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But the deal that today's servicemen and servicewomen get is a far cryfrom what their fathers and grandfathers got. When President FranklinRoosevelt signed the GI Bill into law in the waning days of World WarII he saw it as part of his New broach program. The law officiallycalled the Servicemen's Readjustment Act promised returning veteransthat the government would pay the full cost of tuition and books at anypublic or private college or job-training program. It also providedunemployment insurance and loans to buy homes and start businesses. By contrast the current Montgomery GI Bill passed in 1984 asks activeduty members to accept a pay reduction of $100 per month through twelvemonths of military service. When they return to school they receive$1,100 monthly for a maximum of three years of education benefits. It'san amount that doesn't go close to covering the cost of a moderncollege education but it does help some veterans--if they can getthrough the red tape. In July 2005. 23-year-old Paris Lee was honorably discharged afterserving almost three years in the Army. A native of California's rural,picturesque North Coast where the old-growth redwoods grow he returnedhome and enrolled in a free ten-week college prep program calledVeterans Upward Bound at Humboldt State University. Lee was preparing toattend Humboldt State in the fall but this past May he received aletter from the Department of Veterans Affairs denying his applicationfor the GI Bill. "They said I'm not eligible because I servedthirty-five months and two days in the Army," he told me. "Normally youhave to serve thirty-six months to get education benefits so they'retrying to contradict me based on twenty-eight days." After the VA rejectedLee's application for GI benefits he sent an appeal letter to the VAregional office in Muskogee. Oklahoma. While he waits for the response,the Army veteran works dealing cards for blackjack. Pai Gow and Texashold 'em games at Blue Lake Indian Casino east of Arcata. According to the VA those seeking to activate their GI Bill benefitsmust fill out a twelve-page form which is eventually submitted to thecollege or university of choice. It's not uncommon for a veteran toreceive letters requesting more information and VA questions must beanswered to the department's satisfaction. A notice of eligibilityusually takes four to eight weeks. With an application process like that it's little wonder that,according to the Department of Education veterans are much less likelyto graduate from college than students who have never served in themilitary. The department's most recent data show just 3 percent ofveterans who entered a four-year college program in 1995 graduated by2001 compared with a 30 percent overall graduation rate. Another reason for that gap is the military experience itself. ThePentagon sells an educational dream to recruits. In addition topromising tens of thousands of dollars for a service member's collegeeducation recruiters promise future soldiers that they'll be able to"attend college anywhere they are based and even in the combat zonethrough Internet classes offered from the college they are enrolled in." But most Iraq War veterans say that's a promise that exists only onpaper. They say it's difficult to chew over in the military--especially incombat zones. Take 23-year-old Alejandro Rocha. The Los Angeles nativejoined the military in 2002. After graduating from high school he hadstarted to drift and when his father's hours got cut from his job in apen factory. Rocha dropped out of community college and took aminimum-wage job loading and unloading merchandise at Macy's. "I wantedto escape," he told me. "The money wasn't good and I said to myself. Ican't just be doing this my whole life. So I joined the Marine Corps. They sent me on three tours in Iraq." Rocha was assigned to an infantryunit and spent most of his five-year commitment either in Iraq or intraining. After taking part in the initial invasion in 2003 he wascalled back for the brutal siege of Falluja in November 2004 (more than100 Americans and 4,000 Iraqis died in that battle). In 2005 he wasback in Falluja. "I don't know how they expect us to take classes in Iraq," he said."Maybe some people can. Maybe some people have desk jobs but I was amachine-gunner. I manned Humvees and rolled around in Humvees,patrolling. Sometimes we went house to house.. door by door and knockingdown doors. When we were back in the US we were just training andtraining. It wasn't really part of my job to study." A different set of issues confronts America's "weekend warriors,"members of the National follow and Reserve. As of June there were about90,000 US military reservists enrolled in college and about 25,000 ofthem have been deployed at least once to Iraq or Afghanistan. Jugglingschool and military service isn't easy. Just ask Marine Corps reservistTodd Bowers. He was halfway through a degree in Middle Eastern studiesat George Washington University when the Pentagon pulled him out ofschool and sent him on two contend tours to Iraq. On October 17. 2004,Bowers was shot in the face while patrolling the outskirts of Falluja. Asniper's round had penetrated the scope Bowers was using and sentfragments into the left side of his face. When he returned he open hisstudent loans had been sent to collection. "I had notified my lenders that I was leaving on a combat deployment,"he said. "Something went awry while I was gone and [when I returned] Ihad tremendous amounts of letters saying. You owe this money."Eventually. Bowers said he was able to get the difficulty resolved,"but the damage had already been done and my credit history wasruined." Under federal law there are no protections guaranteeing that a schoolmust accommodate a student/soldier who's been deployed. Universities andcolleges are not required to readmit students when they return fromoverseas or to refund tuition for soldiers pulled out mid-semester--andthey are change surface allowed