2006 VFW Magazine - Veterans of Foreign Wars

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Call VFW’s Tactical Assessment Center if you have questions,
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(800) VFW-1899
the level of military service performed.
Benefit rates would be structured as follows:
Tier One: Similar to the current Montgomery GI Bill
active-duty, three-year rate, would be provided to all who
enlist in the active armed forces. Service entrants would
receive 36 months of benefits at the active-duty rate.
Tier Two: Montgomery GI Bill benefits for direct entry
(non-prior service) in the selected reserve for six years.
Benefits would be proportional to the active-duty rate.
Historically, selected reserve benefits have been 47%-48% of
active-duty benefits.
Tier Three: Montgomery GI Bill benefits for members of
the ready reserve who are activated for at least 90 days. They
would receive one month of benefit for each month of activation,
up to a total of 36 months, at the active-duty rate.
Veterans would have up to 10 years to use the active-duty
or activated-service benefit in Tier One and Tier Three from
their last date of active/activated duty or reserve service,
whichever is later. A selected reservist could use remaining
Tier Two benefits while satisfactorily participating in the
selected reserve and for up to 10 years following separation
from the reserves, if the separation were for disability or
qualification for a reserve retirement.
According to the Partnership, the next step is for Congress
to pass legislation that would combine administration of
benefits for both the active-duty and reserve programs
under Title 38. Based on Buyer’s support for the plan—as
well as that of the House VA Committee’s ranking Democrat
Rep. Stephanie Herseth, who said she sees the improvement
of the GI Bill “as an area of common ground”—progress is
hopeful. The Partnership believes that “if current benefit
levels are maintained, a Total Force Montgomery GI Bill is
expected to be low-cost.”
(See the related article on page 14.)
Iraq Vets Suffer Hearing Loss
An Army study released in February revealed that soldiers
who served in Iraq are nearly 53 times more likely to suffer
hearing problems than those who did not. The study examined
806 Iraq vets diagnosed with “post-deployment noiseinduced
hearing loss” between April 2003 and March 2004.
Here are some findings:
• 30% suffered tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and “permanent
threshold shift,” which is inner ear damage resulting
in lifelong hearing loss.
• 16% had hearing losses that would likely affect their performance
in combat.
• 6% suffered “acoustic trauma” resulting from a single
loud noise such as a bomb or rocket blast.
• 2% had broken eardrums.
VA pays out about $850 million a year in disability compensation
to vets suffering from tinnitus. Auditory problems
are the third-most common disability.
--------------------- SECURITY ----------------------
GIs in Iraq Receiving
More Body Armor
Efforts to equip troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with better
body armor have intensified since last fall. Procurement officials
for the Marine Corps told Congress in early February
that they expect to have all of their 26,000 troops in Iraq supplied
this month. Army officials added that they hope to have
100,000 sets of body armor to troops in the war zone by June.
A Pentagon study made public in January concluded that
side and back plates added to the standard issue body armor
system could have saved up to 80% of the Marines who had
died in Iraq from upper torso wounds.
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) introduced S. 2230—
the Servicemembers Safety Act of 2006—on Jan. 31 that
would require the Defense Department to provide a complete
set of body armor for all troops in a combat zone. It
also would require reimbursement of up to $1,100 for any
GI who purchases the armor on his or her own.
The new Interceptor Body Armor, which is now the Army
standard and similar to the Marine Corps design, includes
ceramic plates that protect the sides of troops’ bodies against
bullets and shrapnel. The inch-thick plates are made from
boron carbide, lighter than aluminum but one of the hardest
materials known, and can stop a 9mm pistol shot.
Mobility for troops wearing the armor is a concern. The
new system weighs from 31 pounds in a medium size up to
38 pounds in the largest size.
“Piling on too much armor presents as much risk to the
soldier as providing too little,” said Maj. Gen. Stephen
Speakes, the Army’s director of force development, in a USA
Today article. Casualty reports, he added, don’t “reveal how
many soldiers or Marines have been saved because they were
able to quickly raise and fire their rifles first” at the enemy.
Ceradyne, of Costa Mesa, Calif., is the Army’s largest supplier
of ceramic armor and ships it to the Marine Corps as
well. It also makes armor that protects helicopter gunships
from .50-caliber machine-gun fire and plans to provide
armor for a Marine Corps landing craft.
“We’re shipping 32,000 to 50,000 plates a month, and they
are held to a very high standard,” Ceradyne founder Joel
Moskowitz told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson, deputy chief for acquisition,
says the military will look at all options to further
protect its troops. “We will test any legitimate product, and
we will see if it meets our standards,” he said.
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