Pentagon rescinds repayment order right before soldier's TV appearance
Soldier ordered to pay back signing bonus after being injured in IraqPentagon rescinds repayment order right before soldier's TV appearance
As the military struggles to fill its ranks after six years of war it is finding cold-hard cash to be a powerful enticement.
But for one soldier who was injured serving his country in its wars, the military had another demand: pay us back.
Jordan Fox was seriously injured by a roadside bomb earlier this year, and the Army asked him to repay $3,000 of the $10,000 enlistment bonus he received.
"It was kind of like a slap in the face to know that I had done my best and tried to serve my country with honor and have them turn around and say, 'Well you owe us money,'" Fox said on MSNBC's Live with Dan Abrams Tuesday.
Perhaps realizing the wave of bad publicity that would result from Fox's nationally televised appearance, the Pentagon reversed course just before the program aired and vowed not to send its debt collectors after the wounded soldier.
Fox is not alone, though. According to KDKA, a local station in Pittsburgh, Pa., the military "is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses" after being injured in combat.
Since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, more than 28,000 troops have been injured and nearly 4,000 have died, according to GlobalSecurity.org.
Fox said his parents were offended by the military's now-rescinded demand for re-compensation. They started a nonprofit, Operation Pittsburgh Pride, which has sent more than 4,000 care packages to US troops serving in combat. Fox's mother, Susan Wardezak, met with President Bush when he visited Pittsburgh last year.
Because his injuries -- a serious back problem and the loss of vision in his right eye -- shattered Fox's dream of becoming a police officer, his future is unclear. But the veteran says he has no regrets about joining the Army.
"I'd do it all over again... because I'm proud of the discipline that I learned. I'm proud to have done something for my country," he told KDKA.
The following video is from MSNBC's Abrams Report, broadcast on November 20, 2007
As the military struggles to fill its ranks after six years of war it is finding cold-hard cash to be a powerful enticement.
But for one soldier who was injured serving his country in its wars, the military had another demand: pay us back.
Jordan Fox was seriously injured by a roadside bomb earlier this year, and the Army asked him to repay $3,000 of the $10,000 enlistment bonus he received.
"It was kind of like a slap in the face to know that I had done my best and tried to serve my country with honor and have them turn around and say, 'Well you owe us money,'" Fox said on MSNBC's Live with Dan Abrams Tuesday.
Perhaps realizing the wave of bad publicity that would result from Fox's nationally televised appearance, the Pentagon reversed course just before the program aired and vowed not to send its debt collectors after the wounded soldier.
Fox is not alone, though. According to KDKA, a local station in Pittsburgh, Pa., the military "is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses" after being injured in combat.
Since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, more than 28,000 troops have been injured and nearly 4,000 have died, according to GlobalSecurity.org.
Fox said his parents were offended by the military's now-rescinded demand for re-compensation. They started a nonprofit, Operation Pittsburgh Pride, which has sent more than 4,000 care packages to US troops serving in combat. Fox's mother, Susan Wardezak, met with President Bush when he visited Pittsburgh last year.
Because his injuries -- a serious back problem and the loss of vision in his right eye -- shattered Fox's dream of becoming a police officer, his future is unclear. But the veteran says he has no regrets about joining the Army.
"I'd do it all over again... because I'm proud of the discipline that I learned. I'm proud to have done something for my country," he told KDKA.
The following video is from MSNBC's Abrams Report, broadcast on November 20, 2007
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 2:30 PM
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