After World War II, returning GI's were offered a series of benefits designed to make them a functional part of the US economy.
Among the most important benefits of the GI Bill were funding for:

• a full college education for returning vets
• and zero down payment home loans for vets and their widowed dependents

With 16 million military personnel deployed, and with so many taking advantage of these benefits, there may be more than strong family values and hard work to explain why the folks that fought in WWII are called the "greatest generation".
Those benefits, so widely distributed and so tightly targeted at the age group that has always been the "engine" of an economy, set the stage for some long term prosperity.
Benefits provided to vets after military deployment have declined over the years.
The more than one million military men and women who have been deployed since 9/11 do receive some benefits under the Montgomery GI Bill, but they are far less comprehensive than what WWII vets received.
Active Duty service members who give up $100 a month for their first year of deployment can receive a flat payment of up to $1101 a month for college for 36 months under the MGIB-AD program.
Educational benefits for on the job training or apprenticeship programs are less.
Qualifying for full benefits under this program requires that the vet have met a significant number of service and requirements.
Selected reserve and national guard, though they may also have seen long deployments, are not guaranteed the same benefits.
The VA still guarantees loans for vets, allowing banks to make some loans available for now down payment.
But "regular military" professionals must meet several eligibility requirements related to their length of active duty service in order to receive ACE certification.
Selected Reserve and National Guard may be eligible for these benefits if they have complete six years of service or were discharged with a service-connected disability.
There are, as there always have been, additional benefits Vets can receive.
The Small Business Administration's Patriot Express makes it easier for vets to get a loan to start a new business.
States sometimes provide business loans, unemployment and insurance benefits to vets.
But these benefits are no replacement for the holistic support originally provided to vets under the GI bill.
The VA estimates that more than 200,000 vets are homeless on any given night, and 400,000 experience homelessness over the course of a year.
These vets have served in every war, but the majority have come from Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
47% of homeless vets are estimated to be from the Vietnam era.
Vets from Iraq and Afghanistan are already appearing on US streets.
In some cases they are victims of slow or inadequate treatment for injuries (mental and physical) sustained in the war zone.
In other cases they are simply unable to find employment which makes exercising home loan benefits or taking real advantage of piecemeal educational benefits unfeasible.
After World War II, a four year war, the US faced the problem of how to reintegrate military professionals into the economy head on.
They developed the GI bill to support their educational and financial requirements soon after their return.
The result was a generation of vets who were able to contribute to our society in almost every capacity.
Failure to meet the needs of vets returning from subsequent wars has resulted in an increasingly ill and desperate population of homeless vets.
Perhaps the smartest investment we can make in the military is to remake the GI Bill for a new generation.
It is the best way to insure, as the "Greatest Generation"would have wished, that this generation is "Greater Still".