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thedrifter
02-27-07, 08:08 AM
Conway seeks monthly bonus for longer war tours

By John Hoellwarth - Staff writer
Posted : March 05, 2007

Marines will get $250 for each month they spend deployed past the standard seven-month rotation as soon as the service can “get that signature in place,” the commandant said.

“We don’t have the stamp of approval yet, but we’re working hard because we’d like to have it apply to those people that are being extended as we speak,” Commandant Gen. James Conway said during a Feb. 16 meeting with reporters.

Under Defense Department policy, anyone deployed to a combat zone for more than one year will receive an extra $1,000 in his monthly check. That bonus easily applies to soldiers who deploy for year-long combat tours and rate the cash if they stay longer than planned. But Marines typically go on seven-month tours and can be extended for five months before rating an extra cent.

“What we’re advocating,” said Conway, “is that there should also be some stipend there for people who serve seven months — $250 a month would be what we put against those folks that have deployed something less than a year. That would be our service policy.”

In early January, the Corps announced that two infantry battalions — 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, and 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines — would be extended in Iraq for 90 days and the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit would stay 45 days longer than initially expected.

In addition to its headquarters element, the Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based MEU comprises Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines; Combat Logistics Battalion 15; and Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 165.

There are other Marines, such as those who deploy with headquarters units, who are locked into year-long war tours.

Late last year, the Defense Department endorsed an Army initiative to award deployed soldiers “warrior pay” based on the cumulative amount of time previously spent in combat zones.

The compensation is similar to sea pay, which Marines and sailors serving aboard ships receive each month based on the cumulative amount of time they’ve spent underway. But warrior pay will not be awarded to Marines.

“Warrior pay is an Army-specific initiative,” Manpower and Reserve Affairs spokesman 1st Lt. Rob Dolan said at the time.

If approved by Congress as part of next fiscal year’s defense budget, deployed soldiers on Oct. 1 will begin receiving between $50 and $740 per month, depending on their rank.

The amount of money each soldier receives would increase in stages based on the cumulative time they spend deployed, said Col. Gerald Barrett, chief of compensation and entitlements in the Office of the G-1.

Barrett said there is uncertainty over what the specific pay levels would be but added that warrior pay would be structured similar to sea pay “in that there will be different gates that soldiers have to meet.”

A soldier passes through the first gate after his initial deployment and begins receiving extra pay his second time out, according to Barrett.

“When the soldier comes back from that deployment, he will pass into another bracket that will give extra money for every month he is deployed in the future,” he said. “Our vision is that this will carry through a soldier’s entire career so that any time he deploys, he will not only be adding to his deployment history, but will receive extra money during the time he is deployed.

Ellie