Posted on Apr 29, 2020
What is a pay officer?
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Military Pay Officer
Posted >1 y ago
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Once upon a time, before the age of direct deposit, we used to actually physically receive our paychecks. The Pay Officer was the person who disbursed that money.
Back in the day, it was the Officer that certified who you were and issued you your monthly pay. Now, from last time I knew of...it is the person that is entrusted with currency of the local populace to pay for goods/services when needed. For example, a medical mission to a city/village in a country that doesn't have hotels listed in DTS but still needs to house troops for said medical mission...the Pay Officer would use the currency issued to them to pay for the hotel stay.
Back in the day( 1960s) it was an Officer behind a desk that you appeared before at the position of Attention and in loud clear voice states “PVT So and So reports for Pay” that’s what I remember anyway,and we did have a block of instruction on the proper way it had to be done,strange the things you remember.
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We still had Pay Sites in 1981 and 1982 at Fort Polk.
Sgt Dan Catlin
Our pay officers were assigned the duty at company level, usually on a rotational basis. An NCO was assigned to assist. That was not a pleasant task, as it could be a long day and at the end you both had to account for every dollar. So both the officer and the NCO counted your pay out. And only one person at a time could stand before the table to get paid. Like I said, a VERY long day.
SPC Joseph Kopac
We even got paid in the Bush in Nam. A officer and MP would fly out to us. Didn’t get paid for a couple of months once. Had all this Funny Money and nowhere to spend it.
SGT Philip Roncari
SPC Joseph Kopac- Yeah,I remember “Military Scrip” in Vietnam,we called it “Monopoly cash”!
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