World War II veterans make the transition from the battlefield to the classroom with help from the GI Bill

In this pre-World War II world, Pinnell lived far from home with family friends so he could receive an education. His parents could not afford to move to a town that offered schooling for their son -- they hardly could afford to bring him home to visit.\nPinnell never forgot this feeling of desperation, as it reappeared when World War II came to an end and Pinnell had nowhere to go. The naval pilot could not handle paying for the higher education he desired. \nThen good old Uncle Sam stepped in. \nOn June 22, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed what has become known as the GI Bill. A groundbreaking piece of legislation, it provided returning veterans with the money to fund a college education. In addition to the significant changes created within universities, the bill helped Pinnell and millions of others entertain a future never before thought possible. \nAccording to the June 12, 1944, issue of the Indiana Daily Student, the 1944 provisions of the GI Bill of Rights included unemployment compensation, job placement services, medical benefits, college education and lowered interest rates for business, home or farm loans. \nThe most significant of these benefits was the funding for a college education, which was given to any veteran who served active duty between September 1940 and July 1947 and had to be used by July 1951. Most men were eligible for the maximum amount of educational benefits -- $500 in tuition and a monthly cash allowance of up to $90. In today's terms, that translates into $5,500 for school and $1,000 to live on each month. \nThe same day as the signing of this bill, the IDS reported the "University is ready." Dean Wendell W. Wright had been appointed as the director of Veterans Affairs for the University two months before and worked on plans to carry out its provisions. The rest of the faculty followed in his footsteps. \nThen IU President Herman B Wells would accept nothing less, laying out his expectations in a University-wide memo. It read, "We must be ready, so that no qualifying veteran who applies for admission will have to be turned away." \nOn June 30, 1944, the IDS reported 15 veterans attending school at IU who filed for funds under the GI Bill. Wells was a significant figure in preparing the University after the GI Bill passed. Marge Blewett, former IU student and IDS editor in chief, remembered this time well.\n"I don't think they would've been able to cope with the influx of veterans had it not been for Herman B Wells," Blewett said. \nShe recalled Wells even placing military style bunks in the Board of Trustees room in the Indiana Memorial Union to allow space for all veterans who wanted to attend IU.\nHousing was a considerable problem for IU and other colleges around the country. Wayne Chase, 83, of Meadowood Retirement Community in Bloomington, attended the University of Idaho on the GI Bill in January 1946. He vividly remembers the housing problems the influx of veterans created.\n"Suppose 37,000 more students came to IU tomorrow, all at once. That's what it was like with the GI Bill," Chase said. "The influx just about doubled the population. In class people were sitting on radiators, on windowsills and in the aisles. And there was no housing around to speak of." \nDuring his first year at the Idaho, Chase and his wife lived in a men's dormitory transformed into married couples' apartments. The second year, they lived in the basement of a house. By the third year, after the 6-foot-4 Chase realized he "couldn't stand up worth a hoot" in the trailers provided for married couples and families, he and his wife decided to build a house. \nIU had similar makeshift dorms and neighborhoods. The Hoosier Halls, for example, were barrack-like dorms located north and south of the fieldhouse beside Fee Lane. They were built to house 320 single veterans. \nOne of the most famous housing solutions, however, was Woodlawn Courts, a camp of trailers located in what are now the soccer fields near Woodlawn. The trailers, brought in with the help of Wells and IU's administration, accommodated married couples who were unable to live in regular dorms. They had no running water, and community bathrooms were shared between several trailers. These were not prime living conditions, but Blewett said this didn't matter.\n"(The veterans) were happy with it because it meant they could get an education and be with their family," said Blewett. \nThe GI Bill made eight million people happy. At IU specifically, the number of veterans enrolled through the GI Bill in 1947, just three years after the bill was enacted, grew to 7,000, which surpassed the mere 8-12 percent increase that was expected. According to the IU archives, by the end of the GI Bill growth period, the University had nearly doubled in size.\nWith a large percentage of the student population comprised of veterans, the atmosphere of most universities, IU included, became more focused on school work and attaining academic goals. At IU, veterans earned grades 5 percent higher than non-veterans, according to the IU archives. \n"The whole level of education increased in the U.S.," Blewett said. "It meant a lot to this country."\nMen and women returned from the war with a more mature outlook, interested in making up the missing years of their life by finishing their education as quickly as possible. Chase earned a bachelor's degree in three years and a master's in one year. \n"Guys that came home from the service, they knew what they wanted to do," Chase said. "It makes a difference in you when bullets start whizzing around your head." \nReceiving a free college education makes a difference. Ledford Carter of Bloomington knows this. Because he attended college before the war and utilized the GI Bill after the war to further his education, he realized this legislation's impact.\n"The GI Bill made it economically possible for me to have a very satisfying career in teaching," Carter said. \nAlthough he acquired a teaching job before entering the military, Carter could teach in an area he loved with the help of the GI Bill.\nWith the apprenticeship provision of the bill, in which a veteran was funded to learn on the job rather than in school, Carter became involved in educational film production, which has been his livelihood ever since. \n"My own appraisal of the GI Bill is that it's one of the most foresighted and economically beneficial acts that Congress has ever done," Carter said. "It has certainly been a testament to the value of education." \n-- Contact Staff Writer Shannon at shklee@indiana.edu.