New GI Bill

Looks like some good news for injured soldiers and their families. The latest GI Bill gives a big boost in the opportunity for all of today's servicemembers to get their education, according to senior Defense Department officials.

President Bush signed the Post-9/11 Veterans Education Assistance Act of 2008 on June 30. The new law mirrors the tenets of the original GI Bill, which gave returning World War II veterans the opportunity to go to any school they wanted while receiving a living stipend.

The original GI Bill was said to be one of the most significant social impacts of the 20th century. There is every chance that the new bill is going to have a similar impact, especially good news for wounded soldiers and their families.

The new GI Bill is applies to individuals who served on active duty on or after Sept. 11, 2001, and offers education benefits worth an average of $80,000 - double the value of those in the previous program. It covers the full costs of tuition and books, which are paid directly to the school, and it provides a variable stipend for living expenses.

One of the great new features is that it’s also transferable to family members of career servicemembers. Its only restriction is that payment amounts are limited to the most expensive in-state cost to attend a college or university in the state where veterans attend school.

The variable stipend is based on the Defense Department's basic allowance for housing for an E-5, which averages about $1,200 a month, and $1,000 a year will be paid directly to the servicemember for books and supplies.

Enrollment into the Post-9/11 GI Bill is free. Eligibility for the Montgomery GI Bill is based on service commitment and requires active-duty servicemembers to pay a $1,200 fee over the initial year of their enlistment.

The new bill requires that an individual serve at least 90-days on active duty after Sept. 10, 2001, and if discharged, be separated on honorable terms. Servicemembers discharged due to a service-connected disability are eligible if they served 30 continuous days on active duty. Servicemembers must serve 36 aggregated months to qualify for the full amount of benefits.

Servicemembers are entitled to benefits of the new bill for up to 36 months and have up to 15 years from their last 30 days of continuous service to use their entitlements. But as successful as Defense Department officials anticipate the new bill to be, Clark suggested that new recruits still enroll in the Montgomery GI Bill.

The Montgomery GI Bill gives benefits for higher education as well as vocational training, apprenticeship programs and on-the-job training, he explained. The Post-9/11 GI Bill focuses solely on higher education and can only be used at institutions that offer at least an associate's degree.

All new recruits should think hard before turning down the Montgomery GI Bill, because they will limit their opportunities for additional education without it.

Servicemembers also are "highly encouraged" to use the Defense Department's tuition assistance program while on active duty, because the Post-9/11 GI Bill's full entitlements, such as the living stipend and book allowance, will not be available.

If you use the Post-9/11 GI Bill while on active duty, it will merely cover tuition or the difference of what tuition assistance will pay. Another downside to that is each month you use the new bill, you lose a month of your 36 months of eligibility.

So, if servicemembers serve on active duty on or after Aug. 1, 2009, and meet the minimum time-in-service requirement, they will be eligible for the new GI Bill while also maintaining benefits from the Montgomery GI Bill.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill also brings good news for officers and for servicemembers who enlisted under the loan repayment program. Since eligibility for the Post-9/11 GI Bill is based on time already served, more servicemembers will be able to take advantage of its benefits. Officers commissioned through one of the service academies or through ROTC and enlisted servicemembers participating in the loan repayment program don't qualify for the Montgomery GI Bill.

Those servicemembers will be able to qualify if they finish their initial obligatory service. Commissioned officers must complete their initial five-year commitment if they attended a service academy or their four-year agreement if they were commissioned through college ROTC. Servicemembers whose college loans were paid off by the Defense Department as a re-enlistment incentive must finish their initial commitment - whether it is three, four or five years - before they can apply.

Any amount of time an individual served after their obligated service counts for qualifying service under the new GI Bill.

Another facet unique to the Post-9/11 GI Bill is that it's transferable to family
members. The feature gives the defense and service secretaries the authority to offer career servicemembers the opportunity to transfer unused benefits to their family. Though Defense Department officials still are working with the services to hash out eligibility requirements, there are four prerequisites that are subject to adjustment or change.

Currently transferability requirements are:

-- Qualifying service to be eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill;

-- Active duty service in the armed forces on or after Aug. 1, 2009;

-- At least six years of service in the armed forces;

-- Agreement to serve four more years in the armed forces.

Individuals who may not qualify to transfer unused benefits because they leave the service before the new bill's effective date most likely still will qualify for the bill. As long as the separated servicemembers meet the minimum qualifying time served, they can contact their local Veterans Affairs office and apply for the program. While payments are not retroactive, eligibility is.

This new bill will allow our veterans to chase their dreams. It will allow them to go back and experience college like they deserve, much like their grandfathers did in World War II.

More information about the Post-9/11 GI Bill is available at www.ourfinest.org

visiting wounded warriors

I'm excited. Just got off the telephone with Sergeant Brian Pierce at Walter Reed Medical Center. He is the hospital's guy who arranges visits to wounded warriors. My first opportunity to visit with them is at 11 a.m. August 18th.

I'm pleased that OurFinest.Org gets "official visit" status. They have reserved a parking spot for me at the army hospital and an ambassador will meet me and get me oriented and introduced.

I want to thank God for giving me this opportunity to serve those who have sacrificed so much for our country. I am very grateful for the chance to perhaps make a difference in the lives of young people who deserve the best.

It's odd how much I appreciate the chance to serve military veterans who have been injured. I have never been very generous to official charities. In fact, I've probably not been very generous at all. I have walked by many begging evidently homeless people. I confess to exchanging harsh words with a young male begging on the street in downtown Washington who said something rude when I didn't give him any money. He looked perfectly strong and healthy to me and jumped up ready to fight when I suggested that he "go get a job."

But when it comes to injured troops and helping veterans who went in harm's way for their nation, it's a different thing. These are guys I KNOW need help and deserve not just charity but a helping hand.

I'm also excited about the TV commercial that Jim Draper and Ruthy Stapleton and I are putting together. It is really neat that technology has advanced to the point that from our home computers we can collaborate to produce a low cost and effective TV commercial. We are going to be able to distribute the 30-second PSA (public service announcement) to the top 200 stations in the country.

We are also writing and distributing 30-second radio spots to send to the nation's 10,000 radio stations.

The idea is to make people aware that our wounded heroes need help, that once they are discharged from the Walter Reed Medical Center, they are almost entirely on their own. The 30 second PSAs will invite people to visit our website (www.OurFinest.Org) where they will learn more about the need and what they can do to help. I hope their interaction with the community I am seeking to organize there will make them want to communicate with these veterans.

Other things I am working on: writing grant proposals and thinking how to recruit thousands of people to each help get one of these wounded veterans a job. While physically handicapped, these wounded warriors have wonderful qualities of character that make them great employees and -- I believe -- terrific candidates as entrepreneurs as well.