How The Military Really Treats Our "Heroes"
Sept 1, 2014 17:38:52 GMT -5
Post by Slyoldawg on Sept 1, 2014 17:38:52 GMT -5
Soldier wins settlement from storage company
By Karen Jowers
A special operations soldier has won a settlement from the storage company that got rid of his property while he was deployed — including $8,044 worth of Army-issued equipment — in violation of the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act.
The settlement was reached Aug. 21, following a June 26 ruling by Senior U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt that Southern Mini Storage of Sanford, North Carolina, violated the SCRA rights of the soldier by disposing of his property without a court order. Bertie Butler, owner of Southern Mini, had no comment on the case or the settlement.
But while a federal court has resolved one issue for the soldier, he awaits resolution from the Army after his unit blamed him for the lost equipment.
“There’s no doubt [the storage owner] violated the SCRA,” said the soldier, who asked that his name and rank be withheld. “But what he did caused me to be found negligent by the Army. ... I don’t really care about the money. I would rather the Army said they made a mistake and I wasn’t negligent.
“I want to prevent them from doing this to other soldiers.”
The Army made the couple pay $8,044 for the military gear when an investigation by his unit determined that the loss was due to the soldier’s “simple negligence.” Later the Army refunded about $3,500 to the soldier, after determining it had docked him too much money. Regulations limit the amount of liability to one month’s pay if a soldier is found negligent. Having to pay $1,500 a month for nearly six months after they moved was a hardship, said the soldier’s wife, Angela Williams. “We were totally flat broke.”
The amount of the court settle ment was not disclosed, but it’s more than the worth of the items in the storage unit — valued at nearly $40,000, said Angela Williams. “There were irreplaceable things,” she said, such as three boxes of pristine Christmas ornaments from her great-grandmother and her grandmother, and ornaments made by her children. “And the emotional turmoil is still lingering” because of the unresolved questions with the Army, she said.
After discovering the loss in December 2010 while her husband was still deployed, Angela Williams sought help from her husband’s unit and from legal officers at Fort Bragg, but no one mentioned the possibility that the storage facility owner may have been in violation of the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act by selling the property of a service member without a court order. Nor did the Williamses realize that the SCRA applied to them. Extra protection from the courts under the SCRA ensures every effort is made to reach the service member. The member can request a delay in proceedings because of a deployment, for example.
The soldier’s unit began an investigation into the lost equipment in August 2011, when he was outprocessing before making a permanent change-of-station move, and he once again informed officials of the lost equipment. The unit investigation found simple negligence on the part of the soldier, and made him pay $8,044 for the lost equipment. An Army judge advocate general officer signed off on the Army investigation.
“I couldn’t believe the legal review from the JAG at Fort Bragg. It was simply wrong,” said retired Air Force Col. John Odom, an expert on the SCRA and one of the attorneys who represented the Williamses in their lawsuit against the storage company.
The review “failed to spot two critical issues: the violation of the SCRA, and the fact that they can’t dock more than a month’s pay” when a loss to the government results from a service member’s negligence, Odom said. If there weren’t such limitations, he said, “people wouldn’t drive ships and fly airplanes” if they had to reimburse the government for the entire cost of the ship or airplane after an incident. “It’s a DoD recognition that there has to be a reasonable limitation on financial liability for service members for loss or damage to government property resulting from their negligence.” Regardless, in this case, there was no negligence on the soldier’s part, Odom said.
The Williamses filed a complaint with the Army Special Operations Command Inspector General about the unit’s investigation more than a year ago. Officials at Fort Bragg referred questions to Army IG headquarters, and information was not available by press time about the findings, or whether officials expect to reverse the finding that the soldier was negligent.
Angela Williams said they haven’t received the final report, but they’ve been told the ruling of negligence still stands.
But Odom contends the Army should have refunded the entire $8,044 to the Wiilliamses, and he’s working with the soldier to complete that process to get the rest of the money back. “If the Army wants their money, the Army should be going to see [the owner of the storage company],” he said.
As for the finding of negligence, “nothing could be farther from the truth,” Odom said.
“How can this many people who are supposed to know the law that protects service members look at this and miss these issues?” Odom said.
And this ....
