Benefits, Veteran

Offering veterans’ benefits to citizens for military service is a long-established practice in the United States. At different times, benefits have ranged from medical assistance, pensions, loans, educational and vocational assistance to psychological counseling and preferential treatment in federal hiring practices. Veterans’ benefits have generally been offered as a reward for military service, an inducement to enlist, a recognition that military personnel are asked to risk their personal well-being, and as an acknowledgment that veterans have been denied opportunities for personal advancement by being removed from civilian life. But the provision of veteran benefits has been far from automatic; both the nature and the generosity of the benefits offered has been conditioned by factors such as the economic health of the nation, differing ideologies about ...