Both the Montgomery and the Post-9/11 GI Bills offer up to 36 months of tuition assistance, but eligibility and payment structures differ. Although veterans can only use one GI Bill at a time, those eligible for both programs can extend their benefits to a maximum of 48 months, receiving another benefit for 12 months.

Post-9/11 GI Bill

Under the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the VA will pay up to the in-state tuition price tag of public universities. For veterans enrolled in a private institution, tuition assistance is capped at a current national maximum of $26,042.81.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill also offers benefits including a monthly housing allowance, annual book stipend of up to $1,000, and a one-time relocation payment for eligible recipients.

The monthly housing allowance is typically the same as the basic allowance for housing that an E-5 with dependents would receive in the same zip code.

For veterans who separated prior to Jan. 1, 2013, Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits expire 15 years after separation, but the “Forever GI Bill” passed in 2017 removed this limitation for servicemembers separating after Jan. 1, 2013.

Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits can also be transferred to the servicemember’s dependents.

Veterans receiving Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits can also apply to school with a Yellow Ribbon program, which helps cover the gap between benefits and out-of-state tuition, graduate school tuition, or costs at private institutions. Only certain schools have Yellow Ribbon agreements with the VA, so be sure to check with your desired institution first.

The Montgomery GI Bill

The Montgomery GI Bill breaks down into two types, the MGIB Active Duty and the MGIB Selected Reserve. MGIB-SR benefits, which are open to members of reserve and National Guard forces, pay a flat-rate check of $397 to full-time students each month.

The MGIB-AD, however, offers up to a $2,122 monthly rate. These rates change each year.

Instead of paying tuition benefits to the school, as the Post-9/11 GI Bill does, the MGIB sends a monthly check directly to the student. Students are not eligible for housing allowances or book stipends and cannot receive additional funds through the Yellow Ribbon Program. MGIB benefits cannot be transferred to dependents.

While on active duty, the MGIB offers a buy-up program for servicemembers to contribute to. Servicemembers who paid into this fund to increase their benefits can only use their contributions under the MGIB.

So, which GI Bill is better?

In most scenarios, the Post-9/11 GI Bill offers veteran students more financial assistance than the MGIB, especially when pursuing a standard, four-year degree at an accredited higher learning institution or passing your benefits to a dependent. There are a few exceptions, however. Namely:

Taking tests: When pursuing a license or paying for a standardized test, the Post-9/11 GI Bill may charge you a greater amount of benefits entitlement than the MGIB. This depends on the cost of the test and varies by scenario.

Part-time students: If you’re only taking classes part time, it may be more beneficial to use MGIB benefits. This is because the Post-9/11 GI Bill doesn’t pay monthly housing allowances to students with a rate of pursuit under 50 percent. Tuition assistance is then paid relative to the rate of pursuit. Under the MGIB, lower percentages of benefits could wind up giving you more cash than receiving the Post-9/11 GI Bill without a housing allowance would.

Ineligible for 100% of the Post-9/11 GI Bill: Veterans who didn’t serve on active duty for more than 36 months aren’t eligible for 100% of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. The Post-9/11 GI Bill pro-rates your allowances based on the amount of time you did serve on active duty, whereas the MGIB allows veterans to make a lump-sum contribution to close the gap between their time served and 100-percent eligibility requirements.

Online classes: If taking online classes with a low cost per credit, veterans can pocket more cash by taking advantage of their MGIB benefits instead of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. This is because the Post-9/11 GI Bill limits the housing allowance paid to students who are entirely online.

For veterans thinking about using their GI Bill benefits to pursue an education, the smartest thing to do is research options well in advance.

Every veteran has unique educational goals and circumstances, so there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to using your GI Bill.

Kimberly Zapata, former deputy director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, is accused of taking advantage of relaxed requirements intended to help service members vote. A criminal complaint says Zapata used fictitious voter information to send three military absentee ballots to the home of a state lawmaker in October. Investigators said Zapata told them she was trying to expose vulnerabilities in the election system.

Wisconsin’s election practices have been effective at preventing widespread fraud, but Zapata’s actions damaged the public trust, said Meagan Wolfe, the nonpartisan administrator of the Wisconsin Election Commission.

The episode has prompted officials to consider how they could change the military ballot process to protect against small-scale fraud — and whether such adjustments would even be worth the effort.

Military absentee ballots are a tiny part of the vote in Wisconsin — on average about 0.07% of the absentee ballots requested, according to the election commission. That has translated to around 2,800 ballots in recent midterm elections.

“It just is really not possible to engage in much fraudulent activity without being noticed very quickly,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

One change members of the Wisconsin Election Commission said they’re eyeing would add a layer of security by requiring military voters to verify their identity with a common access card, the standard ID issued to all service members by the Department of Defense. It’s a matter the Legislature would have to take up if it were to go anywhere.

Military voters don’t have to register to vote in Wisconsin and must only provide their name, address and date of birth to get an absentee ballot. Federal law prohibits states from requiring permanent overseas and military voters to provide a photo ID.

However, there could be ways to use common access cards to verify a service member’s identity without running up against the restrictions in federal law, Wolfe said.

Common access cards include a microchip that stores a service member’s personal identifying information and an authentication certificate that verifies their identity when accessing government computer systems. The same information could be used as an electronic signature for military absentee ballots.

“It’s not necessarily a photo ID requirement from what I understand how that would look,” said Wolfe. “It’s more or less an opportunity for military voters to be able to verify their identity using the technologies that they may have.”

A law enacted in Michigan earlier this year could provide a model for Wisconsin. The Michigan Legislature established electronic voting as an option for military voters, tying the unique information on their common access card to a digital ballot and thus securing the return process with the same verification used by military networks. Similar bills were introduced by Democrats in Virginia and New York.

It’s not clear that requiring a common access card to request a military ballot — the most direct option to address concerns over Zapata’s actions — would also comply with federal requirements.

“It’s very possible that federal law would not allow such a framework since it would be adding an additional requirement to the voting process,” said Riley Vetterkind, a spokesman for the election commission.

