GI Bill transfer bonus to be offered

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Re-enlisting soldiers will be able to assign benefits to spouses

By Jim Tice
Times staff writer

The Army wants to allow re-enlisting soldiers to transfer GI Bill benefits to their spouses. The benefits transfer, which will probably be launched later this year, would be in lieu of receiving a Selective Re-enlistment Bonus.

Specific details should be available by early summer, according to Pentagon sources, and would likely begin as a pilot program targeted at active-component enlisted soldiers .

If the pilot program is successful, “the Army may explore expanding it to all soldiers, as well as offering a similar program to reserve-component soldiers eligible for Montgomery GI Bill-Selected Reserve benefits,” said Maj. Gerald Conway, chief of the enlisted professional development branch, Office of the G-1.

Congress authorized the services to establish GI Bill transferability programs within guidelines set by lawmakers four years ago. But the authorization is unfunded, and none of the services has offered transferability options for recruitment or re-enlistment.

The Defense Department notified Senate and House leaders that the Army was developing a transferability program and planned to offer it in fiscal 2006 as a retention incentive, according to fiscal 2007 materials sent to Capitol Hill in February.

The law authorizing the program (section 3020, Title 38 U.S. Code) generally restricts transferability to soldiers who have completed at least six years in service, have a critical military skill and who re-enlist for four through six years of service.

While the law authorizes transfers to dependent children, the initial Army plan apparently will limit transfers to spouses. Soldiers who participate in the GI Bill qualify for 36 months of educational benefits. But the congressional transfer rules do not allow more than 18 months to be signed over to an eligible spouse or dependent.

“One policy change we are considering is to offer to some re-enlisting soldiers — soldiers with critical skills — the option, instead of a bonus, of transferring to their spouses some of their [Montgomery GI Bill] benefits,” Conway said.

“This would be a pilot program targeted to the retention of active-component enlisted soldiers in critical military skills,” he said.

Education benefits are among the priority issues for the Army Family Action Plan, the strategic guide for support and services to families, Conway said. “We know that we recruit soldiers, but retain families.”

Under rates that took effect Oct. 1, basic GI Bill benefits for Regular Army soldiers range from $30,240 ($840 per month) for an enlistment of two years to $37,224 ($1,034) for enlistments of three, four, five or six years.

Soldiers who enroll when they enlist contribute $100 per month during their first year of service. When they leave the service, participants have 36 months of educational benefits they must use within 10 years.

There is an Army-specific add-on to this entitlement program called the Army College Fund for enlistment applicants who have a high school degree and who have scored well on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.

At press time, it was not clear if Army College Fund benefits would be included in the transferability pilot program.