Soldier forced to pay $700 for body armor that failed to protect him from getting injured.

The last time 1st Lt. William “Eddie” Rebrook IV saw his body armor, he was lying on a stretcher in Iraq, his arm shattered and covered in blood.

A field medic tied a tourniquet around Rebrook’s right arm to stanch the bleeding from shrapnel wounds. Soldiers yanked off his blood-soaked body armor. He never saw it again.

But last week, Rebrook was forced to pay $700 for that body armor, blown up by a roadside bomb more than a year ago.

He was told to pay nearly $700 or face not being discharged for weeks, perhaps months.

Rebrook, 25, scrounged up the cash from his Army buddies and returned home to Charleston last Friday.

“I last saw the [body armor] when it was pulled off my bleeding body while I was being evacuated in a helicopter,” Rebrook said. “They took it off me and burned it.”

Unbelievable! This poor man is injured doing the job that his government told him to do and then is further abused by being forced to pay for the armor that they destroyed. This is just one more example of how screwed up our military has become.

They owe this man for his pain and suffering. He owes them nothing! It was his blood that was spilled that day! His life that was forever changed! They have no right to ask any more from him!