During the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan many soldiers in the California Guard were offered reenlistment bonuses to stay in their State Guard. However due to no fault of their own over 10,000 soldiers in the California Guard were offered these bonuses when their specific jobs in the military were not eligible for these bonuses. The soldiers were not aware of this. They signed contracts to stay in the California Guard for six years and they fulfilled their obligations including returning to combat.
Now the Pentagon is trying to reclaim this money from these soldiers saying the contracts were illegal. However the soldiers did not commit the fraud, the recruiters did. They are being punished when they did no wrong.