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Care For Those Who Wore The Uniform, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

Considerations were granted to American war veterans as far back as 1636, when the pilgrims, in the midst of an Indian insurrection, devised a special law providing rights and assistance to those who fought. Various of the early American colonies passed similar laws for disabled veterans, and by the time of the Revolution the benefits concept had been firmly established.

Said Calvin Coolidge in 1920: "The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten." But such platitudes did little to solve the fragmented administration of veterans' affairs, which inevitably was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of cases. Thus was …