MURRIETA: Veteran fights for POW pay

Murrieta man pushes government to pay men who were held captive during World War II

By NELSY RODRIGUEZ - Staff Writer | Tuesday, November 18, 2008 8:57 PM PST ∞

MURRIETA ---- Ask him for a name of a prisoner of war and he'll spell it for you.

He'll also tell you that POW's widow's name, and how much she received ---- or didn't receive ---- from the Department of Defense after her husband died.

Col. Robert Bonadio was never captured by enemy combatants during his U.S. Marine Corps tour in the Korean War, but he is familiar with the name of each Marine and Naval corpsman who were during World War II.

The 85-year-old Murrieta man has spent years of his retirement collecting the names of World War II prisoners who were not present to receive promotions and the subsequent pay raises that came with a higher rank.

Years after his service in the Korean War, Bonadio learned at a memorial that Army soldiers who were held captive were promoted upon their return to a United States base, but Marines and Navy corpsmen were not.

"Can you imagine that?" asked Bonadio, who these days sits at a desk decorated with military regalia and stacked with service documents and newspaper clippings. "I was really concerned and really perturbed when I learned."

In 2006, Bonadio pushed for, and Congress passed, an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2001, and then the Pay Equity Act of 2006. The laws grant retroactive pay to the prisoners of war who were not available to receive promotions and the pay increases that they were due. The original legislation was passed in 2000, but the 2006 amendment raises how much each POW receives to account for inflation.

If a POW would have qualified to earn an additional $1,700 on his paycheck had he not been in a prison camp, today he will receive 10 times that ---- $17,000.

"They suffered terribly in prison camp," Bonadio said. "I want to get them their money."

Steve Burghardt, a Department of Defense Finance and Accounting Service representative, said as of June 25, 425 Marines and 447 Navy corpsmen qualified for a total of nearly $16 million.

But with national spending exceeding income, money has been trickling out slowly to the veterans, a group that grows smaller with each passing day.

Master Gunnery Sgt. Jorge Mercado, who has been working with Bonadio to make sure the veterans receive the money, said most of the men and women he's spoken with are simply grateful to be remembered.

"A lot of people thought it was a hoax and felt like someone was trying to scam or prey on them," Mercado said. Afterward, he said, the widows added that their husbands "would have been smiling right now."

Mercado said that when the inflation raise was passed in 2006, about 650 Marine Corps veterans qualified to receive more money. As time has passed, only about 425 have actually received the cash. The rest, he said, have died.

"They're dying off in rows," he said, pointing out that more than 90 years have passed since most of these men were born. "Most of them, 1917 was their birth date."

That's why Bonadio feels such urgency. Legally blind now, he relies on his memory and instinct to guide him.

Now he is working on a bill to obtain wages for prisoners who were forced to provide slave labor under enemy command. They were forced to work for free, Bonadio said.

"I call (the government) almost daily and say, 'Please get those checks out,'" Bonadio said. "So many of them will die and won't ever get what they deserve."

Contact staff writer Nelsy Rodriguez at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2626, or nrodriguez@californian.com.

CORRECTION: Errors made in veterans article

Incorrect information was contained in a Nov. 11 article about a Murrieta veteran working to get retroactive pay for World War II prisoners who were not present to receive promotions and the subsequent pay raises. Retired U.S. Marine Col. Robert Bonadio is 78 years old. In addition, the military members whose retroactive pay he's trying to get restored include members of the Marines and the Navy who were taken prisoner during the war.