A Shafting

The Army is willing to stretch the rules and now recruits people without a high school diploma, or people who have spent time in jail, or people who have difficulty meeting the physical fitness requirements. But they are unwilling to bend the rules for someone who has been an Army man since 1986.

Fred Nicholson joined the Army to escape a "dead-end life". He was such a good soldier that he was asked to go to a course to become an officer. Of the 43 who took the course, Nicholson was among the dozen or so who passed. He was named a lieutenant in 1992. At that time the rule was you needed two years of college to be an officer, which he had. Later on, in an attempt to 'professionalize' the Army, Congress changed the rules so that all officers had to be college graduates. That's when Nicholson's troubles began.

In 2000 he was discharged because he did not have a college degree. One reason why he was unable to earn a degree is that, although he was registered at a university, the Army sent him to Germany for several months for war games.

In 2005 when the Army's needs escalated, a recruiter asked him to re-up and told him he would be promoted to captain if he served a year in Iraq. Nicholson re-upped and filed an application for a waiver from the college degree rule.

The waiver was denied in February of last year and he was told that he would be discharged by August 1. Nicholson thought that the Army would not send him to Iraq if he had to be discharged in a few months. Nicholson was mistaken. The Army sent him to Iraq and deferred his discharge until he came back from Iraq.

He performed heroically in Iraq and earned a bronze star. But, rules are rules. He was discharged when he returned to the states. As a result of the discharge, he has not put in sufficient time to earn a pension. Yet, the bulk of the past twenty years have been spent in the Army. He has been an exemplary officer. He risked his life in Iraq. And how does the Army thank him? With the shaft.