Military Update
Excessive deployment bonuses slated to start Nov. 5
Military Update focuses on issues affecting pay, benefits and lifestyle of active and retired servicepeople. Its author, Tom Philpott, is a Virginia-based syndicated columnist and freelance writer. He has covered military issues for almost 25 years, including six years as editor of Navy Times. For 17 years he worked as a writer and senior editor for Army Times Publishing Co. Philpott, 49, enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1973 and served as an information officer from 1974-77.
By Tom Philpott
Starting Nov. 5 — unless sea service leaders win a delay — service members who have spent more than 400 days of the previous two years away from their home base will begin receiving an extra $100 a day for as long as that pace is sustained.
The extra cash, called individual personnel tempo pay or ITEMPO, has two purposes: to punish the services for deploying members excessively, and to raise the pay of persons spending too much time away from home and loved ones.
Some military leaders, particularly in the sea services, believe ITEMPO is a bad idea, harmful to a culture that officially views deployments as opportunities, not burdens. Deployments build confidence, speed promotions and traditionally boost income through sea pay and family separation allowances.
But although the services have closely regulated unit deployments — ships, aircraft squadrons and major ground units — time away for individuals often gets lost amid routine reassignments or cross-decking, moving crew from ships returning to port to ships about to deploy.
Congress approved ITEMPO pay in 1999 amid troop and sailor complaints that the Clinton administration was overextending them with new deployments that encircled the globe, from East Timor in the Pacific through the Persian Gulf and a deepening involvement in the Balkans. Most of these missions continue today.
At the Navy's urging, the start of ITEMPO was delayed two years. It will take effect Oct. 1, but no one will exceed the 400-day clock for the previous two years until Nov. 5. Navy and Marine Corps leaders want the start delayed at least another year. So far, neither their Defense Department bosses nor Congress are supportive.
Vice Adm. Norb Ryan Jr., chief of naval personnel, said he sees "goodness" in ITEMPO pay; the services should keep better track of an individual's deployments to avoid burn out. But the Navy needs more time, he said, to determine if 400 days every two years is the right threshold for payments to begin.
The sea services also need more time to press for changes in the law's liberal definition of a "deployment," said Gen. James Jones, Marine Corps commandant, at an Aug. 26 Pentagon lunch with reporters.
ITEMPO shows the difficulty of adopting sweeping change across services that have different cultures and missions, Jones said. The Army and Air Force are satisfied with the 400-day rule because their units deploy less often, and usually for shorter periods, than do the sea services. The Marine Corps is "a very young force that really enjoys what we do. That means not sitting around Camp Lejeune or Camp Pendleton. Our highest reenlistment rates are in our deployed units," he said.
David Chu, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, has heard the arguments but told Congress he still wants to start ITEMPO this fall.
The services should monitor the pay carefully and suggest adjustments later, Chu holds.
Ryan, however, worries about the "corrosive" effect of beginning a program and "then moving the goal posts." He also fears the cost: an estimated $33 million for the Navy in fiscal 2002 and $120 million annually thereafter.
The Marine Corps doesn't have an estimate yet, but whatever the total, it will have to be taken "out of hide," Jones warned.
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