The road home

By April M. Silvaggio  

JANUARY 11, 2010 9:35 a.m. (1)

When National Guardsmen from South Carolina were left scrambling last month to find a way home for Christmas from training in Wisconsin before being deployed to Afghanistan, family members questioned why their loved ones should be expected to foot the bill for such an expense.

But officials with the S. C. National Guard and the U.S. Army insist the soldiers from the 174th MAC Combat Engineer Company in Wellford and the 1222nd Engineer Company in Fort Mill were treated exactly like soldiers everywhere else.

When it comes to leave before deployment oversees, guardsmen heading off to serve in Operation Enduring Freedom are required to pay travel expenses themselves, military officials said.

Current federal military guidelines restrict both the state guard and the Army from paying for the cost of transportation for soldiers on leave from active duty training prior to deployment, said Lt. Col. Pete Brooks, the chief spokesman for the guard in the Palmetto State.

That’s why strong Family Readiness Groups are essential, said Steve Harmon, a spokesman for First U.S. Army Public Affairs at Fort Gillem, Ga. First Army is the division of the U.S. Army designed to enhance the training and overall combat readiness of reserve soldiers and units like National Guardsmen in the Eastern United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Family groups can work independently or with civic and business organizations to raise money for transportation needs, Harmon said. Or, soldiers can pay for transportation themselves or use other private contributions to offset leave costs.

LeAnn Freeman of Atlanta, whose 26-year-old son is among the group of 205 soldiers from Wellford and Fort Mill who’ve been training at Fort McCoy, Wis., said the system needs to be overhauled to provide for travel costs before deployment because many of the individuals who join the National Guard do it for the extra income in the first place.

“They don’t have extra money for travel,” she said. “And they especially don’t have it this time of year, in this economy.”

Some with loved ones among the guardsmen who were able to roll back into South Carolina on buses Dec. 23 thanks to a $25,000 from the home improvement retailer Lowe’s and $10,000 donated by individuals, have asked U.S. Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C. for help.

A spokesman for the congressman said Spratt in 2007 was among those who contributed to the nearly $90,000 raised by the National Guard Association of South Carolina, a professional organization made up of past and present guardsmen, families and supporters, to bring home more than 1,000 soldiers with the 218th Brigade for a short leave before they were deployed to Afghanistan.

Spratt has said current regulations banning pay for leave need to be revisited.

He said he believes once training is complete, guardsmen should be brought back to the location of their home base prior to any deployment.

But past efforts to secure such federal spending for training-leave travel have failed, officials said.

Once activated, the guardsmen fall under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army, and the Army won’t pay for soldiers to return home on leave until after deploying overseas.

“This has been a recurring issue for us,” Brooks said.

It isn’t just a concern in the Upstate.

Communities across Michigan, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont have all struggled with raising funds this Christmas to get troops home for a visit prior to deployment.

In Bangor, Maine, author Stephen King and his wife, Tabitha, donated $12,999 to pay for two buses so 150 soldiers from the Maine Army National Guard’s 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Unit could come home for the holidays. Those troops, who were training in Indiana, are to leave for Afghanistan in January.

“Every situation has its own peculiarities, but we have to be good stewards of taxpayers’ money,” Harmon said. “In simple, laymen’s terms, we are a business. And the Army does not pay for travel when soldiers are on leave.”

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Sammie Graham  - travel during leave time   |2010-01-11 07:41:28 It would be wonderful if these cost where paid by the military, but it is not practical to pay transportation for regular leave on a volunteer military that has good pay and excellent benefits for themselves & family. As a soldier in Vietnam, the story was no different for me. Soldiers get 30 days of paid leave a year. Travel payment is not part of that. A National Guard unit has family and friends that have helped. Money will not keep my child from coming home on leave. Sometimes we can ask for to much of someone else that we should do as a family for our loved ones in the military. God will always provide for our needs, but our wants our left to us. God, just keep our soldiers safe. Reply

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