KAIP kicks in, this year's changes

This month's Leave and Earnings Statement (or LES, the Army's version of a paycheck stub) shows that my Korea Assignment Incentive Pay (KAIP) has finally begun. That's the extra $300 per month I get for having extended my Korea tour from two years to three.

Under the rules that applied last year, people got paid based on when they signed their initial paperwork. However, as my story shows, getting the money requires a lot of patience.

The first hurdle was the APFT (in May), followed by the firing range in June. The headquarters company could not turn in my paperwork until those were done. However, some combat unit scooped the June range from us, and so I had to wait until July.

Once the packet was complete, it made its way up to the brigade headquarters, where the O-6 colonel signed off on it. I don't know when that was, exactly, but I noticed my DEROs (date eligible to return from overseas) changed sometime around September.

In October, I was told be patient.

In November, I started working the channels to find out what was going on. It turns out someone in the post's finance unit threw out my paperwork just before they left the country, so they needed it resubmitted. I thought the matter was settled.

However, by December, the finance unit still hadn't processed the paperwork. It was only on the 8th, when I personally watched them submit the request to DFAS, that I felt reasonably sure it was going to work this time.

Still, it took about 45 days for DFAS to process the request.

So now, 10 months later, I'm getting all the back pay I've accrued since May -- an extra $3000 in this month's paycheck. By the time I leave, I'll have raked in over $10,000 to stay in the place we've wanted to be since I joined the Army six years ago.

Yet, for better or worse, my experience will be a thing of the past. Starting this year, according to MILPER message 14-037 the Army has restricted KAIP payments to only the final year of the tour. So if a command sponsored soldier (like me) were to extend from two years to three, they would only get paid extra for that third year. Instead of a maximum $10,800 they could only get $3,600.

In addition, no one is allowed to extend if it's their first tour . Given our human resource problems, this is unfortunate. Essentially, we're telling our most experienced platoon leaders and XOs that -- even though they may like to be here -- they have to leave to make room for someone who doesn't.

The Army's a wacky place.