You may have seen this “rumor” floating around the web and talk radio, about how one airline or another is charging servicemen and women checked-bag fees. Not exactly.

Apparently some military folks have been charged for checking a third-bag, but it’s important to understand: if they must pay up front, they do get reimbursed — by the military.

Certainly getting reimbursed isn’t the foremost on the minds of traveling military personnel, but I think the airlines are taking this one on the chin without much cause, this has been the policy for years and it is just now an issue …

Trebor Banstetter in the Star-Telegram has a good take on this, and a good perspective from no less than a Pentagon source: “Many [military] have government travel cards that can be used for fees.”

And by the way, troops flying into combat zones are never charged any fees.