Vets Want Education Aid

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are not getting the same level of education aid when they return to civilian life as did generations of American fighters in the wars of the last century. The well-known GI Bill that followed World War Two helped more than eight million vets get a college education, but today's benefits are not nearly as comprehensive, and Tuesday's rally was meant to put an exclamation point on the struggles student veterans face in a 21st Century world.

Virginia Senators James Webb, a Democrat, and John Warner, a Republican, are both veterans who also served as America's Secretary of the Navy. Without the GI Bill that helped World War Two vets, Warner said " I would not have gone to college."

Warner and Webb are cosponsors of a new GI Bill that would increase education benefits at the cost of two billion dollars a year, roughly the expense of waging war for a week in Iraq.

"When our country was attacked by the forces of international terrorism these are the people who answered the call," Webb told the rally. "It's time for those of us who have been calling on them to serve again and again to assist them in providing the most tangible thanks that our country can offer, and that is a meaningful chance for a first class future," Webb said.

Among the potential beneficiaries is Washington, DC's Emmanuel Leach, an Iraq vet who is struggling to pay for his education expenses at the city's Southeastern University, which is located on I Street in the Southwest section of Washington.

"It's a constant struggle for school financially, very tough. Some nights I don't sleep because I wonder how I'm going to pay my electric bill, my phone bill, or even, for that matter, my next set of tuition bills."

Leach says the legislation would help. "My country asked me to fight and stand up for it and I'm asking my country to do the same for me," he told 9NEWS NOW.