LtCol Dwain Meyer 4671912 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>My son enlisted in Sept 2017, completed AIT in May 2018 and joined his first unit in July 2018. According to his enlistment contract, he was due to receive the initial bonus payment &quot;upon completion of contracted MOS training and arrival at my first duty station.&quot; He has now been at his duty station for nearly 11 months. He submitted and resubmitted the required documents last November and was told &quot;it will take some time.&quot; Am I missing something here? In my experience, this is not acceptable yet there appears to be other soldiers who also have not been paid. It&#39;s hard to believe he will be eligible for an anniversary payment in about 45 days and he hasn&#39;t received the first payment. Where is the quality control? I&#39;m trying to advise him to raise the issue further up the COC but I&#39;m also aware of the minefield associated with using the Open Door Policy or a visit to the IG. 2019-05-27T07:12:32-04:00 LtCol Dwain Meyer 4671912

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>My son enlisted in Sept 2017, completed AIT in May 2018 and joined his first unit in July 2018. According to his enlistment contract, he was due to receive the initial bonus payment &quot;upon completion of contracted MOS training and arrival at my first duty station.&quot; He has now been at his duty station for nearly 11 months. He submitted and resubmitted the required documents last November and was told &quot;it will take some time.&quot; Am I missing something here? In my experience, this is not acceptable yet there appears to be other soldiers who also have not been paid. It&#39;s hard to believe he will be eligible for an anniversary payment in about 45 days and he hasn&#39;t received the first payment. Where is the quality control? I&#39;m trying to advise him to raise the issue further up the COC but I&#39;m also aware of the minefield associated with using the Open Door Policy or a visit to the IG.

2019-05-27T07:12:32-04:00 2019-05-27T07:12:32-04:00 SFC Private RallyPoint Member 4672145

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>He probably just needs to submit the documents to finance. He&#39;ll need a copy of his DD4, his DA3286 showing the bonus, and his MOS orders showing he was awarded the MOS (not a graduation certificate).<br />They ask for these when you inprocess the unit, but you&#39;d be surprised how often Soldiers are either missing a document or turn in a graduation certificate and not the orders.

2019-05-27T08:25:29-04:00 2019-05-27T08:25:29-04:00 MAJ Javier Rivera 4672330

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>As a company commander I seats with this kind of situations a few times.<br /><br />1. Soldiers came thru the open door policy and told me their situation.<br /><br />2. I contact the S1 shop to work the issue they appropriate channels. Simultaneously I wrote a letter for a congressman explaining the issue. Soldier did not know I wrote the letter.<br /><br />2. Gave the system the opportunity to auto-correct until the next paying cycle.<br /><br />3. Soldier came back stating it receiving his/her bonus. <br /><br />4. I advised Soldier to contact his/her congressman.<br /><br />5. Issue solved very quick!

2019-05-27T09:37:17-04:00 2019-05-27T09:37:17-04:00 SFC Stephen P. 4674191

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>USAREC issues the bonus, S-1 certifies it, DFAS pays it. The problem is just a severe design flaw in the processing system. <br /><br />The process from S-1 to DFAS could be near instantaneous, but they likely have implemented bureaucratic impedance for one reason or another. Generally, 45 days from submitting to deposit is considered acceptable; 6 months is not.<br /><br />DFAS (in my experience with other sorts of bonuses) likes to process bonuses in batches about once a month. I used to see a roster showing DFAS processing of reup bonuses which I could check names and see the date received (again, different bonus type, but there may be an equivalent).<br /><br />As a general rule, soldiers are expected to manage their own and hound the admin section on the regular to ensure proper processing. This expectation is often enforced even on young privates who have no idea how the system works and aren&#39;t even allowed to set foot in the HQ without a NCO escort.<br /><br />My presumption is that the packet was rejected and no one bothered to notify the kid (because that would be work). I recommend he employ his first line leader before the open door policy. He should follow up with S-1 and make note of what the process will be including what tracking numbers are assigned to the packet. I also concur with SFC Boyd on the documents, but I might also prepare relevant LESs in anticipation of blame shifting tactics.

2019-05-28T00:23:46-04:00 2019-05-28T00:23:46-04:00 SPC Michelle Goodhart 4676619

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>He should reread everything in his contract, make sure he complied with the contract to the letter, and make sure he provides all the documentation required. Your son should check on the status regularly... in person and via email. This creates a record to show he has done his due diligence. He needs to hit the regulations and find out the proper channels for the processing of his bonus and follow those steps... if all else fails and it does not get processed or it has been denied... and h has exhausted all his other administrative remedies, he can apply to the ABCMR.

2019-05-28T20:16:41-04:00 2019-05-28T20:16:41-04:00 2019-05-27T07:12:32-04:00