Some ETSU students serving as soldiers in the Marine Corps Reserves will be departing for Iraq soon.
About 20 students belonging to the Lima Company, third battalion, 24th Marine regiment, a local reserve unit based in Gray, received its mobilization to active duty over Christmas break.
The unit, which is non-mechanized infantry, was mobilized for a year, effective Jan. 5.
The soldiers left for Camp Pendleton, Calif., Tuesday night, Jan. 13, where they will stay for just over a month before going to Iraq.
They will be in Iraq for eight months before returning to camp Pendleton for demobilization.
On Jan. 8, ETSU Veteran’s Affairs coordinator Keith Johnson spoke to ETSU students, as well as other soldiers from Lima Company that are students from other schools.
“The active duty commander of the unit, he wanted me to come out and talk to the Marines that had been mobilized,” Johnson said. “Sixty of his Marines are students from every college and university in the area.”
Those places include the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga and out-of-state schools too, he said.
The subjects he spoke to the Marines about were mostly concerning how their mobilization affects their Veteran’s Affairs benefits, their financial aid and how the new Tennessee lottery scholarship eligibility will be affected.
He said several of the Marines are eligible for lottery money.
“They were really lucky in that the semester hadn’t started,” Johnson said.
Because they received their orders before the semester began, Lima Company students have nothing really to worry about with regard to financial aid.
However, Johnson stressed that they needed to withdraw before classes began to make the process easier.
“If enrolled in school they need to withdraw, we didn’t want anyone coming back and finding an F for a class they didn’t attend,” he said.
Other things to make the process easier for soldiers to adjust when they return is that their length of time permitted in course catalogs is extended and they can be readmitted to certain programs, such as the college of nursing without losing their credits.
Johnson took questions from the soldiers, as well. He said that the most important issue was financial aid.
One law passed recently that takes care of that and several other concerns is the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003, which was signed into law in the fall and went into effect Dec. 12, 2003.
“It seems like in the last couple of months there have been several laws passed to make it easier on student soldiers,” Johnson said.
One of the major things the HEROS Act does is to prevent student loans for mobilized soldiers from going into repayment.
It also provides additional benefits to dependents, suspends past student loans and provides for an additional forbearance period, which means more time is allowed for the repayment of loans.
Because most of the student soldiers are 18, 19 or 20, they are considered dependents.
However, after performing one day of active duty, they become independent students, Johnson said. That could allow for more financial aid.
“After becoming independent they only have to report their income and finances, not their parents’,” Johnson said.
“That’s a major benefit they gain from this.”
Another law that went into effect in December was the Service Members Civil Relief Act, which is basically an updated version of an old law called the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act of 1940.
This law was designed to provide protections to service members who cannot meet their personal financial and legal obligations due to service in the military.
The updated protections include a 6 percent ceiling on debts acquired before mobilization, protection from eviction if back rent is $2,465 or less, a 90-day delay on civil court proceedings after demobilization and the ability to terminate leases on such things as cars without having to pay the penalty.
Johnson said that it is important to remember that the Marines who left for Iraq on Jan. 13 are not the only ETSU students serving overseas.
“The Marines are just the latest example,” he said. “Fifteen students have been mobilized since 9-11.”
Johnson also said that there are around 200,000 reservists on active duty from all around the country, the majority of which are students.
That creates special problems for the soldiers when they return to civilian life, which is why he believes the recent amount of legislation regarding the affairs of soldiers.
“Ever since 9-11 and the massive military mobilizations, they have had people realize that this is not just a temporary thing but a long term problem they are going to have to deal with,” Johnson said.

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