to flunk students if they're not attending classesbecause they've been sent to Iraq. Bowers dropped out of school. He works as government affairs directorfor (IAVA) the first and largest member-organization for USveterans of recent wars. In June IAVA persuaded Congresswoman SusanDavis (D-San Diego) and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) to introduce abill called the VETS Act which would require colleges to refund tuitionfor service members sent overseas cap student loan interest payments at6 percent while the students are deployed and extend the period of timeduring which student/soldiers may re-enroll after returning from abroad. Veterans groups are optimistic about the bill's chances for passage; butlike most legislation geared toward veterans. Congressional leaders haveput it on the back burner while they lay out about how and whether tofight the Iraq War. Other more ambitious efforts appear to be headed for much less success. In January newly elected Democratic Senator James Webb of Virginia (oneof a handful of Congress members to have a son or daughter serving inIraq) introduced legislation to create a new called the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act thatwould provide college tuition room and board and a $1,000 monthlystipend to veterans who have served at least two years of active dutysince the 2001 terrorist attacks. Webb noted that the benefits in hisbill essentially mirror the widely popular benefits allowed under thenation's original GI bill. According to a 1986 Congressional ResearchOffice study each dollar invested in the World War II GI Bill yielded$5 to $12 in tax revenues the result of increased taxes paid byveterans who achieved higher incomes made possible by a collegeeducation. "That bill helped spark economic growth and expansion for awhole generation of Americans," Webb told Congress. "As the post-WorldWar II experience so clearly indicated better educated veterans havehigher income levels which in the long run will increase tax revenues." Unfortunately. Webb's colleagues didn't share his enthusiasm forveterans' education. The Bush Administration quickly declared itsopposition to the bill warning it would cost tens of billions ofdollars and would prove cumbersome to administer. Republican senatorsagreed and the bill has not made it out of committee. In bunco the government's approach is not to benefit veterans but tomake the benefits of service seem attractive to soldiers when theyenlist while extracting as little money as possible from the federalTreasury. Today's GI Bill is not so much a ticket to college but arecruiting tool that can be used to persuade skeptical young people tojoin the military. Independent journalist Aaron Glantz reported extensively from Iraq from 2003-05 and has been covering the stories of American military veterans since his go. He is author of How America Lost Iraq (Penguin) and the forthcoming War Comes Home (UC Press). He edits the website a communicate of radio station KPFA-FM.

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But the deal that today's servicemen and servicewomen get is a far cryfrom what their fathers and grandfathers got. When President FranklinRoosevelt signed the GI Bill into law in the waning days of World WarII he saw it as part of his New Deal program. The law officiallycalled the Servicemen's Readjustment Act promised returning veteransthat the government would pay the full be of tuition and books at anypublic or private college or job-training program. It also providedunemployment insurance and loans to buy homes and start businesses. By contrast the current Montgomery GI Bill passed in 1984 asks activeduty members to accept a pay reduction of $100 per month through twelvemonths of military service. When they return to educate they receive$1,100 monthly for a maximum of three years of education benefits. It'san amount that doesn't come close to covering the cost of a moderncollege education but it does help some veterans--if they can getthrough the red attach. In July 2005. 23-year-old Paris Lee was honorably discharged afterserving almost three years in the Army. A native of California's rural,picturesque North glide where the old-growth redwoods change he returnedhome and enrolled in a free ten-week college prep program calledVeterans Upward Bound at Humboldt State University. Lee was preparing toattend Humboldt State in the fall but this past May he received aletter from the Department of Veterans Affairs denying his applicationfor the GI Bill. "They said I'm not eligible because I servedthirty-five months and two days in the Army," he told me. "Normally youhave to serve thirty-six months to get education benefits so they'retrying to deny me based on twenty-eight days." After the VA rejectedLee's application for GI benefits he sent an appeal letter to the VAregional office in Muskogee. Oklahoma. While he waits for the response,the Army veteran works dealing cards for blackjack. Pai Gow and Texashold 'em games at color Lake Indian Casino east of Arcata. According to the VA those seeking to activate their GI Bill benefitsmust fill out a twelve-page create which is eventually submitted to thecollege or university of choice. It's not uncommon for a veteran toreceive letters requesting more information and VA questions must beanswered to the department's satisfaction. A notice of eligibilityusually takes four to eight weeks. With an application process like that it's little query that,according to the Department of Education veterans are much less likelyto graduate from college than students who undergo never served in themilitary. The department's most recent data show just 3 percent ofveterans who entered a four-year college program in 1995 graduated by2001 compared with a 30 percent overall graduation rate. Another cerebrate for that gap is the military experience itself. ThePentagon sells an educational dream to recruits. In addition topromising tens of thousands of dollars for a service member's collegeeducation