I think they are getting shafted.[/align][/align]MINNEAPOLIS, MN (NBC) -- When they came home from Iraq, 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard had been deployed longer than any other ground combat unit. The tour lasted 22 months and had been extended as part of President Bush's surge.[/align]1st Lt. Jon Anderson said he never expected to come home to this: A government refusing to pay education benefits he says he should have earned under the GI bill.
"It's pretty much a slap in the face," Anderson said. "I think it was a scheme to save money, personally. I think it was a leadership failure by the senior Washington leadership... once again failing the soldiers."
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, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school.
"Which would be allowing the soldiers an extra $500 to $800 a month," Anderson said.
That money would help him pay for his master's degree in public administration. It would help Anderson's fellow platoon leader, John Hobot, pay for a degree in law enforcement.
"I would assume, and I would hope, that when I get back from a deployment of 22 months, my senior leadership in Washington, the leadership that extended us in the first place, would take care of us once we got home," Hobot said.
Both Hobot and Anderson believe the Pentagon deliberately wrote orders for 729 days instead of 730. Now, six of Minnesota's members of the House of Representatives have asked the Secretary of the Army to look into it -- So have Senators Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman.
Klobuchar said the GI money "shouldn't be tied up in red tape," and Coleman said it's "simply irresponsible to deny education benefits to those soldiers who just completed the longest tour of duty of any unit in Iraq."
Anderson said the soldiers he oversaw in his platoon expected that money to be here when they come home.
"I had 23 guys under my command," Anderson said. "I promised to take care of them. And I'm not going to end taking care of them when this deployment is over, and it's not over until this is solved."
The Army did not respond questions Tuesday afternoon.
Senators Klobuchar and Coleman released a joint statement saying the Army secretary, Pete Geren, is looking into this personally, and they say Geren asked a review board to expedite its review so the matter could be solved by next semester.
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This needs to be taken care of immediately. If the Army cannot take care of it, the Pentagon needs to step in. If the Pentagon cannot take care of it, Bush needs to step in.
You want to hurt recruiting efforts? This is a sure-fire way to do it. Not to mention that it is a kick in the gonads to these guys who have been serving their country in a foreign warfield for the past two years.
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The military does this crap all the time. The Army routinely sent us on training for 29 days. On day 30 they would have had to pay seperation pay. You have to help the soldiers under you, cause the brass won't.(in most cases)
How many of you standing up for these guys are going to complain about the money being spent?
You won't see me complain. Do you think it's right that they be deployed for the maximum amount of time, minus one day so that they aren't eligible for certain benefits?
I realize this little tactic is nothing new with the military, but that doesn't make it any more right. It's not right in any circumstance, but with the current scrutiny over how thinly stretched the military is and recruiting goals not as easy to meet as they once were, the Army should be sending a message that it is taking care of its own.
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Could this crap be happening because of the idiot in charge of military personnel, one Chu. My message to these idiots is: If you cannotafford the human costs of your war, then do not have your war. Then they wonder why they lost both houses of congress.
"Funding for programs like veterans"™ education and job training, health care, pensions, VA housing and the like are "śhurtful"ť to national security, Pentagon official David Chu said. Chu was defending a new round of cuts during a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal."
"As private sector health care costs skyrocket, veterans are turning more and more to the military"™s health insurance program, Tricare. Retired service members account for half of the people covered by Tricare, whereas just five years ago they accounted for only 40 percent. The Bush administration wants to find ways to stem this tide "” none of which have anything to do with keeping private sector insurance affordable."
"The slow rate of VA spending growth enforced by Bush and the congressional Republicans over the last four years won"™t cover growing deferred benefits, such as education, housing, retirement, health care and so on, promised to current service members or that are supposed to be available for new enlistees."
"In the last two years, Bush ordered the closing of several Veterans Administration hospitals in different parts of the country, pushing waiting lists for medical services for veterans as high as six months for about 230,000 vets. These closings followed in the wake of the congressional Republicans"™ drive in 2003 to cut $15 billion from VA spending over the next 10 years."
"President Bush plans to slash veterans"™ health care benefits by over $900 million and veterans"™ housing programs by $50 million in 2005 alone, according to an Associated Press story about a leaked White House Budget Office memo."
Fat Hastert fired the Chairman of The Veterans Affairs Committee because he was too chummy with vets:
"In fact the Republicans are so desperate to cut veterans' benefits they have started attacking fellow Republicans who want to preserve current benefit levels. The Wall Street Journal reports that "the House Republican leadership took the unusual step of stripping New Jersey Rep. Christopher Smith of his chairmanship of the Veterans Affairs Committee" for pushing "so aggressively for veterans benefits that he at times threatened to oppose their spending plans "“ and President Bush"™s "“ unless more retiree benefits were included.""
For those who do not like my left wing links, here is one from the USMC League.
Location: land of the Lilliputians, In the state of insanity
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RE: Missed it by that much or they got the shaft
Military is run like a socialism. Heck, the name says it all G.I.. Dont get me wrong, i respect or boys and gals in arms and by no means am i bashing them or there service. Just that things like this happen when it is run as a socialism. Our men and women in arms desirve the best in all catagories.
If this stuff bothers you, just wait, Hillary will have the whole country going down this very path. And I would suspect she will gut the army just like her hubby did.
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kaafir mushrik
Unintended consequences and God have one thing in common: Liberals don’t believe in either of them.
Missed it by that much or they got the shaft
