In early 2020, the emergence of COVID-19 had begun and its ultimate spread across the country became inevitable. Many workplaces shut their doors, colleges moved to remote learning, and the world shifted into something that most of us had never before experienced.

With everything else shutting down, the United States Army, in a very real way, kept rolling along. Soldiers at the time faced a tough decision about their futures. Big media outlets were pushing storylines that featured mass layoffs, surging unemployment and the government even stepping in to give out stimulus checks to the people as a short-term solution to save our economy and encourage consumer spending. Steady paychecks sounded better than ever, but some service members continued to make the leap and leave their respective branches.

About 900,000 veterans and members of the military-affiliated community use the VA’s educational benefits annually to attend school. With the U.S. military officially out of Afghanistan and no longer in a war posture, many of those who can receive education benefits will shift their attention to futures outside the military and the number of people using those benefits will likely rise.

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