I was a Desert Storm volunteer who lost a corporate job with high pay and earned only $18,000 the year after coming home. Going back to school, as one of the older vets posted, is tough when you classmates are so much younger. GI bill seems to not always work for getting the money where it needs to be, but the biggest hurdle was the percerption that the vet was either too old or not qualified in some way. One UW campus told me that my BA which included everything except student teaching in Illinois was not enough but they could fix that problem by having me go full time for 3 years. (I already had 180 credits,Uof C grad ect.) My advice keep asking and do not take no as the last answer. Little Marian College got me certifed to teach 6-12 English with 30 credits part time and then I completed student teaching. When I was hired to teach 1 year in Tech Ed I went to UW Stout and took every industry certification, military training record and document I could find and they honored most of them. I completed my Masters in 99 and am still teaching. My experience tells me that the schools can, if they are staffed by the right people, make things work. You need to prepare a good argument with documentation that your experiences are equivelent to some of their course work. You are never too old to do this! I was 54 when I was hired to teach and now have 12 years in and expect to do 6-8 more. My young co-workers and I are on the same page as our education and teaching methods are about the same age even if we are not.
N. Lawrence