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Show Weekly Speefiaill SiSS" Juu. in....;. in- i- .. ii yiLL-.iiijL.ij.jiji i i mmmm u.i.iii ...... jmimi .mui.im. hwjuwhj,. nu... i . .n lAjmrnmnA j uumm ... J The Pentagon is saving money at expense of veteran's pensions Washington American service men and women are serving all over the world, and some give their lives for their country. But the armed services don't always give their people the same full measure of devotion. This is the shameful story of one such betrayal. Staff Sgt. Richard Voll served 18 years in the Army. He volunteered for two tours of duty in Vietnam and was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. He needed 20 years in the service to qualify for a full Army pension. But when Voll tried to sign up for another hitch, he was turned down. The Army said this was because of five low evaluation scores and one "non-judicial" reprimand on his record. So Voll was mustered out last June two years shy of the 20-year mark. The extra two years would have meant $600 a month more in his pension. In fact, this may have been the Army's primary reason for refusing to let Voll re-enlist. An aide to Rep. Les Aspin, D-Wis., explained the Army's cold-hearted dollars-and-cents reasoning reason-ing this way: It is more expensive to keep old-timers on the payroll until they qualify for full pensions. It is far cheaper to sign up new recruits for less pay. And with the high unemployment of recent years, there are plenty of people showing up at the recruiting office. Not only are there plenty of applicants, but many are more highly qualified than those already in the service. So veterans like Richard Voll are repaid for their years of service by being turned out in the cold. Voll and the Army agree on one thing though for different reasons. The Army says it should have let Voll go years ago. Voll wishes the Army had. Now he is 37 years old, and it's tougher to find a decent job at his age than it would have been 10 or 12 years ago. Voll's wife, Nancy, refused to accept the Army's decision without a fight. She painted a picket sign, obtained a permit and staged a one-woman protest outside the Army recruiting office in Fayetteville, N.C. She has enlisted the help of Rep. Pat Schroeder, D-Colo. Now Nancy Voll has signed up herself as a volunteer in the Marine recruiting office in Macon, Ga. She says she wants to make sure that no one joins up without a full appreciation of the risks of being put out to pasture whenever the Pentagon decides it's time to save a little money. Ex-Staff Sgt. Voll is now working as a truck driver for $200 a week. Nancy has just applied for food stamps to help them and their two children make ends meet. Unfortunately, Voll's story is not unique. There are many like him around the country who have learned just how the military sometimes rewards loyal servants. Young victims: The nation's economy econ-omy recovery hasn't trickled down to the most vulnerable members of our society the children. The story is told in government reports that will be made public later this week. They'll show that children are the principal victims of high unemployment, cuts in federal programs pro-grams and the lingering effects of the recession. The evidence will show that: One out of every five American children now lives in poverty. Children at the poverty level die at a rate three times greater than those at higher income levels. Child abuse is 10 times higher among families earning less than $7,000 a year than among families that make $25,000 a year. Hunger and malnutrition have become more common among children in the United States. All the statistics add up to an anguishing conclusion: America's impoverished im-poverished children are suffering the worst from the recession's sting. Jesse's dilemma: The Rev. Jesse Jackson recently launched a drive for the Democratic presidential nomination. nomina-tion. The civil rights activist is the only black running, and he would like to be the candidate of all minorities. But Jackson hasn't been able to unite blacks, and he may have already lost the support of the nation's second largest minority. Many Hispanic political leaders have told us privately that he may have waited too long to declare his intention to run. Key Hispanics have already pledged their support to other candidates. The political power of Hispanics is growing fast. There are 14.5 million Hispanic voters in five key primary states and registration among Hispanics Hispan-ics for the 1984 elections is expected to reach 60 percent. Headlines and Footnotes: President Reagan recently signed a classified National Security Decision Directive clearing the way for the Defense Department to cooperate closely with the Israeli army in Lebanon. Our sources say Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger is dead set against the idea. The endorsement of Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., would represent a coup for any presidential candidate. Kennedy told us he hasn't ruled out an endorsement. He wouldn't name his favorite candidate, but he is a close friend of Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio. 1983 United Feature Syndicate, Inc. |