Red Bulls still awaiting $10M in OT pay

WASHINGTON - More than 2,500 Minnesota National Guard soldiers who are owed a total of $10 million in overtime pay for their deployment in Iraq three years ago are still being told the check's in the mail.

Now members of the Minnesota congressional delegation are pressing the Pentagon to make good on the long-overdue checks to the state's famed 34th (Red Bull) Infantry Division, which served in Iraq longer than any other U.S. military unit.

Confronting Defense Secretary Robert Gates in an Armed Services Committee hearing Wednesday, Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., thundered: "My question is when can these soldiers expect to receive these payments?"

The response, which came from Under Secretary Robert Hale: "I'll take that for the record."

Kline, a retired Marine colonel, translated Hale's answer in an interview afterwards: "We got no answer in terms of a date or a time."

"It's frustrating as heck," said Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., a former National Guardsman, who attended the hearing. "There's no doubt they have drug their feet bureaucratically on this."

What Kline and Walz did get, however, was a promise to get an answer within weeks, which they think will resolve the pay issue within months.

That would be good news to Red Bull tank commander Jason Malley. The U.S. government owes him $4,400 in overtime pay for a deployment that was extended to 23 months during the 2007 Iraq surge ordered by former President George W. Bush.

Malley, a 37-year-old database administrator from Crystal, considers himself one of the lucky ones. His employer held his job for him.

As many as a third of the 34th's soldiers weren't so lucky; their unemployment rate is more than four times the state average.

"A bunch of my guys are in that boat," said Malley, a 20-year Guard veteran. "Four thousand dollars is a lot of money for them. They just want their fair share."

'We weren't late'

"I can assure you when we were called to serve our country, we weren't late," said Katie Blackwell. The couple estimates they have $8,000 coming. "Where's the accountability?" she asked.

The $10 million owed the Red Bull soldiers is by far the biggest amount of any state National Guard unit in the nation, owing in large measure to the length and scope of their deployment. The next largest groups of affected soldiers come from California, with a little more than 1,000 soldiers, and Iowa, with 743.

Altogether, close to 23,000 National Guard members across the nation await $59 million in back military pay.

The 2,500-strong Minnesota contingent makes up more than 10 percent of the total who qualify for the promised money.

Legal delays blamed

Pentagon officials blame legal delays for the pay hold-up, which was first promised in early 2007 to soldiers ordered to stay. Whatever the reason, the payments, under what was called the Post-Deployment Mobilization Respite Absence program, have yet to show up.

Minnesota National Guard Col. Eric Ahlness said he received word Wednesday that the Pentagon has given the go-head for the leaders of each service branch to issue "implementation guidelines" for paying the soldiers.

"It honors the commitment the military made with these individuals," Ahlness said. "It's an earned entitlement that they have because of their service."

But Congress granted the Pentagon that authority last year and the Red Bulls -- along with Guard members across the country -- are still waiting.

To turn up the pressure, Walz said, he put in a call Wednesday to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who returned his call within 15 minutes. "My take on this now is that heads will roll if this doesn't happen," Walz said.

Said Katie Blackwell: "You're getting shot at and blown up for this, and you expect to be compensated."