Posts Tagged ‘qualifying for the GI Bill’

Yes Michael, if you lose your service-connected disability rating, your Post 9/11 GI Bill percentage will drop dramatically. With only 1 ½ years of service, you would most likely drop down to 50%, as the months you were in training do not count toward Post 9/11 GI Bill eligibility until after you have 24 months of eligibility.

If I were you, I wouldn’t be in any big hurry to get my VA rating changed until I had some assurance that I could actually qualify to enlist into the National Guard. While it is a good way to continue your military service, will you be fit enough if you have to deploy? Those not eligible to deploy aren’t of as much value in today’s Guard. Weigh your options carefully and know what RE code you would get if your VA rating changes and if it would be one that would allow you to serve in the Guard

If one of your goals of serving in the NG is the education benefits, just be aware that the Montgomery GI Bill-Selected Reserve (MGIB-SR) only pays $335 per month to go to school, and you would have to give up your Post 9/11 GI Bill. Most likely you would be better off staying with 50% of the Post 9/11 GI Bill.

If you are credited with 29 months and 29 days of active duty credit Craig, then you will be off by one day to get to the 90% Post 9/11 GI Bill eligibility tier as the military and VA both use 30 days as a month.

As far as using your entitlement as a full-time student, you are charged a full day of entitlement for each day of school. However, if you are a part-time student, you are only charged part of a day for each day in school. For example, if your school considers 12 credits as full-time and you are taking 7 credits, you would be charged 7/12 ths of a month for each month in school or about 17.5 days, instead of 30 days.

Because you did not fulfill your entitlement contract, most likely you will only get a day for day in Post 9/11 GI Bill entitlement, meaning you most likely will get about 899 days at the 80% Post 9/11 GI Bill tier rate.

Because you have over 24 months of service, be sure all your training time was counted. I would go back through everything and see if a day somewhere was missed. That one day would up your tier percentage by 10%.

Hi Adam. Let’s step through your types of service and see which one count to see how much Post 9/11 GI Bill eligibility you have. None of your National Guard time will count from February 2000 to August 2005, if it was normal weekend drill time. However, your two deployments will definitely count, so you have 28 months for sure. Most likely your MOS schools will count as they are credited as eligible time once you have attained at least 24 months of eligibility.

As far as your ADSW, that normally is Title 10 time, so it should count. If it happened to be Title 32 time, but it was “for the purpose of organizing, administering, recruiting, instructing or training” which is the definition of Title 32 time that counts for Post 9/11 GI Bill eligibility, then it would count also. So with your ADSW time most likely counting, regardless of which title of the U.S. Code it falls under, that should add another 9 months putting you over the 36 months of Post 9/11 GI Bill eligibility, even without counting your MOS schools.

Keep in mind that when you switch from REAP to the Post 9/11 GI Bill that you will only get the same number of  Post 9/11 months of eligibility that you had left under REAP. If you have exhausted all of your REAP entitlement, then switch, you would get the additional 12 months.