DoD Sweats Webb GI Bill

[CatWoman]

Webb's GI Bill Tagged as Threat to Volunteer Force

Defense officials are alarmed by the very real prospect that Congress this year will enact the robust GI Bill education plan designed by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.). One Defense official, who declined to be named, described the bill as a "retention killer" for the all-volunteer military.

Webb reintroduced his bill, the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act (S. 22), last week with changes that attracted strong bipartisan support, including the endorsement of Sen. John Warner (Va.), former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"I'm just going to go full bore on this thing," Warner told Military Update in a phone interview.

That's a worrisome vow for Defense officials who believe enhanced post-service education benefits, particularly if enacted while troops face multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, could trigger an exodus severe enough to put the viability of the volunteer military at risk.

No one disputes Webb's claim that his enhanced GI Bill would boost recruiting sharply. But a Defense official said it also would encourage thousands of young service members, trained at great expense, to separate after completing their initial service obligation to attend college fulltime.

Webb, in an interview, described such arguments as "absurd."

http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,163440,00.html?ESRC=education.nl

[Fresh_Start]

1. what would happen to the army if our troops

could have educational opportunity? who would be left for us to screw over and use to bankrupt America?

[Olney Blue]

2. I'm sure the Pentagon will find a way to keep the troops trapped on the

battlefield.

[Blue State Bandit]

3. Go Webb!

[Postman]

4. Listen to what they're really saying: We need dumbasses who don't expect shit when they get out....

Can't make military service anything other than a win-win for the military and lose-lose for the suckers enlisting.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

5. Come on generals and majors - show your true face...

"to separate after completing their initial service obligation to attend college fulltime" Obviously, you wouldn't want that.....