Veterans used to routinely start their own businesses. Not anymore.

Veterans are not opening their own businesses like they used to.

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Roughly half of World War II veterans went on to own or operate their own business, as well as 40 percent of Korean War veterans, Inc reports. But so far, only 4.5 percent of the more than 3.6 million people who have served in the U.S. military since Sept. 11, 2001, have launched their own company.

Some of this dramatic decrease can be chalked up to broader trends — entrepreneurship is down overall in America. And then there's this:

Gone are the days when a returning soldier could easily segue from running a platoon to running an assembly line and then move up through management, along the way gaining the necessary skills to start a business. Those manufacturing jobs have mostly vanished, eliminating what was once an important bridge from the military to the civilian world. [Inc]

Additionally, today's G.I. bill no longer provides vets with access to low-interest loans to form startups as was the case in decades past.