While establishing electronic voting wouldn’t altogether remove the possibility for fraudulent requests, it would allow clerks to instantly verify digital ballots.

Military advocates say electronic voting is a great option to expand accessibility.

“Allowing us to vote electronically would help us more easily participate in the very democracy we serve to protect,” said Sarah Streyder, executive director of the Secure Families Initiative, a nonpartisan group advocating for military voters and their families.

Any change in Wisconsin law would need to pass the Republican-controlled state Legislature and receive the approval of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who vetoed more than a dozen election-related bills from Republicans in his last term.

Some lawmakers favor exploring the idea. Republican Sen. Duey Stroebel said a military ID requirement “would probably go a long way towards rectifying the problem that was highlighted with the Kimberly Zapata case in Milwaukee.” But Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said Tuesday he has no plans to address military absentee voting in the upcoming legislative session.

The election commission can still vote to recommend legislative action, though.

“It would solve two problems: one, it would prevent the abuse – potential abuse – and it would make it easier for military voters, especially those overseas where mail can be an issue,” said Don Millis, the Republican chair of the election commission.

Democratic Commissioner Ann Jacobs said military ID legislation could be a good idea if executed in a way that doesn’t create additional barriers for service members to vote.

Local police and first responders often lack the military knowledge and on-base connections to ensure a service member receives the care they need after attempting suicide, according to David Conley, head of suicide prevention organization One More Day.

That’s why One More Day created Operation Better Together, which pairs police officers and service members in a suicide prevention course with the goal of combining resources in the fight against military and veteran suicide.

“Military personnel don’t commit suicide on bases. It’s just so rare that that happens,” Conley told Military Times. “They commit suicide out in the civilian world, so it makes sense that we get these officers as trained as we can.”

Operation Better Together uses the ASIST program — a 16-hour course that Conley calls the “Rolls Royce of suicide prevention” — to teach the basics of responding to suicide attempts and to get military and law enforcement personnel acquainted with one another.

The new program has already been through one iteration, a pilot course last November with approximately 40 members of the Idaho National Guard and 10-15 police officers from local departments.

Police Lt. Ray Talbot, of the Canyon County Sherriff’s Department, was one of the officers in attendance.

As a former Marine and commander of his department’s negotiations team, Talbot is well-acquainted with the issue of military suicide. But not every officer on his department is.

“If this were a new line officer who hadn’t been through the training I’ve been through, they would be opened up to a whole new world of ideas on how to help a veteran in crisis,” said Talbot.

“It’s the same problem as we have with law enforcement, where you have a real stigma of soldiers or police officers who are in crisis asking for help,” he added. The police lieutenant stressed the importance of learning how to start a dialogue and help service members and veterans, who are used to being in control, feel empowered in a crisis situation.

Being paired up with service members and suicide prevention officials from nearby bases, Talbot said, built a basis for future communications where a service member’s wellbeing might hang in the balance.

After completing only one training workshop, Conley said he’s already hearing success stories from local police who’ve been able to communicate with service members’ units when they’re in need of care.

Operation Better Together is expected to launch in Wyoming in July and, according to Conley, nine other states have confirmed their interest in the program. One More Day’s suicide prevention webinars, which take place every other month, have also attracted the attention of flag officers and service-level suicide prevention officials.

“It’s a program that helps us take the diverse resources that are out there and tries to bring them together to work on that slippery problem of the veteran or current service member in crisis and get a reach out to them,” Tim Sheppard, executive director of the Wyoming Veterans Commission, said of Operation Better Together.

Sheppard and other officials said the new program made perfect sense as they looked for a way to bring together the many suicide prevention resources already in Wyoming.

“There’s a lot of work to be done in this space. It’s been very difficult, though, to reach out across the different stovepipes and get that done,” said Maj. Gen. Greg Porter, Wyoming’s adjutant general. “I think that’s going to be pretty much the greatest measure of success: if we all know what each other are doing and what the resources are.”

Wyoming’s first ASIST training will take place from July 19-23 and will certify members of the 90th Missile Wing, the Wyoming Military Department, various veterans service organizations, and state law enforcement to teach the 16-hour ASIST module across the state.

If it’s successful in reducing suicides, Porter hopes Wyoming’s version of the program can serve as a proof of concept to other states’ military departments and the active-duty branches.

For police Col. Kebin Haller, head of the Wyoming Highway Patrol, the compact design of Operation Better Together’s offerings was a major selling point. Some of the force’s existing suicide prevention training, he said, was difficult to implement because it took up to a week to teach.

Haller expects to send 50 troopers through the program by the end of the calendar year, and eventually hopes to see the entire Wyoming Highway Patrol attend training.

“I’m looking forward to taking the training myself,” he said. “I have family members and several troopers and lieutenants in the National Guard, and just having a better overall awareness is going to be a benefit.”

As it grows Operation Better Together, One More Day continues to host conversations on its initiatives and the topic of suicide prevention. Its next webinar will take place on July 16, featuring suicide prevention speaker Kevin Hines, who attempted suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge in 2000 and lived to tell his story.

If you or a loved one is experiencing thoughts of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-8255, which offers a crisis line specifically for service members and veterans.

Corporals are formally recognized as noncommissioned officers but retain the same E-4 pay grade as specialists. As a junior NCO, a corporal also takes on leadership duties for a small unit, like a fire team.

Starting July 1, all active-duty specialists who have been recommended for promotion and completed the Basic Leader Course will be laterally promoted to corporal. BLC is the required training to enter the NCO corps.

Current corporals will need to qualify for promotion and complete BLC, or else be laterally reassigned as specialists.

“We want to get after leading, teaching and mentoring our junior enlisted Soldiers early,” Sgt. Maj. Kenyatta Gaskins, Directorate of Military Personnel Management sergeant major, said in the release. “This is a junior leader development process and that’s how we’re looking at this.”

The rank of corporal has historically been a recognition of leadership potential and is a somewhat rare sight in the Army. Requiring the rank for all soldiers represents a change in culture, Gaskins said.

National Guard and Reserve soldiers will also be included in the change, but the new directive won’t be applied to reservists until Oct. 1.

