The Department of Defense accounts payable operation, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, has seen its workload triple in the past year because of the quarter million reservists and National Guard troops mobilized for the war in Iraq. As a result, payments have been going out late. At least 23,000 reservists are months late in getting paid for expenses they incur when mobilized (meals, housing and travel). The delays are so widespread and numerous that morale is taking a hit. Many of the mobilized troops take a cut in pay because their military compensation is much less than what they make as civilians. The Department of Defense says it is expanding its accounts payable operation to eliminate the backlog. In the meantime, the troops can take comfort in the fact that they helping to finance the war in ways they hadn't anticipated.