Tag Archives: transition

A test: help choose the look for Orderstonowhere (Day 2)

Posted by Mike Grice on

The excitement continues to build as readers everywhere help me pick a new look for Orders to Nowhere.  For those who are just joining us, here is what is going on from yesterday’s post:

It recently came to my attention that some of you, my friends and followers, have a hard time reading the white text on the dark background.  In order to make sure that my posts are as easy to follow as possible, I am conducting a test.  For the rest of the week I am going to change the look of the page three times.  You, the reader, get to pick how it will look.  I will post each new page for 24 hours, and the page style that receives the most “likes” will be the one that I use in the future.

Thanks for participating in this test- Ready, Set, Vote!

We’ll get back to the thrilling adventure of transition as soon as we pick a new page…

A test: Help choose the look for Orderstonowhere!

Posted by Mike Grice on

Hello again!

I have been writing this blog for nearly a year now, and I have been using the same format and style sheet pretty much the whole time.  I have changed a few colors here and there, but stuck with the basic black background and white lettering for no other reason than I thought it looked good.

However it recently came to my attention that some of you, my friends and followers, have a hard time reading the white text on the dark background.  In order to make sure that my posts are as easy to follow as possible, I am conducting a test.  For the rest of the week I am going to change the look of the page three times.  You, the reader, get to pick how it will look.  I will post each new page for 24 hours, and the page style that receives the most “likes” will be the one that I use in the future.

Thanks for participating in this test- Ready, Set, Vote!

We’ll get back to the thrilling adventure of transition as soon as we pick a new page…

A fascinating education opportunity: Fidelis

Posted by Mike Grice on

SgtMaj (Retired) Frank Pulley, a good friend of mine who is actively involved with military transition while representing the Marine Corps Association and Foundation recently introduced me to a remarkably innovative organization that offers a variety of opportunities for veterans and active duty folks to pursue higher education.  Promising education in and of itself is not particularly innovative – there are plenty of companies and schools in that business – but what makes this venture noteworthy is how it provides a comprehensive path from prospective student to employed graduate by working closely with colleges, universities, governmental agencies, and prospective employers.

The name of this great organization is Fidelis.  Named the Fast Company magazine’s #7 Most Innovative Company in early 2012, it was created by former Marine Captain and Iraq combat veteran Gunnar Counselman.  The company’s mission is to build a scalable solution to the military-to-civilian career transition in partnership with leading universities, military organizations, and great companies.

The idea for the company arose from Gunnar’s experience as he transitioned from active duty to the private sector.  As a veteran fresh from the fight in Iraq he entered the Harvard Business School, and upon graduation started a very successful career in the civilian world with a top-tier consulting firm.  During his graduate studies and his entry into corporate life he was startled by the differences between active service in the Marine Corps and life in the civilian environment and how difficult it was to make the transition between the two.  He mulled it over for several years, and with the conviction of someone willing to take the plunge he started Fidelis in order to not just help military folks make it through the transition by pursuing higher education but also to partner with corporations and business to employ them upon graduation.

Fidelis is much more than just a college and job placement firm.  It goes much deeper than that; each student works with a transitional coach and a network of mentors who help determine long term objectives, interests, and goals.  Once these are established, the coach and mentors guide the student through a tailored educational process that links their objectives with a personalized educational program that meets their educational needs.  With Fidelis’s help, the student enters college and obtains their degree – but the company’s commitment to the student does not end there.  The new graduate works with his or her coach, mentors, and the corporate sector to find the best employment fit.  The commitment does not end on the first day at work, either.  Fidelis is there for months afterwards to ensure that the transition process is successful.

The company has a broad array of colleges, universities, corporations, and business who all work through Fidelis to create the bridge from uniformed member of the armed forces to successful business professional.  They offer several programs that transitioning military people can pursue:

-2+2Plus: This program is for active duty personnel who know that they will be transitioning in the next year or two and don’t have a degree.  They can take general education classes using the company’s innovative social learning platform that marries courses from the  University of California with Fidelis’s learning program.  Designed to get the student back up to speed educationally and prepare them for enrollment in a full-time college or university while still on active duty, the technology used is flexible, intuitive, and supportive of the demanding requirements that are part and parcel of being in the military.  Once they leave active duty, the program continues as mentors and coaches guide the veteran to a college or university where they enroll in a program that meets their objectives and ultimately ends with placement in the private sector.