The change is part of broader efforts in the Army to develop junior leaders and give them the experience and preparedness to one day excel as squad leaders.

“We rely on junior leaders to build cohesive teams that are highly trained, disciplined, and mentally and physically fit,” Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston said. “In many cases, a specialist is charged with that responsibility. This allows us to recognize their role as a noncommissioned officer and ensure they’re getting the coaching and mentorship they need to be successful.”

The rank of corporal was one of the original ranks established with the U.S. Army in 1775, and since then has been one of two ranks to never leave the NCO corps.

New requirements for BLC were also announced in the news release.

All soldiers attending BLC must first be recommended for promotion to sergeant. This change goes into effect on June 1, 2022, for active-duty soldiers and Oct. 1, 2022, for reservists.

It is not yet clear how much time soldiers must spend at the rank of corporal before promotion to sergeant.

As the United States winds down its commitment of troops to Afghanistan and decreases deployments to Iraq, the number of those who have died in service to the country overseas has reached its lowest level since the initial military response to 9/11.

In the year since Memorial Day, 2020, 18 U.S. service members have died while supporting overseas operations, including Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, Operation Inherent Resolve, and NATO’s Kosovo Force. In 2001, 11 servicemembers died, but by 2003, numbers had soared to more than 500 deaths. The death toll peaked in 2007 at 1,020. And, as of May 27, there have been three deaths in 2021.

None of the deaths were caused by hostile forces, and most were attributable to vehicle accidents. A U.S. servicemember has not been killed in action since March 11, 2020, when a rocket attack on Camp Taji in Iraq killed Army Spc. Juan Covarrubias and Air Force Staff Sgt. Marshal Roberts.

At 13 deaths, soldiers accounted for a majority of those killed overseas in the past year. Three airmen, one sailor and one Marine were also among those who died, according to Military Time’s “Honor the Fallen” database.

Of the total 18 deaths in the past year, five took place in Kuwait and five were the result of a helicopter crash in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Alongside the five U.S. soldiers killed in the helicopter crash were a French and Czech service member.

Other deaths took place in the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Jordan, Bahrain, the North Arabian Sea, and Kosovo.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, at least 7,047 service members have given their lives in support of overseas operations, including deaths by hostile forces, accidents, illness and suicide.

The Pentagon declined to comment on service member deaths in the past year, and instead pointed to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s upcoming Memorial Day message — a tradition normally published on Memorial Day.

Recent decreases in overseas deaths are in part due to force drawdowns in the Middle East. By mid January 2021, the Pentagon announced that it had reduced troops to 2,500 each in Iraq and Afghanistan, as opposed to peak numbers of 100,000 troops in Afghanistan in August 2010 and 170,000 in Iraq in 2007.

President Joe Biden announced on April 14 plans to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 of this year.

“I’m immensely grateful for the bravery and backbone that [U.S. service members] have shown through nearly two decades of combat deployments,” Biden said at the time. “We as a nation are forever indebted to them and to their families.”

For the families of many current service members, force drawdowns are seen as a relief. But for the families of fallen soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, it can be a reminder that their loved ones won’t be coming home.

“I won’t lie, it hurts to watch them all come home when my husband cannot. However, I am very happy because other families do not have to go through what I am going through,” Kathleen Sherman told Military Times. “No one should have to risk their life, but these men and women do. They are so noble and honorable.”

Her husband, Sgt. Jeremy Cain Sherman, 23, was one of the five soldiers killed on a peacekeeping mission in the Sinai Desert when their UH-60 Black Hawk experienced a technical failure and crashed. Kathleen Sherman remembers her husband as a selfless and kind person who had joined the Army to make a career as part of something greater than himself.

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Dallas Gerald Garza, 34, was on board the same helicopter when it crashed on Nov. 12, 2020. His parents, both former paratroopers in the Army, said there was never any doubt that their son would join the Army, too. Garza’s two loves in life were the Army and flying. He left behind a fiancé and three children. After the peacekeeping mission to Egypt, he was to report to Fort Campbell, Kentucky to fly with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.

“People who are not involved in the military like we are, rarely understand what it is like,” said mother Maria De Jesus Garza. “As service members, we understand in the back of our mind that there’s always that possibility, but at the same time, we feel invincible and say it’s not going to happen to us, we’re going to be okay.”

Among the resources made available to the Garzas and Kathleen Sherman after the accident was the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, the nation’s leading organization providing care and support to families of fallen service members.

“While there have been fewer combat losses overseas, we continue to see steep increases in military and veteran deaths at home due to suicide and illnesses as a result of exposures to toxins,” TAPS spokesperson Leigh Edmonds told Military Times. “More than 50 percent of newly bereaved survivors who connect with TAPS have lost a military loved one to suicide or illness loss.”

TAPS sees almost 23 new enrollees every day to its services like emotional support groups, casework assistance, and a 24/7 survivor hotline.

Also available to the families of those who die on active duty are Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance, a DoD death gratuity payment, eligibility for some military loans and scholarships, and Tricare For Life medical care—small compensation for what they’ve lost.

“It’s not just the service member that serves, it’s the whole family because the whole family makes sacrifices and, in some cases like us, we make the ultimate sacrifice,” said Maria De Jesus Garza.

Survivors of a fallen service member in need of support can reach TAPS 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 800-959-8277.

