The Greyhawk Clause

I'll totally sound like the naive, Pollyanna civilian when I ask this, Greyhawk, but isn't there anything that can be done for people who fall into this subset you have described? Moreover, is there anything that can be done to prevent something this absurd from happening again?

You are right. It seems grossly unfair to those like you who have devoted their lives to the military. Just trying to understand...

Time will tell whether this wrong will be made right. suspect someone somewhere knows that guys like me have college age kids - and that therefore the cost of actually giving us the full benefit might be too high.

But "guys like me" is the key - I'll use the benefit for my own education. (At least that's part of my plan). But I know other guys who will be screwed.

Can that be prevented in the future? No, the DoD pays a lot of folks a lot of money to look for all the ways they can minimize the amount of money given to other folks. (And they'll always ensure it's a small group getting screwed.)

Time to get out the old "Tea Bags" again. Who ever thought this one up should be run outa town.

Not to be agreeing with the VA here, but this happens every time a benefit is expanded or improved. There are Cold War vets complaining that they should get the new GI Bill benefits.
The timing sucks, but there has to be a cut off somewhere.
For myself, I have 4 1/2 years of active duty time in 17 years in the Guard. Shouldn't I get to transfer my benefits?
Either way Greyhawk, I am using my GI bill bennies now and it is a nice way to go.

It may have to do with the whole "ex-post facto law stuff, and as a law, they can't necessarily back-date it. As a policy or benefit, I assume they could.

What makes sense for AD guys is the GI bill bennies for post 9/11 apply to anyone serving on 9/12 or later. For reservists, the portion of their active duty (federal) time benefits, if served after 9/11, should be eligible for the post 9/11 GIB. Transferability is pretty cool, but now that you are a georgian, your kids can go to school free (in GA) via the hope scholarship--just make them get a "B" average, and you're golden. (And if they opt to let their grades slide, tell them you'll have a recruiter at the house by the time they get home for dinner.)

The thing I don't care for about transferability (or even college loans) is that I earned my degree the same way you did--by serving first. It made the education and college experience so much more important than just nintendo and chasing tail--which was also a priority--but I forced myself to get something worthwhile out of college.

Unfortunately, my stupidity knows no bounds, and now I am just an educated moron.

Dave, the answer is too easy: anyone over 10 years in can transfer the benefits.

The tricky part kicked in with the wording of the bill, which was designed to give first-termers incentive to stay another hitch by only giving transfer bennies to those who did. That congressional scripture has now been interpreted by the high priests at the Pentagon to be applied to anyone - anyone, regardless of their time served, must now serve more to qualify to transfer their benefits. Sorry, telling a guy over twenty that he's got to do three more just ain't right.

Again: I get the New GI Bill, and plan on using it for myself (not my kids) anyway. I'm just ever amazed at efforts by the Pentagon to limit and deny benefits to the troops as much as possible. Congress finally gives us a worthwhile GI Bill and the effing Pentagon immediately assigns a team to study it for loopholes and phrasing to determine how they can deny it to as many people as they possibly can.

"The troops" have no worse enemy.

I entered active duty in 1977 and was told in the basic course that I was eligible for the Vietnam-era GI Bill. Then when I went to use it, the VA informed me I was not. Neither was I eligible for VEAP, since it by law applied only to those entering active duty (1979, IIRC) after I did. Then came the Montgomery GI Bill, which specified in the enactment itself that only those entering active duty for the first time on or after June 30, 1985 would be eligible. So I retired with zero education benefits - nada, none, zilch. I paid for my Master degree without a centavo of service-related aid.

So stop whining.

Don, I may have failed to make myself clear on this, that's my fault. If I was being denied something I wanted for myself I'd accept the "whining" accusation and even thank you for snapping me out of it. But "I got mine" - so it would be easy for me to ignore this. But there are guys I still think of as "mine" (or my peers) who are going to be hosed by this.

And frankly, the "I had it tougher" argument really strikes me as surprising from you. There are any number of ways guys coming in now have many better options than I did or you did, and the Vietnam-era guys told me back when about how bad they had it (but I'd already heard it from the WWII era guys I called Dad and Uncle). They're the guys who made those improvements possible in more ways than one, and I'll stand up for them (and you) too.

vr, etc.

My congressmen have heard from me, Senator Webb included.

Congress is flushing billions down the toilet (wanna buy a Fiat anyone?), but we're going cut corners on new military benefits?

Just because we got it wrong before doesn't mean we don't try to do a better job this time around.