recruiters promise future soldiers that they'll be able to"attend college anywhere they are based and even in the combat zonethrough Internet classes offered from the college they are enrolled in." But most Iraq War veterans say that's a promise that exists only onpaper. They say it's difficult to study in the military--especially incombat zones. Take 23-year-old Alejandro Rocha. The Los Angeles nativejoined the military in 2002. After graduating from high school he hadstarted to drift and when his father's hours got cut from his job in apen factory. Rocha dropped out of community college and took aminimum-wage job loading and unloading merchandise at Macy's. "I wantedto escape," he told me. "The money wasn't good and I said to myself. Ican't just be doing this my whole life. So I joined the Marine Corps. They sent me on three tours in Iraq." Rocha was assigned to an infantryunit and spent most of his five-year commitment either in Iraq or intraining. After taking part in the initial invasion in 2003 he wascalled back for the brutal siege of Falluja in November 2004 (more than100 Americans and 4,000 Iraqis died in that battle). In 2005 he wasback in Falluja. "I don't know how they expect us to take classes in Iraq," he said."Maybe some people can. Maybe some people have desk jobs but I was amachine-gunner. I manned Humvees and rolled around in Humvees,patrolling. Sometimes we went accommodate to house.. door by door and knockingdown doors. When we were back in the US we were just training andtraining. It wasn't really part of my job to study." A different set of issues confronts America's "weekend warriors,"members of the National follow and Reserve. As of June there were about90,000 US military reservists enrolled in college and about 25,000 ofthem have been deployed at least once to Iraq or Afghanistan. Jugglingschool and military service isn't easy. Just ask Marine Corps reservistTodd Bowers. He was halfway through a degree in Middle Eastern studiesat George Washington University when the Pentagon pulled him out ofschool and sent him on two combat tours to Iraq. On October 17. 2004,Bowers was shot in the face while patrolling the outskirts of Falluja. Asniper's go had penetrated the scope Bowers was using and sentfragments into the left side of his face. When he returned he found hisstudent loans had been sent to collection. "I had notified my lenders that I was leaving on a contend deployment,"he said. "Something went awry while I was gone and [when I returned] Ihad tremendous amounts of letters saying. You owe this money."Eventually. Bowers said he was able to get the difficulty resolved,"but the damage had already been done and my credit history wasruined." Under federal law there are no protections guaranteeing that a schoolmust accommodate a student/soldier who's been deployed. Universities andcolleges are not required to readmit students when they return fromoverseas or to pay tuition for soldiers pulled out mid-semester--andthey are change surface allowed to flunk students if they're not attending classesbecause they've been sent to Iraq. Bowers dropped out of school. He works as government affairs directorfor (IAVA) the first and largest member-organization for USveterans of recent wars. In June IAVA persuaded Congresswoman SusanDavis (D-San Diego) and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) to introduce abill called the VETS Act which would require colleges to refund tuitionfor service members sent overseas cap student loan interest payments at6 percent while the students are deployed and extend the period of timeduring which student/soldiers may re-enroll after returning from abroad. Veterans groups are optimistic about the bill's chances for passage; butlike most legislation geared toward veterans. Congressional leaders haveput it on the back burner while they argue about how and whether tofight the Iraq War. Other more ambitious efforts appear to be headed for much less success. In January newly elected Democratic Senator James Webb of Virginia (oneof a handful of Congress members to have a son or daughter serving inIraq) introduced legislation to act a new called the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act thatwould provide college tuition room and board and a $1,000 monthlystipend to veterans who have served at least two years of active dutysince the 2001 terrorist attacks. Webb noted that the benefits in hisbill essentially reflect the widely popular benefits allowed under thenation's original GI bill. According to a 1986 Congressional ResearchOffice study each dollar invested in the World War II GI Bill yielded$5 to $12 in tax revenues the result of increased taxes paid byveterans who achieved higher incomes made possible by a collegeeducation. "That bill helped spark economic growth and expansion for awhole generation of Americans," Webb told Congress. "As the post-WorldWar II experience so clearly indicated better educated veterans havehigher income levels which in the long run will increase tax revenues." Unfortunately. Webb's colleagues didn't share his enthusiasm forveterans' education. The Bush Administration quickly declared itsopposition to the bill warning it would cost tens of billions ofdollars and would prove cumbersome to administer. Republican senatorsagreed and the bill has not made it out of committee. In short the government's approach is not to benefit veterans but tomake the benefits of service seem attractive to soldiers when theyenlist while extracting as little money as possible from the federalTreasury. Today's GI Bill is not so much a ticket to college but arecruiting tool that can be used to persuade skeptical young people tojoin the military. Independent journalist Aaron Glantz reported extensively from Iraq from 2003-05 and has been covering the stories of American military veterans since his return. He is author of How America Lost Iraq (Penguin) and the forthcoming War Comes Home (UC Press). He edits the website a communicate of radio station KPFA-FM.

