Over 40,000 National Guard may see their deployment end on June 24, one day before servicemembers would be eligible for federal benefits, according to a report by Politico.

In an interagency call on May 12, an official recognized that by enacting a “hard stop” on deployments at 89 days, this would deny servicemembers the 90-day threshold for education and early retirement benefits granted under the Post-9/11 GI bill.

“It’s a Wednesday. And it also coincides with 89 days of deployment for any soldiers who went on federal status at the beginning,” said retired Brig. Gen. J. Roy Robinson, president of the National Guard Association. “I was getting all kind of calls about it and I said, ‘It’s probably just a coincidence.’ But in the back of my mind, I know better. They’re screwing the National Guard members out of the status they should have.”

A National Guard spokesperson acknowledged the June 24 cutoff, but also said there may be a possibility of deployment extension for Guardsmen.

“Nobody can say where we’ll need to be more than a month down the road,” said the spokesperson to Politico.

Photo by Sean Striecher/ WJZ