Today, there are only a handful of men alive who were stationed at Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. We are losing the heroes of World War II. That was brought to the forefront this week during the funeral for George Herbert Walker Bush, our 41st president (and Delta Kappa Epsilon), the last of our presidents to serve in World War II. The sight of Senator Robert Dole, a Kappa Sigma and WWII Purple Heart recipient, painstakingly standing from his wheelchair and saluting the casket of the former president brought tears to my eyes. Those of the “Greatest Generation” are leaving us and will soon live only in our memories.
In the fraternity and sorority magazines of the 1940s, one can get a glimpse of what it must have been like when the men left and returned to campus. A report from a University of Illinois fraternity published in a 1945 magazine, noted that, “As did everyone, we had the strange problem during rushing of not knowing some of our brothers, as well as the rushees, for we have men back from as far as the class of ’42.”
The two institutions from which I graduated, Syracuse University and Southern Illinois University Carbondale, owe much those who took advantage of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of June 22, 1944, commonly known as the G. I. Bill. It had six titles, only one of which dealt with the education and training of veterans. Yet, the educational benefits of the G. I. Bill have become a benchmark for higher education. More than two million World War II veterans attended college courtesy of the G. I. Bill.
Economics, not education, was the original intent behind the legislation. The nation had been through an economic depression prior to its involvement in World War II. The wartime economy improved, but President Roosevelt was aware that unleashing significant numbers of veterans into a peacetime economy at the war’s end might be disastrous. Roosevelt’s first mention of educating returning veterans was on November 13, 1942, the day he signed into law a Selective Service Act amendment lowering the draft age to 18.
On December 19, 1945, the Senate approved several amendments to Title II, the education component of the G. I. Bill. The benefits were no longer restricted to those servicemen under 25 years of age, more time was allotted for the completion of a degree, and monthly subsistence allowances were raised $15 per month. Single veterans would get $65 per month allowance and those with dependents would receive $90.
The American Council on Education [ACE] aided the institutions by providing information on the 800 training courses taught by the armed forces. George P. Tuttle, Registrar at the University of Illinois, headed the committee which produced A guide to the evaluation of education experiences in the Armed Services.
The peak of veteran enrollment occurred in the fall of 1947; institutions scrambled to find housing, instructors, and classrooms to accommodate the record numbers of students. The G.I. Bill opened higher education’s door those who would not have previously attended college, and many veterans were the first in their family to attend college. Married students became an accepted part of higher education. The Korean War and the Vietnam War had their own G. I. Bills, and today the Veteran’s Administration provides educational benefits to those veterans who qualify.