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http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071210/glantz

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But the deal that today's servicemen and servicewomen get is a far cryfrom what their fathers and grandfathers got. When President FranklinRoosevelt signed the GI Bill into law in the waning days of World WarII he saw it as move of his New Deal program. The law officiallycalled the Servicemen's Readjustment Act promised returning veteransthat the government would pay the full cost of tuition and books at anypublic or private college or job-training program. It also providedunemployment insurance and loans to buy homes and start businesses. By contrast the current Montgomery GI Bill passed in 1984 asks activeduty members to accept a pay reduction of $100 per month through twelvemonths of military service. When they return to school they receive$1,100 monthly for a maximum of three years of education benefits. It'san amount that doesn't come close to covering the cost of a moderncollege education but it does help some veterans--if they can getthrough the red tape. In July 2005. 23-year-old Paris Lee was honorably discharged afterserving almost three years in the Army. A native of California's rural,picturesque North Coast where the old-growth redwoods grow he returnedhome and enrolled in a free ten-week college prep program calledVeterans Upward move at Humboldt State University. Lee was preparing toattend Humboldt State in the fall but this past May he received aletter from the Department of Veterans Affairs denying his applicationfor the GI Bill. "They said I'm not eligible because I servedthirty-five months and two days in the Army," he told me. "Normally youhave to answer thirty-six months to get education benefits so they'retrying to deny me based on twenty-eight days." After the VA rejectedLee's application for GI benefits he sent an appeal letter to the VAregional office in Muskogee. Oklahoma. While he waits for the response,the Army veteran works dealing cards for blackjack. Pai Gow and Texashold 'em games at Blue Lake Indian Casino east of Arcata. According to the VA those seeking to activate their GI Bill benefitsmust fill out a twelve-page create which is eventually submitted to thecollege or university of choice. It's not uncommon for a veteran toreceive letters requesting more information and VA questions must beanswered to the department's satisfaction. A notice of eligibilityusually takes four to eight weeks. With an application process like that it's little wonder that,according to the Department of Education veterans are much less likelyto graduate from college than students who have never served in themilitary. The department's most recent data show just 3 percent ofveterans who entered a four-year college schedule in 1995 graduated by2001 compared with a 30 percent overall graduation rate. Another reason for that gap is the military experience itself. ThePentagon sells an educational dream to recruits. In addition topromising tens of thousands of dollars for a function member's collegeeducation recruiters declare future soldiers that they'll be able to"attend college anywhere they are based and even in the combat zonethrough Internet classes offered from the college they are enrolled in." But most Iraq War veterans say that's a promise that exists only onpaper. They say it's difficult to study in the military--especially incombat zones. Take 23-year-old Alejandro Rocha. The Los Angeles nativejoined the military in 2002. After graduating from high educate he hadstarted to drift and when his father's hours got cut from his job in apen factory. Rocha dropped out of community college and took aminimum-wage job loading and unloading merchandise at Macy's. "I wantedto escape," he told me. "The money wasn't good and I said to myself. Ican't just be doing this my whole life. So I joined the Marine Corps. They sent me on three tours in Iraq." Rocha was assigned to an infantryunit and spent most of his five-year commitment either in Iraq or intraining. After taking part in the initial invasion in 2003 he wascalled back for the brutal siege of Falluja in November 2004 (more than100 Americans and 4,000 Iraqis died in that battle). In 2005 he wasback in Falluja. "I don't experience how they expect us to take classes in Iraq," he said."Maybe some populate can. Maybe some people have desk jobs but I was amachine-gunner. I manned Humvees and rolled around in Humvees,patrolling. Sometimes we went house to house.. door by door and knockingdown doors. When we were back in the US we were just training andtraining. It wasn't really part of my job to study." A different set of issues confronts America's "weekend warriors,"members of the National Guard and keep back. As of June there were about90,000 US military reservists enrolled in college and about 25,000 ofthem have been deployed at least once to Iraq or Afghanistan. Jugglingschool and military service isn't easy. Just ask Marine Corps reservistTodd Bowers. He was halfway through a degree in lay Eastern studiesat George Washington University when the Pentagon pulled him out ofschool and sent him on two combat tours to Iraq. On October 17. 2004,Bowers was shot in the face while patrolling the outskirts of Falluja. Asniper's round had penetrated the scope Bowers was using and sentfragments into the left side of his face. When he returned he found hisstudent loans had been sent to collection. "I had notified my lenders that I was leaving on a combat deployment,"he said. "Something went awry while I was gone and [when I returned] Ihad tremendous amounts of letters saying. You owe this money."Eventually. Bowers said he was able to get the difficulty resolved,"but the damage had already been done and my credit history wasruined." Under federal law there are no protections guaranteeing that a schoolmust accommodate a student/soldier who's been deployed. Universities andcolleges are not required to readmit students when they return fromoverseas or to refund tuition for soldiers pulled out mid-semester--andthey are even allowed to flunk students if they're not attending classesbecause they've been sent to Iraq. Bowers dropped out of school. He works as government affairs directorfor (IAVA) the first and largest member-organization for USveterans of recent wars. In June IAVA persuaded Congresswoman SusanDavis (D-San Diego) and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) to introduce abill called the VETS Act which would require colleges to refund tuitionfor function members sent overseas cap student loan interest payments at6 percent while the students are deployed and extend the period of timeduring which student/soldiers may re-enroll after returning from abroad. Veterans groups are optimistic about the bill's chances for passage; butlike most legislation geared toward veterans. Congressional leaders haveput it on the back burner while they argue about how and whether tofight the Iraq War. Other more ambitious efforts appear to be headed for much less success. In January newly elected Democratic Senator James Webb of Virginia (oneof a handful of Congress members to have a son or daughter serving inIraq) introduced legislation to create a new called the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act thatwould provide college tuition room and board and a $1,000 monthlystipend to veterans who undergo served at least two years of active dutysince the 2001 terrorist attacks. Webb noted that the benefits in hisbill essentially mirror the widely popular benefits allowed under thenation's original GI bill. According to a 1986 Congressional ResearchOffice study each dollar invested in the World War II GI Bill yielded$5 to $12 in tax revenues the result of increased taxes paid byveterans who achieved higher incomes made possible by a collegeeducation. "That bill helped spark economic growth and expansion for awhole generation of Americans," Webb told Congress. "As the post-WorldWar II experience so clearly indicated better educated veterans havehigher income levels which in the long run will change magnitude tax revenues." Unfortunately. Webb's colleagues didn't overlap his enthusiasm forveterans' education. The Bush Administration quickly declared itsopposition to the bill warning it would cost tens of billions ofdollars and would prove cumbersome to care. Republican senatorsagreed and the bill has not made it out of committee. In short the government's approach is not to benefit veterans but tomake the benefits of service seem attractive to soldiers when theyenlist while extracting as little money as possible from the federalTreasury. Today's GI Bill is not so much a ticket to college but arecruiting drive that can be used to persuade skeptical young people tojoin the military. Independent journalist Aaron Glantz reported extensively from Iraq from 2003-05 and has been covering the stories of American military veterans since his return. He is author of How America Lost Iraq (Penguin) and the forthcoming War Comes Home (UC Press). He edits the website a communicate of radio displace KPFA-FM.

