NationStates Jolt Archive

Remember ladies and gentlemen - IF you get blowed up in the service of your country but survive, don't forget to hold onto your body armour at the same time as you in shock and are holding onto any gushing arterial wounds just praying to survive.

Because if you DON'T return that vest to the Army they're gonna charge your newly disabled ass to pay for it, and refuse to discharge you until you do! (http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/2006020623)


The last time 1st Lt. William “Eddie” Rebrook IV saw his body armor, he was lying on a stretcher in Iraq, his arm shattered and covered in blood.

A field medic tied a tourniquet around Rebrook’s right arm to stanch the bleeding from shrapnel wounds. Soldiers yanked off his blood-soaked body armor. He never saw it again.

But last week, Rebrook was forced to pay $700 for that body armor, blown up by a roadside bomb more than a year ago.

He was leaving the Army for good because of his injuries. He turned in his gear at his base in Fort Hood, Texas. He was informed there was no record that the body armor had been stripped from him in battle.

He was told to pay nearly $700 or face not being discharged for weeks, perhaps months.

...


Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

Wow. The American army just becomes more and more American every day! :rolleyes:

Wow. The American army just becomes more and more American every day! :rolleyes:

It's always been that way. You sign for things.

You don't turn it in, you pay for it.

Officers sign for more things than enlisted soldiers.

Linky no worky!

Frankly, if you're going to join an organization whose jobs consist of risking your life in order to do whatever your government decides, and when your government is not known for logically and ethically sound decisions, I can't be entirely sympathetic.

Can't he get in touch with those who stripped his armor off of him and ask them what they did with it?

It's always been that way. You sign for things.

You don't turn it in, you pay for it.

Officers sign for more things than enlisted soldiers.

Has it? I wonder if it's the same for ours.

I suppose it makes sense if you're 'losing' expensive equipment in training or something, but is it really warranted in this situation?

It's the Supply pukes. This kind of nonsense has been going on for centuries in many armies.

During the various African Campaigns, British supply officers were notorious for not releasing additional ammo even while their post was being overrun.

In the Crimean War, Soldiers were freezing to death because it was regulation that they only be issued one greatcoat and they couldn't get another even after their old one rotted away due to extreme weather.

Same war, Soldiers died of scurvey (unheard of for land troops) because of poor nutrition. Shiploads of limes were sent but didn't get issued because nobody would sign for them.