U.S. Troops in Gulf Upset, Worried by Possible Loss of Pay

The talk from the exhausted group huddled under the F-15 turned quickly from the intricacies of jet engines to worries about financial support for their wives and children back home.

The U.S. government may cut the supplemental income soldiers received back home for living off-base because they now get their food and supplies free in Saudi Arabia.

“I just had a kid four weeks ago and that money is figured into my finances,” Chris Jessen told a visitor to an F-15 maintenance hangar Wednesday, where the airmen work 12-hour shifts in sweltering heat.

“If they take it away, then in essence the government is saying, ‘Sergeant, you’re going to pay us this money so that you can go to Saudi Arabia and support the mission,’ ” he said.

Jessen’s buddies huddled under the F-15 nodded their heads in agreement; all but one of the five is married, the other four all have children. One found out the other day that his wife is pregnant with their fourth child.

“As far as morale, that’s the biggest problem,” Kevin Wilde, of Sioux City, Iowa, said of the possible loss of the pay known as BAS--Basic Allowance for Subsistence. For these men, it amounts to an extra $180 a month--about 20% of their total pay.

Their commanding officer interjected, saying that for now the Air Force’s Tactical Air Command has kept up the payments but that Congress will have to act to keep the money flowing if the BAS payments are to continue throughout the U.S. deployment.

The airmen complained a bit about the heat, and the long hours spent hunched under the seemingly endless line of F-15s needing maintenance.

Airman Adam Bayes described the days this way: “You go to work for 12 hours, go home, get clean, go to bed, wake up, get clean, whatever, do your laundry if you can do that, come to work, work, go home, sleep. It’s getting to be a routine.”

So much so that Wilde spent his day off this week sitting around watching his buddies work.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” he said.