What Vets Need From the Prez

0
693

By Paul Rieckhoff New York Post

At an Allentown, Pa., town-hall meeting last October, President Obama met Iraq veteran and student Leonard Martin, who said that he couldn’t get through to the VA hot line to ask a question about the new GI Bill — and asked the president to “call them up” to fix the problem.

The president firmly assured him a call would be on the way — but months later, little has changed: The Veterans Administration recently estimated that 90 percent of the calls to its GI Bill hot line never connect.

Who’s calling? Men and women, back from Iraq and Afghanistan, trying to get their benefits questions answered so they can go to school.

One of them is Brian LaGuardia from the northern Manhattan neighborhood of Inwood. After serving as an Army staff sergeant in Iraq in 2005-06, he returned home excited to start earning a master’s in global affairs. He applied for his GI Bill benefits last August, but when school started his check hadn’t arrived, so he called the hot line.

He had to call for several weeks before he could get through to someone to ask about the missing check.

Brian was lucky enough to get through, but it was three months into the school year before he got his check. The VA had left him scrambling to find emergency funds to cover his educational costs.

He’s far from alone. Thousands of other young vets put tuition bills on their credit cards, borrowed money from parents or simply had to drop out of school.

Read more: New York Post

ATTENTION READERS

We See The World From All Sides and Want YOU To Be Fully Informed
In fact, intentional disinformation is a disgraceful scourge in media today. So to assuage any possible errant incorrect information posted herein, we strongly encourage you to seek corroboration from other non-VT sources before forming an educated opinion.

About VT - Policies & Disclosures - Comment Policy
Due to the nature of uncensored content posted by VT's fully independent international writers, VT cannot guarantee absolute validity. All content is owned by the author exclusively. Expressed opinions are NOT necessarily the views of VT, other authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, or technicians. Some content may be satirical in nature. All images are the full responsibility of the article author and NOT VT.
Previous articleCIA Accused of Cover Up in Deaths of U.S. Civilians in Peru – Politics Daily
Next articleNew stamps honor 4 Navy veterans – washingtonpost.com