thedrifter
04-06-07, 09:18 AM
You could benefit from early, extended tours
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Apr 6, 2007 5:29:39 EDT
Troops who are overextended in war zones would be compensated with administrative leave — and might be given the option to sell what they don’t or can’t use back to the government — if one of two plans under consideration is approved, defense officials said April 5.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been weighing both options for the past two days. A decision is imminent, defense officials said.
Awarding what is technically being referred to as “administrative absence,” one official said, would eliminate the need to give various special pays to overextended service members within authorized limits, or to ask Congress to create a new special pay.
“The goal is to avoid the need for legislation,” said the official, who asked not to be named. “The intent is not to sidestep Congress. [We’re] just looking to solve the problem.”
The proposal is based on a sliding scale — troops would get one day of administrative leave for each month over 12 that they are deployed; two days for each month over 18 months; and four days for each month over 25 months, according to a second official who also requested anonymity. The leave would not affect service members’ regular leave, which accrues at the rate of 2½ days per month.
The policy Gates decides upon, the official said, will represent a minimum standard. “The services can do something equal to or greater than what will be signed,” the official said.If Gates authorizes the buy-back option, troops who decide to sell the leave would be paid $200 per day of administrative absence, another military official said.
Determining that sliding scale has been at the center of extended discussions over the plan, said Bill Carr, deputy under secretary of defense for military personnel policy. An announcement has been expected since early February but repeatedly delayed while those discussions took place, officials have said.
Many details of the program remain unknown. For example, what is known about the basic proposals that have been given to Gates indicates that they would compensate troops whose war-zone deployments are extended beyond expectations.
But when Gates launched this compensation initiative in a Jan. 19 memo to senior Pentagon leaders, he affirmed a “planning objective” that active troops would spend two years at home for every year they are deployed — five years for every year reserve units are deployed — and directed the establishment of a program to pay troops not only when their deployments are extended, but also when they are called upon to deploy early, thus shortening their promised “dwell time” at home.
Defense officials have not said whether the proposals now on Gates’ desk specifically address the issue of also compensating troops for “broken dwell time” in addition to extended deployments. If, in fact, the new program does address that issue in some way, it is not clear how it would define the point at which promised time at home is considered broken.
As such, it remains to be seen whether a plan to compensate troops for broken dwell time would be based on Gates’ stated planning objective of two years at home to one year of deployment, or on a dwell time-deployment ratio of one to one — the current reality, as even Gates has acknowledged.
It is also unknown how the new policy options would apply to Marines, who deploy for seven months at a time — a rough reflection of Navy deployment lengths — and are supposed to come home for the same amount of time before redeploying. The Marines are “still developing a formula,” a defense official said. How the policy would affect reserve component forces also was not disclosed.
Finally, it is not yet clear how long service members would be allowed to carry the administrative leave, or whether it would count against normal leave accrual. Unused accrued annual leave in excess of 60 days normally is lost at the end of each fiscal year, although some combat-related exceptions are currently in effect.
These include service in a hostile-fire zone for more than 120 days and duty, designated by a service secretary, that would preclude a member’s ability to subsequently use his or her annual leave. In such situations, troops can accumulate up to another 60 days of leave but must use it by the end of the third fiscal year that follows the qualifying period of duty.
Normally, troops can be paid for unused leave at the end of an enlistment, based on the daily value of their base pay.
The Joint Chiefs, who have “very actively” participated in the compensation discussions, have considered other nonmonetary compensation for overextended troops, Carr said.
A defense official said these included nontraditional options such as free trips to Disneyland and “first-in-line” privileges at commissaries for spouses back home.
The issue has been discussed behind closed doors in the Pentagon for almost three months. In late January, shortly after Gates’ memo went out, Pentagon personnel chief David S.C. Chu said details would be available by early February. But sources say the services, while not opposed to some form of compensation, were strongly opposed to setting a firm “dwell time” policy, saying it would take away commanders’ flexibility to shape the force.
The proposed new compensation policy could have immediate implications for several units. The Pentagon recently announced that as part of the administration’s ongoing surge of troops to Iraq, primarily to Baghdad, two units would suffer reductions in their normal time at home. The 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, to deploy in June, will lose 47 days of its one-year “dwell time,” while the 4th Infantry Division Headquarters, to deploy in September, will lose 81 days.
A unit currently deployed, the 25th Division Headquarters, also will have its tour extended about 45 days, the Pentagon announced.
The new program would not affect the current policy of paying service members $1,000 for each month they are involuntarily extended beyond 12 months in the war zones — $200 per month in additional hardship duty pay and $800 per month in Assignment Incentive Pay. AIP is also paid to service members in certain critical skills who voluntarily agree to extend their tours in the war zones, ranging from $300 per month to $1,000 per month, depending on their skill and the length of the extension.
Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan qualify for a number of special pays and benefits. Service int he designated combat zones allows almost all personnel below the paygrade of O-6 to exclude all their monthly basic pay from federal taxes. Higher-ranking officers can exclude a portion of their pay. In addition, all bonuses earned in a combat zone — for reenlistment, for example — are tax free.
Service members in the war zones also qualify for hardship duty pay of up to $300 per month for serving in designated hardship missions and/or locations; imminent danger pay or hostile fire pay of $225 per month; and, if they have families, family separation allowance of $250 per month.