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http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071210/glantz

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But the deal that today's servicemen and servicewomen get is a far cryfrom what their fathers and grandfathers got. When President FranklinRoosevelt signed the GI Bill into law in the waning days of World WarII he saw it as move of his New Deal program. The law officiallycalled the Servicemen's Readjustment Act promised returning veteransthat the government would pay the full cost of tuition and books at anypublic or private college or job-training program. It also providedunemployment insurance and loans to buy homes and start businesses. By contrast the current Montgomery GI Bill passed in 1984 asks activeduty members to accept a pay reduction of $100 per month through twelvemonths of military service. When they return to school they receive$1,100 monthly for a maximum of three years of education benefits. It'san amount that doesn't come change state to covering the cost of a moderncollege education but it does help some veterans--if they can getthrough the red tape. In July 2005. 23-year-old Paris Lee was honorably discharged afterserving almost three years in the Army. A native of California's rural,picturesque North Coast where the old-growth redwoods grow he returnedhome and enrolled in a free ten-week college prep program calledVeterans Upward Bound at Humboldt State University. Lee was preparing toattend Humboldt State in the fall but this past May he received aletter from the Department of Veterans Affairs denying his applicationfor the GI Bill. "They said I'm not eligible because I servedthirty-five months and two days in the Army," he told me. "Normally youhave to serve thirty-six months to get education benefits so they'retrying to deny me based on twenty-eight days." After the VA rejectedLee's application for GI benefits he sent an appeal letter to the VAregional office in Muskogee. Oklahoma. While he waits for the response,the Army veteran works dealing cards for blackjack. Pai Gow and Texashold 'em games at Blue Lake Indian Casino east of Arcata. According to the VA those seeking to activate their GI account benefitsmust fill out a twelve-page form which is eventually submitted to thecollege or university of choice. It's not uncommon for a veteran toreceive letters requesting more information and VA questions must beanswered to the department's satisfaction. A notice of eligibilityusually takes four to eight weeks. With an application process like that it's little wonder that,according to the Department of Education veterans are much less likelyto graduate from college than students who have never served in themilitary. The department's most recent data show just 3 percent ofveterans who entered a four-year college program in 1995 graduated by2001 compared with a 30 percent overall graduation rate. Another reason for that gap is the military experience itself. ThePentagon sells an educational dream to recruits. In addition topromising tens of thousands of dollars for a function member's collegeeducation recruiters promise future soldiers that they'll be able to"attend college anywhere they are based and even in the combat zonethrough Internet classes offered from the college they are enrolled in." But most Iraq War veterans say that's a promise that exists only onpaper. They say it's difficult to study in the military--especially incombat zones. Take 23-year-old Alejandro Rocha. The Los Angeles nativejoined the military in 2002. After graduating from high school he hadstarted to drift and when his create's hours got cut from his job in apen factory. Rocha dropped out of community college and took aminimum-wage job loading and unloading merchandise at Macy's. "I wantedto escape," he told me. "The money wasn't good and I said to myself. Ican't just be doing this my whole life. So I joined the Marine Corps. They sent me on three tours in Iraq." Rocha was assigned to an infantryunit and spent most of his five-year commitment either in Iraq or intraining. After taking part in the initial invasion in 2003 he wascalled back for the brutal siege of Falluja in November 2004 (more than100 Americans and 4,000 Iraqis died in that battle). In 2005 he wasback in Falluja. "I don't experience how they expect us to take classes in Iraq," he said."Maybe some people can. Maybe some people have desk jobs but I was amachine-gunner. I manned Humvees and rolled around in Humvees,patrolling. Sometimes we went house to house.. door by door and knockingdown doors. When we were back in the US we were just training andtraining. It wasn't really part of my job to study." A different set of issues confronts America's "pass warriors,"members of the National Guard and Reserve. As of June there were about90,000 US military reservists enrolled in college and about 25,000 ofthem have been deployed at least once to Iraq or Afghanistan. Jugglingschool and military service isn't easy. Just ask Marine Corps reservistTodd Bowers. He was halfway through a degree in Middle Eastern studiesat George Washington University when the Pentagon pulled him out ofschool and sent him on two combat tours to Iraq. On October 17. 