When Cheloyn Keeton-Todd served as a staff sergeant in the United States Air Force from 1998 to 2008, she was sent to such places as Kuwait and Germany. During that time, she also managed to earn a bachelor’s degree online in health care administration.
Today, as a civilian, she is in an accelerated nursing program at Rasmussen College in Florida with all her education costs covered by the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
“My initial job was a material control specialist,” Keeton-Todd explains in an interview with Diverse. “I then cross-trained and became a medic until I came out. On 9/11, I was in Kuwait at Kuwait International Airport where I was responsible for obtaining parts for vehicles.”
She calls the Post-9/11 GI Bill “an excellent, excellent opportunity if you go into it with the right mindset. If your intentions are to go to school and earn your degree and do it honestly, then you won’t have a problem at all and whatever you are entitled to you will receive. On the flip side, if you’re in it just to get money out of the government, it’s not going to work well for you.”
Congress passed the Post-9/11 GI Bill in 2008 to give Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families “a chance to improve their lives and invest in their future through higher education,” according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Keeton-Todd is among the 773,000 veterans and family members the VA says are currently receiving Post-9/11 GI benefits. In November 2013, the VA announced that 1 million beneficiaries had received the benefits since the program’s inception.
The bill offers financial support for education and related expenses to individuals with at least 90 days of aggregate service after September 10, 2001, or those discharged with a service-connected disability after 30 days. They must have an honorable discharge to receive benefits.
