It's a story that's been reported on before. Members of the Minnesota National Guard were deployed just long short enough to prevent them from qualifying for the education benefits in the Montgomery GI Bill.
They've tried appealing to President Bush with (predictably) no result.
And the Army won't let them file one joint appeal. It has to be processed individually.
First, the back story.
David Karow and Jeremy Wilson, two soldiers with the Minnesota National Guard, were stationed together at Camp Scania in Iraq, a convoy refueling station south of Baghdad. Both were deployed in the war zone for 16 months, returning home in July after serving the longest tour of duty in Iraq for any U.S. unit.
(snip)
Wilson’s orders indicated 730 days of active duty, the minimum number needed to qualify for the expanded education benefits under Chapter 30. But Karow’s orders anticipated one day less — 729 days — making him ineligible.
It's just one little day, really. And those 2 & 3 and 9 & 0 keys are awfully close. Surely a potential little typo (or "a perfect storm of errors" if you think you have something to hide) won't make such huge difference in benefits (emphasis mine)...
As a result, Wilson, a 26-year-old who lives in Minneapolis, will receive $894 per month in education benefits to finance his pursuit of a law degree beginning next year. What’s more, the benefits will be available for 10 years after he is deactivated.
But Karow, a 22-year-old who attends Alexandria Technical College, is receiving $234 a month less in education benefits than Wilson, and his benefits will expire when he leaves military service.
Let's see...if I make the assumption that this is only good for 9 months/year (if benefits don't come during the summer) that would be $8,046. If benefits come year round, then it would be $10,728/year for the next 3 years, or about $32,184.
The alternative is $5,940 for 9 months or $7,920 for 12 months. 3 years of school would get $23,760...but only until his reserve time is up.
They've tried appealing to President Bush, but the White House has thus far turned a deaf ear on an executive order and they're not exactly bursting with enthusiasm on legislation resolving this problem (emphasis mine).
"We have been working with Representative Kline and Senator Coleman on this issue," said White House spokesman Alex Conant in an e-mail Wednesday. "We will continue to work with members of Congress to enhance the educational benefits for National Guard members and Reservists in a way that recognizes their sacrifices but also keeps active duty retention levels strong."
Translation: We want them to have benefits, but we don't want those benefits to be so good as to motivate people to not return to our beach party.
In the meantime, at least the Army is streamlining the process so that they can all get their identical problem taken care of at the same time...oh...wait:
The Minnesota Guard members must seek redress through ordinary channels, meaning that each soldier has to file an appeal to the Army Board of Corrections. State officials had sought to file a single class-action appeal, but that request was denied, Shellito said.
But hey, that's only 1,162 appeals that must be processed individually...in writing. That appeal is 11 pages long per person. So that's only 12,782 pages of documents, plus the man hours associated with each appeal. But hey, at least the Army's pledging to be done in time to register for classes in January!