Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Iraq vets say Pentagon is denying benefits
KARE 11 News ^ | 10/4/2007 | Scott Goldberg,

Posted on 10/04/2007 9:15:19 AM PDT by doc30

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last
It's downright dirty on the part of the governemnt to deply National Guardsmen overseas just 1 day short of the time needed to be eligeible for benefits. 22 months in Iraq, but just a day short under the GI bill. What a slap in the face.
1 posted on 10/04/2007 9:15:22 AM PDT by doc30
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: doc30

Tell the Pentagon we don’t want them saving money this way!


2 posted on 10/04/2007 9:18:49 AM PDT by RoadTest (The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: doc30

+1. I’ve just started using my GI bill as an active duty vet. I’d be seriously pissed if I was a Guardsman and they refused to pay me that bennie. That’s absurd.


3 posted on 10/04/2007 9:20:25 AM PDT by ConservatismNow (Iran is just a fantastic natural resource crying out for new, more responsible owners.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: doc30

Goddamned ridiculous those veterans are the reason there is a pentagon and a country, war vets should get a whole ass load more than they do now.


4 posted on 10/04/2007 9:23:16 AM PDT by utherdoul
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ConservatismNow

Is it true the story I heard that Carter denied the GI bill to Veitnam vets?


5 posted on 10/04/2007 9:24:19 AM PDT by doc30 (Democrats are to morals what an Etch-A-Sketch is to Art.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: doc30

I’d wait a while before condemming anyone. I smell a Geraldo-like reporter here (talentless, ugly, and completely without morals).


6 posted on 10/04/2007 9:25:55 AM PDT by Da Coyote
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: doc30
Anderson's orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days. Had they been written for 730 days -- one day more -- the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school.

That does sound very fishy... I hope some penny-pinching bureaucrat bean-counter in DOD gets pinched for this.

7 posted on 10/04/2007 9:27:32 AM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner ("Si vis pacem para bellum")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Da Coyote

Ditto, smells like bad reporting or maybe an oversight, it will get sorted out and the vets will get treated fairly i believe.


8 posted on 10/04/2007 9:28:42 AM PDT by fatrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: doc30
Saw this on the news last night

Of course they had to call it Rumfield's Pentagon

Geez, I hate the media.

9 posted on 10/04/2007 9:30:52 AM PDT by coder2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: doc30
A deal is a deal.

Matter of fact, I wouldn’t want any money going towards a ‘masters in public administration’ or a degree in law enforcement. They are both fake, useless, overcosted featherbedding ticket punching.

This guy is going to manage public finances, rules and regulations? And he doesn’t think it applies to him? He should not of made a promise he could not keep. On the other hand, making promises that you know are not right, and then mau-mauing and victimizing is a good start for a political career type.
What about the guy that wants/is a cop? Why do we have rules, regulations, codes, ordnances, local state and federal laws by the hundreds of thousands of pages?

10 posted on 10/04/2007 9:33:27 AM PDT by Leisler (Liberalism. It is not a philosophy, it is a disease.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: doc30

Actually, H.R. 8701, the GI Bill Improvement Act of 1977, provided expanded benefits for Vietnam era veterans, including a 6.6-percent increase in monthly educational assistance benefits retroactive to October 1.


11 posted on 10/04/2007 9:33:49 AM PDT by stuartcr (Everything happens as God wants it to.....otherwise, things would be different.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Virginia Ridgerunner

the program they’re speaking of is the Chapter 1607 REAP program (Reserve Educational Assistance Program), a relatively new DOD program for guard/reserve called to active duty in response to war, etc...for full time entitlement, i.e. 12 semester credit hours in a full term, usually 16 weeks or thereabouts, with 90 days+ service in theater is $440.40; 1 year+ is $660.60; 2 years+ is $880.80...so 729 days is indeed one day short of the requirement to receive the 2 year+ benefit...this is no accident...


12 posted on 10/04/2007 9:40:54 AM PDT by nicko (CW3 (ret.) CPT, you need to just unass the AO; I know what I'm doing- Major, you're on your own.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: doc30
Yeah, the DoD does this stuff all the time.

The Guard members were prob. Mobilized for their tour. If they are, they can only serve 2years within a 5yr time period under a Operation, ie Operation Noble Eagle.

As such, they DoD would have to issue a whole new set of orders under a new Operation, which is not gonna happen.

