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Editorial: Give Marines Warrior Pay

The Army’s campaign to implement “Warrior Pay” of up to $1,500 a month to reward soldiers for cumulative time served in a war zone is running up against a hard deadline that could mean the difference of whether payouts begin next fiscal year or are put on hold for at least another year.

The Army and Defense Department didn’t send a formal Warrior Pay proposal to Congress until May 28 — deep into the legislative process for the fiscal 2009 defense budget. So when Congress sought changes, there wasn’t much time to get that work done. The reality now: If an updated proposal isn’t in the pipeline before the July 4 congressional recess, the plan will likely be dead for another year.

The concept is to retool hazardous duty pay so that each service can tailor it to its individual needs. The Army wants to use it to create what it’s calling Warrior Pay, and to gradually increase payments based on the length of time a soldier spends on combat duty.

The Marine Corps should follow suit.

The Warrior Pay concept rewards experience and promotes volunteerism. Like Sea Pay, it compensates those who deploy more by paying out bigger monthly amounts as they accumulate time in combat zones over the course of their careers.

Warrior Pay would be an incentive to re-enlist and to volunteer for combat duty, reducing the burden on the rest of the service. This could only boost morale.

Congress can still get this done this year. But it will take some effort.

After that, it will be up to the Marine Corps to buy into the program. It certainly wouldn’t be right to reward soldiers for repeated deployments while failing to do the same for Marines.