March 11, 2012

Out of Uniform: At Half a Million and Counting, Veterans Cash In on Post-9/11 GI Bill

Out of Uniform: At Half a Million and Counting, Veterans Cash In on Post-9/11 GI Bill</I> 1

Laura Segall for The Chronicle

David Dickson (left) and James Greer, students at Scottsdale Community College, are among hundreds of thousands of veterans enrolled in college.

By Libby Sander

Veterans of World War II who went to college on the GI Bill tend to sound awestruck when they describe earning a degree on Uncle Sam's dime. Theirs, after all, was a personal transformation with profound impact: The windfall of college graduates in the postwar decade—more than two million GI's enrolled in college—helped create the modern middle class and catapulted American society into the knowledge age.

At this moment, a new migration is under way from the military to