Soldier pays for armor: Army demanded $700 from man who was wounded

Army demanded $700 man who was wounded
by Eric Eyre

U.S. Army Lt. William Eddie Rebrook of Charleston (left) and other soldiers take cover near an ancient cemetery during a gunbattle with insurgents in Najaf, Iraq, in August 2004. Rebrook, who was honorably discharged last week because of an arm injury sustained in battle, was forced to pay $700 for body armor that was destroyed when he was hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

Charleston–The last time 1st Lt. William Eddie Rebrook IV saw his body armor, he was lying on a stretcher in Iraq, his arm shattered and covered in blood.

A field medic tied a tourniquet around Rebrook’s right arm to stanch the bleeding from shrapnel wounds. Soldiers yanked off his blood-soaked body armor. He never saw it again.

But last week, Rebrook was forced to pay $700 for that body armor, blown up by a roadside bomb more than a year ago…

He was leaving the Army for good because of his injuries. He turned in his gear at his base in Fort Hood, Texas. He was informed there was no record that the body armor had been stripped from him in battle.

He was told to pay nearly $700 or face not being discharged for weeks, perhaps months.

Rebrook, 25, scrounged up the cash from his Army buddies and returned home to Charleston last Friday.

I last saw the [body armor] when it was pulled off my bleeding body while I was being evacuated in a helicopter, Rebrook said. They took it off me and burned it.

But no one documented that he lost his Kevlar body armor during battle, he said. No one wrote down that armor had apparently been incinerated as a biohazard.

Rebrook’s mother, Beckie Drumheler, said she was saddened and angry when she learned that the Army discharged her son with a $700 bill. Soldiers who serve their country, those who put their lives on the line, deserve better, she said.

It’s outrageous, ridiculous and unconscionable, Drumheler said. I wanted to stand on a street corner and yell through a megaphone about this.

Rebrook was standing in the turret of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle when the roadside bomb exploded Jan. 11, 2005. The explosion fractured his arm and severed an artery. A Black Hawk helicopter airlifted him to a combat support hospital in Baghdad.

He was later flown to a hospital in Germany for surgery, then on to Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital in Washington, D.C., for more surgeries. Doctors operated on his arm seven times in all.

But Rebrook’s right arm never recovered completely. He still has range of motion problems. He still has pain when he turns over to sleep at night.

Even with the injury, Rebrook said he didn’t want to leave the Army. He said the medical separation discharge was the Army’s decision, not his.

So after eight months at Fort Hood, he gathered up his gear and started the long process to leave the Army for good.

Things went smoothly until officers asked him for his OTV, his outer tactical vest, or body armor, which was missing. A battalion supply officer had failed to document the loss of the vest in Iraq.

They said that I owed them $700, Rebrook said. It was like thank you for your service, now here’s the bill for $700.’ I had to pay for it if I wanted to get on with my life.

In the past, the Army allowed to soldiers to write memos, explaining the loss and destruction of gear, Rebrook said.

But a new policy required a report of survey from the field that documented the loss.

Rebrook said he knows other soldiers who also have been forced to pay for equipment destroyed in battle.

It’s a combat loss, he said. It shouldn’t be a cost passed on to the soldier. If a soldier’s stuff is hit by enemy fire, he shouldn’t have to pay for it.

Rebrook said he tried to get a battalion commander to sign a waiver on the battle armor, but the officer declined. Rebrook was told he’d have to supply statements from witnesses to verify the body armor was taken from him and burned.

There’s a complete lack of empathy from senior officers who don’t know what it’s like to be a combat soldier on the ground, Rebrook said. There’s a whole lot of people who don’t want to help you. They’re more concerned with process than product.

Rebrook, who graduated with honors from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., spent more than four years on active duty. He served six months in Iraq.

Now, Rebrook is sending out résumés, trying to find a job. He plans to return to college to take a couple of pre-med classes and apply to medical school. He wants to be a doctor someday.

From being an infantryman, I know what it’s like to hurt people, Rebrook said. But now I’d like to help people.

UPDATE: Story on Wounded Soldier Who Had to Pay for Body Armor Gets Results

A story in the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette, stirred up a hornet’s nest — as well as thousands of dollars in donations.

West Virginia’s two U.S. senators, Jay Rockefeller and Robert Byrd, asked top military leaders Tuesday to explain why 1st Lt. William “Eddie” Rebrook IV apparently had to reimburse the U.S. Army $700 last week for body armor and other gear damaged after he was seriously wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

The military officials said it sounded like an unusual case, but they would look into it.

More than 200 people donated at least $5,700 to Rebrook after reading about his body armor payment to the Army in an article by Eric Eyre. The vast majority of it came after a popular blog, AmericaBlog, called for and collected funds, but others also contributed via the newspaper and a local radio station.

Rebrook, 25, who attended West Point and was medically discharged from the Army last week, said he wouldn’t keep the donations. He’s paying back the people he borrowed money from to take care of the $700 bill, and also passing along the money to charity and a Louisiana woman who lost her home in Hurricane Katrina — the woman’s son helped save his life in Iraq, he said.

Later, on Wednesday, the military said Rebrook would be reimbursed.