When Soldiers Go Without Paychecks
Editorial
The New York Times
November 21, 2003
Members of the National Guard and the various military reserves joined
up to be part-time civilian soldiers, called up during domestic
emergencies and in time of war. This model was coming to an end even
before the war in Iraq. Stretched thin by the peacekeeping missions
of the 1990's, the Pentagon was already calling up more part-timers
and stationing them abroad for longer. But the invasion and occupation of Iraq
have magnified the problem.
If the Defense Department wants the reservists to be full-time, long-term
soldiers, it is especially important that it end the unfair practice of
paying them late - or not at all - for months on end.
A new report from the General Accounting Office blames a payroll system
so primitive and error-prone that few people fully understand it.
The system fails because the people who run it often do not know
how to process active-duty pay for
mobilized reservists. As a result, soldiers sometimes spend months
waiting for the pay they have earned.
In one striking case, a Special Forces unit deployed in Afghanistan
for a year received incorrect paychecks for 11 months, capped by largely
erroneous statements saying that each soldier, on average, owed the
federal government $48,000. In another case, a sergeant stationed in
Uzbekistan who could not get his unit paid was forced to carry the
soldiers' personnel data by hand to headquarters in Kuwait - a dangerous trip,
during which he came under fire.
The fact that this problem has plagued reservists for years makes
it even more inexcusable. The Pentagon needs to fix the payroll system quickly. If
reservists are going to risk their lives in battle, as others in uniform do,
the least we can do is pay them on time.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
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