Proving your Post-9/11 GI Bill eligibility should be as easy as giving the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) one source document: your DD214. But what happens when as a Reservist you are not always entitled to this source document?
All other branches of the armed forces receive an updated DD214 at the end of their deployments. This document captures their cumulative active duty, which VA uses to tally Servicemembers’ earned Federal benefits, like the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
Reservists, however, do not receive a DD214 unless they are deployed for longer than ninety days, or are activated on Title 10 orders. Now, since neither of these two scenarios occur regularly, Reservists’ only recourse to prove their service to VA is to track of all their orders themselves, navigating painstaking databases that can only be accessed with current military identification, potentially blocking out Veterans’ who need to access their prior orders to present to VA in order to maximize their Federal benefits.
Instead of leaving Reservists to fend for themselves, we are advocating for a change to U.S. code that will give Reservists the same right as their peers to a cumulative and updated Federal DD214 after every deployment. No more lost orders; no more push and shove with VA in order to prove your service. We work hard to take care of our Servicemembers and Veterans, because we believe that they have already gone above and beyond to serve us.
