I recall the tiny print on my Navy pay record jacket, something along the lines of "the member is responsible for ensuring pay is accurate and reporting any discrepancies." The Govt didn't appear to take any responsibility for errors in pay, whether in its favor or the member's.
I got tangled up in a pay issue where the Navy kept paying me BAH, even though we had moved into military quarters. I had properly filled out the form with Housing. My DH and I have different surnames, so I suspect that derailed something with somebody. Every month, BAH would show up in my direct deposit. Every month I would go to the pay office to get it taken care of. Every month I would be told it was fixed. This went on for 5 months. Then, the pay office was audited, and I received a nasty letter telling me of potential consequences of receiving unauthorized BAH. I went to the Housing Office and got a copy of the correct form. I took my checkbook, and my list of petty officers and civilians with whom I had talked to get this overpay fixed, and I went to see the OIC of the pay office. I was furious, said I was ready to write a check right then for the funds, since I hadn't spent them, and here was the list of staff with whom I had talked. They still couldn't tell me exactly what I was overpaid. I said I would wait outside his office until they figured it out. It took 4 hours, but they did. I then asked for a signed acknowledgement that I was in the clear, and there was no error on my part. I was a junior officer then, and after that, my lesson learned was to be a "witch" the instant something appeared to be wrong, and document everything.
I suspect it was an admin zoo getting these Guardsmen and women called up and activated. Somebody didn't do their homework on authorized funds. The Guard folk would have had little idea of how pay and bonuses worked in situations like this. They were going to war, and had other things on their mind, such as family separation, job security and going in harm's way. Many of them would leave higher-paying civilian jobs to take the lower pay of their Guard rank. Some companies pay the difference, many do not. If a Guard or Reserve is self-employed, that is very tough on the member if there is a significant delta between that income and their military pay. Unless there is something not being reported, it's just shabby. Classic pay foul-up, and years later, being dunned for it.
Can you tell that my encounter with the Navy pay office still makes my blood boil? A taint of ethics issues can end a career. One thing it made me do, any time one of my sailors had a pay issue, I would send them to the pay office with their Chief, and instructions to document everything and not assume it would get fixed. Ditto officers who worked for me.
Plenty of great people work at the pay offices, both military and civilian. But unwitting folks get ground up in the gears when Govt money appears to be misspent, and the auditors are on the hunt. Plenty of nice auditors too; they are safeguarding taxpayer money. It just seems common sense flies out the window.
there is mad
bang bang or
blow up