-Pre-MBA Bootcamp:  This program is for veterans who already have a college degree and are pursuing an MBA in one of the top 30 programs nationwide.  In conjunction with UCLA the program prepares the student with courses in finance, accounting, and quantitative analysis as well as providing an opportunity to socialize and network with other students.

-Silicon Valley Concentration:  Designed for veterans who already have a four year degree and are interested in the technology sector, this program is focused on a specific degree or discipline.  The program begins with a six week long course that introduces the technologies and companies that are the hub of Silicon Valley technology.  The mentors and counselors then work with the student to determine which aspects of the tech world that they want to pursue, and collectively they create a pathway to get there through focused training that results in technical certifications that bring the student to the cutting edge of ever-changing technology.  As with the other programs the mentorship and coaching does not end with a diploma, but instead follows the new employee as they pursue their new career.

All of this is done with little or no cost to the student other than the costs associated with enrolling in school.  The costs are borne by the companies that are investing in quality future employees and by colleges and universities who help educate veteran students.  Fidelis provides a remarkable opportunity for transitioning military people who want to pursue higher education and find a new career.  Take a look at what they offer- I am certain you will be as intrigued as I was!

The other side of transition: finding a job part 1

Posted by Mike Grice on

The time has come.  You have made your decision to leave the military and now the reality of the whole situation hits you right between the eyes like a mallet on a croquet ball: you have to go get a job.

The military is a tough profession.  It is rife with conflict and stress and danger; anyone who finds wearing a uniform and easy way of life isn’t doing it right.  The hours are long if you are lucky enough to be at your home duty station and the deployments are even longer as Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines find themselves shuffled off to distant parts of the planet for months – and in some cases years – at a time.  It is a truly arduous line of work.

The one thing that military folks are not fighting for, however, is their paycheck.  As long as they are in the service they will receive their pay and allowances.  Unless they do something very wrong or fail to meet promotion requirements they can stay in until they decide to leave.  Generally speaking they cannot be fired; they may be relieved from their specific duties but they still are employed as they move to another job.  Unlike the civilian world there is rarely an existential crisis that finds military personnel wondering where or when their next paycheck will arrive.  Sure, they move around from job to job and from base to base, but always within the context of continued employment and service within the Department of Defense.

Then comes the day when your next job is not assigned to you by some faceless bureaucrat in Washington.  On that day you realize that the next job for you is the one that you find.

Gulp.

That can be very daunting!  I have previously posted about the Transition Assistance programs that the services offer, so I won’t go into detail on those programs.  What I will start going into detail about, however, is the process that you will need to follow in order to take advantage of your military experience and leverage it into finding a job, and who knows?  Maybe even a new career!

Too many people leave the service with the unfounded expectation that there are jobs-a-plenty out in the civilian sector and that companies are foaming the mouth to hire veterans.  After all, who has greater leadership skills and management expertise than someone who has led their peers and subordinates into combat or supervised teams of highly trained people and maintained millions of dollars worth of equipment?  Which firms wouldn’t want to fill their plants and factories and businesses with former military professionals and make them into run like little armies?

The answer to that is pretty simple.  Almost none of them.

The cold hard truth about the business world is that companies exist to do one thing and one thing only; they are there to make money.  Sure there are nonprofit companies that aim to accomplish other things, but they need money to be able to meet their lofty goals.  The coin of the realm, if you will pardon the pun, is the mighty dollar.

If you cannot show to a potential employer how you will help them make more money or how you can assist them with saving money then they really don’t need you.

It is quite a shocking realization to learn that no matter what your skills are, no matter how many deployments you made or how many medals you have nobody on the outside really cares.  Sure, they are respectful of your service and sacrifice and will gladly buy you a drink, but they are not going to put you on the payroll unless you can show how you can add value to their firm.

