About 76,000 Ohioans have been deployed to Iraq since September 11, 2001. Although Mike McKinney with the Ohio Department of Veterans Services says some of those could be repeat deployments.
Still, McKinney fears some of those veterans who would be eligible for the Ohio Veterans Bonus have not applied. And if they don’t apply by the end of this year, many of them will lose the benefit.
Lieutenant Colonel Odell Graves, a retired veteran of the U.S. Army, is getting the benefit.
“I think people know about it. I learned about it. Actually one of my students told me about it when I came back," says Graves. "So I know I passed the word, the veterans department, VA is spreading the word. It’s out there. I think people just need to know they just need to get online and apply for it."
Ohio voters approved the program to provide the bonus to veterans to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans back in 2009. The veterans who are eligible for this bonus must have been Ohio residents at the time of their entry into that conflict and must be Ohio residents when they apply for the benefit.
While the deadline for Iraq veterans is coming up at the end of this year, the deadline for Afghanistan veterans has not yet been determined.