The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

March 9, 2007

Local guard re-deployed; pay cut possible

Defense Department considers lowering combat pay for Kosovo

By Mark Fischenich

More than 400 soldiers from a Mankato-headquartered National Guard unit heard two bits of information this week from the Department of Defense.

One was that they’re heading to Kosovo later this summer. The other is that top military officials are considering giving them a steep pay cut.

The Washington Post reported Sunday — two days before the Minnesota deployment was announced — that the Pentagon is considering dropping the combat status of troops serving in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

“This has huge implications for our troops that are getting ready to go,” said Congressman Tim Walz of Mankato, a retired command sergeant major with the National Guard, who said he would fight the change.

Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar also responded to the Post report. In a letter sent Wednesday afternoon to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the two Minnesota senators pleaded for continuation of the current combat status for soldiers in Kosovo.

“These citizen-soldiers are making great sacrifices, and in some cases the ultimate sacrifice, to defend our freedom and way of life,” they wrote. “We believe it is necessary to afford them compensation reflective of their mission and service.”

If the Pentagon goes ahead with the downgrade of the combat status for service in Kosovo, Minnesota soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 135th Infantry will see substantially less in take-home pay. They not only would lose $225 a month in hazardous duty pay, they would also miss out on the special tax exempt status for their remaining pay, Walz said. In addition, the southern Minnesota soldiers wouldn’t be eligible for a free flight home if they receive a leave during their deployment and could lose points that impact their retirement benefits.

The overall impact could be $1,000 or more a month in lost net pay for soldiers who might have an annual income of perhaps $28,000 a year when on active duty, Walz said.

“We think it’s a wrong decision,” the freshman Democrat said. “... I just know from experience that this can be devastating for morale.”

Walz said he will direct a number of questions at Pentagon officials, who are expected to make a final determination by April 1. He wants to know why State Department diplomats in Kosovo — working in the provincial capital of Pristina — deserve a 20 percent hazardous duty premium while soldiers serving in more dangerous areas don’t.

He said he wants to know the rationale for eliminating the combat pay when grenade and bomb attacks continue, at least occasionally, in Kosovo and ethnic Albanians are increasingly agitated about United Nations plans for the province.

“This seems to be a decision based exclusively on economic issues,” according to Walz, who said American troops serving overseas shouldn’t be punished by a Defense Department looking for funds for other priorities. “... We’re putting our troops in harm’s way. We’re taking them away from their families.”

Klobuchar and Coleman in their letter to Gates said that combat pay is justified for Kosovo soldiers.

“Their efforts to provide community assistance and transportation support have brought them perilously close to land mines, improvised explosive devices and violence among extremist groups,” they wrote. “We believe this activity justifies the combat zone designation and the special compensation for soldiers. ...”

Their letter follows one sent to Gates on March 2 by Sen. John Warner that made similar points. Warner is a Republican from Virginia, a state that has more than 500 soldiers among the 1,500 American troops deployed to Kosovo.

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