The 1,162 affected troops served just as long as their colleagues -- 22 consecutive months, the longest of any U.S. unit in Iraq -- but they are not eligible to enroll in the Chapter 30 Montgomery GI Bill because they were demobilized before serving the 730 days of active duty deployment required by the bill. How long before? From one to 12 days.
This is how the administration "supports the troops." Cut their pay, cut their benefits, cut funding to the VA, extend the tours, shorten the downtime, use stop loss to keep them in after their terms are up, don't supply the body armor, don't supply the vehicle armor. And that's just the major issues. Things like this barely make the local news. |