By Mark Fischenich
Members of the Minnesota Army National Guard, after serving for 16 months in Iraq, came home in July to an outpouring of gratitude.
But despite enduring the longest continuous deployment to Iraq of any American ground troops in the war, nearly half of the 2,600 troops learned they weren’t deemed worthy of GI Bill education benefits. The orders issued to 1,162 of the soldiers put them on active duty for just days short of the 730 required for GI Bill benefits.
“If these guys didn’t earn full Army benefits, I don’t know who did,” said Congressman Tim Walz of Mankato.
The difference between full benefits and standard educational benefits for Guard soldiers can be as much as $500 to $800 a month, Walz said
So he and other members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation have been pressuring the Army to fix the problem since they learned of it in August. Southern Minnesota’s congressmen have been particularly involved in the effort.
Walz and Rep. Collin Peterson, whose district includes Sibley County, drafted a letter on Aug. 13 to Army Secretary Pete Geren asking him to issue new orders to the affected soldiers to make them eligible for the GI Bill benefits. Geren responded he couldn’t unilaterally fix the problem and that the changes would have to come through the Army Board of Correction of Military Records.
With the fall semester well underway and registration for the winter semester starting this month at many colleges and universities, Congressman John Kline, who represents Le Sueur County, introduced legislation Wednesday aimed at legislatively making the soldiers eligible.
“After serving in a combat zone for 16 months and being activated and away from home for 22 months, no soldier should be denied their educational benefits,” Kline said in a written statement.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar offered similar legislation in the Senate.
“My bill is simple,” Klobuchar said. “It says we should be repaying our debt to soldiers based on the length of their service, not based on bureaucratic guidelines for processing orders.”
Walz and Peterson, meanwhile, had recruited House Defense Appropriations Committee Chairman John Murtha to join them in a phone conversation with Geren.
The combined pressure, with most of the state’s delegation signing the letter to Geren and co-sponsoring the legislation, seems to have made an impact.
On Thursday, Sen. Norm Coleman and Walz announced they believe the problem is close to being fixed. Both said they’d received assurances from Geren that the process for reviewing and correcting the orders for the Minnesota troops would be speeded up.
“The bottom line is our folks are going to be taken care of,” Coleman said.
Coleman signed on as a co-sponsor of Klobuchar’s bill but is confident the problem will be fixed long before the legislation can be become law.
Walz thinks lawmakers should move ahead with the bill even if Minnesota’s troops no longer need it, just so the same issue doesn’t arise for other National Guard units. Soldiers serving in places like Iraq or Afghanistan deserve better than coming home to be told they don’t qualify for the same benefits as the soldiers fighting beside them.
“After 22 months in the desert, that’s not what you want to hear,” he said.