These are the 18 service members who died in overseas incidents since last Memorial Day. Take a moment to remember them and the sacrifice made by they and their loved ones:

• Army Spc. Nick Bravo-Regules; Jordan; June 23, 2020
• Army Spc. Vincent Ibarria; Farah, Afghanistan; July 3, 2020
• Army Pfc. Alexander Klass; Camp Novo Selo, Kosovo; July 4, 2020
• Army 1st Lt. Joseph Allbaugh; Kandahar Province, Afghanistan; July 12, 2020
• Army Sgt. Bryan Mount; Syria; July 21, 2020
• Marine Corps Sgt. Trevor Goldyn; Bahrain; Aug. 11, 2020
• Navy Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Ian McKnight; North Arabian Sea; Sept. 6, 2020
• Air Force Senior Airman Jason Phan; Ali Al Salem Airbase, Kuwait; Sept. 12, 2020
• Air Force Staff Sgt. Ronald Ouellette; Ali Al Salem Airbase, Kuwait; Sept. 14, 2020
• Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Dallas Garza; Sinai Peninsula, Egypt; Nov. 12, 2020
• Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Marwan Ghabour; Sinai Peninsula, Egypt; Nov. 12, 2020
• Army Staff Sgt. Kyle McKee; Sinai Peninsula, Egypt; Nov. 12, 2020
• Army Sgt. Jeremy Sherman; Sinai Peninsula, Egypt; Nov. 12, 2020
• Army Capt. Seth Vandekamp; Sinai Peninsula, Egypt; Nov. 12, 2020
• Air Force Capt. Kelliann Leli; Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates; Nov. 27, 2020
• Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Bermudez; Camp Buehring, Kuwait; Jan. 11, 2021
• Army Staff Sgt. Timothy Manchester; Camp Arifjan, Kuwait; Jan. 20, 2021
• Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Pantos; Ali Al Salem Airbase, Kuwait; April 26, 2021

Between the four military branches, the Army had the lowest rate of vaccination. Marines were 52 percent more likely to get vaccinated than soldiers. Sailors and airmen were respectively 45 percent and 15 percent more likely.

Black service members were least likely to choose to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, as well as female service members and those with lower ranks and education levels. Research surveying the civilian population also suggests high rates of vaccine hesitancy among Black Americans.

During the term of the study, 29 percent of white service members initiated the vaccine process, while only 25.5 percent of Hispanic and 18.7 percent of Black service members across the military chose to do so.

“This suggests that forces external to the U.S. military, such as interpersonal and societal factors, also contribute towards vaccine hesitancy among military service members, as has been suggested for other disease processes,” the study stated. “Military leadership and vaccine planners should be knowledgeable about and aware of the disparities in vaccine initiation.”

Researchers tracked the medical data of all active duty service members from December 2020 through March 2021. During this time, 361,538 service members, or 27.2 percent of the active-duty military, received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The study was published in the April edition of the Medical Surveillance Monthly Report, the military’s peer-reviewed medical journal.

When analyzing completion of the vaccine process, researchers only looked at the 181,127 service members who had received their first dose prior to Jan. 29, 2021. Of these service members, 93.8 percent received a second dose within six weeks of their first.

Service members who had previously contracted COVID-19 were 20 percent less likely to get vaccinated.

No significant differences were observed between demographic groupings for completion of the vaccine after receiving a first dose, but soldiers did complete their vaccinations at a slightly lower rate.

When broken down by occupational specialty, data showed that motor transport specialties had the lowest rates of vaccine initiation, whereas pilots and healthcare workers were most likely to choose to get vaccinated.

Of the 110,456 health care personnel serving on active duty at the time of the study, 55 percent initiated at least one dose of the vaccine.

As of May 17, 715,936 service members are fully vaccinated, and 308,127 have received at least one dose, according to the DoD’s publicly available numbers.

Army officials announced on Wednesday that their medical treatment facilities had administered more than 1 million doses of the vaccine.

It was the first time former Navy pilots Bob Wetzel, 60, and Jeff Zaun, 58, had seen Layth Muneer since the deserts of Iraq in 1991, when their plane was shot down and Muneer, a former major general in the Iraqi Air Force, stopped search parties of Iraqi security forces from killing them.

Now, almost another decade later, Muneer, 74, is still in the U.S. and struggling to be granted asylum, let alone get a green card. Wetzel and Zaun are committed to helping their captor-turned-friend become a citizen.

Jan. 17, 1991

Four U.S. Navy A-6 Intruders flew low over the Iraqi desert as they approached H-3 Airbase. Their mission, to cripple the base’s missile and air defense capabilities with cluster bombs, was a key part of the air war in Operation Desert Storm, which had begun fewer than 24 hours before.

Wetzel and Zaun piloted the second A-6 in the strike force, escorted by a complement of fighter jets and radar-jamming aircraft. They were only minutes from their target when anti-aircraft artillery and parachute flares lit up the clear night sky.

“The AAA was very intense, and I knew from there that we were going to get shot down,” said Wetzel. “I knew we weren’t going to get through this without getting hit by something, because the whole sky was lit up.”

At 10 miles away from H-3 (just over a minute at their speed of 450 knots), Wetzel spotted an incoming surface-to-air missile to their front and outmaneuvered it. About 30 seconds later, another came in from the right. Wetzel looked up from the gauges in his cockpit just in time to see it pulling lead on their jet. Turning hard in the SAM’s direction, he managed to outmaneuver his second SAM of the night.

He wouldn’t be so lucky with the third.

As Wetzel watched the evaded missile fly off into the night and continued his turn away from it, an explosion rocked the plane. A third SAM he hadn’t seen coming had struck the right-side engine. The plane shook violently, and warning lights brightened the cockpit.

“The only thing I remember really clearly was a fire that I could see in the windscreen, and I could hear the engine eating itself,” said Zaun. Seconds after the plane’s first engine went out, the second ground to a halt.

Unable to fly further, Zaun and Wetzel both remember calling for ejection. Next thing they knew, the pilots were on the desert floor in clear sight of the enemy airfield. The ejector blast had knocked them unconscious for the descent and left Wetzel with multiple broken bones.

A dazed and disoriented Zaun rose to his feet but was unable to locate his weapon or radio. In his delirium, he recalls repeatedly searched his parachute for the missing items. Wetzel had landed nearby and was in poor condition, but they were too close to the airfield to be safe. They needed to get moving.

Zaun helped Wetzel remove his parachute harness, and the two began walking and crawling up steep sand dunes in the direction of the Jordanian border to their southwest. The duo only made it about a half-mile into their trek when they turned around and saw trucks investigating the site where they’d stowed their parachutes. Search parties from the airbase were on their tracks; it was only a matter of time now before they were captured.