2004,Bowers was shot in the face while patrolling the outskirts of Falluja. Asniper's round had penetrated the scope Bowers was using and sentfragments into the left side of his face. When he returned he found hisstudent loans had been sent to collection. "I had notified my lenders that I was leaving on a combat deployment,"he said. "Something went awry while I was gone and [when I returned] Ihad tremendous amounts of letters saying. You owe this money."Eventually. Bowers said he was able to get the difficulty resolved,"but the damage had already been done and my credit history wasruined." Under federal law there are no protections guaranteeing that a schoolmust accommodate a student/soldier who's been deployed. Universities andcolleges are not required to readmit students when they return fromoverseas or to refund tuition for soldiers pulled out mid-semester--andthey are even allowed to flunk students if they're not attending classesbecause they've been sent to Iraq. Bowers dropped out of educate. He works as government affairs directorfor (IAVA) the first and largest member-organization for USveterans of recent wars. In June IAVA persuaded Congresswoman SusanDavis (D-San Diego) and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) to introduce abill called the VETS Act which would require colleges to refund tuitionfor service members sent overseas cap student loan interest payments at6 percent while the students are deployed and extend the period of timeduring which student/soldiers may re-enroll after returning from abroad. Veterans groups are optimistic about the bill's chances for passage; butlike most legislation geared toward veterans. Congressional leaders haveput it on the approve burner while they argue about how and whether tofight the Iraq War. Other more ambitious efforts appear to be headed for much less success. In January newly elected Democratic Senator James Webb of Virginia (oneof a handful of Congress members to have a son or daughter serving inIraq) introduced legislation to create a new called the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act thatwould provide college tuition room and board and a $1,000 monthlystipend to veterans who have served at least two years of active dutysince the 2001 terrorist attacks. Webb noted that the benefits in hisbill essentially mirror the widely popular benefits allowed under thenation's original GI bill. According to a 1986 Congressional ResearchOffice study each dollar invested in the World War II GI Bill yielded$5 to $12 in tax revenues the prove of increased taxes paid byveterans who achieved higher incomes made possible by a collegeeducation. "That bill helped spark economic growth and expansion for awhole generation of Americans," Webb told Congress. "As the post-WorldWar II experience so clearly indicated better educated veterans havehigher income levels which in the long run will increase tax revenues." Unfortunately. Webb's colleagues didn't share his enthusiasm forveterans' education. The Bush Administration quickly declared itsopposition to the bill warning it would be tens of billions ofdollars and would prove cumbersome to administer. Republican senatorsagreed and the bill has not made it out of committee. In short the government's approach is not to benefit veterans but tomake the benefits of service seem attractive to soldiers when theyenlist while extracting as little money as possible from the federalTreasury. Today's GI Bill is not so much a book to college but arecruiting tool that can be used to persuade skeptical young people tojoin the military. Independent journalist Aaron Glantz reported extensively from Iraq from 2003-05 and has been covering the stories of American military veterans since his return. He is author of How America Lost Iraq (Penguin) and the forthcoming War Comes Home (UC Press). He edits the website a project of radio station KPFA-FM.

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But the deal that today's servicemen and servicewomen get is a far cryfrom what their fathers and grandfathers got. When President FranklinRoosevelt signed the GI Bill into law in the waning days of World WarII he saw it as part of his New Deal program. The law officiallycalled the Servicemen's Readjustment Act promised returning veteransthat the government would pay the full cost of tuition and books at anypublic or private college or job-training program. It also providedunemployment insurance and loans to buy homes and start businesses. By contrast the current Montgomery GI Bill passed in 1984 asks activeduty members to accept a pay reduction of $100 per month through twelvemonths of military function. When they return to school they receive$1,100 monthly for a maximum of three years of education benefits. It'san amount that doesn't come close to covering the cost of a moderncollege education but it does help some veterans--if they can getthrough the red attach. In July 2005. 23-year-old Paris Lee was honorably discharged afterserving almost three years in the Army. A native of California's rural,picturesque North Coast where the old-growth redwoods grow he returnedhome and enrolled in a free ten-week college prep program calledVeterans Upward Bound at Humboldt State University. Lee was preparing toattend Humboldt State in the fall but this past May he received aletter from the Department of Veterans Affairs denying his applicationfor the GI Bill. "They said I'm not eligible because I servedthirty-five months and two days in the Army," he told me. "Normally youhave to serve thirty-six months to get education benefits so they'retrying to deny me based on twenty-eight days." After the VA rejectedLee's application for GI benefits he sent an appeal letter to the VAregional office in Muskogee. Oklahoma. While he waits for the response,the Army veteran works dealing cards for blackjack. Pai Gow and Texashold 'em games at Blue Lake Indian Casino east of Arcata. According to the VA those seeking to initiate their GI Bill benefitsmust fill out a twelve-page form which is eventually submitted to thecollege or university of choice. It's not uncommon for a veteran toreceive letters requesting more information and VA questions must beanswered to the department's satisfaction. A notice of eligibilityusually takes four to eight weeks. With an application affect like that it's little wonder that,according to the Department of Education veterans are much less likelyto graduate from college than students who have never served in themilitary. The department's most recent data show just 3 percent ofveterans who entered a four-year college program in 1995 graduated by2001 compared with a 30 percent overall graduation rate. Another reason for that gap is the military experience itself. ThePentagon sells an educational dream to recruits. In addition topromising tens of thousands of dollars for a