1
Veterans benefits then and now
There's been a social safety net for returning war veterans for generations. But are benefits still as good as they used to be?
To view this content, Javascript must be enabled and Adobe Flash Player must be installed.
When John Yaeger, 26, left the Marines three years ago, he had trouble finding work -- like a lot of veterans. So he went to college with benefits from the post-9/11 G.I. bill.
“It’s amazing, actually,” he says, “One hundred percent of my tuition is covered.”
A housing subsidy covers most of his mortgage payment. Yaeger gets a disability check, too, for a shoulder injury. Yaeger says support for veterans seems better for his generation than it was for his father and grandfather, who also served. But others say it hasn’t changed enough.
Injured veterans have strong disability benefits, says Tom Tarantino, chief policy officer for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
“But the process to get those benefits is still stuck in the 1960s,” he says. “It’s too hard, it takes too long, and the decisions have a shockingly high error rate.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs has been working to modernize the claims process, but Tarantino says there’s another threat on the horizon. As Congress takes on the federal budget crisis, he says veteran’s benefits could be in danger.
While I am glad for Mr. Yeager and the benefits he is recieving I can only wish that I had seen even somewhat similar benefits when I returned home in 1966 after serving three years in the army. At that time the educational benefits only covered a fraction of the cost of tuition and they were extremely slow in coming. After trying to go to college nights I soon found myself behind in my attempts to pay the costs and dropped out. While I returned home safe and sound and have not direct experience with the care given disabled veterans I am certain that disabled veterans now recieve much better care. From news accounts and first hand accounts of veterans that I have known I think that today's veterans are receiving the care that they deserve. I feel that the care veterans received in the past was one of the main complaints many veterans had, especially the Viet Nam war veterans. Those who returned home from the Viet Nam war were not only faced with a populace which vilified them because of an unpopular war, but they largely had to deal with their disabilities by themselves. The only benefit that really did me much good was the VA home loan program. If it wasn't for that, my wife and I would never had been able to purchase a home. Despite it all, I didn't join the army for the benefits and would gladly do it again.