The pilots hid in a gulley, but as an Iraqi truck approached their position, it was clear the enemy couldn’t see them hiding and might run them over. Zaun stepped out in front of the truck with his arms raised, and the downed pilots made their surrender.

Small arms fire filled the air — the Iraqis’ signal that they had found the men. More troops began to gather around, and soon an angry mob had formed, kicking and grabbing at the two pilots.

Then a new group showed up on the scene — an Iraqi Air Force officer and his airmen — and brought order to the crowd.

“He was with some of his troops and he formed like a little perimeter around us with his guys — I want to say maybe eight or 10 guys — who were protecting us from this angry mob and got us over to his jeep,” said Wetzel.

The officer saw to it that the two pilots were safely delivered onto H-3 and to the infirmary, where they were given medical care until the following morning, when they were taken to Baghdad.

H-3 Airbase

General Layth Muneer was a seasoned veteran of the Iraqi Air Force. As a fighter pilot, he had spent the early years of his career training in Pakistan and Iraq on both American and Russian-made platforms including T-37s, F-86s, and MiG 21s and 23s. He also served on flight missions for allied countries like India and Egypt. In 1991, he was serving as commander of H-3, an Iraqi air force base about 300 miles west of Baghdad in Al-Anbar Governate.

When the attacking A-6 Intruders made their approach on Jan. 17, Muneer’s radar officer didn’t spot the aircraft until they were about four minutes out.

“I said, ‘Oh my God.’ Then I gave the order for all the weapons and missiles to be alert and on fire,” Muneer told Military Times.

Minutes later, the bombing began. From the officer’s mess to administrative offices, hangars to soldiers’ quarters, Muneer said coalition planes bombed nearly everything. The general and his airmen hid from the strikes in underground shelters, emerging only after the aircraft had passed.

Throughout the attack, Muneer’s airmen had been firing AAA and SAMs, including both Russian radar-guided missiles and the heat-seeking French Rolands that took down Wetzel and Zaun. H-3 had been mercilessly punished by coalition cluster bombs and missiles, but Muneer’s airmen kept fighting, and they kept thinking they had shot down enemy aircraft.

“Every day, every hour, my security force would bring me pieces of bombs and drop tanks and frame them as an aircraft they had shot down,” said Muneer. “Finally, they brought me a nosewheel and I said, ‘Oh, look at this. This is an aircraft. Now you are right… it is an American airplane.’”

H-3′s air defense also managed to hit another A-6 in the strike on Jan. 17. Although the plane was damaged, its crew was able to continue flying to safety over Saudi Arabia.

The nosewheel his security forces had recovered was still hot, so Muneer gathered a search party to locate the downed aircraft and its pilots. He instructed the searchers to fire a weapon into the air when they’d found something.

The first searchers to locate the downed pilots, however, weren’t Muneer’s airmen; they were the military commandos who guarded H-3 from the outside.

“[Wetzel and Zaun] were scared by those people,” said Muneer. “As the commander of the base, I gave my order: ‘Stop shooting, and don’t harm the pilots. They are prisoners of war; we should go according to the Geneva Convention.’”

“But they still wanted to kill them. They hit them, they stole their things before I arrived,” said Muneer. Muneer safely escorted the prisoners to his jeep and then left them at the base infirmary under the watch of guards he personally trusted.

At the time, Saddam Hussein’s government offered rewards to citizens who brought in enemy combatants, dead or alive. But military personnel were not eligible for such rewards, so some of the Iraqi soldiers and airmen wanted to hand over the pilots to locals and divvy up the prize, according to Muneer. Despite pressure from other officials on the base, including a cousin of Saddam Hussein, Muneer would not let them take the prisoners.

The next day, the general sent the two POWs to Baghdad with his personal driver.

Preparing for Desert Storm

Back on the aircraft carrier Saratoga, anchored some 500 miles from H-3 in the Red Sea, Zaun and Wetzel’s chain of command had no idea whether they were dead or alive.

The carrier had steamed out of port in August 1990 for a six-month cruise in the Mediterranean. Just a week before the ship was set to leave, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

Instead of the Mediterranean port calls the sailors on board the Saratoga had been expecting, the cruise became a trip to the Red Sea, where pilots like Zaun and Wetzel would spend their days training and planning for war with Iraq.

“The idea that we were maybe going on a war cruise made saying goodbye a little more emotional this time,” said Wetzel, who had to bid farewell to his fiancé. But he was hopeful that it would all work out according to schedule. The cruise left in August, and the wedding date was set for March 2 — more than six months away.

Both Zaun and Wetzel were on their second cruises and relatively experienced as pilots when the war began. In fact, when the duo was shot down over H-3, Zaun was only three hours away from having flown 1,000 hours in an A-6 cockpit.

Given his experience, Zaun served as lead planner for the strike on H-3. “I planned the dickens out of it… I really knew that airfield well because I’d studied it for months,” he said.

The first plane through would hit the airfield’s control tower. Wetzel and Zaun would follow and destroy the fuel farm, and the final two planes would target the base’s hangars where fighter jets were located. The attack aircraft would fly low over the desert to avoid radar and make it difficult for high-flying enemy fighter jets to shoot down at them.

The twinjet, all-weather-attack A-6 Intruder was the perfect plane for the job. Grumman designed the aircraft to be capable of flying low, even at night, and the side-by-side seats in the cockpit made the bombardier/navigator’s job significantly easier.

Zaun would serve as the duo’s B/N on Jan. 17, monitoring the plane’s large radar display and targeting computers to ensure their bombs would land on target. They would be dropping Mark 20 Rockeye II cluster bombs, which carry 247 individual bomblets to spread destruction over a wide area.

“The A-6 was the workhorse for attack, especially at night. We could carry way more and we weren’t any more vulnerable,” said Zaun.

When Wetzel was still in training, he knew the A-6 was the plane he wanted to pilot.

“The A-6 was my first choice instead of a fighter plane. I liked to fly at the low levels,” said Wetzel.

For both men, the beginning of the Gulf War was the result of years of preparation.

