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Are
Military Recruiters
Telling the Truth?
Mark Palermo
(05/07/07)
 Recently,
I became aware of a grim reality when I picked up a U.S.
Army recruitment brochure. It featured a generous, but
carefully worded offer to potential enlistees: the
military will give you (based on qualifications) up to
$50,000 plus a sign up bonus of up to $20,000.
The key words here are “up to.” I can
promise you, for example, that I will pay you up to $5000
to paint my house. If you accept the job and I pay you
$800 after you finish, I have kept my promise and you
have no legal claim against me. In the real world, “up
to $5000” usually means below $5000. It can even
mean zero, and when it comes to the military’s
promise of money for school- it often does. Very few
recruits receive the maximum college benefit of $70,000.
In fact, most recruits get no benefits at all.
To earn the $70,000 the military advertises, you
must first qualify for the Army/Navy College Fund. To do
this you have to place in the top half of the military
entry exams, which means of course that 50% of all
applicants are eliminated right off the bat. If you do
score in the top 50%, then in order to get to the
$70,000, you must be willing to enter a designated job
specialty that almost nobody else wants, usually because
it is extremely dangerous or because it offers zero
transferable job skills.
If you don’t make the cut for the Army/Navy College
Fund, there is still the Montgomery GI Bill that you may
qualify for. The maximum benefit you get under the
Montgomery GI Bill is around $36,000, but the military
attaches strings here too.
For example, in order to qualify for the full amount, you
are required to pay a $1200 deposit to the military. You
have only one chance to apply during basic training. If
you leave the military early- as 40% do for a number of
reasons, or get anything less than honorable discharge,
or decide later not to go to college, the military gets
to keep your deposit. Incredibly, the $36,000 they
promise you includes your own deposit money, so the
actual amount is around $36,000, less your deposit.
The benefits- if after all this you finally manage
to qualify for them- are paid in 36 monthly installments
spread out over 4 years; You can not receive larger
payments over a shorter period of time. And you must
continue college for four consecutive years without
interruption, which some people are unable to do.
The Montgomery Bill doesn’t even come close to
covering college costs, even at a state school. At UMass
Amherst,for instance, students pay $7400 in fees and
$6200 for room and board. Figure at least $2500 for books
and miscellaneous expenses and you are looking at a
yearly bill of over $16,000- of which the Montgomery GI
Bill covers about $9000, a bit more if you are married.
If you go to a two year college, you will receive
only half of the money you are qualified for. Remember
too that military benefits are usually given instead of,
not in addition to, other forms of financial aid that you
might otherwise have qualified for.
With so many curves in the road and hoops to jump
through, it is no wonder only about 16% of veterans ever
get a four-year college diploma. The military’s
educational benefits are an embarrassment. Once upon a
time in this country, we treated veterans with gratitude.
We need a new GI Bill like the one enacted for returning
World War II veterans.
“Imagine telling an entire generation they could
receive a free college education at any school that would
accept them — Texas A&M, Harvard University, the
Sorbonne — anywhere. Throw in a monthly stipend for
living expenses, plus more money for books. And when you
graduate, there’s a government-backed home loan
waiting, no money down and no credit checks — buy a
house cheaper than renting an apartment.
Throw in subsidized farm loans, business loans, free job
training, free medical care, free job placement, and up
to a year’s worth of weekly paychecks until you find
work…And so it was: the post-World War II G.I. Bill.
It revolutionized higher education, created suburbia,
brought us the scientists, engineers, doctors, artists
and teachers who built most of what is good in America
today.” From the publisher of “Over Here: How
the GI Bill transformed the American Dream,” by
Edward Humes.
Mark Palermo is a professor at Northern Essex Community
College in Haverhill. You can email him at markpalermo@lycos.com.
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The MAY 2007 Edition of
the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2007, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 12,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
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Methuen, Haverhill, Chelmsford, Georgetown, Groveland,
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Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury, Merrimack, Hampton &
Salisbury Beach, and Lowell.
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