This is why it is critically important to do a couple of things before you start heading out into the job market.  Here are the most crucial things that you MUST do before you start jobseeking:

1.  Get over yourself.  You have served your country and you have gone places and done things that civilians will never experience.  Guess what- if they want to hear all about the military and what it is like to serve they will go to the movies.  You need to move on from being Colonel Soandso or Sergeant Highspeed.  I guarantee you will never find a good job if you cannot let go of your military past.  Employers want to hire you for what you will do for them, not who you used to be.

2.  Figure out what you want to do.  This is not as easy as it sounds.  I strongly recommend that you find the time to sit down for a few uninterrupted hours and really analyze what you would like to do with yourself now that you are out of the military.  Ask yourself a few questions, such as where do I see myself in five years?  Ten?  What am I good at?  Do I want to find work in the areas I am familiar with, or do I want to strike out in a totally new direction?

3.  Start planning.  Now that you have an idea of which direction you would like to steer your ship you need to chart a course.  What companies are doing work that interests me?  Are they hiring?  Do I need to get some specialized training or education in order to pursue those goals?

Once you have worked through these three points you will be much more ready to start looking for a job.  In my next post we will focus on step 2: figuring out what to do.

__________

Lessons Learned:

1.  Getting a job once you get out is not easy.  It takes work, and you will waste a lot of time and suffer from some pretty significant blows to your ego if you think that the civilian world owes you something for your service.  They don’t.  If you want a job, you have to get out there and earn it.

2.  You need to do three things before your first interview:  Get over yourself, figure out what you want to do, and start planning.  We will talk about these in greater detail in future posts.

3.  Take a deeeeeeeep breath.  It’s going to be OK.  Trust me.

PTSD and Me, from the North County Times

Posted by Mike Grice on

Here is my latest column in the North County Times- a bit more on my personal experiences with PTSD:

Life “outside the wire” in a combat unit is the pinnacle of stress and a morass of boredom, with every minute lasting an hour and every hour lasting an eternity as you wait for the crack of an AK-47 and the snap of a passing 7.62 millimeter bullet. It is a way of life unlike any other, and to live through it changes your life forever.

I served four tours in two wars in five short years. Iraq was more kinetic —- which is the military word for people doing their best to kill each other with guns and bombs and such —- while Afghanistan was less personally violent.

My teams and I logged well over 200 missions “outside the wire.”

Most missions were accomplished without getting shot at or shooting back, but enough weren’t to keep us on our toes. We never really knew which trip into enemy territory would be our last, and collectively our minds shifted into overdrive as we departed the relative safety of the forward operating base or combat outpost for insurgent territory.

Being in combat consumes you. You become completely focused on the now. Thoughts of home and family are pushed completely from your mind as you look in a hundred directions at once: Is that an IED or just a pile of trash? Where would a sniper hide? Are those kids just playing, or are they lookouts for an insurgent ambush? Where are my teammates? Is that a tripwire? Does that man in the distance have a shovel or a rifle? Is he digging in an IED or fixing a broken pipe?

You are completely immersed in what is happening at the moment. You are consumed by your mission and completely focused on what is happening around you because you are never more than a split second away from the absolute chaos of a firefight or IED attack. You are always looking for cover, for something to dive behind when the bullets start flying. You become attuned completely to the environment and as one with your teammates.

That level of intense and singular focus is crucial to survive in combat. It is also impossible to seamlessly turn off when you come home.

I know because that describes me. PTSD takes many forms, and the inability to turn it off is mine.

I developed hypervigilance, which means that I have essentially developed adult-onset ADHD. I can’t sit still or relax without feeling pensive and anxious. I am compelled to be in motion in spite of myself.

I can’t sleep. I have not had a full night’s uninterrupted rest since 2005 —- well, not at home. I sleep fine in Afghanistan and Iraq, but not in San Diego. I snap wide awake every few hours, and if I am lucky, I can get back to sleep. I’m not often lucky.

I can’t remember anything. I have misplaced my short-term memory; I must write every task down as soon as I learn of it or I will forget. It drives my wife to distraction when I can’t remember what I went to the store for, or why I am standing in front of the pantry with a blank look on my face.

