Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • A15

Wednesday, August 15, 2012 DAILY PRESS 15 Vets are schooled with new GI Bill Nearly 600,000 expected to be About the GI Bill Most veterans who use the Post-911 GI Bill attend two-year public institutions. The majority of those enrolled are men ages 25 to 34. The most prevalent degrees include general studies, nursing, business administration, criminal justice and psychology. To learn more about the Post-911 GI Bill and to apply for benefits, visit gibifl.va.gov. SOURCE: U.S.

Department of Veterans Affairs I 'mmR IS- Jin nil mil 'i'i suss. under umbrella By Rachel Siegel The Dallas Morning News DALLAS After two tours in Iraq and trouble adjusting to civilian life, Jeff Hensley was looking for a new career path. He wanted to leave his job as an airline pilot and become a counselor, though he didn't know how he would pay for it. "I knew there was a real need for it out there," said the 48-year-old Frisco, Texas, resident, who served in the Navy and later in the Air Force. Like thousands of military veterans, Hensley found financial help in the Post-911 GI Bill the latest version of the law first signed by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1944.

This fall, with more U.S. troops returning from overseas, a record 590,000 veterans are expected to be enrolled in universities and two-year colleges under the new bill. GI Bill benefits allow eligible veterans to attend a public college or university free for four years, as well as receive a monthly housing stipend and up to $1,000 a year for books. When Hensley returned home from Iraq in 2007, his newest battles hardly resembled those he encountered on aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf or on fighter jets over Baghdad. Hensley and his wife divorced, and he eventually underwent counseling to cope with what he described as "re-integration issues." Inspired by the progress he gradually made, Hensley began considering leaving his job as a pilot for United Airlines.

Counseling appealed to him, in part because relatively few vet LOUIS DELUCADALLA5 MORNING NEWS PHOTO Justin Beatty, 32, left, was deployed to the Persian Gulf three times with the Navy the first time in December 2001. Under the Post-911 GI Bill, he is a first-year medical student at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. ing for 10 years," Tarantino said. "People who are now GI Bill-eligible are going to be leaving service and doing other things with their lives." He said he expects enrollment under the bill to increase in each of the next five years. Since the bill took effect in August 2009, almost 750,000 veterans and their dependents have used the program to pursue some form of higher education.

Justin Beatty, 32, born and raised in Denton, Texas, was deployed to the Persian Gulf three times with the Navy the first time in December 200L He was stationed in San Diego, on the USS Bon-homme Richard, on Sept 1L 200L Under the Post-911 GI Bill, he is a first-year medical student at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. "When 911 happened, we didn't really know where we were going, but we pretty much knew that our lives were never going to be the same," Beatty said. Beatty was given an honorable discharge in November 2006 after being deployed overseas for 19 months. He enrolled as a freshman at University of North Texas in January 2007 but failed to sign up for GI Bill benefits, not believing he would need them. The new bill had come into law by the time he graduated from the university in December 2010.

Yet while others struggled to understand why the U.S. entered the Vietnam War, it seemed to give Lyon at least one promise: "I knew I was gonna get drafted. That was 1967." After making his way through Army basic training, reconnaissance infantry school, jump school and jungle training, he was deployed to Vietnam with the 82nd Airborne Division. He left the Army in 1970 and enrolled at North Carolina Wesleyan College under the GI Bill. After graduating, he went to the University of New Mexico for a master's, and a dual doctorate in psychology and special education.

"The GI Bill was there for you," said Lyon, 63. "I don't think that I would have actually gone to college. The military really taught me a lot. You learn discipline you don't have a choice." Today, Lyon conducts research at the University of Texas at Dallas' Center for BrainHealth, where he works with veterans recovering, physically or emotionally, from combat. "It's like my second home," Lyon said.

"My passion really is to work with veterans who've gotten banged up. There's a special kind of bond. Any contributions I may be able to make why not?" principle of "preferential option for the poor and vulnerable." "Simply put, I do not believe that the preferential option for the poor means a preferential option for big government," Ryan said. Lisa Mascaro contributed from Washington. khennesseytribune.com Ryan's religion helps to guide political beliefs erans make it a career, he said.

"I'm a little bit out of my element," Hensley said. "A bunch of my friends had their own re-integration issues." Now, with the help of the Post-9ll GI Bill, Hensley, who has three children, is pursuing a master's degree in mental health counseling at the University of North Texas. With the large number of troops coming home, it's only natural that the bill would be an attractive option for soldiers looking to re-enter civilian life, said Tom Tarantino, deputy policy director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "We have an entire generation who has been fight part of his life." Ryan's religion has also been an important part of his politics. He often says his faith has guided his positions on social issues, putting him in line with church doctrine on abortion rights and gay marriage.