13 posted on 10/04/2007 9:53:23 AM PDT by BGHater (Bread and Circuses)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Virginia Ridgerunner

But I am very skeptical that orders were written for 729 days. Typically, we have seen Reserve/Guard call-ups for 12 to 15 months, and then there are the extensions that are issued due to necessity. But initial orders for 22 months - doesn’t seem correct.

Now - in the reserve world, there is careful attention to ensuring that no Reservist accumulates 18 years of active service, since that would automatically allow the member to stay on active duty for another 2 years, and then start drawing an immediate retirement, instead of a retirement that starts at age 60. To prevent this from happening, no further active duty orders are issued to someone who gets 16 years of active duty “on the books.” (In my 30 years of active/reserve time, I had about 10 years of active duty time ...). This policy is enacted by Congressional Mandate!!

So I would want to see if there were, in fact, actual orders for 729 days, vs. much shorter call-up orders, and then additional accumulated time. Note also - the DoD/Pentagon has to operate by Congressional mandates, and the DoD can’t go about issuing orders that kick in additional benefits if Congress has issued mandates that the DoD can’t do so ....so ultimately, I suspect the root of the problem will be Congressional mandates, not heartless/unfeeling Pentagon people.

Mike


14 posted on 10/04/2007 11:21:36 AM PDT by Vineyard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Da Coyote

Not unusual. During previous deployments, 1st Gulf war, the army orders were for 179 days. This way the soldier wouldn’t qualify for a short tour.

This doesn’t surprise me. Bureacrats in action.


15 posted on 10/04/2007 12:20:58 PM PDT by art_rocks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Vineyard

We have had 3 soldiers in my unit who hit sanctuary for active duty retirement.

When 2 of the soldiers hit the 18 year mark, they got orders to an active duty post and finished off their time.

The last soldier was unique. He got out at 17 years due to a bad divorce where he didn’t want to pay his ex wife and didn’t like the army sending him to Korea. He shouldn’t have been mobilized, due to the law. This LTC did his last 2 years and a few months in the Reserves. Once he hit 20, he called his branch and asked for his retirement orders.

Normally I would think the army would really screen this so it doesn’t happen, but with the shortages in upper grades, they know they get another soldier for at least 2 years.


16 posted on 10/04/2007 12:29:43 PM PDT by art_rocks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: fatrat

It’ll get sorted out NOW that it’s been reported. If nobody had bitched, they’d keep screwing these Guardsmen/Women. Typical REMF stunt.


17 posted on 10/04/2007 12:33:07 PM PDT by BritExPatInFla
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Leisler
“Matter of fact, I wouldn’t want any money going towards a ‘masters in public administration’ or a degree in law enforcement. They are both fake, useless, overcosted featherbedding ticket punching.”

Unfortunately for you we live in a 'sort of' free country where people are free to get an education and work in jobs that interest them instead of doing as you say.

“Why do we have rules, regulations, codes, ordnances, local state and federal laws by the hundreds of thousands of pages?”

Because we live in an over regulated, over taxed, cry baby nanny state whose bureaucrats are only concerned with covering their own butts, not public service, and who are completely devoid of any common sense.

“This guy is going to manage public finances, rules and regulations? And he doesn’t think it applies to him?”

He’s exactly they type of guy we should have managing our society. Instead we have guys like you. Thats why everyone hates bureaucrats.

18 posted on 10/04/2007 12:36:07 PM PDT by monday
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Vineyard
“....so ultimately, I suspect the root of the problem will be Congressional mandates, not heartless/unfeeling Pentagon people.”

So it’s our politicians who are screwing over vets. I am not surprised. The only species worse than politician are bureaucrat and lawyer and politicians have the worst aspects of both.

19 posted on 10/04/2007 12:43:51 PM PDT by monday
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: doc30

This is ABSOLUTE F$%KING BULLSH!T! I’ve got friends in the MN ARNG that I’ve helped out finacially and otherwise while they’ve been deployed, and the WORTHLESS G#DDAMN BEANCOUNTING GOVERNMENT DESK JOCKEY LOSER PIECES OF CRAP sh!t on them like this while giving every worthless POS bastard on wellfare more of my tax money? It’s damn near time for and armed revolt. Maybe I’m overreacting, but this kind of thing makes me want to hurt people.


20 posted on 10/04/2007 12:49:27 PM PDT by lesser_satan (FRED THOMPSON '08)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson