Scholarship initiative launched for Iraq and Afghan Veterans

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Scholarship initiative launched for Iraq and Afghan Veterans

VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA
PRESS RELEASE
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Release November 15, 2007
 
No. 07-029

Contact:
Mokie Porter
301-996-0901
 

SCHOLARSHIP INITIATIVE FOR RETURNING TROOPS TO FILL GAPS IN THE GI BILL

(Washington, D.C.) -- The Fund for Veterans’ Education has launched a national scholarship project for returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Former Senator and World War II veteran Bob Dole, former Congressman and Korean War veteran Pete McCloskey, and World War II veteran Jerome Kohlberg, FVE founder, were present today at the Westin Hotel for the announcement of the first recipients of these scholarships. 

“Vietnam Veterans of America commends Mr. Kohlberg, Major General Clifford Stanley (USMC, Ret.), and the Fund for Veterans’ Education for their efforts to assist returning veterans.  The scholarships will help these young men and women go as far as their drive, their ambition, and their intelligence can take them in furthering their education,” said John Rowan, national president of Vietnam Veterans of America.

“This is an investment in America’s future. The GI Bill for returning veterans of World War II helped usher in an unprecedented era of prosperity in America. It elevated thousands of veterans and their families into the middle class. These scholarships today should succeed in offsetting some of the limitations in the current GI Bill,” Rowan said, “and will, we would hope, achieve many of the goals of the original GI Bill.

“The cost of attending post-secondary institutions is constantly on the rise, and so are the numbers of veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan,” Rowan said. He pointed out that current benefits cover about a quarter of the average cost at all universities.

“These newest veterans have earned education benefits that should be equal to that accorded to our fathers from World War II, not the inadequate benefits given to Vietnam veterans,” Rowan said. “We must not let happen to these troops what happened to Vietnam veterans. Our country must do better for them.”

 

Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) is the nation's only congressionally chartered veterans service organization dedicated to the needs of Vietnam-era veterans and their families.  VVA's founding principle is “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.”