THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

From Greensboro NC we get this lovely story of the enduring love for our troops that is a hallmark of the Bushovik regime.

It might not sound like a lot to some people, but $1,700 would have seemed like a godsend to Anja and Bert Wray, of Summerfield, earlier this year when the power company threatened to turn the lights off on them and their baby daughter, Sydney.

The amount would have been manna from heaven for Lori and Nathan Vosler, of Archdale, as the couple, with their baby, Jocelyn, struggled to pay monthly living expenses.

Those bills continue to mount for both families, but they don't appear any closer to receiving the $1,500 to $1,700 that each says the government owes them than they were when Nathan Vosler and Bert Wray came home from Iraq in December with their outfit -- the 30th Enhanced Heavy Separate Brigade of the N.C. National Guard.

Vosler and Wray and hundreds of others members of the brigade have yet to receive thousands of dollars in expense and travel money owed them by the Department of Defense.

N.C. National Guard officials say that at least 400 troops are owed an average of $2,000 each, for a total of at least $800,000, but the numbers may be considerably higher.

The GAO found in its study of eight selected Guard units (none from North Carolina) that "numerous" soldiers experienced "significant problems" due to delayed or unpaid travel reimbursements, "including debts on their personal credit cards, trouble paying their monthly bills and inability to make child support payments."

The GAO study noted that the Defense Finance and Accounting Service was flooded with travel vouchers in the months after Sept. 11, 2001 -- increasing from less than 3,200 in October 2001 to more than 50,000 in July 2003.

One of the wives sums it up quite well.

Whatever the cause, Lori Vosler said suffering Guard families have waited too long for their money.

"This is a slap in the face to my husband," she said. "It says we're not appreciated."