As many as 56,000 troops may see pay cut

UPDATE From Stars and Stripes
DOD eyes trimming danger-pay regions; for some it’s a ‘slap in the face’

Pentagon Eyes Cuts in Danger Pay
Associated Press
by Lolita C. Baldo
Jul 10, 2013

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is eyeing plans to eliminate danger pay for service members in as many as 18 countries and five waterways around the world, saving about $120 million each year while taking a bite out of troops' salaries, The Associated Press has learned.

Senior defense and military leaders are expected to meet later this week to review the matter and are poised to approve a new plan. Pentagon press secretary George Little declined to discuss details but said no final decisions have been made.

Senior military leaders came up with the proposed list of locations in their regions that no longer were perilous enough to warrant danger pay, including several countries in the heart of the tumultuous Middle East, such as Jordan, where hundreds of troops have recently deployed because of the bloody Syrian civil war on its border.

Defense officials said the proposal would strip the stipend -- which can be up to $225 per month -- from as many as 56,000 service members, including thousands stationed in Kuwait, which was a key hub during the Iraq war. It also would affect thousands of sailors who routinely travel through the Persian Gulf region on ships or airmen who fly over the Gulf.

The $225 monthly cut in pay would come regardless of the service member's base salary, which can range from a low of roughly $18,000 a year for a brand new recruit to a high of nearly $235,000 a year for a four-star general with more than 40 years in the military. Troops also can receive a variety of other allowances for housing, clothing or job specialties.
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National Guards soldiers lose weeks of post deployment pay

Guard Soldiers Rail Against Policy That Reduces Paid Leave

March 13, 2012
Stars and Stripes|by Megan McCloskey

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait -- The Pentagon has stripped weeks of post-deployment leave from many National Guard soldiers, leaving units already overseas facing a drastically different scenario returning home than they had expected.

Soldiers now in Kuwait with the Minnesota National Guard will receive at least 21 fewer leave days than they were told when they deployed -- a month's pay gone. And more importantly, they say, a month less time to spend with family and to reintegrate before returning to their civilian jobs.

"It's a game changer," Capt. Matt Bruns said.

The soldiers expected that leave time because of a policy the Pentagon started in 2007 to make up for repeatedly deploying soldiers without adequate dwell time. Guard soldiers are supposed to have five years in between deployments, but with the two wars, units have been deploying more frequently.

The policy provided an increasing number of days off for each month soldiers were deployed beyond 12 months, 18 months and 24 months in a five-year period. For many of the Minnesota Guard soldiers, who spent 22 months mobilized for the Iraq war from 2005 to 2007, they deployed last summer to assist with the Iraq drawdown, expecting to earn four days of additional time off for nearly every month they were gone. But in October, midway through their tour and as they racked up millions of miles providing security for convoys exiting Iraq, the Pentagon changed the policy for all units, regardless of whether they were already deployed. Now, instead of earning four days each month, the Minnesota Guard soldiers will get one day per month.
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Delta unfriendly skies to soldiers coming home from Afghanistan

UPDATE but the question is, will they refund the money other troops have had to pay already?

Army Welcomes Delta Policy Shift on Extra Baggage Fees
Published June 09, 2011
FoxNews.com


Reuters
The U.S. Army on Thursday welcomed Delta Air Line's decision to allow soldiers to check an extra bag on its planes free of charge, after a unit returning from Afghanistan was charged thousands of dollars in baggage fees.
"We're pleased Delta is taking positive action on this to support the soldiers," Army spokesman Gary Tallman said. "The commercial airlines have been an efficient and critical (partner) for decades in providing additional capability to move hundreds of thousands of troops around the world."
Delta's policy shift came just one day after two soldiers, Staff Sgts. Fred Hilliker and Robert O'Hair, filmed a video onboard Flight 1625 and posted it on YouTube. They criticized Delta for the additional charges, complaining that the 34 soldiers were charged as much as $2,800 in baggage fees.


Read more: Army Welcomes Delta Policy Shift on Extra Baggage Fees

On YouTube, soldiers home from war recount paying Delta for extra bags
Stars and Stripes
Published: June 8, 2011
Two U.S. soldiers returning from a deployment in Afghanistan said Delta Air Lines charged them $200 each for extra bags for their connecting flight from Baltimore to Atlanta.

While on board Delta Air Lines flight 1625 Tuesday morning, Staff Sgts. Fred Hilliker and Robert O’Hair shot a video laying out their case. In the video, which was posted on YouTube, the soldiers say they are authorized to check as many as four bags, free of charge, on their return trip from Afghanistan.

Filming while in their seats, Hilliker opens the video by saying he and the other 33 members of his unit were told in Baltimore that they were only authorized to check three bags for free.

“Just back from Afghanistan yesterday,” Hilliker says in the video, “... on an 18-hour layover, we had a little issue with the bags this morning.”

He soon turns the camera on O’Hair to explain further. Interview style, they note that their orders authorize them to carry four bags, and talk of having to pay “out of pocket,” despite an existing contract between the airline and the government.

“How much did we pay?” asks Hilliker.

“Over $2,800, and there’s only 34 of us,” O’Hair replies.
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On YouTube, soldiers home from war recount paying Delta

Federal reservists to receive pay supplements

Federal reservists to receive pay supplements

By Stephen Losey - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Apr 6, 2009 17:42:53 EDT

Federal civilian employees in the National Guard and Reserve whose income drops when they are mobilized for active-duty service will receive salary supplements to make up the difference.

The supplemental payments begin with the pay period that began March 15, the Office of Personnel Management said in an April 3 memo.

OPM will count locality pay and special rate supplements when determining employees’ basic federal pay. OPM and Defense still must decide what allowances to include when determining basic military pay.

The requirement for the supplemental pay was ordered in the 2009 appropriations bill passed last month.
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Federal reservists to receive pay supplements/