Wants it's money!!

Ian McVey could have been anything. He chose to be a Marine.

It is not a path that most kids from Weston would take, but Ian Thomas McVey was not most kids. He coasted at Weston High. But when he transferred to The Rivers School, where his father taught Latin, he got serious and blossomed.

One day, he told his father, "I want to join the Marines."

His father said he was proud of him, but had one caveat: go to college first.

Ian McVey went off to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in upstate New York, graduating last year with a double major in computer science and computer engineering. He spurned a lucrative career in the private sector to join the Marine Corps.

"I have wanted to be a Marine for as long as I can remember," he wrote in his officer training application. "After September 11, 2001, I knew more than ever that this was what I wanted to do. I wanted to serve my country, and after the attack I knew I wanted to join the Marines' ranks and go into harm's way so others would not have to."

Last summer, Second Lieutenant Ian McVey got his orders. He was to go to Iraq as a platoon commander with the Second Combat Engineer Battalion of the Second Marine Division.

On July 19, not long before his unit was to ship out, McVey's motorcycle was blindsided by a car driven by an 84-year-old woman near Camp Lejeune, N.C. He was killed instantly. He was 23 years old.

John McVey went through his son's things. Cluttered bureau drawers. Photographs and memories. He also had to settle Ian's college loans. He wrote to the lenders, asking that the debts be forgiven. Two wrote back, saying they would forgive the loans.

The third, Sallie Mae, the government-created college loan provider that privatized its operations in 2004, refused.

John McVey then wrote a very personal letter to Sallie Mae:

"In the process of his education, Ian amassed considerable loans. But Ian was steadfast in his desire to serve our country rather than begin a life in business where his income would have been double or triple his Marine service payment. Giving to our country was Ian's calling, and we admired and supported his choice of service. He was a good and noble son and better friend.

"We are asking that you forgive Ian's loans as his federal loans are being forgiven on the basis of Ian's choice of service to our country as a patriot and so that our family may not have to bear these financial burdens while we deal with the inconsolable grief over the senseless, tragic and untimely loss of our son. While life has not been fair, we pray that you will be."

Sallie Mae responded with a computer-generated letter that, aside from a "Please accept our condolences for your loss" stuck in the middle, was a demand for $53,144.

There was no name on the letter. John McVey's attempts to get a human being to talk to him about this have been met with computer-generated voices.

"What bothers me most is we say our country is at war, but it's only the soldiers, the Marines, and their families who are at war. We're not in this together. Sallie Mae couldn't care less," John McVey said. "I put my heart and soul into that letter. And a computer wrote back."

It is beyond obscene that a government now handing out billions in bailouts to boardroom executives whose idea of risk is using a 9-iron instead of a wedge on an approach shot could spawn a lender like Sallie Mae to soak the family of a young man willing to spill his blood for others.

According to its promotional material, Sallie Mae has been recognized by Business Ethics magazine as one of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens.

That, unlike John McVey, is rich.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/12/18/ungrateful_sallie_mae/

interesting

Interesting to say the least. Thanks for the Great post