Injured guardsman’s family lives in poverty, and waits
By Patricia Kime
Army National Guard Spc. Robert Quattrocchi, 31, spends much of his time these days helping wife Monica care for the couple’s 4month-old daughter in a rambling, uninsulated Georgia farmhouse that belongs to his in-laws.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Just over a year ago, the Quattrocchis owned a four-bedroom home in Cumming, Georgia, and Robert had plans to deploy with the 278th Military Police Company.
But during premobilization training in early 2013, Quattrocchi aggravated an injury he received in 2011while serving in Afghanistan. He was placed, he said, in a “dead man’s profile” — barred from deploying or doing meaningful work with the company’s rear party.
When he was told to go home to recover, he was assured he’d receive incapacitation pay shortly thereafter.
But it’s been 18 months. And in the meantime, he’s lost his home and a car and is relying on his wife’s parents to feed his family.
“It’s been awful watching all this happen. It’s not just our life. My parents lives’ have been impacted and my daughter’s. We’ve exhausted every avenue of approach and have come up empty-handed,” Monica Quattrocchi, 23, said during an interview Aug.27.
Robert Quattrocchi’s financial and Guard career troubles began unknowingly when he left Fort Dix, New Jersey, after demobilizing in 2011.
The paperwork declaring that his original back injury had occurred in the line of duty was never filed.
And the process for receiving incapacitation pay hangs largely on the outcome of the investigation into whether an injury occurred during military duty. Quattrocchi should have received another line-of-duty affirmation for his back when he reinjured it during the pre-mob workups. But investigations into his injuries appears to be ongoing.
The horizontal construction engineer has been able to receive medical treatment from the Veterans Affairs Department.
But he has had trouble landing a job in his original civilian profession — construction — or any other line of work for which he is qualified, mainly manual labor.
Monica,who recently gave birth to daughter Elizabeth, was in the National Guard as well and served alongside her future husband in Afghanistan. But she had to leave service because the couple couldn’t afford the gas needed for Monica to get to drill.
Quattrocchi hasn’t filed for a medical evaluation board because it never occurred to him to do so. He always thought he’d recover and continue serving.
“I am really good at being a soldier. I take pride in it, too. If anything, I wanted to do it full time, not get out,” he said.
His contract is up in November and he wasn’t sure whether the National Guard could release him while he is in a “holding pattern.”
But now he’s worried.
“I’m not getting any feedback except that it’s time to turn in my issued stuff. ... I keep waiting to hear back from them. But I feel like they’re going to, for lack of a better word, screw us over — basically find loopholes, a way out of being responsible,” Quattrocchi said.
When Quattrocchi first was injured, he was treated by unit docs with pain medication and anti-inflammatories, mainly ibuprofen and tramadol. He later was diagnosed with degenerative discs and and pinched nerves in his lumbar region and has received cortisone shots to treat the problems.
At the VA, he is under a physician’s care, participating in physical therapy and receiving prolotherapy, a treatment designed to strengthen weak tendons and connective tissue.
He calls his unit every week and has asked multiple times that officials release his medical records to the VA. It hasn’t happened. And the unit cannot tell him where his INCAP application is.
The brigade referred questions from Military Times to the Georgia National Guard. A spokeswoman said she could not comment on the particulars of the Quattrocchi case, citing privacy laws, but said “it is the policy of the Defense Department to provide medical care to reserve component members for any injury or illness incurred or aggravated in the line of duty.”
“In keeping with this policy, an injury reported to the chain of command prompts an initial lineof- duty report to ensure that service members can seek initial medical care without incurring out-of-pocket expenses,” spokeswoman Ashlie Shrewsbury said.
But the medical care is not the issue; Robert Quattrocchi said the care he is receiving at VA is good.
The problem is not having any money. And being unable to get a job. And relying on the kindness of family, which includes sharing a roof with the parents in a home that has no air conditioning, no insulation and no heat.
“There’s a fireplace in the living room but no heat in any of the other rooms. That’s OK when it was just us. But I’m not sure what we’re going to do this winter. We have those oil-filled radiators, but they are expensive to run,” Monica Quattrocchi said.
The couple hope the situation gets ironed out soon. She is taking online college courses so she can improve her employment prospects, and Robert Quattrocchi is wondering what his next steps will be.
They likely include college — paid for by the Post-9/11 GI Bill — to study engineering.
In the meantime, though, Quattrocchi is contemplating starting the medical evaluation board process, albeit reluctantly.