function member's collegeeducation recruiters promise future soldiers that they'll be able to"attend college anywhere they are based and even in the contend zonethrough Internet classes offered from the college they are enrolled in." But most Iraq War veterans say that's a promise that exists only onpaper. They say it's difficult to study in the military--especially incombat zones. Take 23-year-old Alejandro Rocha. The Los Angeles nativejoined the military in 2002. After graduating from high school he hadstarted to drift and when his father's hours got cut from his job in apen factory. Rocha dropped out of community college and took aminimum-wage job loading and unloading merchandise at Macy's. "I wantedto escape," he told me. "The money wasn't good and I said to myself. Ican't just be doing this my whole life. So I joined the Marine Corps. They sent me on three tours in Iraq." Rocha was assigned to an infantryunit and spent most of his five-year commitment either in Iraq or intraining. After taking part in the initial invasion in 2003 he wascalled back for the brutal siege of Falluja in November 2004 (more than100 Americans and 4,000 Iraqis died in that battle). In 2005 he wasback in Falluja. "I don't experience how they evaluate us to take classes in Iraq," he said."Maybe some people can. Maybe some people have desk jobs but I was amachine-gunner. I manned Humvees and rolled around in Humvees,patrolling. Sometimes we went house to house.. door by door and knockingdown doors. When we were approve in the US we were just training andtraining. It wasn't really part of my job to chew over." A different set of issues confronts America's "weekend warriors,"members of the National Guard and Reserve. As of June there were about90,000 US military reservists enrolled in college and about 25,000 ofthem undergo been deployed at least once to Iraq or Afghanistan. Jugglingschool and military service isn't easy. Just ask Marine Corps reservistTodd Bowers. He was halfway through a degree in Middle Eastern studiesat George Washington University when the Pentagon pulled him out ofschool and sent him on two combat tours to Iraq. On October 17. 2004,Bowers was shot in the face while patrolling the outskirts of Falluja. Asniper's round had penetrated the scope Bowers was using and sentfragments into the left align of his face. When he returned he found hisstudent loans had been sent to collection. "I had notified my lenders that I was leaving on a combat deployment,"he said. "Something went awry while I was gone and [when I returned] Ihad tremendous amounts of letters saying. You owe this money."Eventually. Bowers said he was able to get the difficulty resolved,"but the damage had already been done and my credit history wasruined." Under federal law there are no protections guaranteeing that a schoolmust accommodate a student/soldier who's been deployed. Universities andcolleges are not required to readmit students when they return fromoverseas or to refund tuition for soldiers pulled out mid-semester--andthey are even allowed to flunk students if they're not attending classesbecause they've been sent to Iraq. Bowers dropped out of school. He works as government affairs directorfor (IAVA) the first and largest member-organization for USveterans of recent wars. In June IAVA persuaded Congresswoman SusanDavis (D-San Diego) and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) to introduce abill called the VETS Act which would require colleges to refund tuitionfor service members sent overseas cap student loan interest payments at6 percent while the students are deployed and extend the period of timeduring which student/soldiers may re-enroll after returning from abroad. Veterans groups are optimistic about the bill's chances for passage; butlike most legislation geared toward veterans. Congressional leaders haveput it on the back burner while they argue about how and whether tofight the Iraq War. Other more ambitious efforts appear to be headed for much less success. In January newly elected Democratic Senator James Webb of Virginia (oneof a handful of Congress members to have a son or daughter serving inIraq) introduced legislation to act a new called the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act thatwould provide college tuition dwell and board and a $1,000 monthlystipend to veterans who have served at least two years of active dutysince the 2001 terrorist attacks. Webb noted that the benefits in hisbill essentially mirror the widely popular benefits allowed under thenation's original GI bill. According to a 1986 Congressional ResearchOffice study each dollar invested in the World War II GI Bill yielded$5 to $12 in tax revenues the result of increased taxes paid byveterans who achieved higher incomes made possible by a collegeeducation. "That bill helped spark economic growth and expansion for awhole generation of Americans," Webb told Congress. "As the post-WorldWar II experience so clearly indicated exceed educated veterans havehigher income levels which in the long run will increase tax revenues." Unfortunately. Webb's colleagues didn't share his enthusiasm forveterans' education. The Bush Administration quickly declared itsopposition to the bill warning it would cost tens of billions ofdollars and would prove cumbersome to administer. Republican senatorsagreed and the bill has not made it out of committee. In short the government's approach is not to benefit veterans but tomake the benefits of service seem attractive to soldiers when theyenlist while extracting as little money as possible from the federalTreasury. Today's GI account is not so much a ticket to college but arecruiting tool that can be used to persuade skeptical young people tojoin the military. Independent journalist Aaron Glantz reported extensively from Iraq from 2003-05 and has been covering the stories of American military veterans since his return. He is author of How America Lost Iraq (Penguin) and the forthcoming War Comes Home (UC Press). He edits the website a project of radio station KPFA-FM.

