Hang On To Your Military Paycheck and G.I. Bill Benefits

There are stories galore of individuals and organizations who have duped active duty military members and veterans out of large portions of their paychecks and/or shystered them out of their G.I. Bill benefits.

It becomes very apparent when you drive on to your first duty station who the people are that are looking to help themselves to your money:  car salesmen, bars, strip joints, predatory lenders, multi-level or direct-sales marketers and too many others to list.  

They also prey on your patriotism and the status of your eternal soul through fake charities and churches.  

I was recently reading an article in Military Times about the CEO of a tech-education company who defrauded the VA out of  Post 9/11 G.I. Bill education benefits. 

A week prior, I was reading about a group called House of Prayer.  Their various churches were raided last June, 2022  They were accused of setting up churches near military installations and creating bible schools which scammed veterans of their G.I. Benefits. 

I'm very familiar with the House of Prayer group.  They are a breakaway faction from New Testament Christian Churches of America based in Graham, WA. I was there the night they made a big show during a church service & got up and walked out. They broke up into their own group but the very basis of their beliefs and tactics were derived from and learned from the Founder of NTCC:  Rodger W. Davis. 

I didn't read all of the legal judgments against the HOP organization, but it does seem like they took steps in order to be accredited by the VA so they could secure monies from veterans.  Former and current military members from all branches were their target congregants and bible seminary students.  And they learned that from NTCC.  

Most of us who were reached by NTCC were in the military.  Most of their churches are near military installations where they are known as servicemen's homes and churches.  

I would so like to be able to get through to you and help you understand that their mission is to get you into their servicemen's homes.  They want you to pay them so that you can ostensibly live in a holy atmosphere free of the ungodly shenanigans which go on in the barracks.   The homes are for single, male G.I.s. 

The second mission behind getting you in the home and paying them to live there is to then get you motivated to attend their bible seminary.   Many of us who wasted our time in their school and their organization, ended up losing our ability to use our G.I. Bill Benefits. We were too late.  There is no way to recover it once the expiration has elapsed. 

Once I left that group in 2006, after having been out of the military since January 1992, I was out of luck when I decided to go to regular college.  I wasn't allowed to work as a married woman while in the group, though I've found out now that many married ladies have side hustles to add to their family finances, but that's a topic for a future post.   The focus of this post is to appeal to you to not be a victim of their hijinks.

If you become a tenant in the servicemen's home, then you will have to continue to deduct money from your paycheck for 10% gross earnings to tithe.  You can't get around that, you will be told that you owe that to god and none of the money you give counts as an offering until you pay your tithe.   Also, you can't just plop that money in the offering receptacle.  It has to be given a certain way.  God will not know unless you put it in an envelope with your name on it and the amount.  The only reason for that is to track you and to monitor your level of "getting in"  

Once you pay tithes, there will be many offerings, pledges, giving things to the pastor and his wife (if he is married), money for rent, and the loss of freedom of your time and energies.

  You will then have to face facts:  the statistics for remaining in this group are not in your favor.  Most who attend their so-called bible school eventually leave the group altogether and they take with them a huge loss of money from their bank account (especially if they are working as fulltime preachers in a church ) and possible loss of your education benefits.    I can promise you that you don't want to be in that predicament.  It's degrading and demoralizing.  You'll feel like an idiot and have to face all of the remarks from family and friends about how they told you so.   And they did and they were right all along.

Recovery is possible and many of us are a testament to that, but it's not the most easy road to traverse.   

I just want you to heed the warning to Stay Away From NTCC

Keep Your Money and Secure your G.I. Bill Benefits. 

I will also refer you to two of the videos I currently have on my YouTube Channel concerning Tithing and Giving.  They are introductory short videos. I am working on more.

 And a last plea: 

Please don't get sidetracked by any positive reviews you may read about the individual servicemen's homes in NTCC on Google or Facebook, etc.  Many of those who leave reviews are preachers or their wives in the church.  They go and review each others churches trying to work the algorithm in a 5-star direction. 

As a quick example:  I chose the New Testament Christian Church & Servicemen's Home in Hinesville, GA.  Several of their Facebook page reviews are of preachers or wives of preachers from their group.  Now, to be fair, some lived in the home or attended the church in Hinesville.   They went on to became preachers through their bible school and so that's all well and good.   But the idea of online reviews, especially for a business (which make no mistake, NTCC is a business), is to have people experience their product or experience and tell about it.  Why leave a review in 2015 about your experience at this location a decade or more prior? It makes no sense.

What I've found with all of the NTCC locations online is that the preachers tend to go on each others pages and give high-praise 5-star reviews.  It borders on disingenuous.

What they don't realize when they do that is they are enabling some really bad players who are running some of these churches like their own kingdoms.   If you don't really know what's going on in a local church or servicemen's home, then you shouldn't be giving them those glowing reviews because you may be leading someone into a situation where they really get taken advantage of and that really bothers me beyond measure. 

     Preacher's wife who attended bible school

Preacher's wife who attended bible school 

                                             Second Generation NTCCer - 

Read: 

Follow the Money, Part 1

New YOUTUBE Video : Tithing the NTCC Way

A new video has been added to YouTube: 

Tithing: The NTCC Way

There's No Point in Playing the Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda Mind Game

            I'm at the stage in my NTCC-after life where I have a decent handle on my level of regret for ever staying in that group.  

