How The GI Bill Changed America

How The GI Bill Changed America
Sunday Morning: Legislation For Servicemembers Returning From WWII Now Updated For A New Generation Of Vets

June 22, 2008


(CBS) PL 346 was the Congressional designation of a landmark bill signed into law 64 years ago today - legislation designed to smooth the transition to civilian life for millions of World War II servicemen. In the process it changed America for ALL of us. Congress is very close to approving expanded benefits for service men and women of today's Iraq War era. Our Cover Story is reported now by Thalia Assuras.

They returned to a hero's welcome - sixteen million men and women who had served their country during World War II, one out of every nine Americans.

Yet, along with all the smiles and the tears of joy, there were fresh worries: Would returning vets be able to find jobs? A place to live? What was next?

"There was a near certainty that after the war - assuming the allies were victorious - that a depression would follow, just as happened after World War I - that the economy would tank," said author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ed Humes.

In his book "Over Here," Humes tracks the fate of those returning GIs.

"You had an economy that had been totally retooled to manufacture arms," he said of wartime America. "You had women entering the workforce in record numbers to take the jobs that the men had to leave to go fight. And so suddenly saying, 'Okay, back to normal,' it was gonna hit us like an explosion."

But it didn't.

In a display of foresight not often seen in Washington, long before victory was assured, President Franklin Roosevelt put into motion a plan to ease vets back into the fragile economy.
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We've all heard for years about how important this "war on terror" is to the security of this country and yet those who seem to scream the loudest about giving Bush every dime he asks for are also the last to pay for it. They won't fund the money going into Iraq or Afghanistan. Sure they can write checks but the fund it all on borrowed money. What's worse is they have no problem doing it with borrowed lives either. Think about the men and women who serve this nation. They borrow their lives to do the jobs the President and the congress say needs to be done. When they are done serving, they also expect these men and women to be left on their own after. When they are wounded, they expect them to just stand in line as their lives fall apart wondering how to pay their bills and support their families. These same war approvers are also the last ones to pay for the lives they borrowed in terms of taking care of their needs. If the "war on terror" is all so important to the security of this nation, wouldn't their lives be worth whatever money it takes to take care of them for real?