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GI Bill Fails Vets

Soldiers returning from Iraq aren’t receiving their education stipends until it’s too late

By Terry J. Allen

With his boyish face and soft tangle of curls, Matt Howard looks like he should have carried a fishing rod though a Norman Rockwell summer. Instead, the 26-year-old Vermonter lugged a gun through two tours in Iraq. Now, what the former Marine really wants is a college diploma. But he and other returning veterans are finding it hard to collect… return to article

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    I have been receiving my prescriptions from the VA since before 9/11.

    Since then the cost has more than doubled (that’s OK — still a good deal), but the work load placed on the doctors and staff has grown immensely. The people at the VA do what they can with what they are allotted.

    Reneging on these contracts fits right in with the Walter Reed mess. This is a national shame.

    For the individuals being gypped I suggest working through an existing veterans’ organization such as the VFW, American Legion or Viet Now. To organize a new Iraq/Afghanistan group will take too long for their educations to benefit.

    This is one more disgusting example of the lack of foresight by the administration and particularly the Department of Defense.

    • Too few troops for the task,

    • Too little manufacturing capability for equipment,

    • Too poor a presentation for the invasion and

    • Too little follow up overall.

    Instead of the War on Terror we could rename it…

    • “WWToo” — Too Little, Too Late (Too Bad).

    United States Posted by whattheheck on Apr 21, 2007 at 10:21 AM

    “It’s an extremely stressful situation for a newly returned vet,” says Howard. “The check is late, the university is breathing down his throat. This is the first dealing with VA that most vets have, and when they come up against shit like this, it discourages them from claiming other benefits, including medical disability, treatments, etc.”

    Maybe this is by design.

    You young brothers and little sisters who are thinking about signing up, y’all better be doing it because you’re true believers in “the cause”, because if you’re trusting that you’ll be taken care of afterward, signing up because you imagine that it’s in the best opportunity for you and your family, well, you ought to think about that.

    I’ve heard tales like this going back to my childhood, back to the Viet Nam days. Vets apparently aren’t much rewarded or, if they need it, also aren’t well taken care of.

    Don’t trust! Don’t drop your guard! Ask around, talk to vets who have tried to access the benefits or compensations you yourself are most interested in. What was their experience? What were the hassles? Get several points of view.

    When the recruiter tries the sell-job, stay skeptical. The recruiter gets paid, and receives bonuses, based on the number of newbies he or she can convince to sign the dotted line. They’re not paid to disseminate detailed information, as though to help you make the best decision, just to get you to commit.

    Does that mean they’ll BS you to get you to sign? The point is, you don’t know.

    Don’t! Trust!!

    Philippines Posted by Kuya on Apr 23, 2007 at 3:19 AM

    Kuya,

    “When the recruiter tries the sell-job, stay skeptical. The recruiter gets paid, and receives bonuses, based on the number of newbies he or she can convince to sign the dotted line.”

    Good advice.
    In fact it is good for almost any situation.

    Always ask yourself, “Whose interest is this person going to look out for?” Stock brokers, car salesmen, insurance agents, CNBC, that pharmaceuticals ad — all try to make you feel confident they have your future at the forefront of their concerns.

    Back in the 1950s, when I went into the army, recruiters said, “If you go RA (Regular Army for four years enlistment instead of less time) you can choose either your advanced training or your foreign duty station.”

    I met a lot of guys who got neither. They put you wherever they need a body. I was trained for infantry, but was a cook (hated it), a clerk (couldn’t type), a truck driver (OK, I could drive.) The dumbest guy in my basic platoon (who they made carry a rock in his left hand to remember which foot to start on) became an ambulance driver!

    The best advice —which came from many friends who had been in before me — “Don’t let them get to know your name. Stay in the middle of the group. Never volunteer!”

    I do know a lot of people who got a good deal from the old G.I. Bill. In fact thhe whole country benefitted from it. My guess is some of the kids getting screwed now have heard tthe good stories from parents or grandparents. But the whole country is so different now that the corporations have become the fourth branch of government.

    United States Posted by whattheheck on Apr 23, 2007 at 7:05 AM

    Yup, whattheheck, “...the whole country is so different now...”; you said a mouthful alright!

    I’m repeatedly dismayed.

    Seems to me that getting involved with the military these days ought to be likened to getting involved with hard drugs.

    You sure better know all the facts before you drop, because you’ll be done with IT a hell of a lot quicker than it’ll be done with YOU!

    Philippines Posted by Kuya on Apr 24, 2007 at 2:35 AM

    Hi,y’all!

    So sad, especially since the republicans have mustered under the standard of"support our troops!”.

    I wonder how much solace one gains from a yellow ribbon after one has lost a limb, or loved one, in a ridiculous war fought by an ill-equipped army, commanded by a Secretary of Defense who says “you go to war with army you got”. Incidentally, Rummy, which party was it that said “WAR!, WAR!,WAR!,NOW!, NOW!, NOW!
    Then again, GI’s were not big campaign contributors, so the republicans dismissed them as inconsequential.

    Also, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to some of the Iraq War veterans. If one thinks that Vietnam veterans were clannish and felt angrily betrayed, then, sadly, one will get to see even more so of the same.

    All of this because of a group who place business interests above the public interest.

    Spare us the WMD argument.(OH, yes,yes, I’ve heard the right-wing red herring of us finding mortar rounds containing nerve gas.It’s not the same thing compared to the nuclear weapons the BU**SH** administration used to scare us. It’s rather like comparing an air-rifle to a cannon.) There weren’t any. Not since Saddam Hussein used the ones we sold him. That’s not to belittle the thre hundred tons of high explosives the Iraqis stole from weapons depots atn the outset of the war. The theft of which this administration has pooh-poohed despite the very likely supposition that those explosives are being used to make IED’s, and probably will for the next century, or until we leave.

    Ta-Ta!

    United States Posted by Aunty Rightwing on Apr 25, 2007 at 10:37 PM

    Kuya, Aunty,

    The explosives were able to be stolen because we had only enough forces to rush into the oil fields before Saddam blew them.  According to Gen. DeLong, second in command of CENTCOM under Gen.Tommy Franks we managed to prevent all but two from blowing. There were around 5,000 wells with charges.

    This also allowed the looting to take place. Remember the TVs and other stuff taken during the US rioting in the ‘60s?  I guess Rummy didn’t.

    Gen. Michael DeLong also says in his book (A General Speaks Out: The Truth About the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq ) that before we went in we had photos showing the contents of two chemical plants being trucked to Syria. Separately the items could be used for a variety of peaceful products. Combined properly they could make nerve gas.

    He said technically they were not WMD unless combined AND put into a delivery system — artillery shell, misslie, bomb. I heard someone ask him during his book presentation on C-SPAN2, “Why wasn’t this info released to the public after all this time?” His response, “I have absolutely no idea. It should have been.) He is of course, retired now as are so many others who are telling what they saw and heard.

    United States Posted by whattheheck on May 1, 2007 at 7:18 AM
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