MINNEAPOLIS, MN (NBC) -- When they came home from Iraq, 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard had been deployed longer than any other ground combat unit. The tour lasted 22 months and had been extended as part of President Bush's surge.
1st Lt. Jon Anderson said he never expected to come home to this: A government refusing to pay education benefits he says he should have earned under the GI bill.
"It's pretty much a slap in the face," Anderson said. "I think it was a scheme to save money, personally. I think it was a leadership failure by the senior Washington leadership... once again failing the soldiers."
Anderson's orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days.
Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school.
This is about as chickenshit as it gets. So far. Just when you think the Pentagon has topped out on egregious fucking over of the troops, they never fail to top themselves with a new low.
22 months is a looong overseas deployment for a Regular, let alone for supposedly part time Citizen Soldiers who have left home and career to get participated in the Iraq clusterfuck.
I guess the (Br)asshats feel they need to stiff a couple thousand guys who did their duty out of a few hundred bucks a month so they can pay 'defense' contractors whatever they want. If they bothered to audit Cheneyburton's or Darksmellyliquid's billings, they could come up with the bucks in a New York minute, but nooooo...then there wouldn't be the high-dollar do-nothing jobs for retired Flags.
Minnesota's senators are looking into this. I hope they can do something. All the GIs are being horribly misused by this administration, and we owe them.
No comments:
Post a Comment