THERE ARE USFSPA LAWS, STATE COURT USFSPA LAWS, AND DFAS USFSPA LAWS.

In the following days, I contacted DFAS to request ex-spouse payments be 
stopped. (By that time DFAS again had still not notified me ex-spouse 
payments would commence.)

This may have seemed to be unwise move given the Court order and what I had 
just experienced about being advised my ex-spouse is to receive payments 
regardless if such payments are due.

However, I was still liable for ex-spouse DFAS payments even if DFAS was 
involved.  

Also, I was strongly opposed to my ex-spouse collecting payments when she had 
been overpaid and was not due any funds.  

Per the USFSPA pay regulations and overpayment agreements my ex-spouse and 
attorney signed, I knew the divorce Court order violated the USFSPA.

When I spoke with DFAS representatives, I was told only an attorney 
representing me could stop ex-spouse payments from being made.  I could not 
stop such payments on my own.  

In late-May, 1997, I spoke with a DFAS Legal Counsel who explained he 
reviewed the Court Order and had only seen one Court Order worse than my 
divorce decree.  

He further explained DFAS rules and USFSPA procedures mandated decrees be 
honored if just the USFSPA requirements are met.  If a divorce decree 
potentially exceeded the USFSPA and imposed an extra burden on the retired 
service member resulting in a USFSPA violation, it becomes the service 
member's responsibility to change the decree by initiating a legal proceeding 
with an attorney in a State Court. 

At that juncture, my "only" recourse was to search for another attorney to 
recoup over $18,000.00 that had been wrongfully paid due to the USFSPA being 
misunderstood by my previous attorneys, and misapplied and abused by a State 
Court judicial system.