Path to pension an uphill battle
 

By Patrick Rucker
Tribune staff reporter
February 15, 2004

If things had gone according to his plan, Staff Sgt. Randy Walker would be retired from the Army Reserve instead of counting days until he is deployed to Iraq.

And his wife, Latrice, would not be racing to correct what she says is a clerical error that is sending her husband into harm's way.

And U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) would not be working on the couple's behalf to unravel the situation. .

Walker, 42, of Flossmoor, planned to retire from the Army Reserve with a full pension in 2000 after what his wife says is a 20-year career.

Then, in the spring of 2000, the Army notified Walker that, according to their records, he was six years short of a full pension.

Walker, who joined the Army Reserve in 1980, was perplexed but decided to sign on for another 6-year tour rather than leave the Army Reserve and forfeit benefits.

"He thought that he would have a stronger claim as a reservist than as a civilian," his wife said. Walker never received a response to his claim.

However, on Jan. 2, he was called up. Four days later he was at Ft. McCoy, Wis., preparing to head to Iraq.

He has accepted that he is going to Iraq, his wife said, but she continues to fight and points to irregularities in his personnel record: incomplete credit for time served in 1986 and no credit for his service in 1988.

In mid-January, Latrice Walker took her findings to Jackson, who says they have merit.

According to Jackson's calculations, Walker has served in the Army Reserve for more than 23 years--well beyond the required service for retirement benefits.

"He's an honorable soldier," Jackson said, "It's not his goal to embarrass the Army. He's not even trying to duck service. He doesn't want anyone in his unit to feel that he's trying to get out, but this is an injustice."

Linda Fournier, a public information officer for Ft. McCoy, who has reviewed Walker's personnel file, said he was only one year shy of a full 20-year pension in 2000. But, she says, under the Army's "stop loss" policy now in effect to retain personnel during the push in Iraq, Walker is not at liberty to leave the Army.

"They're trying to ship them out on Tuesday," Latrice Walker said in a telephone interview Friday, her bags packed and waiting for a train to see her husband.

"I just need to see him in a way that I can't even express. He's my everything," she said

"This is shaping up to be Mrs. Walker vs. the Army," Jackson said. "I'm beginning to put my bet on Mrs. Walker."
 

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