Military Danger Pay OKd for Service in Gulf Region

The Reagan Administration has decided to authorize “imminent danger” pay bonuses for an estimated 10,000 military personnel assigned to the Persian Gulf region, the Pentagon announced today.

The decision will provide an extra $110 a month to the men serving on warships in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and a small portion of the Gulf of Oman, as well as military personnel stationed in Kuwait and Bahrain, said David J. Armor, the Pentagon’s acting assistant secretary for manpower.

The bonuses will cost the Pentagon about $1.1 million a month. Armor said each of the military services will be expected to absorb the additional cost within their current budget.

Effective for August

Armor told a news conference that the danger pay had been authorized as of Tuesday. He said all military personnel in the designated geographical area would receive the full $110 allotment for the month of August.

The official said the bonus would not be paid at this point to the men on warships operating in the nearby northern Arabian Sea with the aircraft carrier Constellation. The exception to that will be any pilots who fly missions over the Strait of Hormuz or the gulf.

The bonus also would be paid to Air Force air crews manning AWACS early-warning radar planes based in Saudi Arabia, as long as they fly missions in the gulf’s airspace, he said.

The pay will be provided to any military personnel who work in the designated area for at least six days each month.

Most of the estimated 10,000 people who will receive the pay are in the Navy and serve aboard warships, Armor said

The authorization for danger pay comes in the wake of congressional pressure to provide the extra money. The Pentagon had previously balked at making the payments, insisting that U.S. personnel in the region were not in any imminent danger of being harmed.

The arguments are similar to those in a separate dispute between Congress and the Administration over whether to invoke the War Powers Act, the 1973 law that limits a President’s ability to send troops “into hostilities or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated.”

The Reagan Administraton has thus far refused to invoke the War Powers Act.

Although neither the House nor the Senate has formally sought to invoke the statute, 114 members of Congress have filed suit in U.S. District Court in Washington asking that the law’s provisions be set into motion.