distinguish leadership from larceny.
Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com. © 2004 Ed Offley.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=FTE.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=26&rnd=238.80555070541686
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
From the Editor:
Sailing to the ‘Golden Circle’
By Ed Offley
I have nothing but the deepest respect for the men and women of the U.S. Navy. During the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, they served diligently as their flattops mounted day and nighttime air strikes in support of the Army soldiers and Marines on the ground, and they endured long months at sea with scant liberty port visits.
I also have the highest admiration for military leaders who consciously look after their people, and go the extra mile to get them recognition, rewards and benefits to make their service more tolerable.
But what the Navy did in terms of awarding “imminent danger pay” and “combat zone tax relief” for the crews of the carriers USS Harry Truman and USS Theodore Roosevelt and their escort ships – and perhaps many other warships still unknown – was nothing short of criminal fraud.
Here’s what happened: Last spring, Congress directed that all military personnel who spent any amount of time in a war zone would be entitled to a “combat zone tax exclusion” for that month. This meant that even if the person found himself or herself in such a designated area for just one day, he or she could keep all of the money normally deducted for federal income taxes for the entire month.
The same situation occurred in terms of receiving “imminent danger pay,” a bonus of $225 per month regardless of rank. The law provided that each enlisted person or commissioned officer receive the monthly bonus no matter how short – e.g. one day – he or she was physically present in a designated war zone.
In a third category, any sailor who won a re-enlistment bonus while serving in a designated war zone would receive all of the money tax-free.
The eligibility rules originally covered the time span from Apr. 11 through Aug. 1, 2003, but now have been retroactively changed to March 19, 2003, the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom
The problem confronting Navy leaders was that the legislation did not cover naval crews serving in the Eastern Mediterranean, including the Truman and Theodore Roosevelt strike groups. The unspoken premise was that while their work was arduous and important, the ship’s crews were no more exposed to danger – combat aircrews aside – than if they were engaged in routine training off the Virginia Capes.
But rather than lobby for a change in the law, the Navy essentially went looking for a loophole large enough to drive a Nimitz-class carrier through.
And they found a beauty.
Remember Kosovo? That little war we fought in 1999 did more than give us Slobodan Milosevic and Wesley Clark. It also gave the Navy a chance to pump the taxpayers’ money into the pockets of its sailors.
As reporter Matthew Dolan of The Virginian-Pilot reported last week, the geographic area surrounding Kosovo – including the northeastern Mediterranean north of the 39th Parallel – was still legally defined as an operating area where military personnel were eligible for the war zone bonuses and tax relief.
Never mind that combat ended in Kosovo four years ago. Never mind the ongoing hunt for Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, or even the global maritime crackdown on international smugglers itching to sell WMD materials to the highest bidder. Make your course 000 and full steam ahead for the 39th Parallel!
Once a month, the Virginian-Pilot, reported, the two carriers would break off whatever they were doing and sprint north to enter the Kosovo imminent danger zone. Sailors called it for what it was: “running for the money.” They called the 39th Parallel “the golden circle.”
The carriers actually ran the gauntlet in the months before Operation Iraqi Freedom even kicked off, the newspaper revealed, with the Truman making separate runs in January, February and early March to qualify for the tax-free status.
No one even knows how much money the Navy skimmed from the U.S. Treasury while condoning this runaround, but it is well in the millions. The 5,000 sailors on the Truman earned a total exceeding $3 million just in the $225 monthly bonus for those three trips to the “golden circle.”
My question: Why didn’t any alarm bells go off in the Navy Inspector-General’s office or Navy JAG?
Six months ago, I received a furious email from a U.S. airman stationed in Kosovo, who wrote about the ongoing abuse of the one-day-in-theater rule by USAREUR and NATO staff officers (“The Grunts Patrol, the Generals Junket,” DefenseWatch, Sept. 30, 2003). The airman wrote:
“What I am talking about here, are the frequent interlopers from staff positions (O-4s through O-10s) throughout the military who Blackhawk into Bondsteel to eat lunch, shake a hand or two, and its wheels up by sundown – all the while collecting the same hostile fire pay as one of us who spends the entire month here. As if this were not enough of a slap in the face, they also get the month’s tax-free status. ... One of the preferred tricks is to come on the 31st of the month and leave on the 1st of the next month, thus gaining two months of benefits for two days.”
The Navy, of course, remains defiantly unrepentant over carrying out an identical scam on a fleet-wide basis.
“We are absolutely delighted to be able to get this pay into the hands of all those hard-working sailors who were there during the opening phase of the war,” said Vice Adm. Gerry Hoewing, the Chief of Naval Personnel. “They were among the first to sail in harm’s way, and they certainly deserve this.”
I couldn’t say it better than the e-mail I received from a retired Army combat arms officer who has a DoD civilian job in the Norfolk area, who learned of the scam when he overheard several sailors gloating over the extra money they were getting: “Incredibly unethical behavior on a huge scale!!!” he wrote. “I’m outraged by all of this. The leaders who encourage and do these things should be disciplined.”
It seems that the U.S. Navy cannot distinguish leadership from larceny.
Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com. © 2004 Ed Offley.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=FTE.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=26&rnd=238.80555070541686
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: