Army Whistle-Blower Could Get Promotion -- Fort Lewis Sergeant's Case Reviewed

The Army might let a Fort Lewis whistle-blower keep his job after all.

Sgt. Paul Paine could even get a last-minute promotion - instead of being forced out Jan. 31 - if a Defense Department watchdog finds he suffered past reprisals, Army spokesman Capt. Bill Buckner said this week.

"The Army is committed to treating Sgt. Paine fairly and professionally," Buckner said.

Paine's whistle-blowing has saved an estimated $100,000 a year at Fort Lewis alone, but irritated some of his superiors.

Paine showed how soldiers were collecting $110 a month for parachute "jump pay" without being qualified for it. He also filed a complaint over a $17,000 contract awarded, improperly, to his supervisor's wife.

A promotion would give Paine at least two more years in the service and raise his retirement pay by at least $350 a month.

"That sounds like the right answer to me," says Paine's attorney, Barry Steinberg. "He couldn't possibly have been given a fair chance for promotion when the reports in his file were written by people out to ruin him."

Any promotion is far from a sure thing, though. First, Paine has to get a favorable result from the Defense inspector-general's investigation, due the end of next month.

Then he would have to get a records-correction board to wipe out two job reviews; next he'd have to get the special promotion.

"It's a very difficult situation, and very complicated," Buckner said by telephone from the Pentagon, where the case is under review. "It takes a lot of effort on his part and the Army's part to resolve this thing."

As of now, Paine still faces a mandatory retirement just over three months away. Army policy limits service for sergeants first-class, like Paine, to 22 years.

Buckner said an assistant secretary of the Army has ordered a special review board to consider Paine for promotion as quickly as possible if he succeeds in wiping out two years of job reviews that Paine says were tainted.

Buckner said the retirement date will be extended if the process isn't complete by then.

Steinberg, the retired colonel who is Paine's attorney, said, "I want him promoted, and I want him paid the back pay he would have received if he'd been promoted when he deserved to be." Paine could be promoted to master sergeant.

Earlier this year, the Defense inspector general gave Paine his first official support - after years of being turned down in appeals to local officials at Fort Lewis.

An inspector-general report dated July 8 found that a set of extremely low marks given to Paine for his work in the three months ending Jan. 31, 1992, were in fact a reprisal for whistle-blowing.

That report asked the commander of Fort Lewis, Lt. Gen. Carmen Cavazza, to consider discipline against another retired colonel and others who had retaliated against Paine.

No such discipline has been imposed, though, and Cavazza declined to talk about the reasons why or to release his explanation to the inspector general.

The July 8 report also called for Paine, who holds a master's degree, to be reinstated as head of a parachute-packing unit or comparable position, but he was left in a job managing barracks, moving furniture and mopping and waxing floors.