Zaun and Wetzel both grew up in New Jersey. Zaun graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1984 with the goal of flying attack planes. Wetzel, who entered Aviation Officer Candidate School in 1985, was in his senior year of college when he ran into a Navy recruiter who showed him videos of the Blue Angels and convinced him he could become a pilot. “I always thought of flying airplanes, but I didn’t know anybody that was a pilot. I didn’t even know many people in the military,” said Wetzel.

Captivity

The bumpy ride from H-3 to Baghdad would be the last time the two pilots saw each other for more than a month.

Zaun was sent to the Iraqi secret police, where he was beaten, often with rubber mallets or hoses to the shins. He recalls rarely being punched with a closed fist; however, slaps were regular. His interrogators eventually said that they would kill him unless he went on TV and answered interview questions as he was instructed to.

“They told me all the questions they were going to ask along with all the answers I was supposed to give,” said Zaun. “… I just tried to sound as insincere as possible. I was pretty sure Americans wouldn’t buy it.”

The interview was the first time Zaun’s family and shipmates learned he was still alive.

Shortly after being brought to the TV station, Zaun was transferred to the custody of the Republican Guard, where the beatings and harassment lessened but food and living quarters were still poor. Despite being malnourished, he focused on doing pushups and maintaining his fitness to pass the time.

The majority of Zaun’s stay was at Biltmore Prison, home of the secret police headquarters. He describes the prison as a dungeon, with dark lighting and cold cells. Prisoners of war were regularly dragged out for interrogations and beatings.

When Wetzel arrived in Baghdad, he was immediately brought to a hospital and treated for a broken left ulna, broken right humerus, compression fracture of his vertebrae, broken right collarbone, and a broken finger. After six days of hospital recovery, he, too, was put in Biltmore to be interrogated.

Wetzel recalls being treated more gently because of his injuries, but secret police interrogators still whipped him and burnt his skin with cigarettes, he said. He would drag on his answers to every question, repeating statements and adding excessive lies and stories to avoid giving away information or being beaten again.

The long, dark days in a prison cell brought on depression for Wetzel, and starting off with serious injuries only made his time in captivity more difficult. He says he prayed and daydreamed every chance he could, often thinking of his hometown in New Jersey or of his fiancé Jackie, waiting for him stateside.

Wetzel never appeared on a TV interview, and until the two pilots were released, his family didn’t know whether he was dead or alive. Zaun and Wetzel saw each other only once in passing during their stay at Biltmore, and it wasn’t until their release that they would speak again.

On Feb. 24, the same day the ground war to push Iraq out of Kuwait began, Air Force pilots bombed the secret police headquarters at Biltmore. As a result, Zaun and Wetzel were transferred to Abu Ghraib and then to another prison in Baghdad, spending no more than a few days at each before their release.

On March 2, the same day Wetzel was supposed to be married, the prisoners learned that the war was coming to an end and they would be sent home soon. Two days later, they were released to the Red Cross.

The two spent a total of 46 days in captivity.

In the air, on Wall Street, and on the run

Wetzel and his fiancé were married on June 1, 1991, with many members of his squadron in attendance. This June marks their 30th anniversary.

After receiving medical treatment and evaluations to correct the screws that were put in his arm at the hospital in Baghdad, Wetzel continued to serve as a flight instructor until the Navy began to phase the A-6 out of service. Upon separating from the Navy in September 1995 at the rank of lieutenant, he became a pilot for United Airlines, where he worked for 25 years before retiring to Colorado last fall.

Zaun left the Navy in 1998 at the rank of lieutenant commander and went on to earn his master’s in business administration at the Wharton School of Business. Twice more in his career, he would be present as catastrophe struck. On Sept. 11, 2001, Zaun was working on Wall Street just a few blocks from the World Trade Center when the planes struck.

Then, in 2008, he was working as a credit analyst in a rating agency when the financial crisis hit. Zaun still lives in New Jersey and is in the early stages of writing a book on his experiences.

Muneer continued to serve as the commander of H-3 Airbase and in the Iraqi Air Force for years after Desert Storm, leaving the military in 2003 when the invasion of Iraq began.

He had served his country for 36 years, including as a pilot in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. When Saddam Hussein was overthrown and Iraq’s infrastructure began to collapse, Iranian assassins poured over the border to exact their revenge on Iraqi pilots for their part in the conflict. Hundreds of pilots who flew in the Iran-Iraq War were killed, and hundreds more fled.

Muneer first fled to Syria because the country had no laws against Iraqi citizens immigrating, but when he refused to help former Iraqi government officials in hiding plan to take back their government from coalition forces, he was pushed out of Syria as well, according to his son.

Muneer finally moved to Egypt, where his son says he had previously been one of a just a handful of allied pilots to serve under the command of then-Air Force Commander Hosni Mubarak during the Yom Kippur War.

By the time Muneer was on the run, Mubarak was Egypt’s president, and he welcomed his old friend into the country. Muneer enjoyed a comfortable life teaching classes at the Egyptian air academy and talking about the Yom Kippur War on TV.

But in 2011, Mubarak was overthrown and the Muslim Brotherhood was elected into power over Egypt. The new government would not renew Muneer’s residency papers, which were signed off on by Mubarak’s administration, unless he agreed to use his status to spread propaganda in support of the new president. Muneer refused to do so and was forced to flee yet another country.

The former Iraqi general arrived in the U.S. in 2012 to visit his son, Zea Muneer, a sergeant first class in the U.S. Army and Bronze Star recipient. Zea, 43, had immigrated to the U.S. in 2003 and spent more than six years on deployment in Iraq. He is currently a cryptologic analyst in the Army Reserve with more than 15 years of service.

Rather than return to Egypt from his visit, the elder Muneer applied for asylum in the U.S. in 2012. He still hasn’t received it.

Muneer’s case was rejected by immigration services and then reinstated when Zea employed the help of his congressional representative. The case was then transferred to the immigration courts, where the former general’s hearing has been postponed repeatedly. His current hearing date is scheduled for 2024.

