Photo By Sgt. Jennifer Sardam | Spc. David Street, a Keystone Heights, Fla., native with the 1153rd Financial...... read more read more
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Story by: Sgt. Jennifer Sardam
BAGHDAD — Since arriving in Iraq in December, soldiers with the 1153rd Financial Management Detachment, 24th Financial Management Company, 3rd Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), have worked hard to resolve military pay issues that soldiers throughout Victory Base Complex and Forward Operating Base Union III may have.
“I feel like I’m a part of history,” said Staff Sgt. Kimberly Stevenson, chief of military pay for the 1153rd FMD at the Camp Liberty Finance Office on VBC. “We’re National Guard, and so there’s something very deep in your heart that you feel privileged to be a part of something like this.”
As soldiers who share the same deployed environment and personal concerns as their customers, 1153rd FMD personnel are well aware of the stress that financial difficulties can create.
“You almost take it personally when they’re having a pay problem, because you really do want to help,” said Stevenson.
This understanding is evident to many who visit the Camp Liberty Finance Office, where pay personnel strive to provide a timely response for their customers.
“From the time a soldier comes in with a pay issue, we make every attempt to resolve that within 72 hours,” said Stevenson, a Saint Augustine, Fla., native.
However, she added, the goal is to try to answer pay questions immediately when possible. For some military pay staff, that means occasionally sacrificing down-time to get the job done.
“We do get stressed out when we don’t know how to help a soldier or resolve it quickly enough,” said Stevenson. “But I know every one of my soldiers feels the same way. At 6 o’clock at night you don’t want to talk about work because you just want to relax for a few minutes, but you go back and work it ‘til 10 o’clock trying to fix it.”
Soldiers can also do their part to assist the process by addressing pay concerns as soon as they surface.
“You can put it off so much, but it adds up,” said Stevenson, who has 12 years of experience working in military pay. “Pay, to me, is the most important thing. That keeps the mortgage going…and the family happy.”
Many of the major finance issues that bring soldiers in for assistance come from not properly addressing problems early on, said Stevenson.
“We see a lot of that here such as people not getting the [Basic Allowance for Housing] that’s due to them, because they didn’t turn in the appropriate paperwork,” she said. “Some of these are taking a long time to resolve, but it does feel good once you complete that for the soldier.”
She recommends that soldiers stay educated on the basics of their pay, starting by logging on regularly to MyPay, an online self-service tool from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, to read their Leave and Earnings Statements.
“I had one soldier come in, and he hadn’t looked on MyPay for a couple of months, and one day he looked, and he hadn’t been paid for two months,” said Stevenson. “What he thought was a simple problem was a really big problem, because his [expiration term of service] hadn’t been put into the system.”
Despite the convenience of direct deposit, soldiers should still check their pay regularly to ensure it is accurate.
“We always tell people look at your LESs,” said Spc. Cayce Hickey, a soldier with the 1153rd FMD who serves as the customer service noncommissioned officer-in-charge for military pay at the Camp Liberty Finance Office. “I go into my bank account twice a month and make sure that pay is there. I know what [the amount] should be. If it’s not that, then that’s when I go and I start asking questions.”
If there is an issue, researching the problem in order to resolve it means tracking down paperwork and contacting various unit personnel offices, and that keeps the military pay staff of the 1153rd FMD the busiest, said Stevenson.
Soldiers can help to streamline this process by being personally prepared at the start of a deployment.
As part of getting ready to leave, they should have all affairs in order, review any paperwork, and bring copies of important documents, said Sgt. Jason Johnson, a certifier in the disbursing section of the 1153rd FMD at the Camp Liberty Finance Office.
“[Before deployment], a lot of units are really distracted with pay issues and also other personnel stuff,” said Johnson, a native of Palm Coast, Fla. “We’re finding out they don’t have their stuff together, and [some] soldiers have had issues since 2008.”
Continuing to communicate with the finance staff along the way helps the service member to avoid many pay issues altogether.
“If you have a child, come let us know,” said Hickey, a Keystone Heights, Fla., native. “If you move duty stations, come let us know.
If you have any significant life changes, come in and let finance know. Even if we just tell you that we don’t need to know that, at least you’re not putting yourself in debt or missing out on money that you’re eligible to get.”
Many of the finance soldiers realize the effect of their daily duties on deployed service members.
“It’s very important, because no one [works] for free,” said Johnson. “If we’re taking care of their needs, or they have a problem, and they perceive that we are working hard to resolve it and get them some answers, they’re going to be more focused on their mission.”
| Date Taken: | 03.21.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 03.28.2011 01:50 |
| Story ID: | 67827 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 160 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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