Stolen Lunch Money

Steve Beynon

After they complete initial entry training all soldiers are entitled to Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) to help pay for food, but many of them have most of it deducted to pay for meals provided in dining facilities (DFACs).

Recent investigative reporting by our guest, Steve Beynon, has revealed striking inconsistencies between how much money is taken from soldiers in the form of BAS deductions and how much money is spent on providing those soldiers with the meals they're entitled to. At many of the Army's largest installations more than half of those funds seem to be getting reallocated, and the Army can't even explain where.

From "smoke pit conspiracy" to congressional inquiry, this is a problem that many soldiers have talked about for years, but is just now breaking into mainstream media coverage thanks to Steve's work. He joined us on the podcast to discuss what he's found, and we may have even identified more problems live on air...

Steve Beynon is a reporter for Military.com based out of the Washington, D.C., area whose detailed investigations have covered urgent issues impacting soldiers.

A veteran of the Afghanistan war with over a decade of experience as a cavalry scout, Steve leverages his firsthand military experience to deliver authoritative journalism. In 2023, Military Veterans in Journalism honored him as one of the top veterans in media for exposing a cult scheme that defrauded veterans of their benefits, one of the largest scams ever to target the military community. This accolade includes recipients from the New York Times and Associated Press. The cult's churches were eventually raided by the FBI.

His byline has appeared in Politico, Stars and Stripes, Military Times, American Legion Magazine, National Guard Magazine, Fox 19, Cincinnati City Beat, and the Cincinnati Enquirer. He studied journalism and environmental policy at the University of Cincinnati on a GI Bill scholarship.

Steve's original story breaking this news published last month in Military.com

21 Senators and Members of Congress signed this letter to the Secretary of Defense demanding answers about this situation

Steve published a follow up piece discussing the reaction from Congress and some of the feedback from inside the pentagon

Here's the DoD's page about BAS

We discussed the Army's budget estimates towards the end of the episode, the military personnel (MILPERS) portion of which can be found here

We also referenced the DoD's Financial Management Regulation, and the subsistence portion is found in Volume 7A, Chapter 25

We also referenced two GAO reports:

The first was "DOD Should Formalize Its Process for Revising Food Ingredients and Better Track Dining Facility Use and Costs"

The second was "Additional Actions Needed to Implement, Oversee, and Evaluate Nutrition Efforts for Service Members"

The law that guides most of this is 37 USC 402

And finally, the DoD's overarching guidance is found in DoD Directive 1418.05