Posts Tagged ‘ money ’

The Senate Armed Services Committee has given a sliver of hope to some disabled military retirees still waiting for the right to receive their full military retirement pay and veterans disability compensation. The committee is asking the Senate Budget Committee to make adjustments in the 2011 federal budget to accommodate $264 million in additional benefits in 2011 and $5.4 billion over the next 10 years to allow an expansion of “concurrent receipt.” The request comes in the committee’s letter to the Senate Budget Committee making recommendations about the $708 billion defense budget for 2011. A bipartisan letter signed by committee chairman Send. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and ranking Republican John McCain, R-Ariz., warns against cutting the Obama administration’s proposed defense budget. “We note that after almost a decade of combat operations, the readiness of our nondeployed force has declined due to equipment being taken to support deploying units, in addition to a heavy emphasis being placed on training for counterinsurgency operations versus training for full-spectrum operations,” the letter says. “We urge the budget committee to fully support the administration’s national defense budget request so that we can assist the department in restoring and protecting vital readiness accounts.” On concurrent receipt, the Obama administration proposes to add $264 million into the military retirement trust fund in 2011 so it can begin providing concurrent receipt of retired pay and disability pay to people who received medical retirement from the military with fewer than 20 years of service. Over five years, the administration wants to phase in concurrent receipt for people receiving military disability retired pay, ultimately providing full military and veterans benefits to all disabled retirees. The problem with the Obama administration’s proposal is that it does not comply with congressional budget procedures; it does not specifically identify a source of the money that would be spent on new retiree benefits. This same problem prevented Congress from passing a similar proposal last year. Levin and McCain told the budget committee they support providing full concurrent receipt, and hope the budget committee can identify offsets in the budget to cover the costs. The Levin-McCain letter was sent to the budget committee on March 5 but released only late Tuesday.

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OCEANSIDE, Calif. — The construction boom at Camp Pendleton may mark the end of an era at one of its historic training camps. Base officials want to reconstruct Camp Talega, a collection of 1940s-style prefabricated Quonset huts, with modern barracks, a mess hall, armory, offices, classrooms and warehouses to support additional training and boost camp amenities. It is expected to cost about $225 million to rebuild the expeditionary support camp, located in the base’s northernmost reaches, about 25 miles from Camp Pendleton’s main gate. Officials must now seek Marine Corps and congressional support for the funding necessary to rebuild the camp. The reconstructed camp will “compete for MilCon funding” starting in 2012, base officials said. If the money is approved, Talega will join other camps at the Southern California training base receiving a massive makeover, thanks to the more than $2 billion in defense, military construction and federal stimulus funding. Other base projects include various barracks, a new hospital and revamped clubs. Camp Talega, officially known as Area 64, is tucked in a canyon along an intermittent creek at the northern end of Cristianitos Road. It was once home to 1st Reconnaissance Battalion. Since Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of mobilized reservists have settled briefly at Camp Talega for processing. The camp has also served the Reserve Support Unit, later renamed Mobilization Support Battalion and Deployment Processing Command-West. Over the years, the Quonset huts have served as temporary overflow barracks space for 1st Marine Division units. Members of 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, were shut out of their barracks at Camp San Mateo several miles away in late 2005 and early 2006 because of a combination of deployed units returning home and construction of modern barracks. On April 29, 1975, Talega and the surrounding area went from a military garrison to a refugee camp when thousands of Vietnamese, including women and children, arrived in the U.S. as part of a massive resettlement program following the end of the Vietnam War. The camp processed more than 50,000 refugees before the center closed later that year. Many leathernecks might recall Camp Talega from the big screen. The Quonset hut complex served as a background for scenes in the 1986 movie, “Heartbreak Ridge,” which starred actor Clint Eastwood as the crusty Gunny Tom Highway.

