Gi Bill

The Veterans Affairs Department said Friday it would begin issuing emergency checks of up to $3,000 to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans whose payments under the new GI Bill have been delayed. Tens of thousand of veterans from the recent wars have been awaiting payments under the newly enacted Post 9/11 GI Bill, which was the largest expansion of education benefits since World War II. "It's clear to me that we have to do something, just to be on the safe side to alleviate any stress that students are facing," Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said late Friday afternoon in an interview.

One night in Atlanta, my telephone rang. It was the novelist Harry Crews. He'd gotten into an altercation with airport security. Could I come and fetch him? Although Harry was a big, rugged ex-Marine who could hold his own with his fists, he was a mess when my friend Frazier and I collected him from the curb at Hartsfield International. His face was scratched, and his clothes were filthy. After he collapsed onto the back seat of my car, he said his problems had started a day or two earlier in New York, where he'd been researching a story for Esquire about homeless people living in the subway system.

President Obama on Monday called a new GI Bill offering college tuition assistance to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan "an investment in our own country." The new law is expected to offer veterans $78 billion in benefits over the coming decade. It is the most comprehensive education benefit offered to veterans since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the original GI Bill for World War II veterans in 1944.

Reporting from San Diego -- In March, Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Joshua Hendershot received a coveted Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal — the third during a Navy career in which he was consistently rated as a top-notch performer assigned the difficult task of maintaining and operating the Tomahawk missile control systems. The citation praised the 25-year-old for "superior professionalism, exceptional performance and selfless devotion. " One superior said he would make an excellent commissioned officer.

Joe Applegate's look at Granada Hill's ("A Down-to-Earth Suburban Life Style" March 19) unlocked our family trunk full of fond memories of when this area was more of a bucolic, north-Valley outpost than the populous, "freeway-close" community it now is. Thanks to the GI Bill of Rights, we acquired our brand-new Alden tract house on the corner of a newly paved cul-de-sac just west of Balboa Boulevard and south of Rinaldi Street. The year was 1954, and the price was a lofty $13,500, with nothing down for vets.

ALTHOUGH MAGNETIC RIBBONS and hometown fundraisers show Americans' gratitude for the troops' sacrifices in the war on terror, as a nation we have done less than we should to truly honor them when they return home. In contrast to World War II veterans, whose transition back to civilian life was eased by the education and training benefits of the first GI Bill, service members now find a policy that is much less generous, inclusive and fair.

The House voted 401 to 2 to make permanent the GI Bill program, which has helped finance college educations for more than 18 million veterans since it was enacted during World War II. The measure was sent to the Senate, where Administration supporters were expected to try to amend it to offer progressively higher benefits for longer periods of military service.

Re "Is the GI Bill just an IOU?" Opinion, Oct. 25 I served in the military for four years. I qualified, applied for and was approved for the Post-9/11 GI Bill. My enthusiasm has been tempered by the VA's inability to process claims. Please don't mistake me: I'm thrilled veterans are applying, which accounts for the delay. Six weeks is what I budgeted for. It has now been eight weeks (two billing cycles) and payment has yet to be received. When I call the VA, I am told "any day now."

IMAGINE TELLING the members of an entire generation they could receive a free college education at any school that accepted them -- Cal State, Harvard, the Sorbonne -- courtesy of Uncle Sam. Throw in a monthly stipend and textbooks. After graduation, there are government-backed home loans, no money down -- buy a house cheaper than renting. Throw in subsidized business loans, farm loans, job training, medical care and up to a year's worth of unemployment checks.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton launched a wide-ranging attack on the Bush administration's treatment of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan on Thursday, saying the White House was so inept it couldn't run a "two-car parade." Clinton, a New York Democrat who is running for president, joined a chorus of politicians decrying conditions at the Army's Walter Reed Army Medical Center. She called for a new GI bill of rights modeled on the broad array of benefits offered to World War II veterans.

