Winnow Driscoll served three years in the Navy. In December he'll graduate from UC Davis.

Winnow Driscoll survived three years of combat service in the military, but he almost didn't make it through his freshman year of college.

"After the first year, I was ready to quit and go back to the military," said Driscoll, who graduates from UC Davis in December. "I'd say my biggest frustration was financial."

Driscoll, who will pursue a science teaching credential after graduating, said he has amassed $63,000 in student debt and one summer had to sell his car to stay in school. Fees and books ate up most of his benefit money.

"The new GI Bill is going to be amazing," he said. "I'm really happy for the new veterans who are going to benefit."

Beginning in August 2009, the financial stress veterans like Driscoll face in earning a degree will ease somewhat with the start of the new GI Bill. UC campuses are ramping up their veterans programs in anticipation of more vets taking advantage of the beefed up federal benefits to attend a UC campus. The new GI Bill will cover all fees plus give vets housing and book allowances.

"The new financial package is so much more robust, I'm hopeful this will be the thing that will inspire returning veterans to consider a four-year degree," said Ron Williams, coordinator of Re-entry Student and Veterans Programs at UC Berkeley.

There were about 1,000 veterans enrolled at UC campuses in the last academic year. Historically many of those have transferred from community colleges where the current GI benefits stretch farther and those who never prepared for college can take basic education requirements. But that trend has been changing.

"UC has been honored to have the number of veterans enrolling at our campuses growing, and we expect those numbers to increase even more when the new GI Bill goes into effect in 2009," said Judy Sakaki, vice president of Student Affairs. "We're committed to doing all we can to help make their transition from military life to campus life a successful and rewarding experience."

UC, along with the California State University and the California Community Colleges system, participates in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Troops to College initiative aimed at attracting more vets to California's public higher education institutions.

Campuses preparing. Each UC campus has a dedicated veterans coordinator to oversee special programs such as orientations, counseling and other services including priority registration on some campuses. UC mental health counselors recently held an in-service training to help them better work with combat vets who may experience post-traumatic stress syndrome.

This fall semester Williams started a one-unit Veterans in Higher Education course at UC Berkeley, and 20 vets have enrolled. The course not only helps orient vets to life as a student, but also, Williams hopes, will dispel UC Berkeley's anti-military stigma.

"Veterans assume or have been told how they'll be treated here," said Williams. "While there are isolated incidents of inappropriate comments to veterans, most students relate to vets as having hands-on experience in the Middle East. They're met with intellectual curiosity and questions, and that's what an institution of higher learning is about."

James Lingo, who served three tours with the U.S. Marines in Iraq, said he feels comfortable on the UC Berkeley campus, where he transferred this fall from Mt. San Jacinto College in Southern California.

"People said, 'They'll think you're like a baby killer if you go to Berkeley,' " said Lingo. "But that's not at all the case. People will say the U.S. shouldn't be in Iraq. After being out there for three tours, I'm not certain we should be there either."

Since Lingo already used the bulk of his GI benefits at community college, he said, the campus financial aid counselors suggested he save the remaining months of benefits for next year when the new GI Bill will pay for a lot more of his education. They helped him find other financial aid to get him through his first UC year. Lingo wasn't aware he could do that and is grateful he took advantage of the campus services for vets.

Such services play a critical role in welcoming and retaining veterans.

Driscoll, a former petty officer second class in the U.S. Navy's search and rescue unit, found it hard to adjust to attending classes and living with typical college freshmen. He lived through two helicopter crashes and suffers daily pain from disabling back injuries.

"I was used to being responsible for hundreds of lives and $50 million aircraft," said Driscoll, who served in the Navy special search and rescue operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq. "I was the commander of teammates who were always dependable. Suddenly I was with all these students who had no responsibilities. They haven't seen what I've seen."

He also encountered problems with financial aid red tape. Freshman year he had to appeal his aid package because his military pay was counted as income, but after his discharge, he'd no longer have a military paycheck.

Driscoll, who has a work-study job in the veterans program at UC Davis, said keeping in touch with his still-deployed teammates and talking to other campus vets like program director Phil Knox and mental health counselor Frank Greer, both Vietnam-era vets, helped him with the healing process.

More first-year students expected. Lenita Kellstrand, UC Riverside's director of Student Special Services, has been working with vets on campus since 1978. It used to be rare to have vets enter UC as freshmen, she said. Now she sees more take that option. She, like others, expects an increase in freshmen coming directly from combat service to UC without stopping at a community college where they work out the kinks of adjusting to civilian life and transitioning to college.

"Almost all the veterans we'll be seeing will have service in Iraq and Afghanistan," she said. "I think we really have some issues ahead of us. I think we'll be seeing more adjustments."

More adjustments. Like Kellstrand, UC Davis' Knox has worked with vets since the '70s when more than 1,100 returning from Vietnam filled the campus. Many of the issues for the so-called post-9/11 veterans are similar to what Vietnam vets faced: combat disabilities, post-traumatic stress, anxiety, survivor guilt and the need for education and training to enter a civilian work force.

"We're on alert," he said. "We're planning. We know what the issues are."

But things are different in one respect, said Knox, an Army vet who was stationed in Ethiopia from 1969 to 1972.

"Societal acceptance is a lot different than in the Vietnam era," he said. "At least they're coming back to a higher level of appreciation."

Learn more about efforts at UC campuses to support active military, veterans and their families:

UC Berkeley rolls out red carpet for vets

UC Davis honors the fallen with veterans' memorial

UC Irvine developing body armor for soldiers

UCLA offers entrepreneurship pogram for disabled vets

UC San Diego studies Gulf War Illness

UC San Francisco offers integrated care for new vets

UC Santa Cruz trains vets to mentor others