I can’t forget many of the events I experienced in combat, despite how much I wish I could. Every day I find my mind wandering back to firefights and attacks and blood and death, even though such things are the last thing I want to think about. Memories abound in my subconscious and they bubble to the surface unannounced, reminding me daily that I have killed for my country and come frighteningly close to dying for it.

PTSD is always with me as I move through my post-war life.

It is not hopeless, however, because there is help out there for those who seek it. More on that in my next column.

 

Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/military/columnists/grice/grice-ptsd-is-personal-for-combat-vets/article_37b56010-dca2-5463-9a2b-51f1f31f9b43.html#ixzz1rwXtaaA5

So now what?

Posted by Mike Grice on

So there you are, sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee in your hand and the rest of your life in front of you.  You have made the decision to hang up your combat boots and get out of the service.  What you have not decided yet, though, is what to do next.  You stir your coffee, look out the window, and ask yourself “so now what?”

It is a great question, and you probably don’t have a truly great answer for it.  In many ways leaving the military puts you in the same position you were in when you graduated high school or college: the world lays before you with prospects to go in pretty much any direction you choose.  Which path is the one you want to take?

There are many possibilities.  You can go back to school, get a job, move back in with your parents, or become a hermit.  For the first time in years it is a choice that no senior officer or NCO will make for you.  So what are you gonna do?

Contrary to popular belief it is unlikely that you will be able to find a porch to sit on for the remainder of your days, unless you are retiring to a cabin in the middle of the mountains and plan on living on whatever you can grow, catch, or hunt yourself.  The retirement benefits aren’t that generous.  You are going to need to supplement your well earned but meager pension.

What if you are just getting out after a hitch or two?  Finding the retirement porch is probably decades in the future, so you need to find something to do until the rocking chair becomes your retirement throne.

So, back to the question: now what?

There are two common paths that people leaving the military take.  They generally either go back to school or find a job.  Many vets, like me, end up doing both at the same time as they work their way through college or graduate school.  Regardless of which path you take, however, you are ultimately going to end up back in the market for a job, if not a new career.  That is what the next string of posts will focus on: getting a job.

Despite what you may have heard, you can find employment after you get out despite the sour economy.  It isn’t easy, though.  There is no magical job fairy that sprinkles you with sparkly guaranteed-employment dust.  There are opportunities, though, but it takes some work to take advantage of them.

How long has it been since you wrote your resume?  How about a cover letter?  Have you had any experience being interviewed for a job?  What kind of skills can you show to a potential employer?  What do you want to do?

These questions and many more will be answered as we look into post-military employment….

Finding an advocate…

Posted by Mike Grice on

A part of the separations process for every veteran is the medical evaluation that all veterans go through in order to determine whether or not they rate disability benefits.  It can be a confusion and overwhelming process even if you are healthy and don’t have any lagging medical problems, but it can get downright impenetrable if you have issues or have service-related disabilities.

It is not because the VA is an uncaring monolithic government agency – they are really doing their best to help out the hundreds of thousands of veterans who need their help.  They are doing the best that they can, but despite the ongoing modernization of various systems within the VA and a decent budget, they are simply buried by the sheer volume of veterans who are either already in the system or are now joining it.  It is likely to get worse in the near term, too, as the services begin the post-war drawdown that has been announced by the administration.

That is all well and good for the VA, but what about the individual veteran?  Is he or she on his or her own to try to navigate the bureaucracy?  No.  Fortunately there are some great organizations out there to help you, the veteran, ensure that you receive the benefits you are entitled to.  In addition, they will act as your adviser and advocate as you wend your way through the benefits claims process.

Several months ago I wrote a post about the TAP/TAMP process (https://orderstonowhere.com/2011/08/16/back-to-class-part-1-the-transition-assistance-management-program/), and in that post I wrote about the guy who reviewed my medical record.  Although I didn’t really understand the significance of meeting him at the TAP/TAMP course now that I have been working my way through the process for several months I get it.  Alan represented the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), which is a nonprofit organization that exists solely to help out veterans –  and not just those with a disability, but any vets out there who are in need of assistance.  At the TAP course Alan explained this all to me, but it was such a blizzard of information over those five days that I really didn’t pay as close attention as I should have.  I did listen to him when he asked me to sign up for the DAV as my advocate because it allowed him to review and prescreen my medical record before I was evaluated by the VA.

