Vets say they feel misled about GI benefits

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CNN

Cheated. Baited and switched. That's how veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan say they feel about military recruiters who sold them on how the GI Bill would benefit them.

Soldiers, Marines and airmen, speaking at a Capitol Hill rally Tuesday, said they are not given enough funds from the bill to cover college expenses as they were promised.

Todd Bowers served two tours in Iraq.

"I came home proud, very proud of my service, with a Purple Heart on my chest and a Navy commendation medal with a 'V' for Valor," he told a crowd of veterans.

"But I didn't come back to the education I was expecting. I came back to three different types of student loans, two of which had gone to collections."



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/29/new.gi.rally/index.html

[midnight]

1. Those student loan people are very tricky. And why is a vet

having to take out a loan....I thought they received tuition paid for via a stipend.

[Thothmes]

3. No they dont

If they participate in the Montgomery GI Bill (current version) they get a flat cash stipend everymonth. This helps to cover books tuition, fees and living expenses but does not equate to a full ride at four year state school

[Debau2005]

4. My husband is fighting this now

He served 16 years, and was in both Gulf Wars. He applied for $3000 for truck driving school in December and was denied! We are now trying to find out why. The paperwork we receive never lists a reason.

[bluestateguy]

2. Bush and McCain oppose expanding the GI Bill

They are handing us an election issue on a silver platter. Will we use it for all it's worth?

[SpiralHawk]

5. Republicons lying to our soldiers? As usual.

Standard republicon operating procedure.

[jody]

6. We need a senator able to attract media attention to investigate this travesty. Why didn't BO do

this already because he's on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee?

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. Anyone who believes what a military recruiter tells them has a naivety problem

We've pumped up our military in the American mind so much that people now express shock at what was once a commonly held truth: military recruiters are fucking liars, and will say anything and everything to make you sign on the dotted line. No, now they're "heroes," "the brave men and women of our Armed Forces," and other such nonsenses that people nod at in a stupefied manner.

[jayfish]

9. 18-Year Olds Usually Do. -NT-

Jay

[crim son]

8. Somebody wasn't paying attention.

We've all been lied to from the start. The fact that vets are noticing it too is sad I suppose but that's what you get when you deal with this Administration.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

10. Military recruiters always lie

Back in the sixties, a friend of mine decided to enlist rather than wait to be drafted. He was promised all sorts of things by the Marines, schooling, what his assignment would be, where he'd be sent.

They lied to him about everything. Every single thing. But, luckily, he didn't end up in Vietnam. They just cheated him out of a few years of his young life. He's fine today.

[UTUSN]

12. Yip. Bootcamp 101: Lies the recruiter told me. n/t

[Lost4words]

11. feeling ripped off? welcome back to the good ole USA

here, have some Heparin for your blood, complete with ingredients from the country that brought you "pet death", CHINA!
A communist country that has learned well from capitalists countries like our own that PROFIT is GOD!

8643

[suston96]

13. "7.8 million" WWII troops used that program and through higher wages paid more taxes....

...and thus paid the government manyfold for the costs of the GI Bill. Best investment ever made by the US Government.

It still is no matter what it is called.