ShareThisBy BOBBY CAINA CALVAN
Sacramento Bee
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
The college campus has become a new front line as veterans of the country's latest wars battle the bureaucracy at home to get the educational benefits they were promised from the military.
Colleges are bracing for a huge surge of military enrollees, reminiscent of post-World War II. More than 1.5 million Americans have served in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Many arrive on campus with the scars of war -- physical and psychological. While accustomed to the discipline of the military, they are unprepared for the rigors of academic life.
"We've heard some veterans tell us that they were more afraid to step onto a college campus than they were going to Iraq," said Bart Ruud, a Vietnam War veteran and a retired counselor at Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif.
For veterans, few things are simple. Many have been surprised by the complexity of rules governing the GI Bill, the federal tuition reimbursement program.
Last year, the Department of Veterans Affairs, which administers the GI Bill, provided $2.76 billion in education aid to 498,123 people.
Critics want the government to pay benefits up front instead of requiring veterans to seek reimbursement for tuition after paying out of their own pockets.
"They were told that if they served their country, their schooling would be paid for. Then they are hit with reality," said Patrick Campbell, legislative director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
Cody Conway, a combat Marine in Iraq, envisioned a lifelong career in the military. If not, perhaps a return to civilian life as a mechanic.
Four years ago, he returned from war unexpectedly, his life and future shattered by a non-combat accident outside Baghdad that tore the muscles and tendons from his right arm and shoulder.
As a mechanic, he took things apart and put them neatly back together.
Repairing a shattered future hasn't been as easy.
"I want to move on with my life," Conway said between classes at Sierra College. "But I'm disabled, and I can't work. I've been a mechanic all my life. When I got back, I couldn't do that anymore."
Now he plans to become a social worker.
"It's a struggle," he said. "If I don't go to school, and learn something new, I won't have much else."
Kyle Williams served with the Marines in Iraq and was injured during a mortar attack in Anbar province.
"There's been a lot of frustration," he said. "There are so many things people don't understand. You come across these 18- and 19-year-old (college) kids who haven't experienced life outside their parents' home. All they want to know is if I killed anybody in Iraq."
"They don't realize that we're trying to put all that behind us," said Williams, president of the Sierra College Veterans Club.
"I don't like to talk about it, and I don't want to talk about it."
Bobby Caina Calvan can be reached at bcalvan(at)sacbee.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com
