It’s your future

I cannot do this.  Higher learning is out of my reach.  It is not out of my reach because I lack intelligence or lack the will to achieve.  It is a question of pure, cold economics.  I don’t come from a wealthy background, nor have I become a rich man by my own right.  I have two children and the need to support them is far more important than my dreams of education.  This will never work.

Nearly everything written above is true.  Except that I can do this.  There is a way for someone to further their education, even without riches.  Even with some children to take care of.  For me, that is the GI Bill.  None of my education would be possible without it.

For me, earning a degree has always been something of a dream.  Coming from a background where money didn’t exactly flow from the faucet and being, at best, a mediocre student, I never thought it would happen.  Until one day when I accompanied a friend to the local Navy recruiting office.  To make a long story short, I signed up and spend six great years serving my country and seeing the world.  At the beginning of my enlistment, I was approached about buying into the GI Bill.  The cost was $100 a month for twelve months.  I jumped at the chance.

Life being what it is, with a job and two children, this seemed like a bad investment.  Even with the Bill, I just wouldn’t be able to afford dropping everything and going to school.  Then the Post 9/11 GI Bill was formed.  Now that this amazing benefit would not only pay for tuition but provide a stipend to live on as well, doors opened up.  Now I would finally be able to achieve my goals.

In the next few weeks, I will explore what the new Bill means to millions of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.  Also, I will look back into the past, to the time when the GI Bill was the “New Deal” for millions of returning Second World War veterans and changed the shape of America.  And how along the way, the brave men and women that served after Viet Nam were left behind, stuck with a benefit that was refusing to change with the time.

Every man and woman that has worn the uniform has stood up for their country when others have lagged behind.  Read along as a country stands up for those who serve.

Citation: Image of USS Theodore Roosevelt on 11/5/2010 from the World Wide Web. http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/uss-theodore-roosevelt-headed-into-midlife-overhaul-02810/