"Up to 40,000 U.S. Army troops who are being prevented from leaving the service at retirement or the expiration of their contracts should receive overtime pay, a Democratic candidate for Congress said Tuesday.

Al Weed, a Nelson County vineyard owner and former Army Green Beret, said the pay of enlisted soldiers ordered to put their civilian lives on hold “should be increased by 50 percent. They are paying a real penalty that nobody else is paying.”

Fifth District Democrats nominated Weed last month to challenge Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-Rocky Mount, in the Nov. 2 election.

Goode, who served from 1969 to 1975 in the Virginia Army National Guard, said he is inclined to agree with Weed’s overtime proposal or some other enhanced pay for those kept in the Army beyond the time they normally would stay.

Weed, a former Army medic, said employers in the private sector pay time-and-a-half overtime when civilian employees work overtime. “Surely, soldiers at war deserve no less,” Weed said.

He said the Pentagon’s recent “stop-loss” orders are preventing enlisted soldiers and officers from retiring or leaving the service if their units have been alerted for deployment into Iraq or Afghanistan in the next year or year and a half.

“If your unit has been alerted for deployment, you’re stuck,” said Weed, whose son, Army medic Major Albert Charles Weed III, is expected to go from Fort Eustis to Iraq by the end of the year. The candidate’s son is just beginning an assignment at Fort Eustis and is not affected by his father’s pay proposal.

Goode said he favors enhanced pay for all troops serving in Iraq and said Weed’s proposal regarding those affected by “stop-loss” orders merits consideration.

“I would want to get some input from the various military branches on that, particularly the Army,” Goode said late Tuesday. “I am favorably inclined toward that or some other added bonus. It might be a cash payment.”

However, the two candidates clashed Tuesday over President Bush’s tax cuts.

Weed issued a statement in which he criticized tax cuts for the very wealthy and said the Pentagon is trying to fight the war in Iraq “on the cheap.”

“The Republican Party is bankrupting this country so that billionaires can have tax cuts and now our troops are paying for those billionaire tax cuts in blood,” said Weed, who served as a Green Beret in Vietnam and as a Special Forces command sergeant major for the mission in Bosnia.

“Because of the budget deficit, the Pentagon is under pressure to fight this war on the cheap,” Weed said. “It responded by sending too few soldiers to Iraq in the first place, and now by making “stop-loss orders rather than paying enlistment and re-enlistment bonuses. Our men and women in uniform put their lives on the line for us. They deserve better treatment from our government.”

Goode responded, “I think the tax cuts have helped the economy, and I think the economy is improving now. They certainly have helped the average family with the abolition of the marriage penalty, which I support, and the $1,000-per-child tax credit.”

Weed, who retired from Army special operations in 2002 following service over four decades, said he wants to be a voice for soldiers and their families in Congress. If elected, the Democrat would be the only former senior non-commissioned officer serving in Congress." (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, June 16, 2004)

Contact Bob Gibson at (434) 978-7243 or bgibson@dailyprogress.com.