A bill that supports our troops

Alfred Biddlecomb
Published: May 1, 2008

I didn’t have much in common with my fellow veterans when I joined the American Legion 12 years ago. American Legion Post 117 was still dominated by the old guard-the “Dubya Dubya Two” gang as younger vets liked to call them.

They were the ones who put forth maximum effort in all the post’s endeavors from fund raising to organizing Memorial Day ceremonies. One of my first conversations with one of the Dubya Dubya Two boys was about college, since I had just graduated from Longwood.

He told me a story about spending a year fishing on the menhaden boats after returning to Reedville from Europe at the end of World War II.

Then one day he packed his bags, hitch-hiked to Williamsburg and enrolled in the College of William & Mary, still smelling of fish oil when he signed up for his fall classes.

This would not have been possible without help from the GI Bill.

The GI Bill was Uncle Sam’s coming home present to those who served in World War II. A generation of veterans were able to complete college, buy a home and start a family with help from a grateful nation. It was such a boost that the “Greatest Generation” was able to carry this country on its back for decades as America thrived throughout the post-war era.

The GI Bill was something I had in common with the older veterans of my post. Like them, I was able to finance college with help from the GI Bill, though the version I used only covered part of the escalating costs of higher education.

While I’ve made a living criticizing government programs, I must admit that the GI Bill is one that actually works! The only problem is that the Montgomery GI Bill (a watered down version of the one that helped so many World War II veterans) doesn’t cover enough of the costs of college these days.

It’s important that Congress revamp the GI Bill. Sen. Jim Webb is working on an updated GI Bill that would be on par with what we did for our veterans coming home from World War II. Webb, a Marine who served in Vietnam, wants to expand the GI Bill so that it covers tuition and expenses for veterans who served after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

It’s a no brainer. At least that was my naive opinion until I heard that President Bush was threatening a veto. Congress, despite opposition from Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, could add the new GI Bill to a defense spending bill as early as next week.

For all the “I support the troops” rhetoric we’ve heard over the years, it would be good for the Senate to demand a straight up or down vote on this bill from McCain and Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama before sending it to President Bush.

Critics of the new GI Bill complain that it’s too costly (between $2 and $4 billion a year) and that it could encourage people to leave the military for college. The latter argument is funny since our government and society is filled with people who either went to college or hid in non-deploying National Guard units to avoid combat in Vietnam.

The truth is that this $4 billion should be considered a cost of war. Yes we need billions to provide our troops with the best equipment possible and that actual cost dwarfs the costs of putting our service men and women through college once their sacrifice is complete.

While $4 billion is a lot of money, it’s money well spent when compared to the amount senators spend on earmarks or the money wasted on contractors getting rich while doing little to rebuild Iraq.

The GI Bill is not a hand out. Service men and women pay money into it and must serve honorably before being granted the benefit once they become veterans. In order to get this benefit, one has to enroll in and pass a full complement of classes.

The mass exodus theory is also false. Most men and women joined the military because they felt it was the right thing to do. That’s the beauty of our volunteer military. They will stay or leave based on that same gut feeling. If anything, an improved GI Bill will make recruiting easier since the reward of serving is so much greater.

As we learned with the Walter Reed scandal, the most despicable thing we can do is short change veterans. It would be nice if we could say to our combat veterans seeking a higher education that this one’s on us. It’s the least we could do.

Alfred Biddlecomb is the former Opinion Page editor for the Potomac News and Manassas Journal Messenger.