Until he receives asylum, Muneer cannot apply for a green card, which would allow him to travel and visit the rest of his children, who are spread out around the world. In the meantime, he has started a business teaching chess and tennis to children in elementary schools in the DC area.

He’s also taken up work as a military advisor, speaking three to four times a year to military intelligence units preparing to engage with foreign countries.

“I don’t know why they don’t approve it. He’s stuck,” said Zea. “Is it something personally? Is there an order saying, ‘General Muneer cannot get asylum?’ I don’t know. He’s just stuck in the immigration system like many people are.”

Reunion

In the months following his arrival in the U.S., Muneer worked hard to locate the two POWs he had saved in the desert decades ago. Despite the best efforts of his son and his attorney, they were unable to do so.

Finally, Muneer told the story to his tennis partner, Rodrigo Cruze. Cruze searched the internet and found contact information for Zaun’s mother.

“My mom called me and told me some Iraqi general wanted to talk to me,” said Zaun. He got in contact with Muneer and set up a time and place for the meeting. Then he called Wetzel.

The two pilots met with Cruze and Layth and Zea Muneer in Crystal City on Nov. 15, 2012. They’ve reconvened almost every year since on Jan. 17 to reminisce and retell their stories of Desert Storm.

“I think about it and I still get the chills. It’s amazing that we ever met up with him again,” said Wetzel. “… I knew who he was on the ground there, but I never saw him again, and in my talks I always talked about this guy who captured us and really saved us from this angry mob.”

It’s hard to imagine that the now 74-year-old man teaching chess at elementary schools and working as a tennis coach is the same man who commanded H-3 Airbase through Desert Storm. For Wetzel and Zaun, it’s even harder to imagine that their friend is unable to gain citizenship after everything he’s done.

“Jeff and I were going to go in January to his trial date and be there alongside him as a character reference, and it got postponed for several years,” said Wetzel. “Hopefully, when the time comes, he’ll be able to get his citizenship. I know there’s a lot of people behind us willing to support him.”

To Zaun, the case for Muneer’s citizenship is clear. “At this point, he is not only someone who acted professionally and probably saved the lives of two Americans, but he has also become a solid American himself,” he said.

Some prescriptions were filled for up to a year’s supply of Schedule II drugs that have a high potential for abuse and dependence.

“These MTFs dispensed Schedule II amphetamines to beneficiaries in a manner that was inconsistent with DHA policy and may have increased the risk of overdose and diversion from legal sources to the illicit market,” the audit report states.

The DHA instructed MTFs in December 2019 to limit prescriptions of Schedule II amphetamines for ADHD to 90-day supplies with no refills. Military departments were given until April 14, 2020 to implement the change.

The new guidance was intended to reduce the risk of addiction and overdose and ensure standardized practices across the force.

Schedule II amphetamines are typically prescribed to treat ADHD and narcolepsy. The Drug Enforcement Agency defines Schedule II drugs as having “a high potential for abuse, with use potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence.” Adderall, Ritalin and Vyvanse are all Schedule II amphetamines.

Using a military health database, DoDIG auditors found that between April 15 and Aug. 13, 2020, 96 percent of the 89,356 prescriptions filled for Schedule II amphetamines were in accordance with the new guidance.

However, 65 MTFs continued issuing prescriptions for 100-day supplies. During the period examined by the audit, these MTFs dispensed 2,967 100-day supplies. Of those prescriptions, 43 percent went to active duty servicemembers while 57 percent went to retired servicemembers and military family members.

According to a Congressional Research Service report in December 2020, there are 721 MTFs around the world, meaning about 9 percent of all MTFs failed to comply with the new DHA guidelines.

The DHA director disagreed with DoDIG’s conclusion that filling prescriptions for just 10 days longer than recommended could increase the risk of overdose.

In addition to 100-day supplies, auditors found that MTFs dispensed 302 prescriptions for even longer periods of time, including five prescriptions supplying enough amphetamines for 301-365 days.

The MTFs at fault were mostly located on Navy and Air Force installations. According to the audit, the Navy failed to implement the new 90-day prescription guidance and continued to operate using existing 100-day limitations.

In a study conducted from January 2014 through December 2018, the military’s peer reviewed medical journal found that the prevalence of ADHD in the military decreased from 3.9 percent to 2.8 percent of active duty servicemembers.

Of those servicemembers with ADHD, approximately 60.2 percent were prescribed some sort of medication for their condition, with stimulants like amphetamines being the most common.

ADHD is a common barrier to entry into the military, but if an applicant has not taken medication for more than 24 cumulative months after the age of 14, a waiver is not necessary for their enlistment. In 2017, ADHD and disruptive disorders were the fifth most common medical disqualifier for first-time enlistees, according to the Medical Surveillance Monthly Report.

To address the problem of overprescribing amphetamines for ADHD, the DoDIG recommended that DHA officials ensure military pharmacies and healthcare providers adopt and enforce the 90-day limit.

Between December 2020 and January 2021, independent contractors administered an anonymous, standardized DoD survey across five categories of housing at 21 installations, reaching a total of 126 neighborhoods.

Overall property and service scores for Army-owned and leased housing averaged 72.9 out of 100 points, a 3.4-point increase over last year.

Privatized housing remained steady at 75.4 points, an increase of only 0.3 from 2020.

“A higher number of residents participated in this year’s survey, and overall satisfaction rates improved as well,” said, Michael E. Reheuser, director of the Army’s Installation Services. “We are encouraged by the results, and the responses will help us determine how to continue improving the quality of life of our residents.”

The survey came after news reports and hearings nearly two years ago detailing mold, vermin, water leaks, and other problems in privatized housing. Among the problems identified in these hearings were lack of DoD oversight and issues with surveys. The Government Accountability Office recommended in March 2020 that the DoD improve its processes of collecting and calculating tenant satisfaction.

Real estate service providers Jones Lang Lasalle and CEL & Associates invited more than 85,000 residents to participate in the survey. A total of 24,483 responded, an increase of 4.4 percent for privatized housing and 3.3 percent for Army-owned or leased housing from the 2020 survey.

