The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

GI Bill has been thanking vets for 65 years

provided photo This picture of Adams was taken in 1945 when stationed in the Phillippines.

Chuck Adams, age 89, who served in the Army from 1942 to 1946, used the GI Bill after separting from the military. Adams now lives in Centerville with his wife Virginia. Chuck and Virginia are in their living room preparing a flag to hang in their front yard.

Ron Alvey Chuck Adams, age 89, who served in the Army from 1942 to 1946, used the GI Bill after separting from the military. Adams now lives in Centerville with his wife Virginia. Chuck and Virginia are in their living room preparing a flag to hang in their front yard.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Man, 68, drowns at Caesar Creek Lake
12:49 a.m.
Water rescues prompt warning from health officials
11:42 p.m.
Beach Waterpark sued for failure to deliver
11:37 p.m.
Raleigh Trammell’s defense opens in felony trial
11:37 p.m.
UD to move satellite campus to Dublin
11:32 p.m.
> More headlines

By Margo  Rutledge Kissell, Staff Writer Updated 7:13 AM Monday, June 22, 2009

It’s been heralded as one of the most important pieces of legislation to ever come out of Washington.

It helped build the middle class by putting a college education and home ownership within reach for millions of veterans returning home after World War II.

Sixty-five years ago today, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 — more commonly known as the GI Bill of Rights or simply the GI Bill.

“If it isn’t the greatest piece of legislation in the 20th century, it’s way up there,” said Glenn Altschuler, an American Studies professor at Cornell University who co-authored the new book, “The GI Bill: A New Deal for Veterans.”

The original legislation gave $500 in annual tuition for four years of education and training to GIs and guaranteed 50 percent of home, farm and business loans — up to $2,000 — at an interest rate no higher than 4 percent.

Four million veterans took advantage of the home loan benefits, Altschuler said.

“Remember, during World War II, because we had converted to a war economy, construction of new homes slowed to a trickle,” he said. “When the war ended, there was an explosion of home building. That fueled suburbanization.”

For Charles Adams, 89, of Centerville, an infantryman who served in the Philippines, the GI Bill helped him earn a degree in journalism from the Ohio State University in 1948. That led to a 30-year career as an editor, writer and photographer for General Motors publications.

“The GI Bill was a godsend that repaid me many times over for the four years I spent in World War II,” he said.

GI Bill benefits received by veterans who served in the less popular Korean and Vietnam wars were “much less generous,” Altschuler noted.

He called the “new” GI Bill, which takes effect Aug. 1 for post 9/11 veterans, “very much a step in the right direction.”

Keep reading: GI Bill improved campus life for ‘poorest student’

Share this article