Mario Turner says he didn't join the army just for the college money.
Mario Turner: I did it because I wanted some adrenaline in my life, get some action.
After four years of service, the 22-year-old Turner returned from Iraq in July after getting shot in the leg. He received a purple heart and has no regrets.
Mario Turner: I knew what I was getting into, especially since I chose a combat engineer job. I knew that I'd be going to Iraq and wasn't worried about it.
Turner says he's the kind of person who gets bored if he's not challenged. And now he wants challenges from college. This spring, he'll be enrolling at Cleveland State University's new program for freshman Iraq war vets designed to help them adjust to college. He'll be using his GI Bill benefits to pay for it, but his mother Sandra says that the army doesn't do much else to help soldiers transition back to civilian life.
Mario Turner: For me it's a real irony that, while he was in the army, he risked his life, but he was sheltered from the day-to-day responsibilities of money management, food, shelter, and employment.
Those adjustments, plus obligations to families may partly explain why, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, only 8 percent of veterans who left the service in the mid-1990s used all of their GI Bill education benefits within the 10 year limit. Thirty percent never used any of the money. Mario Turner says he believes those numbers.
Mario Turner: I have a handful of friends that maybe out of a dozen, 2 of them are going to college. They're in dead-end jobs and it's sad to see them so successful in the military and now they're just settling for the bare minimum. And I talk to them and they say, man this stuff is hard, bro. and I say, I know man. I know how it's going because I'm having the same difficulties. I say, why aren't you going to college? And he says, I can't afford it. I have to pay for rent, for food.
Money for college remains one of the top reasons young people join the army. And in many families, knowing there is money available for education makes it a little easier for nervous parents to send their children off to war. That's how Donna Nelson of Mentor felt when two of her sons enlisted.
Donna Nelson: I knew that okay, great, once they get out, and finish their years of service, that they have that to fall back on, and not only will that help them in their future, but they have the military experience so they'll be set for life. So for me it's very important.
But many veterans today complain that the GI Bill's college benefit is insufficient. It's far less generous than when it was created during WWII, when vets got a free ride to nearly any college or vocational school they desired. The roughly $40,000 the bill provides for active servicemen today is not even enough to cover tuition and fees at some state colleges.
Mario Turner is grateful he can go to Cleveland State, but he wishes the GI Bill would cover tuition at any school.
Mario Turner: It should provide more. Especially if you go to war, and you come back and you want to change your life. You should be having more money to do so.
The GI Bill has worked out well for thirty-three year old Dennis Westman, who's just starting law school at Case Western Reserve University.
Dennis Westman: If it wasn't there for me, I can almost tell you I probably would have never gotten my college degree.
After a couple of years at community colleges, the southern-California native transferred to the University of Maryland. He graduated in 2003, he says, with enough left over on his GI Bill to even pay for a few months of grad school. Westman says he comes from a relatively poor background. Neither of his parents graduated from high school. When he joined the military in the mid 1990s, he saw it as a way to move his life forward.
Dennis Westman: The reason I did it is that I knew out of high school that I wanted to go to college and it was a means to pay for it, and I didn't really have those means.
But, he says, he understands it's not the best option for everyone.
Dennis Westman: Some people may not want to go into the military service, and may feel it's the only way to obtain a college education, it's not a great choice. But at least there was a choice and that's what I'm grateful for.
So grateful that he's thinking of re-joining the military after law school.