faith,

I couldn’t agree with you more. This country has a long history of not living up the promises she makes to her veterans. At the onset of Great Depression, thousands of veterans descended on Washington to demand the bonuses they were promised for service in WWI. They had no where else to go and no money, so they set up shanty towns that later became known as “Hoovervilles.” For their service, President Hoover dispatched none other than George S Patton and the cavalry to push them out of Washington DC by force. One marcher was killed and 50 injured,not to mention their makeshift homes destroyed. Give your brother my best and don’t ever stop holding their feet to the fire.

I am sorry for all Vets who are not receiving education benefits as anticipated. 
However, I see that there are many, many wounded Vets who continually get
inferior or non existent help for their very real injuries. 

My brother is a case in point.  He was wounded in Viet Nam, recall that was a
war that kids who could not afford to get a 2S (college) deferment (think
Cheney, et al) because there was a draft applicable to all young men age 18. 
The land mine that went off pulverized the young 18 year old in front of my
brother.  The impact knocked my brother’s teeth out, required metal to
reconstruct his jaw, legs, arms, and required him to spend nearly a year in the
burn center in El Paso, TX for reconstruction.  My brother was one of the lucky
ones in that place.  Here, it is 40 years later and the VA continues to make my
brother pay for all his dental, and has only recently been forthcoming in
helping him with some of his other maladies. In fact, in spite of his illnesses
and injuries he was ten minutes late for an appointment which he had driven 3
1/2 hours to get to just to be denied the appointment for the ten minute
lateness.  He was late because he could not locate the correct building, but had
entered the main VA office.  It is an embarrassment that this nation causes our
young men and women to be injured by engaging in wrongful military
conflicts, and then expects our wounded Vets to pay for their injuries.  It is
immoral.

So, although some complain about educational funds, I would just really like to
see this nation demand that congress repair and provide for our thousands and
thousands and thousands of wounded troops who receive nothing but rude
treatment and condescention.  The way all Vets are treated in the U.S. is
appalling.

I hear ya, National Guard and the Reserves have always been treated like second class soldiers.

I’m in the same boat as you having been deployed and served on several state side mission but am eligible for less benefits than an active duty soldier who only signed up for 2 years and never deployed.

The army needs to scrap all of it’s programs and come up with one program that replaces them all and is the same for everyone.

It’s not like the old guard days when drill was a beer drinking camping trip, the guard has changed and it pulling more than it’s fair share of what is happening in the world today, the army needs to see that.

Thanks for posting this. I too have raised this issue with my congressional representatives and have received no response. In addition to not counting all “active duty,” nor does the new GI Bill include the weekends that we donate througout the years. As I asked on an Army online forum once, does the Active component only get credit for its time while deployed? Absolutely not. They get credit for each and every day they spend in uniform. Not so with the Reserve components. Mr. Chrystal’s assessment that not all service is created equal is dead on.

The nation should be thankful to the National Guard and Reserves. As 40% of the total force, they constitute a low cost, expedient way to enject soldiers into the nation’s efforts. If not for them, we would surely be seeing much more contracting of these wars than we already are or even a draft to make up the difference. So whether we all support these wars or the military or not, we should all support equal benefits and pay for equal duty and risk. If not, sooner or later we’ll all feel it.

Please all you veterans and active duty fellows out there, don’t take this the wrong way, but when are you guys going to wake the fuck up and realize that, to the powers that be in our government and military industrial complex, you are nothing. Once they train you to do unspeakable things and then throw you into a meat grinder for a couple of years, they send you back to polite society and forget they ever knew you. How many more injured and crippled soldiers have to come home to a system that doesn’t give two shits about them before they and their uuber loyal military families stop supporting this evil incarnation of a military? My lord Vets, you can no longer be surprised when you sign up that when your time is over you will be tossed aside like so much trash (especially if your wounded) and sent out into society with no (certified) job training, and no money for your education (or at least what they promised).

Your only hope is that you can stake out a good spot in line at the local (HA!) VA hospital, to wait to be serviced by some nurse practitioner from pakistan in a moldy dimmly lit room only to be told that the military still doesn’t believe PTSD exists, and you should take more asperin to quiet the voices in your head.

I do honestly feel badly for you guys, but come on, you should have seen this coming. The miliary leopard has never and will never change its spots.