To answer your first question, yes, I was denied VA benefits for education. Long story short, I converted VEAP to MGIB and paid the difference between the two. However, seven years after retirement, I applied for VA benefits and was told I was ineligible since I had not paid into MGIB. Military records has the form (forgot number) showing I had converted VEAP to MGIB, but military pay (conveniently?) lost the last 18 month of my military pay records, which shows that I paid into the MGIB. Also, the VA office at the university in which I was enrolled did nothing to help resolve this. My advice: hold on to any and all paper pertaining to your military service as if it is pure gold; don't expect anyone else to do it for you, not even military records.

<p>Chapter 32 GI Bill is the VEAP where they double-matched your contributions to basically set up an Education Fund for you to tap into&nbsp;that gave you 36-months of benefits.</p><p>.&nbsp;</p><p>Just like the Chapter 30 Active Duty GI Bill that followed, both of these programs need to be used within 10 years of departing the military.</p><p>.&nbsp;</p><p>The new Post 9/11 GI Bill has extended the expiration to 15yrs, but still has an expiration just like VEAP did.</p><p>.&nbsp;</p><p>So, not sure what you mean by "left holding the bag". I can only assume you're speaking of not using your benefits within the 10yr expiration and you had to pay for your education after that 10yr period.</p><p>.&nbsp;</p><p>Not that I agree that our educational benefits should expire, but that's what the policy is.</p>

I was jack hammered by the VEAP program when I served which was a useless program. As such, I can relate and it really is not fair as you could join the Peace Corps and get better coverage on your education.