US plans GI bill benefits to beef up Army, Marines

The Pentagon is seeking a new GI bill that would attract recruits by giving educational benefits to young men who join combat units of the Army and the Marine Corps. Lawrence Korb, assistant secretary of defense for manpower, told the New York Times the proposal is designed to attract recruits into the Army and the Marince Corps rather than the Navy or the Air Force, both of which provide high levels of technical training.

"What we want is a kid who wouldn't even have thought about the military to give us a couple of years in the combat arms," he said. The Reagan administration plans to expand the military by at least 200,000 men in the next five years.