US Army Pay Issues – Vietnam/Fort Hood – 1970s

Along time ago in a land far far away the US Army in all its wisdom decided to pay me an advanced pay as well as my regular pay to assist me in my travels from the War to my next assignment at Fort Hood, Texas.

At the time I was a Specialist Four (SP4) Military Policeman with the 509^th Radio Research (RR) at Can Tho, Vietnam.

I traveled from Can Tho to Saigon by helicopter and once on the ground took a jeep over to the side of the airport where my civilian aircraft waited for me.

My flight from Saigon to Los Angeles National Airport (LAX) was long, with a stop in Japan and Alaska. Left LAX for Dallas International Airport which was also a long flight with no stops.  My brother in law met me at Dallas, he was a pilot and had his own private plane. We Left Dallas in his aircraft and an hour later landed at the Waco Airport.

I spent 30 days of leave in Waco, and my family and I drove from Waco to Fort Hood for my new assignment.

Trying to find an apartment was not easy and the apartments were expensive but after a month my family and I were settled in. I was working with the 258^th MP Co and all was right with the world.

At the end of my second month at Fort Hood I was advised the Army decided they should not have paid me advance pay when I left Vietnam and immediately took back the amount paid me in the advanced pay.

At the time the Army took back the advanced pay I was still a SP4 with very little savings. Talk about a shock, lucky for me my parents loaned me the money to keep the apartment, lights, water, phone, gas for the car, till I could get paid a regular paycheck again.

When I complained to the Army finance office, I was told I should have known I was not authorized an advanced pay and no money would be refunded to me and my monthly paycheck would be zero till the advanced pay was paid off.

Wow, who knew a SP4 at the age of 22 would know all about advanced pay which the finance office told me I had to take and use for expenses on my trip from Vietnam to Fort Hood!

Life in the US Army in the early 1970s was not always fun, but it was exciting.