Veterans getting an education in navigating benefits
Fri, 10/02/2009 - 1:00am
Former Marine Tommy Mendoza is facing delays on college funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs. (Mark Levy • Herald/Review)
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Herald/Review
SIERRA VISTA — Having served almost two years in Afghanistan, former Marine Sgt. Tommy Mendoza left the military and became a college student.
Expecting the VA would keep its monetary promise to him and provide him his earned education benefits, Mendoza, a 1997 graduate of Buena High School, finds himself owed nearly $2,000 from the federal government.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the 30-year-old thought he would have to make a trip all the way to Phoenix to apply for his benefits under an emergency plan by the federal agency.
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I doubt this procedure is unusual and certainly isn’t insurmountable. Not
enough meat to this story to even make the back page. School is by night
courses and doubtful it is every day of the week….where is the big
hardship. Come on suck it up and get with the program/education.
The gentleman applied in MAY well before the start of classes, and here it is
6 weeks into the start of the semester and he still hasn’t gotten what he has
EARNED! As a spouse of a VA disabilty receipent, we are so tired of our
veterans getting the shaft. Why should he have to apply for emergency funds
at all? Why should it take over 2 months to process paperwork, now it is
going on 4 months and still waiting. But God forbid he dies because you can
bet his widow won’t see an extra check, VA will stop those checks quicker
than a blink of an eye.