But every now and then the thoughts slip through and I wonder to myself what would have happened had I stayed in the Air Force and kept on track for a very good career. 

Xmas 1987 w/ grandma & brother on short leave from basic training

I didn't enter the military until I was 25.  The Air Force was trying to recruit linguists when I was in my last few months of high school.  They came to our school in New Jersey seeking out students who had taken a second language and done well.  I started taking Spanish in 7th grade and stopped in 11th.

The idea was to have those of us selected to train in Monterey, CA after basic training in order to become linguists.  So we could listen in on the Russkies --I suppose.  It was 1981 after all.

After talking to the recruiter, I told him I'd like to take the special test to see if I'd be a fit for the linguist career field.  He was overjoyed as not many showed an interest.  I had to go into Newark at 6am and sit in a room with about 12 other hopefuls.  There was a desk up front with a tape recorder, and each of us sat at a typical school desk facing front.   We weren't allowed to have anything but our test papers and a pencil.  We weren't allowed to take notes either.   

A dude came in and instructed us that we were going to hear a sentence spoken on a recording and then we'd be asked several questions.   It was reiterated that we were not to make any notes...not on our bodies and not on our desktops.  

Basically, they made up a language from the English language.  The proctor would say something like, "in the following sentence the nouns are now adjectives and the verbs are now nouns and the adverbs are now verbs"   The lady on the tape would read a sentence:  "The large man went to the bathroom to see if that's where he left his wallet" 

(sidenote: in my experience...he probably did)

Then the proctor would tell us to fill in the circle next to the new noun, new verb, etc. 

At the end of the testing, I left feeling so dejected.  I thought there was no way I did well on it.   But, surprise, I did well and after speaking with my recruiter further, we made a date for me to come in and sign my contract.  

I never went in to sign that contract.   I thought I was in Love at the time and that guy talked me out of going.   It is nice to be wanted and loved, but after three weeks or so, I resented that guy so much and wanted nothing to do with him.  I was too humiliated to go back in to the recruiter who had already invested so much in me.   I was ashamed beyond measure. 

Jump ahead to 1986, I was working in New York City at the time for Paramount Pictures.   It was an amazing job.  I worked on the 21st floor of the Gulf and Western building at Columbus Circle, overlooking the Park.   I think it's a Trump building now if I'm not mistaken.   

A month or two after my arrival in the Philippines, there was a Change of Command Ceremony for our outgoing commander.   He invited me to fly on his helo for a five -ship formation.  We flew all over the island of Luzon and we weren't that high off the ground.  It was thrilling.  

I had been thinking about that lost Air Force opportunity a lot as I commuted to work every day from Jersey.  One day I decided to walked the 30 blocks or so down to the train station at Madison Square Garden and on the way passed by the Recruiting Station which sat in the middle of Times Square....and who knows, maybe it's still there.  

I spoke with a recruiter and I was all hopped up on patriotism with Reagan in office and was pumped to do my part.  We spoke a bit and after doing all the things necessary to see if I could still go in the Air Force, he said I was and after speaking about jobs, I decided to wait almost a year in order to get the job I wanted.   

That fateful day of my entry was October 14, 1987.   I turned 25 two days later and I had a blast.   I went to school in Biloxi, MS and then headed over to the Philippines for my four year stint there.   My job was fulfilling and exciting and I worked with the greatest people.  We were like a little family.    

I was doing computer work for a Helicopter Search and Rescue squadron.  I loved it because we weren't just training, but we had real life missions as well up to and including a 7.0 earthquake and typhoons and pilots crashing into the mountain that was later found to be a volcano.........and we all know how that ended.

Christmas 1987 on leave

I made rank early and won the highest award possible for the schooling we were required to take before putting on the rank of Sgt.   Had I not gotten out when I did in order to attend the NTCC bible school, I would have put on SSGT and been well on my way to an amazing tenure in the Air Force.  

[While holding the son of one of the pilots in my squadron, I was listening intently to the pep talk he was delivering to me before I went in for my below-the-zone board..   I did well and put on Senior Airman early].

I regret not putting in my full 20 years.  It hits me hard sometimes.  But, I shake myself out of it and remind myself of all the good things which I have in my life and which bring me joy and fulfillment.   

[While 6 months pregnant and wearing my prego uniform, I received the John Levitow award scoring the highest in my class for Professional Military Education....the thing you need to do before putting on the rank of Sgt.  I did feel odd earning an honor as a pregnant woman, but hey, I'll take it.] 

Funnily enough, I now work for a government subcontractor and we move military stuffs around the country.   It requires a high degree of concentration and intensity and research and making mistakes is not allowed.   

I love it.  

I work from home and what's better than that? 

It took me a long time to stop playing  the Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda game.    When I found out time machines aren't real, I gave up on the idea of going back to that fateful day when I was invited out to that Serviceman's Home so I could say NO!   

Now I endeavor each day to live my best life and to enjoy my family.   

I hope that those of you who are out are not beating yourselves up.  There is absolutely no point and that mindset ruins everything.  You missed out on so much while in, why miss stuff now in the NTCC After Life drowning yourself in regret? 

  

Live!