Who Is A Veteran?

  • A person who served on full time active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, other than active duty for training, and was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable. Those who enlisted in the military after September 7, 1980, and officers commissioned or who entered active military service after October 16, 1981, must have completed two years of continuous active duty or the full period for which they were called or ordered.
  • An individual who died while serving on active duty, or was disabled or died from a disease or injury incurred or aggravated in the line of duty while performing active duty for training or inactive duty training.
  • Certain members of a reserve component of the U.S. Armed Forces who meet the legal residence requirements.
  • Certain members of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (formerly the Coast and Geodetic Survey) and the Regular or Reserve Corps of the Public Health Service who meet the legal residence requirements.
  • Members of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Regular Reserve Corps of the Public Health Service are eligible for burial if they completed full-time duty (other than for training) as a commissioned officer:
  • On or after July 29, 1945. If the service is performed while serving on active duty for training, his or her death shall have resulted from a disease or injury incurred or aggravated in the line of duty; or before that date:
    • While on transfer to one of the Armed Forces; or
    • While in time of war or national emergency declared by the President, assigned to duty on a project for one of the Armed Forces in an area determined by the Secretary of Defense to be of immediate military hazard; or
    • In the Philippine Islands on December 7, 1941 and thereafter.

In addition, Public Law H.R. 821, enacted May 4, 1994, extends burial eligibility to persons who have 20 years of service creditable for retired pay as members of a reserve component of the Armed Forces or who would have been entitled to retired pay but for the fact that the person was under 60 years of age.