Had to take out loan, no. But many, many used the very good term usaa career starter loan to buy a nice car. And had far more free cash than some of us did with zero concept of what it was like living on lower net income.

In my case, the Navy had a college loan repayment program that would have paid off about $75k of the $125k I owed after getting a BS in engineering, MS in Material Science and most of a PhD in Thermodynamics done.

It was supposed to be interest free forbearance for 4 years then federal student debt discharged. That would have made my student loans far more manageable around $500 a month.

I was at OCS on 9/11. Less than two weeks later they pulled a bunch of us commissioning in FY02 (I was first OCS class of FY02) and told us they were not able to keep us in the program because of congress not funding it. Since they were not holding up their end of the deal we were free to walk, no time owed, no commissioning, just sign here, DD-214 and a plane ticket home.

Smoke and bodies were still coming out of WTC and Pentagon. One guy who was a PhD from MIT was the only guy who I knew who walked. He literally would make less than his studen loan payments. Nevermind eating.

He's now a bigwig in the tech industry. Was at iRobot (roombas and such) for a long time.

But yeah. Silly me expecting the government to honor their contract.