GI Bill transfer rights rules anger some vets

GI Bill transfer rights rules anger some vets

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday May 5, 2009 12:17:45 EDT

As the Aug. 1 launch date nears for the Post-9/11 GI Bill, more people are realizing they won’t be able to share education benefits with their families.

One of the requirements to transfer benefits to a spouse or children is that the service member must still be in the military Aug. 1 — bad news for people about to separate or who have already separated.

Air Force Lt. Col. Lisa Henry-Hamilton, dean of academics at the Defense Language Institute’s Foreign Language Center, will miss the Aug. 1 date because she has a previously approved July 1 retirement date that it is too late to change. Already on terminal leave while awaiting the end of her 23-year career, Henry-Hamilton feels cheated.

“I might have changed my date if I had known this,” she said in response to the Pentagon’s announcement last week of how transfer rights will work.

“I have served 23 years,” she said. “For two months to make this difference after serving on 9/11 and deploying to both Iraq and Afghanistan just seems like perhaps everything wasn’t taken into consideration.”
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GI Bill transfer rights rules anger some vets