So what is the DAV?  Here is a blurb from their website (http://dav.org):

The 1.2 million-member Disabled American Veterans (DAV) is a non-profit 501(c)(4) charity dedicated to building better lives for America’s disabled veterans and their families.

The DAV was founded in 1920 by disabled veterans returning from World War I to represent their unique interests. In 1932, the DAV was congressionally chartered as the official voice of the nation’s wartime disabled veterans.

In addition to assisting veterans with myriad issues that they face after they leave the service they are an advocate for people like me who are being evaluated by the VA for possible medical disability benefits.  This is a great help because they have a lot of people with a lot of experience in dealing with the ins and out of the process, and they will go to bat for you in case you run into snags or are given a disability rating that does not reflect your actual physical condition.  They make the confusing process manageable and will help you through it, which is a great relief to those who have absolutely no idea what to do as they transition (like me!).

At any rate, Alan prescreened my record and in doing so set me up for a smooth evaluation process when I finally did receive my VA medical exams several months later.  He identified problems and issues that I had forgotten about but were relevant in the claims process because they could easily manifest themselves later in life, and if they are not identified in the VA physical then I would be ineligible for VA medical coverage to deal with them.

They also help with all kinds of other things that are veteran related; things like job placement assistance, counseling, and representing your interests to Congress.  The DAV is there for you, so when you go through TAP/TAMP, make sure to track the representative of the organization down.  He or she will gladly help you through the process, and you will be amazed at how much you will come to rely upon them to make it through.

__________

Lessons learned:

1.  There are a lot of organizations out there that will help you with veterans issues and the transition to civilian life.  I am working with the DAV, but the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and American Legion are also great organizations that can help you out.  There are literally dozens more.  They all have slightly different charters, so do some research and see which one works best for you.  Even better, join as many as you can- they are not competing with each other and they all want to help.

2.  Even if you are certain that you will have no disability rating it is still important to affiliate with a veterans advocacy group.  There are a lot of benefits that are outside the medical realm that they can help with, and if nothing else they are a great bunch of people you can rely on if you need advice or just somebody to talk to.

GI Bill part 2: Transferring benefits from the MGIB to the Post 9/11 GI Bill

Posted by Mike Grice on

I wrote in my last post about the GI Bill.  It is a great benefit that really helps veterans like myself obtain an education or get vocational training that will provide the tools we all need to enter the civilian workforce. I am using the Post 9/11 GI Bill to help defray the costs as I pursue my MBA.  Having served before the attacks on the twin towers, however, made me eligible for two GI Bill programs: the  Montgomery GI Bill  (MGIB) and the Post 9/11 GI Bill.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both bills, and it is important to do your homework and fully understand the nuances of each.   GI Bill comparison  is a great side by side comparison of the two bills, so click on over and take a look.

In my case, I transitioned from the MGIB to the new bill because it resulted in me being entitled to an additional 12 months of benefits that I otherwise would not have been able to utilize.  While it was a good idea for me, it may not be good idea for everyone.  Here is why:

The MGIB has many provisions, but for the sake of this post I will talk about the two major parts of the bill: the Active Duty benefit (aka MGIB-AD or “Chapter 30”) and the Selected Reserve benefit (aka MGIB-SR or “Chapter 1606”).  As the titles indicate, there were different programs for active duty personnel and those in the reserves.

In my case I was in the Organized Marine Corps Reserve when I was working on my undergraduate studies.  During that time I used all but about two months of benefits from the MGIB-SR, meaning that I received about 34 months of benefits and had about two months worth left over.  Since a vet can only use 36 months of benefits under that program I initially thought I was out of luck.  Fortunately, there is a provision that allows for vets like me to transfer between programs and take advantage of an additional 12 months of benefits.

A veteran is eligible for a total of 48 months of benefits.  That said, the individual programs may offer shorter benefit periods, and in the case of the MGIB and the Post 9/11 bill this is the case because they are both 36 month programs.  A vet can get the additional 12 months only if he or she is eligible for the both the MGIB and the Post 9/11 bills because the only way to get the extra time is to convert from the MGIB to the Post 9/11.  There is no bill for the Post 9/11 to convert to, so there are only 36 months of benefits available.