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Historic Camp Talega due for a facelift

The farmer got 30,000 Afghanis, or $600, for his trees. He had asked for another $200, but Shields and his money men bargained low in the best bazaar tradition

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Afghans Give GIs a Run for Their Money

FRUITPORT TOWNSHIP, Mich. — When disabled U.S. Army veteran Zaneta Adams arrived at Sears in the Lakes Mall, she thought she was going to be participating in a customer survey to help the store gauge consumer tastes. What the North Muskegon resident found Wednesday was something entirely unexpected — a free Kenmore washer and dryer paid for by employees from eight of Sears' Michigan stores. Employees from the stores pooled together their personal money and conducted fundraisers to purchase the appliances in honor of Adams’ military service. “I wish my children were here,” said Adams, a 32-year-old mother of six who broke her back at Fort Stewart, Ga. in 2005 when she fell off a 10-foot truck. “It's probably not going to hit me ‘til I get home.” Mike Rannells, manager of the store in Muskegon County's Fruitport Township, said employees decided to raise the money after learning that it would take several months or more for Adams to take advantage of Heroes at Home, a Sears program that provides assistance to cash-strapped veterans. “I just felt like it was time to do something sooner than later,” Rannells said. “It's a testimony to our employees.” Adams, who is partially paralyzed and uses a wheelchair, said it was heartening to learn of the outpouring of support. “To me it's a shock,” Adams said, “but it's also that I know that a lot of people appreciate my service.” Rannells said Adam's story struck a chord among Sears' employees. To raise money, they held bake sales, a silent auction, and a bottle and can drive. Others forked over cash. “People were bringing in their penny collections from home,” he said. “Anything and everything to raise awareness to and help make this young lady's life a little better.” With six children, it's a big help, said Adams, whose husband, Joseph, works at Comcast. After the couple bought a 2000 Chevy Suburban last year, they had practically no money to buy their children — who range in age from 11 months to 15 years — Christmas presents. “It's a blessing,” her husband said. “It's saving us a ton of money.” Dave Eling, director of Muskegon County's Department of Veterans’ Affairs, praised Sears for helping the couple. The store's employees could have forgotten about the couple after it became clear they couldn't immediately receive assistance from its veterans assistance program, he said. “Sears made it right by helping her out on their own time,” he said. “So that's a real kudos to them.”

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Thousands of National Guard Soldiers who served extra-long deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan and other conflicts were supposed to get paid time off when they came home three years ago. Now, they may finally be about to get their money after years of frustration.

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Guard to get Delayed Post-Deployment Pay

