The U.S. Army is now ending the 2-year-old program after helping nearly 3,000 high school dropouts earn high school equivalency certificates and become soldiers.
The General Educational Development program was launched when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had left the service scrambling for soldiers. Since then, with the economy in a downward spiral and jobs hard to come by, more people with diplomas have been enlisting.
In 2008, 82.8 percent of people who enlisted for active duty were high school graduates; in 2009, that number had jumped to 94.6 percent.
