I first heard "Junior Birdmen" in 1947 during my freshman year at Syracuse. There were an enormous number of WWII vet. students who were also starting college under the GI Bill. I believe that the song originated in the USAF as a parody of WWII "patriotic" songs.
Another (musically unrelated} song re: Vets in college was:

  
            You may have a son in the army  
            You may have a son overseas  
            But take down your service flag, mother  
            Your son's in the A-S-T-P *  
  
            Chor: T-S, T-S, T-A-S-T-P (repeat once)  
  
            He'll never get killed by a slide rule  
            Finding the square root of three  
            So take down your service flag, mother  
            Your son's in the A-S-T-P *  

* ASTP was a college program for lucky active service military during WWII. I believe that the initials stood for Armed Services Training Program.

The GI Bill of Rights included a basic college education for free. Books, slide rule, paints, brushes etc were included at US expense. This was, without doubt, the most intelligent and successful education program ever conceived by the federal government. From a financial viewpoint alone, the payback in income taxes has been tremendous....college graduates earned higher salaries than non-graduates and therefore pay higher income taxes.

(My wife says that I missed my calling and should have been a teacher) Larry Parish