cbs13.com - Family's sole surviving son denied GI benefits
source: http://cbs13.com/local/sole.survivor.benefits.2.700663.html
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Spc. Nathan Hubbard, 21, right, was among 14 killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in northern Iraq in August of 2007. He is pictured here with his brother Jason Hubbard.
CBS News
Family's Sole Surviving Son Denied GI Benefits
FRESNO (AP) ― Army Spc. Jason Hubbard was forced to leave the combat zone after his two brothers died in the Iraq war, but once at home the soldier faced another battle: The military cut off his family's health care, stopped his G.I. educational subsidies and wanted him to repay his sign-up bonus.
It wasn't until Hubbard petitioned his local Congressman that he was able to restore some of his benefits.
Now that Congressman, Rep. Devin Nunes, plans to join three other lawmakers in introducing a bill Wednesday that would ensure basic benefits to all soldiers who are discharged under the sole survivor policy. The rule is a holdover from World War II meant to protect the rights of service people who have lost a family member to war.
"I felt as if in some ways I was being punished for leaving even though it was under these difficult circumstances," Hubbard told The Associated Press Tuesday. "The situation that happened to me is not a one-time thing. It's going to happen to other people, and to have a law in place is going to ease their tragedy in some way."
Hubbard, 33, and his youngest brother, Nathan, enlisted while they were still grieving for their brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, who was 22 when he was killed in a 2004 bomb explosion in Ramadi
CBS News
Family's Sole Surviving Son Denied GI Benefits
FRESNO (AP) ― Army Spc. Jason Hubbard was forced to leave the combat zone after his two brothers died in the Iraq war, but once at home the soldier faced another battle: The military cut off his family's health care, stopped his G.I. educational subsidies and wanted him to repay his sign-up bonus.
It wasn't until Hubbard petitioned his local Congressman that he was able to restore some of his benefits.
Now that Congressman, Rep. Devin Nunes, plans to join three other lawmakers in introducing a bill Wednesday that would ensure basic benefits to all soldiers who are discharged under the sole survivor policy. The rule is a holdover from World War II meant to protect the rights of service people who have lost a family member to war.
"I felt as if in some ways I was being punished for leaving even though it was under these difficult circumstances," Hubbard told The Associated Press Tuesday. "The situation that happened to me is not a one-time thing. It's going to happen to other people, and to have a law in place is going to ease their tragedy in some way."
Hubbard, 33, and his youngest brother, Nathan, enlisted while they were still grieving for their brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, who was 22 when he was killed in a 2004 bomb explosion in Ramadi
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