Apparently Dad made E-5 while in the South Pacific during WWII...more than once, as I understand it.
He apparently had little patience for officers who didn't know their aft alimentary canal opening from a hole in the ground!
As for the government catching up to what you owe them...oh, yeah...I've got first hand experience with that.
Way back in the early 90s when I finally got through the divorce from my first wife, the laws changed on BAQ just before the divorce and as a result, my entitlement after the divorce was "BAQ difference", since I had dependent children and was living on base.
Okie-dokie, whatever. Sucked that I wouldn't be getting full married BAQ any more, but them's the breaks.
Anyway...the Yeoman put the paperwork through immediately after I notified the command of the divorce. Aaaand DFAS kept sending me full married BAQ.
So the YNC notified DFAS again. Aaaand DFAS kept sending me full married BAQ.
After about three months of this, the YNC said "Just put the money in the bank, because they'll eventually catch up and you'll have to repay it."
So I did.
About a year later, as we're coming back from a 6 month deployment, the YNC gave me a message from DFAS. They had finally figured out they had overpaid me and were going to take it out of my pay. As in ALL my pay for just over the next three months.
The Chief said he could put in paperwork to change that repayment to 12 months. I told him I still had the money in the bank and why couldn't I just pay it in full as soon as we got back home?
He said "You know how long it took them to figure this out, even though we sent messages to DFAS in the first place? Now imagine you paying it back in full, they don't figure this out, and STILL take you pay for the next three months."
He offered to have the repayment adjusted to 12 months instead of three. I told him "Nah...I've got over three months pay sitting in the bank right now from this. Let them take their money and I'll just live off that until it's all repaid."