There are two scenarios for transferring from the MGIB to the Post 9/11, and they have enormously different ramifications, so PAY ATTENTION TO THE NEXT TWO PARAGRAPHS IF YOU WANT TO TRANSFER OVER!!!

First, the MGIB-SR (Chapter 1606).  This was my situation.  I used up about 34 months of benefits as a reserve Marine and had about two months left.  The VA simply added my remaining balance of about two months to the 12 additional months of Post 9/11 eligibility and presto!  I had 14ish months of eligibility under the new bill to use towards my education.  All I had to do was complete the Veterans On Line Application (click here: VONAPP) and indicate that I wanted to apply for the new GI Bill.  Once my application was approved I received my updated entitlement.

For the MGIB-AD eligible veterans the situation is VERY DIFFERENT!  In their case, their 36 months of benefits is really 36 months of benefits.  If they have never used their MGIB-AD and they switch over, they will receive 36 months under the new bill.  If they use 35 months under the MGIB-AD and apply for the new GI Bill they will receive only one month under the new GI bill.  Here is the key: in order to get the additional 12 months you must completely exhaust your MGIB-AD benefits, and I mean completely- use up every day because if you have only one day of eligibility left and you apply for a transfer you will get one day of benefits under the new bill, and the decision is irrevocable!  Once you have used up the MGIB-AD you can then re-apply for benefits under the Post 9/11 GI Bill using  VONAPP and receive 12 months under the new bill.  Make sure that you do it right because as I said, once you apply and are accepted for a transfer there is no going back.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

It is easy to see how much of your MGIB you have used.  All you need to do is call the VA at 1-888-442-4551 and ask the counselor which program you currently fall under and how much eligibility you have left.  Once you have that information, you can decide if you want to transfer over or not.

Good luck!

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Lessons Learned:

1.  The old and new GI Bills are different, and there are a lot of ins and outs that you need to consider before you pull the trigger on a conversion.  Make sure to do some research and find out what works best for your situation.

2.  Once you do pull the trigger on a conversion from the MGIB to the Post 9/22 GI Bill it is irrevocable and final.  There are no “do-overs”.  Make sure you are committed to the decision you make!

3.  If you are uncomfortable with completing an online application, you can download the fillable .pdf document here – http://www.vba.va.gov/pubs/forms/vba-22-1990-are.pdf. All you need to do is complete it and mail it in to the address listed on the form.

4.  If you have any questions, call the VA.  You will be on hold for a while, but they have a nice callback service which you can use; the counselor will call you back so you don’t have to listen to cheesy ’70s disco cover tunes while on hold.  I recommend calling early in the morning as my wait times went from an hour to a few minutes when I called as soon as they opened the lines.  Here is their contact information:

Telephone number:  1-888-GIBILL-1 (1-888-442-4551).

Be advised this line only accepts calls from 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM central time Monday – Friday and you may experience long hold times.

The GI Bill

Posted by Mike Grice on

As I wrote in my last post I am pursuing my MBA at the University of Southern California’s Marshall Business School, and I truly appreciate all of you who helped out with my research project.  Getting an education is expensive these days, and fortunately for me, and for all honorably discharged veterans, the VA is there to help out with the Post 9/11 GI Bill.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the GI Bill, here is a quick rundown of how it came about and evolved into what it has become today:

The GI Bill originated with the end of the Second World War.  In 1944 the U. S. Government passed the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act.  Apparently calling the new law by its formal name was a mouthful, so it quickly became named after the people it was designed to help- the GIs returning from the war (GI was slang for anyone in uniform, coming from the term “Government Issue” or “Galvanized Iron”, depending on which story you believe).  Anyhow, the veterans coming home from Europe and the Pacific were able to take advantage of a wide array of benefits which included home, small business, and farm loans, unemployment compensation, and educational benefits.  As a result of the program a staggering sum of nearly 8,000,000 veterans (almost half of all who served during the war) pursued higher education.

