HOUSTON -- As a new semester begins on college campuses around Houston, soldiers and other veterans who thought the government would cover their tuition and expenses said the government has stiffed them.
“I spent five years in the Army, two years in Iraq, you think I'd paid my dues. I think I deserve what they promised me," said Tarren Peterson, who lives in Spring.
Showing 11 News photos taken four years ago, he looked like the just-out-high-school-kid that he was when the Army sent him off with his M-16 to Iraq. Once there, he was stationed at a base near the town of Hit where he analyzed data to try to predict where insurgents might strike next.
"We were getting mortared pretty much every day," Peterson said.
He got out of the Army last summer and wasted no time signing up for math and science classes at Lone Star College. He wants to eventually get a degree in engineering. And after all, the Army pledged to pay for it.
"They made a big deal about the whole education benefits, the recruiter did," said Peterson.
But he says the $1,500 a month the Army promised him to cover living expenses never came.
"I called three or four times a day for a month (to a Veteran’s Administration number). The hotline was worthless," he said.
Navy veteran Dax Nesossi of Sugar Land has a nearly identical story.
"Now it's gotten so bad, the call center no longer takes phone calls," Neossi said.
He said the money he expected through the GI bill to pay for his tuition never came. He said he actually paid an additional $100 a month into a college fund while he was in the Navy.
How much has he gotten back so far?
“Not a dime," said Nesossi.
He has already completed one semester and paid for it by taking out student loans on the advice of his school’s financial aid office.
“You don't want a parade, you don’t want accolades and fanfare, you just want the money you paid into the system to come back," said Neossi.
The problems apparently were created last year when a new GI bill took effect. It greatly enhances college benefits and lots of ex-GIs are signing up. Congress set up the new program in response to 9/11 and had good intentions.
But now, it appears the government is doing a lousy job of running it.
“There has been a problem," said U.S. Rep Sheila Jackson Lee. She said the Department of Veterans Affairs is overwhelmed.
"The funding is there, it is a matter of processing the applications. We're going to have oversight hearings quickly to determine how we can move the process along," Lee said.
At the University of Houston, Allen Grundy runs the Veteran Services offices.
He said that he knew of some vets who had depended on that $,1500 a month living expense check to pay the rent and when it didn’t come, some of them were living out of their cars.
"We've had some real stories here. At some points, I had to call some landlords, make some arrangements for some of the students," said Grundy.
Peterson said he had to borrow from his parents until he managed to apply for and receive “emergency funds” from the VA. The emergency checks covered a couple months of his living expenses. But he said he has no confidence the checks will keep coming.
