About 300 airmen at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, are taking home about $250 less each month because base officials realized they were mistakenly receiving a food stipend and weren’t enrolled in a mandatory program requiring them to eat on base.
Some airmen said they don’t have time to leave fast-paced jobs on the flightline and go to the chow hall for meals. The stipend had allowed them to eat at the commissary or the food court.
"It just affects us a lot at our jobs because of the pace that we work at," said Staff Sgt. Kurt Weisel, a technician with the 80th Fighter Squadron. "It’s tough for us to get away."
Kunsan spokesman Lt. Dave Herndon said he didn’t know why the airmen were receiving the full basic allowance for subsistence, or BAS. Kunsan officials spotted the mistake after the Pacific Air Forces commander asked wing commanders in late May to ensure they were correctly enforcing the policy.
"We were just looking at our records and saw that these people who weren’t on [the Essential Station Messing Program] needed to be on ESM," Herndon said. The base began the process of moving the affected airmen to its meal card program in mid-August.
All airmen receive BAS, but most enlisted troops don’t see the full stipend in their paychecks.
Troops in ranks E-1 through E-6 — about 2,200 of Kunsan’s 3,000 personnel — are automatically enrolled in the meal card program. At Kunsan, they receive $294.43 a month in food allowance, but most of that money — $250.50 per month — is deducted from their BAS and pays for their meal card. Airmen pocket the rest.
About 50 airmen — controllers and firefighters whose jobs require them to be on constant alert — have an exemption and receive the full BAS, Herndon said. Upper enlisted and officers get full BAS and are not eligible for the meal cards. BAS for officers is $202.76 per month.
Weisel said airmen are assigned to eight-hour shifts but often stay an extra four or five hours because of the heavy workload. By the time they get off work, the chow hall is closed. The Air Force cut its personnel several years ago, he said, leaving fewer people to work on the flightline.
"That makes it tough to let people go, and get the same amount of work done in a day," he said.
He said some airmen used their BAS for things like car payments back home, instead of food. Now, they’re missing that income.
Herndon said BAS is meant to be used for food and isn’t part of their basic pay. And airmen are still getting their full food stipend, just in a different form.
"It’s not even cutting money. We are giving them another option to get their food."
He said airmen who can show proof that they’re missing their meals after losing their BAS may be able to get an exemption to the policy. Commanders are being encouraged to use options like getting boxed meals or hot-meal takeouts to make sure airmen eat regular meals, he said.
