By Captain Dave Funk
Clash Daily Guest Contributor
You may have heard that the LA Times is reporting that California National Guard soldiers are being forced to repay reenlistment and educational bonuses from ten years ago. [Editor: Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced Wednesday he is temporarily suspending “all efforts to collect reimbursement” from these guardsmen.] Many are questioning if there is any statute of limitations, or if perhaps this is a stale claim, even if the Doctrine of Latches applies here. Those are questions best left to an attorney; I’m just a pilot and here’s what it looks like to me from 41,000 feet:
Like most predators, I am capable of discerning patterns. Be it the federal over-regulation that’s hurting our economy, the inability of our State Department of getting even the small things right, or the destruction of our military’s ability to win on the battlefield.
Clearly, this Administration’s removal of non-politically correct senior officers, its lowering of physical fitness standards, its delays in updating and maintaining of weapon systems, the unprecedented Bo Bergdahl-Taliban commanders prisoner swap, its restrictive rules of engagement, and now this “bonus” reversal program is a pattern. That continued pattern of slowing our economy, reducing our standing in the world, and our military readiness; the last of which could prove fatal to our Nation.
This last example is most significant because if shakes to the core our enlisted soldiers’ confidence in every promise our military makes to them. How can America recruit, train, and retain the best soldiers; develop the best noncommissioned officers, the very core of our fighting forces, if those same NCOs have no faith in the social and legal contracts that they have with our civilian leaders?
It’s hard not to see that this is another example of death by a thousand cuts to our Republic, this time by breaking our promises to our soldiers and veterans.
photo credit: The National Guard California National Guard via photopin (license)
