by Kelly Piercy

Created on: June 27, 2008   Last Updated: July 14, 2008

The Veterans Act was enacted between World Wars I and II. In this sweeping legislation, the American people, through Congress and the Executive, made a promise to those few who stood the thin line between America and those who would do us harm.
The American People did this because they realized the terrible cost those few had to pay for the freedom we all enjoy. Most Americans interface with war through movies, news, television, video games, and books. Most Americans only know their freedom in the same sense as they know their nose; it is there, it works, the expectation is that it will continue to work.

At the risk of cliche, there is something about freedom that most Americans cannot know - For those who fought for it; freedom has a taste the protected will never know. This author first encountered that sentiment at Freedom Hill, Da Nang, I Corps, Republic of Viet Nam as a freshly minted Marine on the way to the Trees and Bushes.
There is another perspective: For those who fought for it, freedom has a cost the protected will never understand. In a PBS program on the Marines, the then Commandant of the Marine Corps made a very simple and cogent statement. He said [paraphrased for brevity], "When you send young men and women off to war, part of them never comes home."
That is true of anyone who has ever served in a time when they woke up every morning understanding that the new day could bring orders that would put them in a situation to kill and be killed. Granted, those orders are most likely to come to the combat arms; Infantry, Engineers, Artillery, Fleet Combat Groups, Bomber and Fighter Wings, Armed Coast Guard Cutters. Assignment to a Military Occupational specialty (MOS) outside of the combat arms is only an immediate refuge. Every member of the uniformed services can receive orders at any time and find themselves standing the line.
Americans knew this. America enacted the Veterans Act, Title 38, United States Code (Title 38 USC). America promised that if a person who served under honorable conditions was injured or contracted a disease during service, not through willful misconduct or use of drugs or alcohol, the United States shall pay compensation. [Title 38 USC Section 1110: Basic Entitlement (paraphrase)].
Veterans beware! It does not end at Title 38 USC and the promises made by law. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is governed by Title 38 Code of Federal Regulations (Title 38 CFR), and in this multi-volume work is found all the minutiae by which

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page >>