Readers of Tom Philpott's Military Update column sound off.

Post-9/11 GI Bill Transfers To Be Approved On-Line

To date, you have been the best source of information on the Post-9/11 GI Bill.  I'm hoping you can help me and other readers with details on just how we active duty guys can transfer some of our educational benefits to our children.  I had submitted questions through the VA's GI Bill web page, but was not at all satisfied with the quality of the answers.

I have 23½ years in the Army and plan to stay at least 2½ more years. I have two teenage daughters, ages 18 and 14.  My 18-year-old wants to start college this fall, either in August or September.  I want to apply for the Post-9/11 GI Bill while I'm still on active duty and transfer 50 percent now to my 18-year-old daughter so she can use the money to start college this fall.  Four years from now, I want to transfer the remaining 50 percent to my younger daughter.

What form or forms does my older daughter need to fill out, or do I need to fill out, to use benefits this fall?  How do I make sure I'm only transferring 50 percent of my benefits to my older daughter?

It is already mid-June.  I feel like I'm in a race against time to take care of this.  To complicate matters I am currently deployed to Afghanistan, and won't be home until October, one to two months after my oldest daughter will be starting college.

By the way, there's about a half dozen other senior warrant officers deployed with me who are in the exact same boat as me.  They want to know exactly what they need to do to transfer their education benefits to their kids.

TERRY O'DONNELL
Chief Warrant Officer 4
Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan

By July 1, the Department of Defense expects to have a website established for this purpose.  It's being tested now.  Here, in general, is how it is expected to work.

Service members seeking to transfer Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits will enter the website, supply some basic information, select the family member or members they want their GI Bill benefits transferred to and designate the percentage to be transferred.

The applicant's branch of service will review the information, make its approval and then give the service member a new service commitment date.  As you know, with transferability comes an obligation to extend time in service, though exceptions are to be made for retirement eligible members, as described in a recent Military Update column.

Decisions made on transferability through the DoD website will be transmitted daily to the Department of Veterans Affairs.  Family members cleared for transferability then will apply for their GI Bill benefits through VA's GI Bill website just as eligible service members and veterans do.

We hope to be able explain the process in even more detail in a future Military Update column once final regulations are published and the transferability website is opened for business.

Please note that transfer of Post-9/11 benefits can only occur while a member is on active duty or in drill status with the Selected Reserve.  You can designate both children immediately and change the proportion of benefit selected at any time. -- Tom Philpott

Learn more about the GI Bill  and other education benefits on Military.com.

ROTC RETIREMENT CREDITS

I currently serve as a chief petty officer assigned to a Selected Reserve unit at a Navy Operational Support Center.  I am rapidly approaching high-year tenure for my Navy pay grade, and I am getting ready for my inevitable military retirement.

Way back in 1971, during my college years, I applied for and was awarded a four-year Air Force ROTC scholarship. I signed a DD Form 4 enlistment contract and was duly sworn into the Air Force Reserve.

After a year of too much partying, I failed to maintain the required grade point average for retaining my scholarship.  I was disenrolled and unceremoniously discharged.

I subsequently enlisted in the regular Air Force, serving until 1977. After a 13-year break in service, I enlisted in the Navy Reserve in 1990.

Here's my question. As a contracted cadet in the Air Force's ROTC program, from which I was not commissioned, is my time as a ROTC cadet creditable towards my enlisted reserve retirement point total?  Because I was compensated through tuition payment and a monthly stipend, was I not a full-fledged member of the Air Force Reserve?

I believe the year-long ROTC time under contract is creditable as a good year for reserve retirement, but Navy Bureau of Personnel says no, it's not.

I am positive I've seen an official Defense Department edict on this precise scenario, but my search for official an instruction on this has been unsuccessful. Please let me know if I've lost my mind, or if I'm right.

ROBERT O.
Storekeeper Chief
Via e-mail

It's because you were under scholarship, with paid tuition and a stipend, that you are ineligible for acquiring drill pay and points toward retirement for your year in ROTC.  By signing the DD 4 Form, you became a member of the Individual Ready Reserve or Inactive Reserve.  You were not in a drill status while in school and therefore not eligible to accumulate drill pay or points toward retirement.  It would have been regarded as a kind of double payment – receiving both an ROTC scholarship to attend college and payments and points for drill time in the same period of time.

ROTC cadets not on scholarship can be in the Simultaneous Membership Program, which is cadet status while also serving in a Selected Reserve unit.  The Navy, however, didn't have SMP. – T. P.

CHAPTER 61 CONCURRENT RECEIPT

I am a medically retired Army E-6 with 13.5 year's of service.  I have at 100 percent disability rating from the military which, of course, carried over to the VA. I was told at the time that I was one of the few to ever receive the 100 percent rating from the military's medical board.

Do I or will I qualify for this new program proposed by the president?

DAVID HANCOCK
Via e-mail

You would be eligible for concurrent receipt under the Obama administration's proposal to expand program eligibility to Chapter 61 retirees. What would be at stake for you is a retired pay annuity based on your 13 years of service -- if that annuity, plus VA compensation, would be a net increase for you versus continuing to draw your military disability retirement.

The Obama proposal, however, was not included in the fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill approved by the House Armed Services Committee this week.  Lawmakers couldn't find a way to fund it but continued to seek those funds as the bill moved to the floor for further amendments. – T. P.

Letters may be edited for clarity or length.  Write to Military Forum, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA  20120-1111, send e-mail to militaryforum@aol.com or visit www.militaryupdate.com.