DFAS how could you?

Defense Financial Accounting Service (DFAS) send me a lovely, welcome to retirement from the Army letter. Oh you don’t believe me? You must know how the system works. According to DFAS I owe the military $7,044.79. I thought at first it must be an outrageous bill from equipment that didn’t get turned in. I transferred to so many different state’s National Guards, I figured some stuff had to have gotten lost. But why so much? I don’t understand.

I called the Debt and Claims department at DFAS and the gentleman who answered the phone said that a few hundred dollars were to be recouped because of over payment at a Army training school Summer of 2010 and the rest over $6,000 was because I had received a reenlistment bonus of $15,000 and I had only served a little over half of my commitment. What?

I went through a paper medical board in the summer of 2011, sent to Massachusetts State Med Com where they had determined due to a medical diagnosis that I would be medically discharged. I received a medical HONORABLE discharge July 15, 2011 that ended my 11 years in the Army. The medical disability I occurred as a combat veteran serving my country in Iraq. I stuck through it all: the rapes, the mortars, the terrible chain of command, because I believed in my Army core values and loved being a Soldier.

So to add insult to injury, they want a refund? I didn’t get to plea my case to a real person nor did I receive a medical pension from the United States Army. Instead, they want money I spent to live off of while I was in Graduate school back?

I have $80,000 in student loan debts, $10,000 to pay my car off, $10,000 in medical bills the VA won’t pay for and $6,000 in credit card debt that I owe. I can’t handle all this. I am a newspaper journalist for a weekly and I make a little over $300 a week. It is an unreasonable hardship to even think about these alleged DFAS charges. I gave 11 of the best years of my life to the Army, I was pushed out, and now they want what from me? It’s obscene.

The gentleman on the phone wanted to know how much I would be willing to pay each month, $200 or $300. I told him I couldn’t. I can’t afford to pay that back and I’m hurt that they would even ask for it. The bonus was a re-enlistment incentive the Army was giving in 2007, because retention was so low and we were spread so thin. Why are combat veterans treated like this? Shame on you DFAS; and shame on you Department of the Army, for even asking me to pay this back.

Well you didn’t fulfill your end of the bargain either. I was supposed to get the GI Bill Kicker, which was up to $450 a month while I went to school. I told them to put it in the contract, but they didn’t, so I was screwed. And it looks like I’m screwed over again with a $7,044.79 bill that is expected to destroy what I have left in credit. I have PTSD. DFAS you are not helping. I feel like crying myself to sleep again tonight, because at 31 years old I am stuck living with my parents. I have a job that will never help me break even, let alone get ahead. I just can’t do this. I need help.

Sincerely, Ret. Specialist Felicia Whatley