JEANNE BEARMON joined the war effort because she wanted to serve her country, but she admits she also saw it as a way to expand her options. "Women didn't get many breaks in the 1940s," she said. "Respectable young women couldn't even get their own apartments." Bearmon's wartime experiences fed her hunger for knowledge. She completed a bachelor's degree, and, when her four children were older, she got a master's degree in counseling. "For me, the GI Bill was a miracle."

SHERMAN GARON had just turned 19 when he enlisted in 1944. The Army sent him to a training program at Indiana University until he was called up. That schooling gave him a jump on his education. After the war, he earned business and law degrees in four years through the GI Bill. He married and went to work for the family business started by his father. "My dad came to this country at 17 with nothing, and now every kid in the family gets a college education," said Garon, a great-grandfather. "We have attorneys, a dentist, a college professor, just think of that! The GI Bill got the ball rolling."