“We have exhausted every avenue of approach that we have and come up empty-handed. I want everyone who is in this position to be aware of the possibility that they might not get any help from the military,” he said.
By Karen Jowers
A special operations soldier has won a settlement from the storage company that got rid of his property while he was deployed — including $8,044 worth of Army-issued equipment — in violation of the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act.
The settlement was reached Aug. 21, following a June 26 ruling by Senior U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt that Southern Mini Storage of Sanford, North Carolina, violated the SCRA rights of the soldier by disposing of his property without a court order. Bertie Butler, owner of Southern Mini, had no comment on the case or the settlement.
But while a federal court has resolved one issue for the soldier, he awaits resolution from the Army after his unit blamed him for the lost equipment.
“There’s no doubt [the storage owner] violated the SCRA,” said the soldier, who asked that his name and rank be withheld. “But what he did caused me to be found negligent by the Army. ... I don’t really care about the money. I would rather the Army said they made a mistake and I wasn’t negligent.
“I want to prevent them from doing this to other soldiers.”
The Army made the couple pay $8,044 for the military gear when an investigation by his unit determined that the loss was due to the soldier’s “simple negligence.” Later the Army refunded about $3,500 to the soldier, after determining it had docked him too much money. Regulations limit the amount of liability to one month’s pay if a soldier is found negligent. Having to pay $1,500 a month for nearly six months after they moved was a hardship, said the soldier’s wife, Angela Williams. “We were totally flat broke.”
The amount of the court settle ment was not disclosed, but it’s more than the worth of the items in the storage unit — valued at nearly $40,000, said Angela Williams. “There were irreplaceable things,” she said, such as three boxes of pristine Christmas ornaments from her great-grandmother and her grandmother, and ornaments made by her children. “And the emotional turmoil is still lingering” because of the unresolved questions with the Army, she said.
After discovering the loss in December 2010 while her husband was still deployed, Angela Williams sought help from her husband’s unit and from legal officers at Fort Bragg, but no one mentioned the possibility that the storage facility owner may have been in violation of the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act by selling the property of a service member without a court order. Nor did the Williamses realize that the SCRA applied to them. Extra protection from the courts under the SCRA ensures every effort is made to reach the service member. The member can request a delay in proceedings because of a deployment, for example.
The soldier’s unit began an investigation into the lost equipment in August 2011, when he was outprocessing before making a permanent change-of-station move, and he once again informed officials of the lost equipment. The unit investigation found simple negligence on the part of the soldier, and made him pay $8,044 for the lost equipment. An Army judge advocate general officer signed off on the Army investigation.
“I couldn’t believe the legal review from the JAG at Fort Bragg. It was simply wrong,” said retired Air Force Col. John Odom, an expert on the SCRA and one of the attorneys who represented the Williamses in their lawsuit against the storage company.
The review “failed to spot two critical issues: the violation of the SCRA, and the fact that they can’t dock more than a month’s pay” when a loss to the government results from a service member’s negligence, Odom said. If there weren’t such limitations, he said, “people wouldn’t drive ships and fly airplanes” if they had to reimburse the government for the entire cost of the ship or airplane after an incident. “It’s a DoD recognition that there has to be a reasonable limitation on financial liability for service members for loss or damage to government property resulting from their negligence.” Regardless, in this case, there was no negligence on the soldier’s part, Odom said.
The Williamses filed a complaint with the Army Special Operations Command Inspector General about the unit’s investigation more than a year ago. Officials at Fort Bragg referred questions to Army IG headquarters, and information was not available by press time about the findings, or whether officials expect to reverse the finding that the soldier was negligent.
Angela Williams said they haven’t received the final report, but they’ve been told the ruling of negligence still stands.
But Odom contends the Army should have refunded the entire $8,044 to the Wiilliamses, and he’s working with the soldier to complete that process to get the rest of the money back. “If the Army wants their money, the Army should be going to see [the owner of the storage company],” he said.
As for the finding of negligence, “nothing could be farther from the truth,” Odom said.
“How can this many people who are supposed to know the law that protects service members look at this and miss these issues?” Odom said.
And this ....
Injured guardsman’s family lives in poverty, and waits
By Patricia Kime
Army National Guard Spc. Robert Quattrocchi, 31, spends much of his time these days helping wife Monica care for the couple’s 4month-old daughter in a rambling, uninsulated Georgia farmhouse that belongs to his in-laws.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Just over a year ago, the Quattrocchis owned a four-bedroom home in Cumming, Georgia, and Robert had plans to deploy with the 278th Military Police Company.
