Longtime TAH readers know my position on this subject, but in case some are reading this who don’t:\u00a0 IMO DoD has grossly abused the “Combat Zone\/Imminent Danger Pay” designation for years.\u00a0 Year after year, many locations with absolutely NO active hostilities have continued to be designated IDP areas.<\/p>\n
Yes, it’s nice for those stationed there.\u00a0 They get out of paying taxes (Combat Zone Tax Exclusion, or CZTE), and get extra pay (IDP) besides.<\/p>\n
But that’s not what IDP and CZTE is designed to do.\u00a0 They’re designed to provide additional bennies for those assigned to locations where people are getting shot at<\/em> – not the guys\/gals “in the rear with the gear”.<\/p>\n Well, it looks like DoD has finally announced something that’s IMO long overdue.\u00a0 As of 1 June 2014, 20 locations lose Combat Zone\/Imminent Danger Pay designation.\u00a0 Those areas losing IDP designaton are<\/a>:<\/p>\n As the title says:\u00a0 IMO,\u00a0it’s about damn time<\/span>.\u00a0 If you’re not in a place where shots are being fired in anger, in my book you’re simply not in a bona fide<\/em> Combat Zone – you’re just on a remote\/hardship tour.\u00a0 Hardship tours are nasty, and get their own special pays.\u00a0 But they’re also a part of military life, they’re not anywhere close to the same as combat duty, and don’t deserve combat zone bennies.<\/p>\n As far as I can tell, the vast majority (if not all) of the locations listed above haven’t seen a shot fired in anger at US forces in a decade or more.\u00a0 Hell, Saudi Arabia has been an IDP location continuously since 1991<\/span>.<\/p>\n It always galled me to see folks in Kuwait and Qatar get combat decorations while others in Iraq or Afghanistan got equivalent peacetime awards.\u00a0 Maybe this will finally put a stop to that BS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n