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Thousands of National Guard soldiers who served extra-long deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan and other conflicts were supposed to get paid time off when they came home three years ago. Now, they may finally be about to get their money after years of frustration. An Army spokesman said Wednesday that 6,800 Army National Guard soldiers are in line to receive the tardy checks. Among those still waiting: About 2,500 of Minnesota’s Red Bulls with the 34th Infantry Division , who served the longest tour of any military unit in Iraq as part of the 2007 troop surge. A Minnesota Guard spokesman said that group should get $10 million. Staff Sgt. Katie Blackwell of Champlin, Minn., who spent 16 months in Iraq as part of a nearly two-year deployment with the Minnesota Red Bulls from 2005 to 2007, estimates she and her husband, also a Guard soldier, together are owed $8,000. “We’ve been overseas to fight for our country. When I came home, I didn’t expect to have to fight on the home front,” she said. The Pentagon’s fix comes after intense pressure from members of Congress and as Minnesota legislators were considering appropriating state money to make up for the unpaid federal dollars. The Pentagon didn’t announce when the soldiers would be paid, but Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., said Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ office told him the checks will go out by March 19. Gates’ office did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press. Since the Iraq war started in 2003, the military has relied heavily on National Guard and Reserve troops, sending them into combat more frequently and for longer tours than ever before. The soldiers were promised the paid leave — called Post Deployment Mobilization Respite Absence — for deployments that lasted more than a year. The program also recognized frequent deployments. Army spokesman Maj. Tim Beninato said they earned the leave at a rate of $200 a day. The Department of Defense started the program in January 2007. The benefit was easy to give to active-duty troops, but there was no policy created to pay Guard and Reserve members until August 2007. Guard and Reserve troops who returned between Jan. 19, 2007, and Aug. 18, 2007, fell into a gap, and the military didn’t have authority to pay them retroactively until Congress changed the law in October 2009. “In this case we called up all these members of the reserve component, mobilized them, sent them to a combat zone, extended them, and they should be compensated for that,” Kline said. He added: “It didn’t reward the very people it was supposed to help.” The Army National Guard soldiers were the largest group eligible for the paid leave, but the program applied to all branches of the military. Army Reserve spokesman Lt. Col. Bernd Zoller said officials there are still calculating how many reservists are eligible for the back pay. Officials with the Navy Reserve, Marine Forces Reserve and Air Force Reserve could not immediately answer questions from AP about the number of eligible troops. The delay so frustrated two Minnesota state lawmakers that they introduced legislation to pay the soldiers and seek reimbursement from the federal government. Minnesota faces a projected $1.2 billion budget shortfall over the next 17 months. Meanwhile, Guard members across the country have continued to wait for their money. National Guard Bureau Lt. Col. Robert Ditchey said the bureau will ask state National Guards to check soldiers’ eligibility before authorizing checks to go out. By law, the entire process must wrap up by Oct. 28. Brig. Gen. David Elicerio of the Minnesota National Guard said the benefit was supposed to give Guard and Reserve troops paid time off to reconnect with their families and civilian lives after extended deployments. But they didn’t get it when they got back from the surge. “We’ve done our reintegration, but you’ve still got this unpaid benefit that’s hanging out there,” he said. Elicerio returned from another yearlong Iraq tour earlier this month. He plans to take post-deployment pay, including that left over from 2007, and spend the coming weeks with his family and catching up on projects around the house. Blackwell, a Minneapolis police officer who also served in Bosnia in 2003 and 2004, said the wait has been frustrating. “One thing the Army’s taught me is to hurry up and wait. I am hurry-up-and-waiting as patiently as I can,” she said.

Originally posted here: Guard troops await promised post-deployment pay

A South Dakota bio-tech firm is using blood byproducts from cattle to develop new ways of treating injured soldiers on the battlefield.The technology could also save lives after natural disasters such as the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, company executives say.”It could help a lot of people in mass casualty situations where blood loss and wounds that need to get healed are a problem,” says Steve Tye, vice president of operations for IKOR Inc. “This is a drug that can be stored for years so it can be delivered on the first flights out there.”IKOR aims to use hemoglobin from cattle as its raw material to develop blood replacement products for injured soldiers, Tye says. The goal is to heal their wounds more quickly and effectively, partly because the products can help deliver oxygen to the wound.The cattle byproducts would come from packing plants, where much of the blood from cattle goes to waste as the animals are processed.The firm plans to develop and produce its products in Aberdeen, S.D., where it has its laboratories. Executives expect to collaborate with Northern State University in Aberdeen. Investors who provided funding for IKOR's start-up are from South Dakota, which is a main reason IKOR's work is being done in the state, says co-founder James Canton.Up to 50 percent of deaths on the battlefield are from severe blood loss, according to a statement from Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., who helped IKOR to secure $1.2 million in funding from the U.S. military to continue its research. Johnson included the money as part of the Defense Appropriations Bill which passed the Senate in December.Treating soldiers injured in combat now requires materials that are difficult to store on or near the battlefield, according to the statement from Johnson's office. IKOR's product requires no refrigeration, and can be stored and carried where it's needed, Canton says.Blood products which could be stored and then taken by medics to injured soldiers could be very useful, says Dr. Jeff Anderson, the state surgeon for the South Dakota Army National Guard. The Army's medical professionals are “always looking for innovation, always looking for new ways to best serve the greatest fighting force that the world has ever known,” says Anderson, who is also an emergency room physician in Mitchell, S.D.Getting rapid help for injured soldiers — or survivors of a disaster — is crucial if there's hope of stopping blood loss. The window of survival is usually an hour or less. That's because deaths from blood loss typically occur during the first hour after an injury, says Dr. Chris Carlisle, an emergency room physician at Sanford-USD Medical Center.Wounds left untreated are invaded by bacteria, Carlisle says. That has been a major concern in Haiti, where preventing deaths from infected wounds is among the most pressing public health concerns, according to documents from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Untreated wounds have led to deadly cases of sepsis, doctors in Haiti have reported.IKOR has obtained some patents already, and has about a half-dozen more patents pending, Tye says. It was founded in 2005 and has its laboratories in a 10,000-square-foot facility in Aberdeen's industrial park. IKOR also has an office in San Francisco, home of Tye's father and IKOR co-founder Dr. Ross Tye.IKOR has 10 employees now, and hopes to have well over 100 by the time production of its products begins.Tye says the firm's executives are in discussions with federal regulators as the technology is developed, a process which can take years. One upcoming milestone is federal approval to test the drugs on humans.