Over the following decades GIs went to war again and again, and as they did the GI Bill was there to help veterans when they came home from places like Korea and Vietnam.  In the 1960s benefits were opened up to veterans who did not serve in war, and over time the GI Bill dwindled until it was a shadow of its former self, essentially offering a small stipend to help defray college expenses.

That changed with 9/11 and the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  With hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines serving tour after tour in harm’s way the Congress passed the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, which quickly became known as the “Post 9/11” or “new” GI Bill.  It focuses primarily on educational benefits for veterans (as shown below, which I adapted  from their website  at http://www.gibill.va.gov/benefits/post_911_gibill/index.html):

– The GI Bill will pay an eligible veteran’s full tuition & fees directly to the school for all public school in-state students. For those attending private or foreign schools tuition & fees are capped at $17,500 per academic year.  For those attending a more expensive private school or a public school as a non-resident out-of-state student, a program exists which may help to reimburse the difference (the “Yellow Ribbon” program).

-For those attending classes at the greater than ½ time rate, a monthly housing allowance (MHA) based on the Basic Allowance for Housing for an E-5 with dependents at the location of the school. For those enrolled solely in distance learning the housing allowance payable is equal to ½ the national average BAH for an E-5 with dependents ($673.44 for the 2011 academic year & $684.00 for the 2012 academic year)

-An annual books & supplies stipend of $1,000 paid proportionately based on enrollment.

-A one-time rural benefit payment for eligible individuals.

As you can see, the new GI Bill is pretty generous.  Not everyone is eligible, however.  In order to take advantage of the benefits the veteran must meet the following criteria:

-You must have served at least 90 aggregate days on active duty after September 10, 2001, and you are still on active duty or were honorably discharged from the active duty; or
– released from active duty and placed on the retired list or temporary disability retired list; or
– released from active duty and transferred to the Fleet Reserve or Fleet Marine Corps Reserve; or
– released from the active duty for further service in a reserve component of the Armed Forces.
You may also be eligible if you were honorably discharged from active duty for a service-connected disability and you served 30 continuous days after September 10,2001.

In my case, I was originally eligible for what was known as the Montgomery GI Bill when I enlisted back in the early 1980s.  I used it to help pay for tuition and fees for my undergraduate work, and I received payments of about $150 a month or so, depending on how many credits I was signed up for.  Now that I have transitioned out of uniform I am eligible for the new GI Bill, but there is a catch.

Of course!

There is always a catch.  It turns out that veterans are only allowed to take advantage of GI Bill benefits for a total of 48 monthly periods.  If you are in school for a full year, then you use 12 months of benefits.  If you take summers off, you use up nine months.  In my case, I used up 45 months of my benefits while I was enlisted, and that didn’t leave much for me to use after I got out!

Fortunately, the new GI Bill recognizes that there are a lot of us in that position.  The VA authorizes an additional year (12 months of benefits) for vets like me who used up a lot of their alloted time.  For me, the fifteen or so months works out pretty well because my program is nineteen months long.  Fortunately I had been saving some money to prepare for my post-military education –  otherwise I would have been out of luck.

So the GI Bill is a tremendous benefit for veterans who are eligible.  I highly encourage any separating or retiring servicemember to look into it, and to do so soon.  It is an expensive proposition for the government to pay for such a generous program, and it probably won’t last forever…

__________

1.  As with any VA program you must register for benefits.  Go to www.va.gov and complete the VONAPP (Veterans On Line Application) in order to get started.  You can complete the paperwork at any time, so get started as soon as you can in order to draw benefits as soon as you start school.

2.  There are different rules for public and private schools.  Basically, the VA will pay up to the highest state school rate for the state you attend college, but for private schools there is a cap on tuition and fees.  Make sure to surf the VA GI Bill website to find out what pertains to your situation.

3.  A great benefit is the housing allowance that you receive while attending school.  It only pays while you are in class (no spring break or summer payments) and it is also not allowed it you are still on active duty.  It may be to your advantage to start your education after you get off terminal leave if you want to receive the full benefits available.

Combat Stress and PTSD: My latest column in the North County Times

Posted by Mike Grice on

Here is my latest column in the North County Times.  As a veteran of multiple tours in two wars I have personally experienced and witnessed first hand the the wide spectrum of combat related stress and the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  To me it is a truly important subject, and I am writing about the subject as a columnist in our local newspaper.

