Like the legislative journey, our review process also included a valued team. We are grateful to The Montgomery Institute, a non-profit economic development firm in Meridian, MS, for initiating this book and its financial support. We circulated the draft manuscript to a generous team of readers, many of whom were there as Hill staffers helping to shepherd the legislation for all seven years of the legislative journey. These included Mack Fleming, Jill Cochran, Patrick Ryan, Jim Holley, Beth Kilker, Debbie Smith, Kim Wincup, and Bob Cover in the House; and Jim Dykstra, Jonathan Steinberg, Ed Scott, and Babette Polzer in the Senate. Many reviewed it line by line, and we received many helpful comments.
Readers who were there for part of the legislative journey or reviewed the manuscript given their expertise included Dan Nyseth, Al Bemis, Marcelle Habibion, Dale Jones, Anthony Principi, Don Sweeney, Chris Yoder, Bill Brew, Bill Susling, Mary Ann Settlemire, Bo Maske, Anne Campbell, Capt. Joe Foster, Fred Pang, Michael Musheno, John M. Bradley III, Andrea Baridon, Adam Jones, Christina Roof, and Heather Freitag.
We thank former members of Representative Montgomery’s staff: André Clemandot, Kyle Steward, Louise Cave, and Nancy Sullivan.
We thank those who graciously opened their classrooms to field-test the draft manuscript, including Colonels Russ Howard, Rob Gordon, and Michael Meese, and Majors Darrell Driver and Shannon Lyerly at West Point; Professor Suzanne Mettler at The Maxwell School, Syracuse University; Professor Marty Wiseman at the Stennis Institute of Government, Mississippi State University; Lt. Colonel Anne Campbell and Professor Fran Pilch at the U.S. Air Force Academy; Professor Tim Penny at Winona State University, and Bill Rhatican at West Potomac (VA) High School. Kim Gianakos, Ad Astra LLC, brought the visuals to life for the field test in a way that resonated with students.
We thank Julie Kimbrough, William Mahannah, Larry Surratt, and staff at the Law Library of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Tom Dodson, Tom Burch, Charles Glasgow, Susan Sokoll, Susan Hill, and Bruce Edwards at the Legislative Reference Library of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, D.C.;Richard Sommers at the U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, PA;and Dieter Stenger at the U.S. Army Historical Center, Ft. McNair, Washington, D.C.
Keith Wilson, Dennis Douglass, Ted Van Hintum, Karen Patton, Lynn Nelson, James Palanchar, Michael Yunker, and Devon Seibert of the VA’s Education Service furnished program usage information and technical data.
We are grateful to the The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, Princeton, NJ. The Foundation named Darryl Kehrer and Marcelle Habibion Public Service Fellows in 1992, representing the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, thus funding initial research for the book. David Walton assisted.
Bonny Paez Garrido helped with the research, organized the visuals and footnotes, helped type the draft manuscript, and performed many other tasks.West Point Cadet Matthew Price helped with manuscript preparation and research during a summer internship, and Ryan Thompson helped locate needed documents.
Monica Parkzes at Army Times Publishing Co. found needed articles for us.
The careful and uniquely creative eye of Kim Gianakos made the visuals a value-added part of the manuscript. Kim created the book’s chapter and page formats/design and inserted the visuals with great care. We are very indebted to her and her business partner, Kelly B. Smith, who meticulously edited the early page proofs and checked hundreds of sources.
We are especially grateful to House Committee on Veterans’Affairs staff members Jill Cochran and Beth Kilker, both of whom had the foresight to create a seven-year, internal historical file on the Montgomery GI Bill’s development. This file proved very useful. Debbie Smith and Jim Holley coordinated our access to the internal file, and Richard Fuller provided valuable information from the early 1980s.
Many persons at Mississippi State University furnished assistance, including Dean of Libraries Frances Coleman, Michael Ballard, Ryan Semmes, Kyle Pippins, Ophelia Mitchell, Debbie Walker, Andrew Rendon, Lorene Cox, Peggy Jo Hurst, Frank Wills, Lamarris Williams, Marty Wiseman, and Stennis-Montgomery Student Association members Edward Sanders and Christen Reeves. Ashleigh Murdock and Kelly Agee skillfully checked endnote sources and edited the first draft of the manuscript.
John V. Sullivan, Bob Cover, Pierre Poisson, KimWincup, Jack Marsh, Charles Johnson, John Brizzi, and Gay Topper furnished valued advice on legislative history matters. Fred Beuttler, Michael Cronin, and Anthony Wallis, of the House Historical Office, accessed numerous visuals and furnished guidance on relevant aspects of House tradition and procedure. Heather Moore of the Senate Historical Office provided pictures of former senators.
Al Bemis, Jim Holley, Dale Jones, Anne Campbell, Ross Trower, Bob Foglesong, Kingston Smith, Rob Gordon, and Michael Meese encouraged the book’s writing so as to benefit future generations. Bill Scaggs, former president, and Aida Reeves, office manager at The Montgomery Institute, furnished valued support.
Lastly, we do not suggest that this is the complete history of the Montgomery GI Bill’s genesis, legislative journey, or implementation. But we do believe (1) our careful quoting of debate at the actual time in the legislative cycle during which events occurred/were documented; (2) our many interviews with persons who witnessed first-hand the policy development process; and (3) our extensive review of source documents generated before/during/after enactment allow us to suggest we have told the story as accurately as possible.
—Darryl Kehrer & Michael McGrevey, October 2010