Ellie
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Apr 6, 2007 5:29:39 EDT
Troops who are overextended in war zones would be compensated with administrative leave — and might be given the option to sell what they don’t or can’t use back to the government — if one of two plans under consideration is approved, defense officials said April 5.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been weighing both options for the past two days. A decision is imminent, defense officials said.
Awarding what is technically being referred to as “administrative absence,” one official said, would eliminate the need to give various special pays to overextended service members within authorized limits, or to ask Congress to create a new special pay.
“The goal is to avoid the need for legislation,” said the official, who asked not to be named. “The intent is not to sidestep Congress. [We’re] just looking to solve the problem.”
The proposal is based on a sliding scale — troops would get one day of administrative leave for each month over 12 that they are deployed; two days for each month over 18 months; and four days for each month over 25 months, according to a second official who also requested anonymity. The leave would not affect service members’ regular leave, which accrues at the rate of 2½ days per month.
The policy Gates decides upon, the official said, will represent a minimum standard. “The services can do something equal to or greater than what will be signed,” the official said.If Gates authorizes the buy-back option, troops who decide to sell the leave would be paid $200 per day of administrative absence, another military official said.
Determining that sliding scale has been at the center of extended discussions over the plan, said Bill Carr, deputy under secretary of defense for military personnel policy. An announcement has been expected since early February but repeatedly delayed while those discussions took place, officials have said.
Many details of the program remain unknown. For example, what is known about the basic proposals that have been given to Gates indicates that they would compensate troops whose war-zone deployments are extended beyond expectations.
But when Gates launched this compensation initiative in a Jan. 19 memo to senior Pentagon leaders, he affirmed a “planning objective” that active troops would spend two years at home for every year they are deployed — five years for every year reserve units are deployed — and directed the establishment of a program to pay troops not only when their deployments are extended, but also when they are called upon to deploy early, thus shortening their promised “dwell time” at home.
Defense officials have not said whether the proposals now on Gates’ desk specifically address the issue of also compensating troops for “broken dwell time” in addition to extended deployments. If, in fact, the new program does address that issue in some way, it is not clear how it would define the point at which promised time at home is considered broken.
As such, it remains to be seen whether a plan to compensate troops for broken dwell time would be based on Gates’ stated planning objective of two years at home to one year of deployment, or on a dwell time-deployment ratio of one to one — the current reality, as even Gates has acknowledged.
It is also unknown how the new policy options would apply to Marines, who deploy for seven months at a time — a rough reflection of Navy deployment lengths — and are supposed to come home for the same amount of time before redeploying. The Marines are “still developing a formula,” a defense official said. How the policy would affect reserve component forces also was not disclosed.
Finally, it is not yet clear how long service members would be allowed to carry the administrative leave, or whether it would count against normal leave accrual. Unused accrued annual leave in excess of 60 days normally is lost at the end of each fiscal year, although some combat-related exceptions are currently in effect.
These include service in a hostile-fire zone for more than 120 days and duty, designated by a service secretary, that would preclude a member’s ability to subsequently use his or her annual leave. In such situations, troops can accumulate up to another 60 days of leave but must use it by the end of the third fiscal year that follows the qualifying period of duty.
Normally, troops can be paid for unused leave at the end of an enlistment, based on the daily value of their base pay.
The Joint Chiefs, who have “very actively” participated in the compensation discussions, have considered other nonmonetary compensation for overextended troops, Carr said.
A defense official said these included nontraditional options such as free trips to Disneyland and “first-in-line” privileges at commissaries for spouses back home.
The issue has been discussed behind closed doors in the Pentagon for almost three months. In late January, shortly after Gates’ memo went out, Pentagon personnel chief David S.C. Chu said details would be available by early February. But sources say the services, while not opposed to some form of compensation, were strongly opposed to setting a firm “dwell time” policy, saying it would take away commanders’ flexibility to shape the force.
The proposed new compensation policy could have immediate implications for several units. The Pentagon recently announced that as part of the administration’s ongoing surge of troops to Iraq, primarily to Baghdad, two units would suffer reductions in their normal time at home. The 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, to deploy in June, will lose 47 days of its one-year “dwell time,” while the 4th Infantry Division Headquarters, to deploy in September, will lose 81 days.
A unit currently deployed, the 25th Division Headquarters, also will have its tour extended about 45 days, the Pentagon announced.
The new program would not affect the current policy of paying service members $1,000 for each month they are involuntarily extended beyond 12 months in the war zones — $200 per month in additional hardship duty pay and $800 per month in Assignment Incentive Pay. AIP is also paid to service members in certain critical skills who voluntarily agree to extend their tours in the war zones, ranging from $300 per month to $1,000 per month, depending on their skill and the length of the extension.
Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan qualify for a number of special pays and benefits. Service int he designated combat zones allows almost all personnel below the paygrade of O-6 to exclude all their monthly basic pay from federal taxes. Higher-ranking officers can exclude a portion of their pay. In addition, all bonuses earned in a combat zone — for reenlistment, for example — are tax free.
Service members in the war zones also qualify for hardship duty pay of up to $300 per month for serving in designated hardship missions and/or locations; imminent danger pay or hostile fire pay of $225 per month; and, if they have families, family separation allowance of $250 per month.
Ellie