SEPTEMBER 27, 2008

Members of Congress agree: $725 was hardly enough.

The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have agreed on legislation authorizing the US Army to pay more than 60 years of compound interest on back pay and benefits due families of 28 wrongfully-convicted WWII US Army veterans. The bill—part of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act of FY 2009—now heads to President George W. Bush for his signature.

On October 26, 2007, the Army Board for Correction of Military Records (ABCMR) ruled unanimously that 28 soldiers—all of them African-American—had been denied fundamental fairness during their 1944 court-martial at Seattle’s Fort Lawton. The Board held that Army prosecutor Leon Jaworski had committed “egregious error” when he refused to turn over an Army Inspector General report highly critical of the Army’s criminal investigation. Jaworski had convinced the court to bar testimony which pointed to the likely culpability of a white military policeman. The Board relied, in large part, on research contained in “On American Soil,” a book by Seattle journalist Jack Hamann.

The Board’s decision included a provision that the absolved veterans are entitled to “all rights, privileges and property lost as a result of the convictions,” including “all due pay and allowances” dating to March 6, 1946. Because most of the veterans had already died, the Board declared that any payments should go to the estates of those no longer living.

On November 28, 2007, veteran Samuel Snow opened an envelope sent to his Leesburg, FL home. Inside was a check from the US Army for $725, representing the pay Mr. Snow had been denied while in prison, without adjustment for interest in the intervening years. In its December 1, 2007 edition, the New York Times calculated that, if interest were added, Mr. Snow’s payment would be approximately $80,000. Mr. Snow declined to cash the $725 check.

In mid-December, US Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) and US Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) asked Army Secretary Pete Geren to revise the military’s decision and adjust Snow’s 1944-1945 pay upward. But days later, the Army chief’s staff said their hands were tied, and the two lawmakers vowed to legislate a just settlement in Congress.

McDermott said: “This was always about justice, not money, but the fact is Sam Snow, Booker Townsell and the other innocent African American soldiers were deprived of a lifetime of GI economic benefits dating back to World War II, and the least we can do is provide back pay with interest, which will amount to a lot more than the paltry $725 check Mr. Snow received for compensation.”

Appearing before the Senate Armed Services committee on February 13, 2008, Secretary of the Army Pete Geren labeled the meager check issued to Snow a “travesty of justice.”

Separate bills by Rep. McDermott and Sen. Nelson were eventually approved, and inserted into S. 3001, the FY 2009 Defense Authorization Act.

On July 26, 2008, in a ceremony at Seattle’s Discovery Park, Assistant Secretary of the Army Ronald James issued a formal apology to the Fort Lawton defendants, and delivered belated Honorable Discharges to Mr. Snow and to the families of several of the other veterans. Hours later, Mr. Snow died peacefully in a Seattle hospital. “God would not let his servant come home until justice was done,” said pastor emeritus Rev. R. D. Daniels at Snow’s wake.

S. 3001 was named in honor of Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), the ranking member of the House Armed Services committee. Back in 2006, Rep. Hunter worked with Rep. McDermott in a bipartisan effort to bring the Fort Lawton case to the attention of the ABCMR. After conference committee deliberations, the authorization bill was passed by both chambers and sent to the President.

Of the 28 defendants, only one—Roy Montgomery of Illinois—is known to be alive. To date, the Army has still been unable to locate the relatives of 14 of the defendants, all of whom are eligible for the back pay and benefits.

That payment will be substantially larger if the President, as expected, signs the bill.

S.3001. DUNCAN HUNTER NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009

TITLE V—MILITARY PERSONNEL POLICY

Subtitle J—Other Matters

SEC. 592. INTEREST PAYMENTS ON CERTAIN CLAIMS ARISING FROM CORRECTION OF MILITARY RECORDS.

(a) INTEREST PAYABLE ON CLAIMS.—Subsection (c) of section 1552 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

‘‘(4) If the correction of military records under this section involves setting aside a conviction by court-martial, the payment of a claim under this subsection in connection with the correction of the records shall include interest at a rate to be determined by the Secretary concerned, unless the Secretary determines that the payment of interest is in appropriate under the circumstances. If the payment of the claim is to include interest, the interest shall be calculated on an annual basis, and compounded, using the amount of the lost pay, allowances, compensation, emoluments, or other pecuniary benefits involved, and the amount of any fine or forfeiture paid, beginning from the date of the conviction through the date on which the payment is made.’’

(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENTS.—Subsection (c) of such section is further amended—

(1) by redesignating paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) as subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C), respectively;

(2) by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ after ‘‘(c)’’;

(3) by striking ‘‘If the claimant’’ and inserting the following:

‘‘(2) If the claimant’’; and

(4) by striking ‘‘A claimant’s acceptance’’ and inserting the following:

‘‘(3) A claimant’s acceptance’’.

(c) RETROACTIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF AMENDMENTS.—The amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply with respect to any sentence of a court-martial set aside by a Corrections Board on or after October 1, 2007, when the Corrections Board includes an order or recommendation for the payment of a claim for the loss of pay, allowances, compensation, emoluments, or other pecuniary benefits, or for the repayment of a fine or forfeiture, that arose as a result of the conviction. In this subsection, the term ‘‘Corrections Board’’ has the meaning given that term in section 1557 of title 10, United States Code.