I've been retired a long time and things change -- but, based on the Schmedlap response, it is apparent that in the case of AER, not much has changed.

I'll add one point from the article. This is the first paragraph:
"As soldiers stream home from Iraq and Afghanistan, the biggest charity inside the U.S. military has been stockpiling tens of millions of dollars meant to help put returning fighters back on their feet, an Associated Press investigation shows."
That is not only an incorrect statement, it's stupid -- and it's designed to inflame. That 'stockpiling' has been going on since 1942. AER is not "meant to help put returning fighters back on their feet" -- it is designed to help Soldiers and their families in adverse circumstances. Grants and loans are just part of what they do.

That particularly egregious initial paragraph sets the tone for the rest of the article. Sad. The play on the 'returning warrior' shtick is particularly disgraceful IMO. The bulk of the Army is routinely not deployed and the folks here in the states are the ones who need AER help. One returning with all the tax free bennies from a deployment should not have a problem -- if he or she does, it's highly probabler it's self inflicted

This is one paragraph of saving grace and relative honesty:
"Make no mistake: AER, a normally uncontroversial fixture of Army life, has helped millions of soldiers and families cope with emergencies, as well as college costs. Last year alone, AER handed out about $5.5 million in emergency grants, $65 million in loans, and $12 million in scholarships."
All the benefits for contributing or 'punishments' for not doing so are chain of command issues and while I can't speak for today, I can say that in 42 years in and with the Army, I never saw such foolishness. What I did see was a quite a few guys try to take advantage of the system by getting a loan under flaky circumstances and a few more who tried to renege on paying their loan back -- the same guys who were also behind on other payments who were trying to live beyond their means.

That's a sorry article and it's an example of why I said I do not trust anything from AP nowadays. They have truly lost the bubble.