About 44,000 troops will begin seeing smaller paychecks starting June 1 when imminent danger pay is eliminated for areas around the world no longer deemed threatening.
The Pentagon announced last January that IDP of $7.50 daily up to $225 per month was being scrapped for service in non-threatening areas, as was first reported by MilitaryTimes.
In May, about 95,000 service members received danger pay, and cutting that number by nearly half would save about $108 million, Pentagon officials said.
Prior to the changes, the military had a list of 59 areas around the world that rated IDP. That list has now been trimmed to 22.
Danger pay will remain in effect for Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Jordan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Egypt under the new rules
Danger pay would no longer go to service members in the following locations after June 1:
The land areas and airspace above Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Serbia and Montenegro, and the land areas of East Timor, Haiti, Liberia, Oman, Rwanda, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Danger pay will also no longer apply to service at sea in the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea.
Danger pay will continue for the land areas and airspace above Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia.
In the Pacific Command, those serving in the Philippines will still rate danger pay, as well as those in the city of Jakarta, Indonesia, the four Indonesian provinces of central Java, East Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi and Papua, and the Indonesian region of Aceh.
The tradition of "danger pay" goes back to World War II, when the infantry rated an extra $10 a month in what was called "Badge Pay."
In Korea, "combat pay" of $45 a month was authorized for troops deployed to the peninsula. Combat pay expired with the Korean armistice of 1953 but resurfaced in 1963 as "hostile fire pay" of $55 a month for Vietnam.
-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@monster.com.
