Fewer than 70 service members have sought reimbursement for the cost of combat equipment they bought for use in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of a program that the Pentagon originally opposed.Isn't that just lovely. After all of the resistence that the DOD had to congress's effort to allow service personnel to buy their own combat gear, most of them seem to want to merely write it off as a non-reimbursed business expense!
Pentagon officials had said the reimbursement program would be a strain on its budget and could undermine the accountability and effectiveness of equipment.
So far, however, the official who oversees the processing of such claims for the Army said, only 30 soldiers have requested reimbursement for equipment, primarily for tactical body armor, at a cost of about $22,000.
"We were gamed for a high volume of claims," said the Army claims official, Maj. Paul J. Cucuzzella. "And to date, it has not been what we planned for."
[ cf AmericanPravda ]
Clearly a great day for the free market!!!
How about simply outsourcing the rest of the project?
Hum?
I mean then we could save on the costs to the tax payers.
Ps: for the slow readers, think what the base pay is for a line grunt. That $22K is more than an E5 under two years makes. Go ARMY!!!