Every year those who serve the country return for higher education.

It was late in 2003 when Carl Hill received the call to report to Iraq. He left his wife, family and friends to represent his country on alien soil. For four months, Hill, a member of the Air National Guard, was stationed with Army units as a forward air controller sent to “blow things up,” he said.

While stationed in Iraq, Hill decided he needed a life change. Since he joined the Air National Guard in 1999 for the education benefits it offers, Hill knew this was his chance to take advantage of the benefits and make that change.

There are about 529 student veterans at VCU, according to the latest report by the Virginia Department of Veterans Services State Approving Agency for Veterans Education and Training. They share similar stories, and their numbers are constantly growing. Student veterans walk into classrooms looking just like everyone else, but there is one difference-they have put their lives on the line for their country.

Education benefits for veterans came to life on June 22, 1944, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Service Members’ Readjustment Act, commonly known as the GI Bill of Rights. More than seven million World War II veterans put the benefits to use, participating in an education or training program, before the original GI Bill ended in July 1956.

Today, the GI Bill is known as the Montgomery GI Bill, and veterans continue to use its benefits. In 2005, almost 20,000 veterans in Virginia received $165.7 million in benefits, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

“Our veterans have definitely earned it,” said Annie Mosby, director of Virginia’s state approving agency.

VCU, however, did not have an active and functioning organization for veterans until 2004, when Hill arrived on campus not long after returning from Iraq. Before 2004, the only option for student veterans was the Veterans Student Organization. The last documentation of activity within the organization was in the spring 1989 semester, according to the Veterans Affairs Office.

“It didn’t get activity,” said James Chambliss, a certifying official for veterans affairs at VCU.

The organization died a silent death, and from 1989 until 2004, student veterans had little to no resources and practically no voice on campus. Hill, a 30-year-old junior studying to be a certified registered nurse anesthetist, and Chambliss, a 20-year military retiree, came together to make changes.

“That’s why I formed the Student Veteran Association,” said Hill, the current president of SVA.

Chambliss said they “didn’t re-invent the wheel, just dusted it off and tried to bring it into present-day situations for the current veterans.”

Chambliss knows from experience the importance of having resources for student veterans.

He said veterans “may be even a bit jaded, for lack of choice of better words, because they have been exposed and seen things that the average student or an adult may never experience in life, especially during times of war,” Chambliss said. He said he thinks of veterans as a special type of student with different needs.

But Hill feels veteran students continue to lack options.

“There’s a lot of things that this school could be doing that they’re not,” he said.

The association is entering its third year with no budget. The organization requests a budget each year but usually encounters ” ‘technical difficulties’ as they called it last semester,” Hill said.

He declined to name those experiencing technical difficulties.

“They sent me an e-mail the other day, so hopefully we’ll be able to get a temporary small budget,” he said.

Mosby, a retired, disabled veteran of the U.S. Army, understands Hill’s willingness and patience to wait.

“Veterans will accept that something is not possible if they feel that all resources have been attempted or exhausted,” she said. “They understand ‘within regulation.’ ”

She sees this every day in her work. Mosby, along with her five education specialists, work for SAA, the agency responsible for approving institutions like VCU in Virginia, so eligible veterans and their dependents receive financial benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to pay for school.

This patience, however, has made it difficult for veterans to receive any sort of finances to support student veterans. They cannot really advertise, Hill explained. To find the association, “you have to search big time. It’s not easy to find,” he said. Hill described VCU as “just not veteran friendly.”

Keia Watkins, a student veteran, did not find the association when she returned for school.

Watkins, a 24-year-old financial technology sophomore, spent two-and-a-half years in the Army until she was discharged due to a back injury the Veterans’ Administration labeled as 60 percent disabling. She said her experience with the Army was a great opportunity, but she struggled with feelings of isolation upon returning to school.

While in the Army, Watkins said, “You spend so much time with people and you’re always around the same people all the time, and you go through a lot of stuff together. At times they were like my family.” This is why, Watkins said, “I had a little bit of trouble adjusting when I got back.”

She tried counseling through Veterans’ Administration but it did not work out.

“They do have services that they offer at the VA hospital, but there is a big generation gap,” Watkins said. “I went down there for counseling one day, and they put me in a group where everyone was senior citizens. They’re all complaining about their medications and how their back hurts, and I was like, ‘I don’t have anything in common with these people. I don’t feel comfortable sharing with somebody who doesn’t feel the way I feel. I don’t have anything in common with somebody that’s like 40 years older than I am.’ That’s crazy.”

So Watkins continued to struggle alone. Then one day, working as a work-study student at Founders Hall, Hill approached her.

“He told me it was very hard for him because you go away and you come back with nothing really. Because you go away from your family and your friends, you go away to fight or to serve your country, and then you come back and you really don’t feel appreciated, or you don’t feel like you fit in anymore,” Watkins said. “You don’t feel like you have anywhere to belong.”

Watkins immediately understood the necessity for the association, and she is currently training to serve as president when Hill graduates.

Hill, Watkins, Chambliss and Mosby all feel student veterans are unique among college students.

“If you just look at veterans,” Hill said, “they’re a different demographic.”

Chambliss agreed, saying, “They’re set apart from the rest of the student body.”

Mosby thinks student veterans bring a lot to VCU’s classrooms.

“I think veterans bring a certain maturity into the classroom and definitely a broader point of view,” she said.

She stressed the importance of veterans’ clubs and organizations because “veterans do bring an entirely different set of experiences to the college campus and require support because of those experiences.”

Watkins said, “We want to make student veterans aware that there are services available for them, and if we come together we can get things done.”

The 45 members of SVA spend time and money in hopes of encouraging VCU students who are currently in Iraq.

Emma Sentz, who attended VCU with Hill and Watkins, who was recently called up for a year of duty in Iraq. As for school? “She had to put it on hold,” Hill said.

Care packages were sent to “just show her that the people at this school support her,” he said.

As for now, the student veterans walk around campus completely unknown. But they continue to push for their voice on campus.

“Veterans are a national treasure,” Mosby said. “And I would ask the younger students to embrace them and to also draw upon their wealth of experience.”