Hundreds of soldiers serving in Egypt stand to lose thousands of dollars after an Army review determined troops were unfairly claiming a combat-zone tax exemption.
The approximately 700 active-duty, National Guard and Reserve soldiers who make up Task Force Sinai support the Multinational Force and Observers that enforce the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.
Thanks at least in part to increased security concerns brought about by threats from groups connected to the Islamic State group, they do so at camps with blast-proof bunkers, HESCO barriers and fencing designed to repel rocket-propelled grenades.
Multiple attacks have been launched against service members in the region in recent months; a convoy leaving the MFO's North Camp in September hit two improvised explosive devices, injuring four soldiers.
The review also instructed soldiers entitled to Basic Allowance for Subsistence while serving with the task force to pay for their government-furnished meals, and that the "supporting finance officer will establish a debt for each Soldier … who did not pay for the meals furnished to him or her," the memo states.
Active-duty soldiers typically spend a year with the task force, while Reserve and National Guard troops spend about nine months. Either way, they can expect a four-figure hit to their wallet come tax time, according to one military tax preparer.
Welcome materials on the unit's website include a review of entitlements that point to the training as a way soldiers can qualify for the tax break.
All task force members were eligible to undergo the 30-minute test each month, according to soldiers in the unit who did not wish to be identified. This included the roughly 300 soldiers stationed at the North Camp, who fly about an hour to South Camp for the training.
The September IED incident wasn't an isolated one: In August, a soldier was shot at the MFO's North Camp. In June, an ISIS-linked group claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on an MFO-operated airport in North Sinai. An Obama administration review of U.S. participation in the MFO mission includes an option to remove American forces altogether out of security concerns, The Associated Press reported over the summer.
"Someone in DC needs to change the policy on this area," a soldier wrote to Army Times via email. "[The Islamic State] is here and conducting operations around us and sometimes against us."
Kevin Lilley is the features editor of Military Times.
