In Pursuit of an Education: Honoring Those Who’ve Used the GI Bill

With the stroke of a pen, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made a promise to our country’s Veterans by signing the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944. With the Act’s passage, the idea of obtaining a higher education didn’t seem so farfetched. The ability to move up the social and economic ladder wasn’t just a dream anymore for those who served our country during wartime. Instead, the Act, simply known as the GI Bill of Rights, was a sign of hope for a brighter future.

Since the GI Bill of Rights was passed, the number of Veterans enrolled in college and universities across the country has grown throughout the years. Fifty-one percent of World War II Vets used their benefits, 43 percent of Korean Vets dipped into the funds, and 71 percent of Vietnam Vets took advantage of their education benefits. Since the Post-9/11 GI Bill rolled out in 2009, VA has awarded more than $22 billion in benefits to over 822,000 individuals. Something worth celebrating!

Now, we want to honor all of those who have used their education benefits in pursuit of a higher education. We here at VA need your help to recognize the Veterans who’ve gone on to transcend the battlefield and successfully complete an undergraduate or graduate degree, vocational/technical training, on-the-job training, flight training, correspondence training, licensing and national testing programs, and entrepreneurship training.

Here is how you can help: Please send a photograph of yourself for a new Flickr set we’ll be creating—or a Veteran you’d like to acknowledge—on graduation day. We’d love to see the cap and gown, holding the diploma shot! You’ll need to include name, branch of service, dates served, school attended, what you received your degree in, and date of graduation or receipt of the licensing or certification. Please send all information to newmedia@va.gov by Friday October 12.