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There is a lot of gear a soldier gets when they elect to serve their country. Uniforms, weapons, rucksacks, all “government issued.” The idea behind this is uniformity and the ability to guarantee the same level of quality and appearance among the ranks. That eventually evolved, according to The History Channel, into a joke among the soldiers.
During World War II, the term G.I. was coined to sarcastically refer to the low-on-the-totem-pole soldiers who were fresh infantrymen out of training. While the men drafted into the war were given uniforms, gear, and weapons that were all the same, they were also trained and cultivated the same mentality and attitudes to go to war. That made them feel like they were created on an assembly line and, therefore, nameless, faceless, and easily replaceable. They became G.I.s or government-issued soldiers.
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That sentimentality grew within the military all the way up to the halls of government when President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act in 1944. The act focused on providing aid for soldiers returning from war to help them reacclimate to a peaceful society, including tuition, training, and financial assistance. While it was not called this initially, it eventually became known as “The G.I. Bill.” While the bill expired a little over a decade later, the ’80s saw Mississippi Rep. Gillespie V. “Sonny” Montgomery reintroduce it after the Vietnam War, and it has lovingly been referred to as the “Montgomery G.I. Bill” ever since. G.I. became a staple in military jargon and began to spread to other areas of life, even to the toy market with Hasbro’s G.I. Joe action figure line.
