II. Farewell to Graduating Seniors
III. Recent Congressional Action on Retired and
Disability Pay Rules
IV. Customer Service at Atalnta RPO
V. Voices of Vets Newsletter
We will schedule a meeting for the early part of the Fall 2001 semester and publish it on this site, through the e-mail service and in the UNC Pembroke media outlets. At that time we will select the dates for subsequent meetings throughout the semester.
The last of the founding members of the VoV are graduating this May. They are Robert Langston, Wanda Merical and Rominia Stricklamd, Rene Butler. Robert and Wanda were the Cahirman and Vice-Chairman respectively for 2000. Wanda was also the creator and webmaster of this site until a few days ago.
We would like to thank all of them for the work they did over the past two years to get VoV started and then nurture it into a viable UNCP organization. They did a lot of hard and meaningful work and it is appreciated.
Good Luck to all of you.
There has been some significant action in the US Congress this spring to eliminate the restriction on concurrent compensation for military retired pay and disability pay. Under current law, military retirees must give up retired pay equal to the amount of disability pay they receive. If the measure passes this year's budget vote, military retirees will receive their full retired pay and all their disability pay.
This April the Senate Budget Committe passed and funded an ammendment to the 2002 budget to eliminate the ban on concurrent compensation. The ammendment is now under study in the House Budget Committe. If the House committe votes favorably on both elimination of the ban and funding for the measure, it will go to both the House and Senate floors this summer as part of the final budet vote.
The key to successfully ending the ban is funding. Action to end the ban has successfully cleared committe votes in both houses of Congress several times in the past 15 years, but died on the floor because of lack of funding.
If this issue concerns you, then you should write your senators and representatives as soon as possible stating your support for "an end to the prohibition on concurrent compensation for disabled military retirees," and "full funding for both retired pay and disability pay."
Sen. Jessie Helms (R-NC) Sen. John Edwards (D-NC)
403 Dirksen Senate Office Building 825 Hart Senate Offcie Building
Washington DC 20510 Washington DC 20510
Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC-7th) Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC-2d)
1605 Longworth House Offcie Building 1533 Longworth House Offcie Building
Washington DC 20515 Washington DC 20515
Or send an e-mail by clikcking on one of these links:
E-mail Helms / Edwards
E-mail McIntyre / Etheridge
GI Bill (Chapter 30) vterans at UNCP and most other southeast region colleges and universities have been plagued by poor customer service out of the Atlanta RPO for the past two years or more. Getting benefit payments started can take three to five months and correcting a mistake or problem with an individual's file can take up to six months
The VoV surfaced the problem with Chancellor Meadors and prepared a report on the subject. The report recommended that UNC Pembroke take the lead in the UNC university system to prepare a letter of concern and recommendation to the national level leadership of the Dept.of Veterans Affairs about the problem. The intent is to have the UNC system speak with one voice on the problem.
Chancellor Meadors endoresed the recommendation wholeheartedly and gave the task of coordinating the effort to the UNCP Financial Aid Offcie. They are currently coordinating with the other UNC schools and a letter to the VA will be out this summer.
The Voices of Vets would like to have input from anyone with a subject of interest to veterans and the verteran community at UNCP Pembroke. If you have an idea or input, contact one of the board members in person or through the contact button on the home page of the web site.
Constitution | Board Members & POCs