Am I to Understand I Cannot Transfer My Post 9/11 GI Bill to My Daughter Because I’m Retired?
Q: I am retired Army National Guard with 20 years. Retired OCT 2010. Served in Iraq 2005-2007. Am I to understand that I cannot transfer my GI Bill to my daughter because I simply retired before these rules went into effect?
A: What you understand is not entirely correct. What the Post 9/11 GI Bill rules say is you have to “be serving on or after August 1, 2009″ before you can get a transfer request approved. There are two more requirements I’ll address later. So the Post 9/11 GI Bill rules went into effect a full year and three months before you retired.
The other requirements are:
• you have to have served for at least six years in the Armed Forces of the United States of which at least three years has to be after September 10, 2001, (which you did).
• agree to serve an additional four years (unless you are within four years of retiring – then the additional time is reduced). In your case, you were retirement eligible, so no additional time would have been required.
• Selected Reservists have to serve for at least 90 days on a Title 10 order in support of a contingency operation, such as Iraq or Afghanistan (which you did).
So it looks like the only reason you were not able to transfer GI Bill benefits to your daughter is you (and possibly your unit) were not aware of the transfer requirements. In the beginning, there was much confusion as to what the rules actually were and that may have been the issue in your case. Unfortunately, it is too late to do anything about it now.