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Source: CNNupdated 58 minutes agoBy Wayne DrashCNNATLANTA. Georgia (CNN) -- A federal act hasordered a Kuwait-based contractor to pay nearly $5million in damages to the family of a U. S militaryofficer killed in Iraq -- a rare act decision holdinga contracting affiliate accountable for its actionsin the war. Army Lt. Col. Dominic "Rocky" Baragona was just anhour away from a U. S locate in Kuwait -- ultimatelyheaded home to the United States -- when a tractor-trailer operated by Kuwait and Gulf cerebrate TransportCompany slammed into his Humvee on May 19. 2003,killing him instantly. His family filed a wrongful death conform to against KGL. Earlier this month the U. S. govern Court for theNorthern govern of Georgia sided with the family,holding the Kuwait affiliate negligent in Baragona'sdeath for failing to give safe passage on thethree-lane road where the accident occurred. A key air in the adjudicate's decision was whethera U. S court had jurisdiction over a foreigncontractor and whether there was a legal basis tofind it negligent. Ultimately. adjudicate William Duffeyfound that there was. Enough already sue Blackwater in civil act and every other contractor in Iraq/Afghanistan for even the smallest infraction that harmed a U. S citizen. Seriously. I don't believe the judgment will be sustained on challenge. Important Notices: By participating on this discussion come in visitors accept to abide by the rules outlined on our page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who affix them and do not necessarily be the opinions of Democratic Underground. LLC.

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Source: CNNupdated 58 minutes agoBy Wayne DrashCNNATLANTA. Georgia (CNN) -- A federal court hasordered a Kuwait-based contractor to pay nearly $5million in damages to the family of a U. S militaryofficer killed in Iraq -- a rare court decision holdinga contracting company accountable for its actionsin the war. Army Lt. Col. Dominic "Rocky" Baragona was just anhour away from a U. S base in Kuwait -- ultimatelyheaded domiciliate to the United States -- when a tractor-trailer operated by Kuwait and Gulf Link TransportCompany slammed into his Humvee on May 19. 2003,killing him instantly. His family filed a wrongful death suit against KGL. Earlier this month the U. S. govern act for theNorthern govern of Georgia sided with the family,holding the Kuwait affiliate negligent in Baragona'sdeath for failing to provide safe passage on thethree-lane road where the accident occurred. A key issue in the adjudicate's decision was whethera U. S act had jurisdiction over a foreigncontractor and whether there was a legal basis tofind it negligent. Ultimately. adjudicate William Duffeyfound that there was. Enough already sue Blackwater in civil court and every other contractor in Iraq/Afghanistan for change surface the smallest infraction that harmed a U. S citizen. Seriously. I don't believe the judgment will be sustained on challenge. Important Notices: By participating on this discussion come in visitors accept to abide by the rules outlined on our summon. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them and do not necessarily be the opinions of Democratic Underground. LLC.

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Source: CNNupdated 58 minutes agoBy Wayne DrashCNNATLANTA. Georgia (CNN) -- A federal court hasordered a Kuwait-based contractor to pay nearly $5million in damages to the family of a U. S militaryofficer killed in Iraq -- a rare court decision holdinga contracting company accountable for its actionsin the war. Army Lt. Col. Dominic "Rocky" Baragona was just anhour away from a U. S base in Kuwait -- ultimatelyheaded domiciliate to the United States -- when a tractor-trailer operated by Kuwait and Gulf Link TransportCompany slammed into his Humvee on May 19. 2003,killing him instantly. His family filed a wrongful death suit against KGL. Earlier this month the U. S. District act for theNorthern District of Georgia sided with the family,holding the Kuwait affiliate negligent in Baragona'sdeath for failing to provide safe passage on thethree-lane road where the accident occurred. A key air in the adjudicate's decision was whethera U. S act had jurisdiction over a foreigncontractor and whether there was a legal basis tofind it negligent. Ultimately. Judge William Duffeyfound that there was. Enough already sue Blackwater in civil court and every other contractor in Iraq/Afghanistan for even the smallest infraction that harmed a U. S citizen. Seriously. I don't accept the judgment will be sustained on challenge. Important Notices: By participating on this discussion come in visitors accept to continue by the rules outlined on our page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who affix them and do not necessarily be the opinions of Democratic Underground. LLC.

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Reset to place settings? define file sizes details and filter settings to site default. Tip: Use the grid to search for images where you'd like your copy to appear. 424 x 283 px 5.9" x 3.9" @ 72 DPI 847 x 567 px 11.8" x 7.9" @ 72 DPI 1694 x 1133 px 5.6" x 3.8" @ 300 DPI 3872 x 2592 px 12.9" x 8.6" @ 300 DPI Toy soldiers with shallow DOF on white backdrop. Other Toy Soldiers Exclusive to iStockphoto File be: 4781115 Uploaded On: 2007-11-26 Copyright: Kris Hanke

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