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Military Personnel: DOD Needs to Assess Certain Factors in Determining Whether Hazardous Duty Pay Is Warranted for Duty in the Polar Regions

GAO-03-554 Published: Apr 29, 2003. Publicly Released: Apr 29, 2003.
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Highlights

The 109th Airlift Wing, New York Air National Guard, conducts supply missions for scientific research in the polar regions. Most unit members do not spend more than 30 consecutive days in the polar regions. Therefore, they are not eligible for hardship duty pay, which requires more than 30 consecutive days of duty in a designated hardship location. Congress considered legislation in 2002 to make an exception to the 30-day hardship duty pay threshold for polar duty. This legislation was not approved. In addition, the 109th Airlift Wing proposed designating polar duty as a hazardous duty. The Conference Report accompanying the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003 directed GAO and DOD to conduct separate reviews of special and incentive pays for polar duty. GAO assessed DOD's rationale for hardship duty pay and the implications of making an exception to hardship duty pay. In addition, GAO assessed the 109th Airlift Wing's justification for hazardous duty pay for polar duty.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense Congress has directed the DOD to study special and incentive pays for reservists performing duty in the polar regions. As part of this study, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) to assess certain factors in determining whether personnel performing polar duty should receive hazardous duty pay. These factors are (1) the extreme working conditions that military personnel encounter while performing polar duty, (2) the exposure of military personnel to potential medical hazards related to polar duty, and (3) retention data for military personnel performing polar duty.
Closed – Implemented
DOD concurred with GAO's recommendation. Congress subsequently determined that polar duty was hazardous and authorized military members serving on polar duty to receive hazardous duty pay. DOD revised its financial management regulations in April 2005 to incorporate hazardous duty incentive pay for polar region flight operations.

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Topics

Hazardous duty payHazardous military-duty payMilitary personnelAircraftWorking conditionsFlight crewsU.S. NavyNational GuardLegislationMilitary reserve personnel