Troops Denied Benefits After Longest Deployment

[Rhino]

National Guard Troops Denied Benefits After Longest Deployment Of Iraq War

Rhonda Erskine, Online Content Producer
Created: 10/3/2007 2:39:29 PM
Updated: 10/3/2007 5:32:02 PM

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (NBC) -- When they came home from Iraq, 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard had been deployed longer than any other ground combat unit. The tour lasted 22 months and had been extended as part of President Bush's surge.

1st Lt. Jon Anderson said he never expected to come home to this: A government refusing to pay education benefits he says he should have earned under the GI bill.

"It's pretty much a slap in the face," Anderson said. "I think it was a scheme to save money, personally. I think it was a leadership failure by the senior Washington leadership... once again failing the soldiers."

Anderson's orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days.

Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school....http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=71741

[Venus de Smilo]

Bush would probably remedy this in a minute if these guys were from Mexico.

Somebody had better do something for these guys and this 729-day practice NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

This burns me up to no end!

[dPrasse]

Rule #1

NEVER EVER EVER trust a govt official ....

Youll get shafted every time ...

[Suzie]

National Guard members are 2nd class citizens when it comes to the Army. They don't want to pay for anything. My husband sleeps in his armory because they wont even pay for him a hotel room and he lives in another State. The democrats are all gushy about universal health care, but won't even give Guard and Reserve the same health insurance they give active duty.

Just remember these are the same men who often take a pay cut when called up and leave behind full time jobs. The Guard and reserve make up over 50% of the troops on the ground right now, and they keep calling them up for second and third tours, Sometimes making a lapse in pay and medical coverage between the time the full time job stops paying them and the Army starts. Deployment is much harder on the soldier who doesn't do this full time. But they get little respect or even thought of as to what this does to their careers while they are gone for a year or more and promotions go out with them passed over because they aren't there. This war has been a tough row to hoe for the citizen soldier.

[Timberwolf]

This burns my backside like little else will! Who do we call? Whose tuckus do we relocate to the shoulder blade region? Whose groin do we kick?

[Timberwolf]

KLOUBUCHAR is onboard with getting this gross injustice rectified? Guess she's not as stupid as I thought she was...

[CzechPrince]

Bush would probably remedy this in a minute if these guys were from Mexico.

Somebody had better do something for these guys and this 729-day practice NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

This burns me up to no end!

:claps:

[Venus de Smilo]

National Guard members are 2nd class citizens when it comes to the Army. They don't want to pay for anything. My husband sleeps in his armory because they wont even pay for him a hotel room and he lives in another State. The democrats are all gushy about universal health care, but won't even give Guard and Reserve the same health insurance they give active duty.

Just remember these are the same men who often take a pay cut when called up and leave behind full time jobs. The Guard and reserve make up over 50% of the troops on the ground right now, and they keep calling them up for second and third tours, Sometimes making a lapse in pay and medical coverage between the time the full time job stops paying them and the Army starts. Deployment is much harder on the soldier who doesn't do this full time. But they get little respect or even thought of as to what this does to their careers while they are gone for a year or more and promotions go out with them passed over because they aren't there. This war has been a tough row to hoe for the citizen soldier.

I think that is just unconscionable. It really, really burns me that guardsmen and reservists are treated this way.

Please tell your husband my family deeply appreciates his service.

We could take every congressman and public official in DC and, rolled altogether, they don't have as much value as one single soldier, be he regular military, guard or reserve. In fact, most of them aren't fit to lick the boots of our people in uniform.

[DesertFox]

This will get fixed. All somebody had to do was raise the issue. No need for all the snide comments. If anybody appreciates our troops, it's W.