The Navy told him he served long enough to get his kids free college. Its math was 6 days off.

Russell Dotson served 22 years with the U.S. Navy, active duty and reserve. A decorated senior chief boatswain’s mate, he was deployed overseas six times, each for a year. In 2010, he saved two lives in a rocket attack and ground assault in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
His service took a toll. His marriage didn’t survive. His children worried about him — a lot.
“I was gone for a year, home for a year, gone for a year, home for a year,” he says. “The whole family paid a price for that.”
His daughter, Paige Dotson, 22, says: “I didn’t see my dad for six years. I thought he was going to die.”

When the Navy told Dotson that, if he would re-enlist for another four years, he could transfer his Post-9/11 GI Bill educational benefit to Paige and her brother for college, he didn’t hesitate. His children each would get two years of schooling paid, giving them a shot to be the first college graduates in their family.

Dotson, who’s from Michigan, didn’t know that the promised education would be yanked out from under them, that this gift would turn into debt-collection notices for his daughter amounting to $20,000 and growing.