The story about returning Red Bull members being ineligible for GI Bill educational benefits is getting a lot of play in the media. No wonder: it's one of those stories that appeals to a sense of fair play. We also think that in many communities, the Iraq vets in the National Guard aren't some abstract "troops," but neighbors, friends, family members and employees.
Today's Mankato Free Press reports in The push for troops' education benefits:
Members of the Minnesota Army National Guard, after serving for 16 months in Iraq, came home in July to an outpouring of gratitude.
But despite enduring the longest continuous deployment to Iraq of any American ground troops in the war, nearly half of the 2,600 troops learned they weren’t deemed worthy of GI Bill education benefits. The orders issued to 1,162 of the soldiers put them on active duty for just days short of the 730 required for GI Bill benefits.“If these guys didn’t earn full Army benefits, I don’t know who did,” said Congressman Tim Walz of Mankato.
The difference between full benefits and standard educational benefits for Guard soldiers can be as much as $500 to $800 a month, Walz said
So he and other members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation have been pressuring the Army to fix the problem since they learned of it in August. Southern Minnesota’s congressmen have been particularly involved in the effort.
The upshot:
The combined pressure, with most of the state’s delegation signing the letter to Geren and co-sponsoring the legislation, seems to have made an impact.
On Thursday, Sen. Norm Coleman and Walz announced they believe the problem is close to being fixed. Both said they’d received assurances from Geren that the process for reviewing and correcting the orders for the Minnesota troops would be speeded up.
“The bottom line is our folks are going to be taken care of,” Coleman said.
In local television coverage, KEYC aired a segment, Army Reviews Educational Benefits. KARE-TV reports in Army secretary again promises quick review:
Pressure has been building for the Army to resolve the issue of education benefits that went AWOL. More than 1,100 members of the Minnesota National Guard - soldiers who were on the ground longer than any other unit in Iraq - were denied thousands of dollars they say they should have earned under the GI Bill.
Geren talked about those benefits in a phone call to Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Penn., the former Marine and chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.
Once again, Geren promised a quick review.
Congressman Tim Walz, D-Minn., spoke to Murtha and later said, "The personal assurance from Secretary Geren to Chairman Murtha is good news for all members of the brigade who spent two years serving their nation in Iraq, only to find that they were denied benefits upon return."
The chief of the National Guard Bureau, Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, told NBC's Today show the issue should be resolved.
"I have no doubt whatsoever that the Army will do the right thing for these great citizen/soldiers that did what (the) nation asked them to do when they were needed," Blum said.
An Army review board is looking into missing money. Earlier this week, two members of the unit told KARE11 they believe the Pentagon deliberately wrote their deployment orders for 729 days, one day short of the 730 days needed to qualify for education benefits worth hundreds of dollars a month.
The Strib posted the story 3 lawmakers work to clarify Guard benefits. Walz is one of the three:
Reps. John Kline and Tim Walz and Sen. Amy Klobuchar are attempting to rectify the situation through legislation, announcing bills this week that would ensure that the Red Bulls get their benefits in time to enroll for spring semester classes.
"I think of it as irons in the fire," said Kline, a Republican. "We've got two or three irons in the fire right now, and we just want one of them to come through and take care of these members of the Guard."
Kline's bill, introduced Wednesday, would establish that any member of the Red Bull unit who served at least 20 consecutive months of active duty had satisfied the Montgomery Bill's requirements. He's also working with Walz, a Democrat, on a bill that would give the secretary of Veterans Affairs the ability to fix problems like these on his own.
The Free Press's article expanded on Walz's support of this legislation:
Walz thinks lawmakers should move ahead with the bill even if Minnesota’s troops no longer need it, just so the same issue doesn’t arise for other National Guard units. Soldiers serving in places like Iraq or Afghanistan deserve better than coming home to be told they don’t qualify for the same benefits as the soldiers fighting beside them.
The IAVA has published an interesting report about other, chronic problems with GI Bill education benefits.
Update: We'd like to thank Blue Man Hal Kimball for hipping us to this issue back in July.
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