But during premobilization training in early 2013, Quattrocchi aggravated an injury he received in 2011while serving in Afghanistan. He was placed, he said, in a “dead man’s profile” — barred from deploying or doing meaningful work with the company’s rear party.
When he was told to go home to recover, he was assured he’d receive incapacitation pay shortly thereafter.
But it’s been 18 months. And in the meantime, he’s lost his home and a car and is relying on his wife’s parents to feed his family.
“It’s been awful watching all this happen. It’s not just our life. My parents lives’ have been impacted and my daughter’s. We’ve exhausted every avenue of approach and have come up empty-handed,” Monica Quattrocchi, 23, said during an interview Aug.27.
Robert Quattrocchi’s financial and Guard career troubles began unknowingly when he left Fort Dix, New Jersey, after demobilizing in 2011.
The paperwork declaring that his original back injury had occurred in the line of duty was never filed.
And the process for receiving incapacitation pay hangs largely on the outcome of the investigation into whether an injury occurred during military duty. Quattrocchi should have received another line-of-duty affirmation for his back when he reinjured it during the pre-mob workups. But investigations into his injuries appears to be ongoing.
The horizontal construction engineer has been able to receive medical treatment from the Veterans Affairs Department.
But he has had trouble landing a job in his original civilian profession — construction — or any other line of work for which he is qualified, mainly manual labor.
Monica,who recently gave birth to daughter Elizabeth, was in the National Guard as well and served alongside her future husband in Afghanistan. But she had to leave service because the couple couldn’t afford the gas needed for Monica to get to drill.
Quattrocchi hasn’t filed for a medical evaluation board because it never occurred to him to do so. He always thought he’d recover and continue serving.
“I am really good at being a soldier. I take pride in it, too. If anything, I wanted to do it full time, not get out,” he said.
His contract is up in November and he wasn’t sure whether the National Guard could release him while he is in a “holding pattern.”
But now he’s worried.
“I’m not getting any feedback except that it’s time to turn in my issued stuff. ... I keep waiting to hear back from them. But I feel like they’re going to, for lack of a better word, screw us over — basically find loopholes, a way out of being responsible,” Quattrocchi said.
When Quattrocchi first was injured, he was treated by unit docs with pain medication and anti-inflammatories, mainly ibuprofen and tramadol. He later was diagnosed with degenerative discs and and pinched nerves in his lumbar region and has received cortisone shots to treat the problems.
At the VA, he is under a physician’s care, participating in physical therapy and receiving prolotherapy, a treatment designed to strengthen weak tendons and connective tissue.
He calls his unit every week and has asked multiple times that officials release his medical records to the VA. It hasn’t happened. And the unit cannot tell him where his INCAP application is.
The brigade referred questions from Military Times to the Georgia National Guard. A spokeswoman said she could not comment on the particulars of the Quattrocchi case, citing privacy laws, but said “it is the policy of the Defense Department to provide medical care to reserve component members for any injury or illness incurred or aggravated in the line of duty.”
“In keeping with this policy, an injury reported to the chain of command prompts an initial lineof- duty report to ensure that service members can seek initial medical care without incurring out-of-pocket expenses,” spokeswoman Ashlie Shrewsbury said.
But the medical care is not the issue; Robert Quattrocchi said the care he is receiving at VA is good.
The problem is not having any money. And being unable to get a job. And relying on the kindness of family, which includes sharing a roof with the parents in a home that has no air conditioning, no insulation and no heat.
“There’s a fireplace in the living room but no heat in any of the other rooms. That’s OK when it was just us. But I’m not sure what we’re going to do this winter. We have those oil-filled radiators, but they are expensive to run,” Monica Quattrocchi said.
The couple hope the situation gets ironed out soon. She is taking online college courses so she can improve her employment prospects, and Robert Quattrocchi is wondering what his next steps will be.
They likely include college — paid for by the Post-9/11 GI Bill — to study engineering.
In the meantime, though, Quattrocchi is contemplating starting the medical evaluation board process, albeit reluctantly.
“We have exhausted every avenue of approach that we have and come up empty-handed. I want everyone who is in this position to be aware of the possibility that they might not get any help from the military,” he said.