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print thisMilitary complains businesses are taking advantage of troops
Fort Benning leaders tell soldiers returning from Iraq to take it slowly, but many head for car lots.
By Jenny Jarvie
Los Angeles Times
COLUMBUS, Ga. - Pfc. Anthony Calla is now the proud owner of the only metallic blue Ford Mustang at Fort Benning.
"There are other Mustangs," said Calla, 24, of Modesto, Calif., as he polished the chrome rims of his very first car. "But I got the only blue."
In recent weeks, as more than 3,500 troops of the Third Brigade, Third Infantry Division have returned to Fort Benning from a yearlong deployment in Iraq, the military base's parking lots have filled with muscle cars, Hummers, Lexuses, Dodge Rams and BMWs.
Senior military officers complain that businesses are too eager to take advantage of their troops.
"This is a GI town," said Maj. Steven Warren, spokesman for the Third Brigade Combat Team. "The first thing everyone does is buy a new car. We try to let them know a place like this attracts vultures."
Many soldiers arrived in Columbus knowing exactly which car they wanted.
From their base in Baqubah in Iraq's Diyala province, they logged on to computers and obsessed over the details of the latest sports cars and SUVs. Some pinned photos to their walls.
Soldiers urged to save
By the time the soldiers - who earned $700 to $1,000 extra for each month in Iraq - returned to Fort Benning, senior officers struggled to persuade them to save.
"The urge to buy outweighs everything," said Col. Daniel Kessler, the brigade's deputy commander, who bought a Tahoe deck boat this month. "It's all about instant gratification."
At Fort Benning, every soldier attended a mandatory reintegration briefing, where - among other things - they were warned not to sign any contracts in the first few days.
After that, many headed to the car dealerships.
Some soldiers seemed to walk in as soon as they got off the plane, said Mike Silver, general sales manager of Carl Gregory Dodge.
"Their heads were literally bobbing from lack of sleep," he said.
Although younger soldiers were not the only ones who bought cars - Maj. Michael Charlebois, a Third Brigade civil military officer who bought a yellow Hummer recently, has owned 38 automobiles and 18 motorcycles in his 18-year military career - senior military officers worry that the younger service members lack the experience to negotiate with car dealers.
19.9 percent interest
One morning recently, when the Third Brigade's senior officers met at Fort Benning to monitor the progress of troops' reintegration, Brigade Cmdr. Col. Steven Salazar voiced concern about a car dealer who sold a soldier a 2001 Chevrolet Malibu at a 19.9 percent annual interest rate.
"Go after that car dealer and twist his arm," Salazar said.
A few hours later, said Phillip Holt, finance manager at Billy Cash Auto Sales - the used car dealership that sold the Malibu - he received a telephone call from an Army lawyer warning him that Fort Benning's Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board might investigate the store if he did not renegotiate.
If military officers suspect a business of unfair or illegal practices, they can ask the owner to appear before the disciplinary control board, which has the authority to declare a business off-limits to military personnel.
Last year, Drive 1 of Columbus - a car dealership that, according to the Better Business Bureau, priced vehicles far higher than Kelley Blue Book value and added extra insurance and extended warranties - was put on the Army's off-limits list. It went out of business several months later.
Holt, who said that interest rates of 18 percent to 25 percent were the industry standard for any young person with bad credit, complained that senior officers had come to expect preferential treatment for their troops.
"They think that just because a uniform is being worn their pay history should be overlooked," he said. "Yes, they are saving our freedom, but a credit union isn't going to see it like that."
John C. Moore, brigade judge advocate for the Third Brigade Combat Team, agreed to some extent.
"Technically, a 19.9 percent rate is not illegal," he said, adding that such an interest rate was standard for anyone with bad credit. "But at Fort Benning, it gets people's emotions going. Sometimes they paint very negative pictures of car dealers. Sometimes it's fair. Sometimes it's not."
