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

Limits on Transferring GI Bill Hit

What is the logic of the services denying retirees who are eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill the ability to transfer their education benefits to spouse or children?

Right now anyone retiring after Aug. 1, 2009 can transfer their benefits to family members.  Lots of retirees left service with 36 months Post-9/11 service between 2004 and 2009.  Many of these veterans served in Iraq and Afghanistan in combat operations and faithfully serve over 20 years, and some for 30 or more.

Yet if they retired before Aug. 1, this year, they cannot transfer their GI bill benefits?  Why would Congress and the services not want to give these veterans the ability to transfer their benefits?

A lot has been written about the details but I'm wondering which congressional or service staffer came up with selectively denying already retired veterans of this?

I don't see how giving this to Post-9/11 retirees would impact recruiting or make the program outrageously expensive. Any thoughts?

MICHAEL C. SEVCIK
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
Via e-mail

Defense officials persuaded Congress to make transferability part of the new GI Bill as a retention tool.  It would entice members to serve longer and soften any negative effect on the career force of giving members a far more valuable post-service education benefit.

Given the goal to prevent an exodus of careerists, lawmakers saw no need to extend the option to veterans who already had left service or would do so by the Aug. 1 this year, start date of the new GI Bill.  That would drive up program costs without any perceived benefit to the government or taxpayers.  Plan designers thought it would be enough to give veterans with service since 9/11 a better education package for themselves. – Tom Philpott

Related Article:
GI Bill Transfers, Quirks and All

I was forced into early retirement due to injury and was wondering if I would be able to pass on my GI Bill benefits to my daughter. I am rated 100 percent disabled so I don't have much use for the GI Bill.  My daughter would really benefit from this.

Is this possible?

JESSE CANALES
U.S. Army, Ret.
Via e-mail

The new GI Bill allows transferability only for servicemembers on active duty or in reserve drill status on or after Aug. 1, 2009.  The law doesn't allow for exceptions to that requirement. – T. P.

All the discussion about the transfer of GI Bill benefits and how recent retirees are excluded is very interesting in light of all the changes to the GI Bill that have no "grandfathering" provisions.

In the 1960s, we were promised a GI Bill to be used within 10 years of discharge, which is you served 20 years or more wasn't much time to use benefits while you were transitioning to a new job, moving to a new location and contending with other career shift issues.

So what's the beef about not being able to transfer benefits to family members?

If you want more inequities between benefits and privileges of today's military and those of years past, talk to your parents or grandparents -- men and women of past wars.  Which of them complain about not being able to pass their GI Bill to their families?

Herb H.
Vietnam Veteran
Via e-mail

  Non-Veteran Reservist

Nice article on the case for better reserve benefits being made by Lt. Gen. Jack C. Stultz, chief of Army Reserve. I hope reservists receive the benefits proposed.  But another issue I would love to see addressed is why reservists aren't considered veterans unless we serve a 180-day tour of active duty.

I was a reservist from 1986 to 2001 when I received an honorable discharge. I gave the Army Reserve 12 good years before I got divorced and needed to move from New Jersey to make a better life for my daughter and manage as a single parent.  Lack of reliable child support made it impossible for me to continue my reserve appointment.

As a reservist, I was responsible for equipment, personnel and creating wartime scenario training.  I knew I was a soldier.  But I did not discover that my time as a reservist didn't count for much until I started applying for federal jobs and others and was asked if I was a veteran.

I didn't expect to have the same status as someone who had served on active duty but I never imagined my 12 years of more than a weekend a month and two weeks in the summer would count for nothing.  I was crushed to learn that, to my government, I was not considered a veteran in any form.

Why can't a reservist who didn't have an opportunity to serve on active duty 180 days or more still have their good years of reserve service count for some type of veteran status? Couldn't two or three good reserve years, for example, equal a year of active duty?  Couldn't the government look at a soldier's record to see how many additional days he or she put in above what was required?  I had to report every Tuesday and Thursday nights, or Saturdays, depending on my unit's administrative planning needs.

I will continue to pray that someone fights for us to gain veteran status when applying for jobs.

VIOLET SNIPES-AZZI
Via e-mail

Not Officer-Only Offset

I am a 20-year Air Force retired lieutenant colonel rated 40-percent disabled by the VA.  I earned my retired pay and my disability, but because I am an officer they take my VA compensation out of my military retired pay.

I spent 20 years all over the world, got shot at and missed in Southeast, but I am discriminated against by this system.  It has always been unfair, but now that I am completely retired, I need that extra $541 a month.

RICHARD C. DINSMORE
Lieutenant Colonel, USAF-Ret.
Via e-mail

It's not because you're an officer that your retired pay is reduced by the amount you draw in VA disability compensation.  Enlisted retirees too with non-combat-related disabilities rated below 50 percent by the Department of Veterans Affairs see their retired pay cut each month by amounts received in disability compensation.

Congress gradually is eliminating the ban on concurrent receipt of retired pay and disability compensation but you are among about 450,000 retirees still impacted. – 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.