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Cattle blood used in treatment experiments

Video: How far does a penny go nowadays? Michelle Michael follows the copper coin as it struggles to find a home in Germany.

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A California lawmaker’s December trip to Afghanistan to visit combat troops led him to introduce legislation that would provide big increases in combat and hazardous duty pays.Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., proposes increases in eight different military pays:• Hostile fire pay, now $225 a month, would increase to $600.• Imminent danger pay, also $225 a month, would increase to $350 a month.• Family separation allowance, now $250 a month, would increase to $450 a month.• Continuation pay for special warfare officers, now $5,000 for each year of additional service, would increase to up to $20,000 for each year of additional service.• Hazardous duty pay, which ranges from $150 to $450 a month, would increase to $200 to $500 a month. Service members could continue to receive up to three separate hazard pays at the same time.• Hospitalization pay for members medically evacuated from a combat zone, now $430 a month, would increase to $600.• Special pay for members of weapons of mass destruction civil support teams, now $150 a month, would increase to $300 a month.• Special pay for psychologists and social workers, now $2,000 to $5,000 a year, would increase to $4,000 to $10,000 a year.• Special pay for extending an overseas tour, now $80 a month or $2,000 a year if paid in lump sum, would increase to $200 a month or $3,000 in a lump sum.McNerney calls the package of pay increases the Combat Operations and Medical Benefit Authorization for our Troops Act, or COMBAT Act. Introduced Jan. 13, the bill, HR 4440, was referred to the House Armed Services Committee for consideration as part of the 2011 defense budget.McNerney is not a member of the armed services committee, which means chances for passage of the increase will depend on his ability to get someone on the committee to support the legislation. He does serve on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, which has close ties to the armed services panel.A price tag for all of the increases, which will be a major factor in the bill’s fate, is not yet available.McNerney said he started working on the measure after visiting U.S. troops in Afghanistan. “Many of the service members who I spoke with shared the struggles they face providing for their families while away from home and in the midst of grueling conditions,” he said in a statement. “Raising pay for service members who encounter injuries, hazardous duty and separation from their families is simply the right thing to do. Some of these types of pay haven’t been raised in years.”McNerney visited Afghanistan in late December as part of a bipartisan delegation.

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Lawmaker proposes big boost in combat pays

The Navy’s latest list of selective re-enlistment bonuses includes 51 adjusted bonus levels, and officials say more changes are expected.In all, 38 bonuses increased, two were added, four decreased and seven were eliminated in the second SRB list for fiscal 2010. Increases are effective immediately; decreases are effective Feb. 21.The modifications come after analysis of first quarter retention, said Rear Adm. Dan Holloway, who directs manpower and policy for the chief of naval personnel.Even with a 10 percent national unemployment rate, sailors with certain skills are very marketable, such as health care and air traffic control, Holloway said.———To find out which ratings can expect bonuses, read this week’s issue of Navy Times on newsstands now. To view it online, login here or subscribe now .

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38 bonus levels rise in latest SRB update