Scores increased in the categories of Europe-owned and leased, readiness-owned, sustainment-owned and leased, and Pacific-owned and leased. “Other leased” was the only category to see a decrease in score and was comprised solely of a neighborhood located at Camp Shelby, Mississippi.

Categories were evaluated in regards to both property and service satisfaction.

Tenants responded to each survey question regarding service or property satisfaction using a five-point Likert rating scale. Ratings were then placed into three satisfaction indexes on a scale from 0 to 100.

Though Europe-owned and leased housing improved by 4.5 points, scores in this category were still labeled average (74.9 to 70) or below average (69.9 to 65).

To differentiate between owned and leased housing, the initial 21 installations surveyed were broken down into 27. 19 of the 27 installations ranked in the outstanding, very good, good, or average range of 70-100 points. Five installations ranked below average and three were considered poor or below.

Ansbach-owned and Italy-owned housing had poor overall scores of 61.7 and 61.6 respectively. Housing at Hawthorne Army Depot, Nevada, was labeled as in crisis with an overall score of 47.6 points.

A majority of respondents self-selected their rank as E5-E6 (27.8 percent), E7-E9 (18.8 percent), or O4-O5 (14 percent).

“The results of this survey will be used by installation leadership, in conjunction with government housing managers and private company property managers, to further refine action plans to address deficiencies and prioritize resources,” said Reheuser in a press release. “We appreciate everyone who took the time to participate, and look forward to their feedback on how to further improve living conditions.”

The Army is working with privatized companies to add $2.8 billion in new housing developments and renovations over the next five years, according to the same press release. According to the Army’s housing and quality of life website, the service has already invested approximately $2.48 billion in barracks construction and renovation over the past two years.

His play, “Last Out: Elegy of a Green Beret,” brought the realities of life in the military to audiences across the country in its 2019 tour. Now, it’s in production as a filming of the stage performance with a planned release for streaming later this year.

Mann, now 52, said he knew he wanted to join Special Forces when he was 14. Comparing his life to a play, he says the first act was spent preparing to earn his green beret, focusing on that singular goal.

In the second act of his life, Mann wore his beret with pride, serving 18 of his 23 years in the Army in Special Forces. After the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, he repeatedly deployed to the Middle East.

“I found myself either in Afghanistan or getting ready to go back,” Mann told Military Times. His work in Special Forces gave him purpose and meaning, but in 2013 at the rank of lieutenant colonel, he decided it was time to step away.

On the surface, his life seemed fine. He took a civilian job as a contractor, and his family was doing well. But something was missing — he didn’t feel the same sense of purpose he had in the military.

“I’m sitting there looking in the mirror, 40-some years old, wondering ‘Is this it?’” said Mann. “All the things I wanted to as a 14-year-old kid, I’ve done them. Now what? What’s act three?”

The survivor’s guilt and post-traumatic stress Mann says he had pushed down for years rose to the surface and began to overflow. In a TED Talk in 2019 he shared the story of the moment he nearly took his own life, standing in a closet in his home with a loaded handgun.

“Your darkest struggle can be your greatest gift to those you lead…if you are willing to pay the price,” Mann said in his TED Talk — a fitting description of his journey from Green Beret to writer and actor.

With the help of civilian mentors, Mann overcame his struggles and found a new purpose: using storytelling to help others.

“Last Out” was born from a five-minute play Mann had written for an acting course on one-person shows. Two years of writing later, that monologue became a compilation of the stories Mann, his fellow Green Berets, their fallen comrades, and family members had experienced in more than two decades of war.

His goal was to validate the feelings and frustrations of veterans, let Gold Star families know they’re not forgotten, and give civilians a real understanding of the realities of a world they’ve become desensitized to. As the play becomes a film, he retains the same mission.

“We need to understand the cost of modern war from the voice of the people who lived it,” Mann said. “There’s no end in sight to threats and war, but if we’re going to continue to send our men and women to fight, then we need to understand what we’re asking of them.”

As the four-person cast (all veterans or military family members) performed the show more than 50 times in 16 cities during 2019, the reception was tremendous.

In talkbacks with the audience after performances, the cast heard from veterans, Gold Star families, children of veterans, and civilians with no military experience, all of whom felt the show had given them new understandings and emotions. The show even traveled with its own counsellors to treat actors and audience members when scenes from the play triggered post-traumatic stress. In every city, Mann was touched by how the show was supported by local hosts and volunteers.

Then COVID-19 hit, and the show was put on hold. Mann watched as unemployment related to the virus decimated the touring company he was working with. Hungry to keep sharing the story of “Last Out,” he put on a remote performance of scenes from his play, “The Things They Carried,” and World War II monologues. Again, the reception was incredible, and Mann saw the opportunity for “Last Out” to reach new audiences online.

Inspired by how well Disney recorded a stage performance of “Hamilton” during the pandemic, Mann decided to record “Last Out” for release on a major streaming platform. With new costumes and props, the stage performance was prepared for film.

“The play itself was incredible, but the magic of film has allowed us to take it beyond the next level. With live theatre, you really don’t have time to do the things we were able to do in the film,” said Alliy Vetzel, deputy director of The Heroes Journey and tour manager for “Last Out.”

Mann founded The Heroes Journey in 2015 as a non-profit to help veterans, first responders, and their families share their voices through storytelling. The organization’s ultimate goal is to open a veterans performing arts center in Florida.

Vetzel, the wife of an Army infantryman injured by an IED in Iraq, spoke to the non-profit’s success. “When [my husband] first saw the play, he said, ‘I’ve never felt like someone truly understood what I was going through until now.’ The positive changes to his life since working with Scott are nothing short of amazing,” she said.

“Last Out: Elegy of a Green Beret” is scheduled for a limited release as a filmed performance on Memorial Day, May 31, to honor Gold Star families and a full release on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.

The show’s trailer can be watched on YouTube.

“I want to do the same thing we did with the play but on a much larger scale,” said Mann. “I want to inform the American people on the cost of war, I want to validate the journey of those who fought it and lived it, I want to help heal the invisible wounds of combat, and I want to, across the country, connect Americans around this hard topic of war.”