MICHIGAN Fatwa issued against body scanners Saying that body scanners violate Islamic law, Muslim American groups are supporting a fatwa -- a religious ruling -- that forbids Muslims from going through the devices at airports. The Fiqh Council of North America -- a body of Islamic scholars -- issued a fatwa this week that says going through the airport scanners would violate Islamic rules on modesty. "It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women," reads the ruling issued Tuesday.

I took a walk last week with the Ghost of Recessions Past. I traveled back to the Great Depression, when the Los Angeles River ran unfettered and public gardens bloomed on the Eastside and parents swallowed their pride and took "relief" to feed their children. Then I visited the recessions of the early 1980s and 1990s, when auto and aerospace factories closed, and more than a million people packed up and moved away, and part of the city exploded in rage and burned. Talking to the Ghost of Recessions Past is a real downer.

Re "Is the GI Bill just an IOU?" Opinion, Oct. 25 I served in the military for four years. I qualified, applied for and was approved for the Post-9/11 GI Bill. My enthusiasm has been tempered by the VA's inability to process claims. Please don't mistake me: I'm thrilled veterans are applying, which accounts for the delay. Six weeks is what I budgeted for. It has now been eight weeks (two billing cycles) and payment has yet to be received. When I call the VA, I am told "any day now."

The Veterans Affairs Department said Friday it would begin issuing emergency checks of up to $3,000 to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans whose payments under the new GI Bill have been delayed. Tens of thousand of veterans from the recent wars have been awaiting payments under the newly enacted Post 9/11 GI Bill, which was the largest expansion of education benefits since World War II. "It's clear to me that we have to do something, just to be on the safe side to alleviate any stress that students are facing," Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said late Friday afternoon in an interview.

When Amber Oberg left the Army after eight years of active duty, her timing seemed perfect. Congress was creating a Post-9/11 GI Bill, with generous payments for veterans seeking higher education. But a month into her first semester at UC Davis, Oberg has yet to receive her tuition, housing and book money from the Department of Veterans Affairs. "I didn't expect to get out of the military and then have to wait and wait for the education money that was promised me," said Oberg, a single mother of two. She said she went back to school after a personal bankruptcy and the loss of her home to foreclosure.

President Obama on Monday called a new GI Bill offering college tuition assistance to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan "an investment in our own country." The new law is expected to offer veterans $78 billion in benefits over the coming decade. It is the most comprehensive education benefit offered to veterans since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the original GI Bill for World War II veterans in 1944.

In "On Affirmative Action, School Is by No Means Out" (June 18), James Flanigan states, "Still, it would have been better if, like returning World War II and Korean War veterans, Vietnam vets had been given a GI Bill of Rights, with money for education or to start a business or buy a home." In 1972 when I was attending college, there were many Vietnam vets on campus, myself included. Did I miss something in the article, or did Mr. Flanigan fail to do his research? WILLIAM T. DAVIS Pomona James Flanigan admits to being out of step on this issue.

U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston vowed Saturday to protect the educational benefits of the new GI Bill against budget cuts proposed by the Reagan Administration. Speaking at a news conference at Patriotic Hall before attending an Armed Forces Day parade in Torrance, Cranston (D-Calif.) said the bill strengthens national security by attracting quality people into the armed services.

Scott Lowe enlisted in the infantry -- the "dirtiest job there is" in the Army, he says -- completing two Iraqi tours in which he dug up weapons caches, found improvised explosive devices and rounded up insurgents. "No better way to serve your country," said Lowe, 27. "Most of us lost friends over there, had close calls. . . . Now it's time to catch up."

During World War II, Herman "Hank" Rosen spent 30 days in a lifeboat with 23 other men after his ship was torpedoed. Only five survived. Stanley Willner was a prisoner of war for three years after his ship went down. Forced to work under slave labor conditions on the infamous bridge on the River Kwai, he weighed just 74 pounds when he was liberated.