Veterans

War has been credited as an impetus for change. Within many fields, war has been responsible for new methods, materials, and organizations. Clearly, war has been responsible for a mass of injuries that result in numbers of disabled people but has also acted as a catalyst to improve medical knowledge and techniques in the treatment of disability. During war, many different types of therapy have been developed that have primarily ensured the survival of those injured and also have produced innovative methods of treatment that have ensured a better quality of life for disabled people.

While wars in the previous centuries produced disabled men, World War I is the one noted for creating enormous numbers of disabled men. Estimates suggest that at least 1.5 million people were left with some sort of disability. Physical and sensory disabilities were augmented by those suffering from neurasthenia or shell shock. Innovations in medicine such as orthopedic surgery ensured that permanent disability was lessened, and often servicemen were made well enough to return to the battlefield and risk being killed once more.

Those who returned home with a disability became the government's responsibility; the Ministry of Pensions was established in 1917. In the United States after the war, three different agencies administered veteran's benefits: the Veterans Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions of the Interior Department, and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. Programs included compensation, insurance, and vocational rehabilitation. Advocate agencies in the United Kingdom such as the British Legion and the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia were established in 1921 and 1916, respectively, to look after the interests of disabled ex-servicemen. There were constant disagreements over pensions for disabled ex-servicemen, and the British government was criticized by organizations such as the British Legion for their lack of fiscal support. The United States established its own Veterans Administration in 1930, although there had been provision for disabled veterans since 1776 when, to increase enlistment for the Revolutionary War, pensions were offered to anyone who was disabled in the fighting.

Although World War II was not as devastating in terms of numbers killed as World War I, numbers of people were disabled as a result of the war. As the fighting line was more fluid, civilians were drawn into the field of battle and became disabled as a result of enemy action. New regimes were established to ensure that those who had been permanently disabled were able to be employed elsewhere to assist the war effort. Termed rehabilitation, its purpose was to ensure that the effect of the manpower shortage due to mass mobilization was lessened. The Disabled Person's Employment Act [Page 1602]of 1944 in Britain established guidelines for the employment of disabled people after the war.

As well as being workers, disabled people were viewed as heroic. Douglas Bader, the famous double amputee, was feted for his bravery flying Spitfires for the Royal Air Force. Some of the most important work on disability was that of neurosurgeon Sir Ludwig Guttmann, at Stoke Mandeville in Aylesbury, England, who worked with servicemen and servicewomen who had incurred spinal injury with resultant paralysis. His efforts to prevent them from sinking into depression and work toward building a stronger body with compensatory muscles through sports had far-reaching implications, as these early competitions evolved into the contemporary Paralympic Games.

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