National Guards soldiers lose weeks of post deployment pay

Guard Soldiers Rail Against Policy That Reduces Paid Leave

March 13, 2012
Stars and Stripes|by Megan McCloskey

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait -- The Pentagon has stripped weeks of post-deployment leave from many National Guard soldiers, leaving units already overseas facing a drastically different scenario returning home than they had expected.

Soldiers now in Kuwait with the Minnesota National Guard will receive at least 21 fewer leave days than they were told when they deployed -- a month's pay gone. And more importantly, they say, a month less time to spend with family and to reintegrate before returning to their civilian jobs.

"It's a game changer," Capt. Matt Bruns said.

The soldiers expected that leave time because of a policy the Pentagon started in 2007 to make up for repeatedly deploying soldiers without adequate dwell time. Guard soldiers are supposed to have five years in between deployments, but with the two wars, units have been deploying more frequently.

The policy provided an increasing number of days off for each month soldiers were deployed beyond 12 months, 18 months and 24 months in a five-year period. For many of the Minnesota Guard soldiers, who spent 22 months mobilized for the Iraq war from 2005 to 2007, they deployed last summer to assist with the Iraq drawdown, expecting to earn four days of additional time off for nearly every month they were gone. But in October, midway through their tour and as they racked up millions of miles providing security for convoys exiting Iraq, the Pentagon changed the policy for all units, regardless of whether they were already deployed. Now, instead of earning four days each month, the Minnesota Guard soldiers will get one day per month.
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