the military and money, advice needed pls

[hardheart]

I joined the National Guard in '04. My training was fairly lengthy, with a year at POM/DLI. I finished early May this year. I did a dity move, driving 2200 miles with 1050 lbs of personal goods in my truck. I was given 6 days travel time, and spent $400 in gas for the drive.

Also, since I came off active duty for training, the 30.5 days leave I have was supposed to be bought back.

Not only that, but I found out not too long after I left Cali that I stopped receiving pay after mid-April. My 1 May les only had a clothing allowance and some back pay for partial bas. With the travel time, I was supposed to get paid for active status until 11 May-which is the day I filled out my travel vouchers with the help of a MSG in the unit, in my chain of command. So I'm missing pay from 16 Apr to 11 May, 30.5 days of leave I can't take, and travel pay for the dity.

After nothing happened with the vouchers, I put in a pay inquiry 6 weeks ago. My platoon leader and platoon sergeant are trying to help me, but I don't know if there's much that can be done now. I can be patient, but at next drill, I will have been waiting 4 months. I'm not working right now, I just started college again today, taking 21 hours this semester. If possible, I plan to do the same for 2 more semesters to finish a bachelor's asap. (I did 18 and 21 hours the 2 semesters before shipping to basic) I have to wait 8 weeks before I should start receiving money from the GI Bill. I also don't get the kicker, as my recruiter never did the contract for it.

I know there's current and ex military on BF, and I was hoping maybe someone had some insight as to what I can do admin-wise. For some reason, a lot of my paperwork has been screwy. I got the wrong orders after basic, sending me to ait before DLI, which wasn't on my orders putting me on active duty. This was fine, but then I had to wait for new orders at the end of ait. These were very vague, just attaching me to the Presidio, which is probably why they removed me from the finance system early-almost one year to the day of my arrival. Heck, I wasn't in the system for the GI Bill at first either, they had the day I signed my contract in '04 as the day I ETS'd.

 

[JohnG]

I can't help you with your questions, but you might also want to try this at Specialoperations.com(Soccnet) or the forums at Military.com, where you'd be sure to find some expert opinion.

 

[orthogonal1]

Don't know about the rest, but the GI Bill problem seems situation normal.

Me, and four others I've talked to, had to send off proof (from our personally kept records) to to get it started. But, they are timely when stopping it, no problem in that quarter.

I suspect you'll have to take care of the situation in person on your next training. Hope not, though.

Good luck.

 

[ceya one]

I was not in the reserves but for admin wise for paper work . Tell / Show your admin shop the problems ( 30.5 days of leve and active duty time)

G.I Bill for the reserves side has some issues from my buds who are in. Is this GI Bill from active duty ? Or just reserves.

I will see what I can find out. If anybody from the Army side of the house can help , please do.

The support of each other is why we get anything done!

S/F,
CEYA!

 

[hardheart]

I actually got a call yesterday, they're going to try to contact someone in Mypay directly, and re-submit the pay inquiry. Plus, my first bonus payment posted today, things are looking up a bit. I can't find a couple of LESs from the relevant time, though.

 

[Roadrunner]

Unfortunately, you might have to get a little nasty with the finance people. First, make absolutely certain you have all of your ducks in a row. Have all of the records proving you are owed the money you say you are owed in hand, and make sure you have a copy of the pay inquiry. Keep records of every time you contact finance, try to do it in e-mail so you have a written record of what was said by each party. Just keep asking them for your money every week or two until they get it fixed. Be the squeaky wheel until they pay you to shut you up. If they continue to jerk you around, and you have all of that proof I mentioned earlier showing that you are in fact owed this money and that they have failed to pay you in a reasonable time frame, write to them saying that you expect to have this issue resolved in two weeks or you will contact your Congressman. That usually gets their attention. Best of luck to you.