 

Stigma still attached to PTSD

Every person who goes to war brings a little bit of it home. For some, they carry memories of their adventures and some stories to tell. Others, however, bring home a burden that weighs upon their psyche and may accompany them for the rest of their lives.

Even though two combat veterans may have been in the same places and experienced the same stresses, joys, horrors and camaraderie that are all factors in the personal experience of warfare, they will return home affected by their participation in very different ways.

There is a wide range of emotional and psychological effects that result from an individual’s involvement in conflict. No veteran returns home without some change within themselves, and in that regard they are no different from any other person who experiences a stress and separation for extended periods of time. Research and common sense both irrefutably show that prolonged exposure to stress, as well as involvement in terrifyingly brief but immensely stressful situations, results in psychological change. Just how much change varies with every person, and the effects of the experience differ for each and every person who goes through such an event.

These effects are not limited to participants in war. Anyone can suffer from long-term exposure to stress or from short-term specific events. Battered women who endure abusive relationships agonize long after they leave the abuser, just as survivors of disasters such as plane crashes or earthquakes endure inner turmoil even though the actual event has come and gone.

Veterans of war share the same inner conflict and anxiety as anyone who has been through the emotional wringer.

Does that mean that we have over a million sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder? Nope. The majority of veterans return from the combat theater with no psychological damage, but instead with a broader perspective on life that shapes their worldview and subtly alters their thought processes and reasoning as they move on with their lives. They live as they did before they left, except for a greater reservoir of experience to draw from.

That said, a significant number of combat vets experience real difficulty adjusting to life at home when they return from overseas. They suffer from combat operational stress injury, or COSI. Their symptoms range from mild to severe, and from acute to chronic. Some sufferers require little assistance to overcome the challenges they face when they come home, while others are completely incapacitated by the ravages of PTSD.

To the tremendous credit of the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration those who suffer from COSI are encouraged to participate in treatment that is comprehensive, effective, non-attributional and free. Active-duty personnel can take advantage of Deployment Health Centers that offer a wide range of assistance and treatment options that are designed to help the service member understand and cope with their stress injury while still wearing the uniform. The Veterans Administration likewise offers a wide array of services for veterans who are no longer actively serving; all a veteran needs to do is contact the Veterans Affairs office for assistance.

And therein lies the rub.

There are dozens of programs in the DOD and VA to help people who have fought for their country, but surprisingly few actually seek help even though they really need it. The programs are free, so there is no financial reason to stay away. They are also non-attributional, meaning that there is no official retribution or black mark on a person’s record should they seek help.

Why, then, do so many fail to seek treatment?

The answer is simple. Even though society has come to accept that the mind can suffer injury just as the body can, the same cannot be said for the members of the armed forces. There is a very real stigma attached to those who seek mental help while in uniform, and the perception of the stigma follows closely behind servicemen and servicewomen as they transition back to civilian life.

So why does the stigma still exist in the military when society has largely come to accept it?

The military exists to fight the nation’s wars. Sure, it does a lot of other things, too, like perform humanitarian missions at home and abroad and provide employment —- but the true purpose of the military is to fight.

In order to go to war and win requires that the people in the military be aggressive, fit and mentally inured to hardship in order to do the things required of them in combat. The cultures of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps all revolve around things like strength, resilience, aggressiveness and toughness. Any form of weakness is contrary to the warrior culture, and individuals who exhibit weakness are viewed as lesser beings in the eyes of their peers.

Seeking help for stress injuries is viewed as weakness. Even though thousands of people really need help, they won’t pursue it. The official DOD policy states that seeking help is non-attributional and that there will be no detriment to a person’s career, but the truth is different. Warriors don’t want to be seen as mentally frail, so they just suck it up despite all of the opportunities to help overcome their injuries. They fear ostracism, so they just hide their pain and soldier on.

I know, because I have seen it first-hand. I’ll explain in my next column.
Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/military/columnists/grice/grice-stigma-still-attached-to-ptsd/article_5639a06a-f763-5388-b605-e7eed42844fc.html#ixzz1pOevCsqn