MEDAL OF FREEDOM URGED FOR GI BILL AUTHOR

Edward G. Galian, Department Adjutant

Congressmen Urge President Bush to Posthumously Honor Kansan Who Drafted Historic Legislation At DC's Mayflower Hotel (Washington, DC) - Three Members of Congress, including the Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, today called on President Bush to award a Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously to the Kansan who drafted the historic GI Bill of Rights legislation in 1943.

Congressman Chris Smith, Chairman of the Veterans' Committee, Congressman Mike Simpson, Chairman of the Subcommittee with jurisdiction over the GI Bill, and Congressman Jim Ryun from Kansas, have formally requested that President Bush, "posthumously bestow this nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, to Harry W. Colmery, who is credited with drafting the original GI Bill at Washington's Mayflower Hotel in 1943."

"The GI Bill that Harry Colmery wrote on behalf of The American Legion helped million of veterans immediately after they returned home from war. They went to school, purchased homes, and created new suburban communities.

Mr. Colmery's vision to help veterans also helped transform our nation," the Congressmen said in a letter to Bush released today.

"In 1943, while staying in Room 570 of Washington's Mayflower Hotel, Harry Colmery wrote -- in longhand, on hotel stationary -- the first draft of what would later become the 'Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944', also known as the World War II 'GI Bill of Rights'. This legislation provided historic new benefits to military veterans as they transitioned back into civilian life - the most important of which was a new educational benefit that would revolutionize America's higher education system," they wrote.

Since the enactment of the original GI Bill, America has continuously provided educational support for our nations' veterans.

In the decade following World War II, more than two million eligible men and women went to college using these educational benefits. The result was an American workforce enriched by 450,000 engineers, 238,000 teachers, 91,000 scientists, 67,000 doctors, 22,000 dentists and another million college-educated men and women. It is estimated that another five million men and women received other schooling or job training using the GI Bill.

Approximately 7.8 million men and women were educated or trained by the GI Bill, helping to create the modern middle class.

"The GI Bill education program not only allowed millions of veterans to receive college education and training, it also expanded and opened up the higher education system throughout our country to lower and middle class families," said Smith (NJ-4), whose legislation (H.R. 1291, now P.L. 107-103) last year increased GI Bill benefits by 46 percent. "In fact, the GI Bill played a central role in the development of our modern middle class economy," he said.

"The ideas that Harry Colmery put down on that note paper back in 1944 changed the way we think of veterans' benefits, and the impact of what he did continues to be felt today," said Rep. Mike Simpson (ID-2), Chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Benefits. "The GI Bill is arguably the most successful piece of social legislation ever enacted into law," he said.

"Leaders of our modern all-volunteer armed forces have repeatedly said that the GI Bill, conceived 58 years ago by Harry Colmery, continues to be their number one recruiting tool," said Rep. Jim Ryun (KS-2), who represents Topeka, Kansas, where Mr. Colmery lived for most of his adult life. "After a lifetime of service to our nation, and particularly as an advocate of veterans, Harry Colmery's contributions richly deserve the honor of a Presidential Medal of Freedom," he said.

Harry Colmery was born and raised in Pennsylvania, earning a law degree from the University of Pittsburgh. During World War I, Mr. Colmery served in the fledgling air corps as a pilot instructor, and after the war established a legal practice in Topeka, Kansas, where he went on to a notable career, once winning a case before the Supreme Court.

Throughout his civilian life, Mr. Colmery was active promoting and defending the rights of America's veterans. In 1929, he was part of a coalition that worked with the House of Representatives and the Senate to pass a major veterans' hospital construction bill. In 1936, he was elected National Commander of The American Legion.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, is presented to persons who have made contributions to society that are "especially meritorious to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." Originally created in 1945 by President Truman as a wartime honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom was reintroduced by President Kennedy in 1963 to recognize peacetime civilian achievements.

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