But he also cites church teaching in explaining his positions on government spending, deficit reduction and entitlements. Such statements have raised the ire of some Catholics, who argue he is twisting church teachings on caring for the poor and shielding the vulnerable to justify cutting the social safety net. Ryan's ascent onto the GOP ticket throws open this debate as well as the larger debate between the liberal and conservative wings of the church. Overall, Ryan's record in Congress reflects his conservative stand. He opposes legal abortion except when the mother's life is at risk.

On this he is more stringent than Romney, who would make additional exceptions for rape and incest the ticket's official position. Ryan's record of votes to affirm legal marriage as "I was able to use the Post-911 GI Bill for medical school," said Beatty, who has a 2-year-old daughter. Although the Post-911 GI Bill included new benefits, what has remained constant is the opportunity for an education that many men and women might otherwise have gone without. That was true for Reid Lyon, whose life in high school in North Carolina had few guarantees in the late 1960s. There was the stint in California when he had tried to become famous making music.

"I thought I was better than I was," he said. He wasn't prepared for college and didn't know what he wanted to do. cations as they prepared to vote on the Ryan budget. Ryan took on the criticism in a speech at Georgetown University, arguing that debt and the threat it poses to the "idea of America" is the greater danger to the poor than cuts to government. And he pushed back at those who accuse him of abandoning the Catholic But he has been at odds with church By Kathleen Hennessey and Lisa Mascaro Tribune Washington Bureau JANESVILLE, Wis.

A couple of things were different at 9:45 a.m. Mass at St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Janesville on Sunday. Rep. Paul Ryan, a fixture in the center pews when he's not in Washington or on a national news show, was missing.

Reporters were outside wanting to talk about why. Ryan was in Charlotte, N.C., waking up as the new Republican candidate for vice president. The 42-year-old congressman still made it to Mass before hitting the campaign trail with running mate Mitt Romney. "Our father always had us at church on time," Tobin Ryan, the congressman's brother, said as he walked out of church. "But each of us grew up to discover our own path.

And Paul has certainly chosen his beliefs and a very, very strong value system. It's an important JOHN W. ADKISSONGETTY PHOTO Presumptive GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, shown at a rally Sunday in Mooresville, N.C., is facing criticism from some Catholics that he twists church teachings on caring for the poor to justify deep cuts to the social safety net. Catholic nuns took a multistate bus tour this summer to bring attention to the "harm" the Ryan budget would cause the communities they serve and "enormous moral choices facing our country." In an unusually pointed correspondence, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged lawmakers to consider the moral impli between a man and woman left him with a low score from the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights group.

But it is the Ryan budget itself with its steep cuts to food stamps, health care for children and the disabled, and social programs while sparing the Pentagon that has put him at odds with some in his church. SPOTLIGHT Janna THE CANDIDATE'S WIFE Ryan has political background parents spent their careers as lawyers in private practice. Her family has strong Democratic connections and largely identifies with the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of Democratic lawmakers known for being fiscally conservative. While working on Capitol Hill after college, she attended George Washington Law School at night, receiving her degree in 1998. She then became a lobbyist.

She married Paul Ryan in 2000. Aruna Viswanatha, Reuters worlds from small-town Oklahoma and Wellesley College, a private women's school outside Boston she attended, to complex policy debates in Washington. "She is very comfortable in and around politics. She grew up in a political family, and it comes very naturally to her," said Leslie Belcher, a Washington lobbyist who worked on Capitol Hill with Janna Ryan and later was one of her bridesmaids. Ryan, whose last name was Little before her marriage, grew up in Madill, Okla.

Both of her WASHINGTON Janna Ryan, thrust onto the national stage this weekend when her husband, Rep. Paul Ryan, was chosen as the Republican vice presidential nominee, strikes an appealing image as a stay-at-home mom raising three young children in Wisconsin. But the 43-year-old has been a Washington insider herself, hailing from a well-connected family and forging an early professional career as a congressional aide and health care lobbyist. Friends describe her as being able to navigate between different JUSTIN SULLIVANGETTY PHOTO Janna Ryan shown at right this week with Ann Romney, wife of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee is a former lobbyist and aide..