Every November, we hang flags from our homes, march in parades and gather at memorials to thank Americans who served our country in the armed forces. As a retired Army general, I am grateful for gestures that honor those who took the oath and agreed to risk their lives for our nation.
But after 33 years of military service, I’m more convinced than ever that the most important question every Veterans Day is not whether we appreciate our veterans. It’s whether we’re keeping our promises to them.
For veterans whose discharge status stands between them and the care they need, the answer too often is no.
Congress made that promise unmistakably clear in 1944. With World War II still raging, it passed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, better known as the GI Bill. The law was designed to help veterans build productive lives after service — to obtain an education, find work, buy homes and receive the healthcare and support they needed to return to civilian life. Congress understood that sending a service member home was not the end of our country’s obligation, but the beginning of a new one.
Congress also made a deliberate decision about who should receive those post-service benefits, ensuring that eligibility extended to veterans discharged under conditions labeled “other than honorable.” This was not an accident. Lawmakers recognized that an imperfect service record should not automatically disqualify someone from the critical assistance they had earned.
Yet somewhere along the way, that’s exactly what happened. While the vast majority of veterans leave the military under honorable conditions, in recent years commanders have increasingly relied on “other-than-honorable” discharges to quickly remove service members for all manner of misbehavior.
The Council on Criminal Justice Veterans Justice Commission, which I direct, has documented this pattern. Our research found that Veterans Affairs denials have barred hundreds of thousands of veterans from receiving the healthcare and other benefits Congress promised them back in 1944.
Consider the destructive cycle this creates. A service member develops post-traumatic stress or suffers a brain injury during deployment. Symptoms contribute to misconduct, which often leads to an other-than-honorable discharge. That discharge blocks the veteran from obtaining healthcare, making it harder to treat the very condition that underlies the problem.
In short, the people most in need of help are now those least able to get it.
This reality should trouble every American. Because these veterans are not abstractions. They are young men and women who made a choice to serve in our military. And while they were honored to wear the uniform, the job of defending our country leaves a legacy that, for some, can be difficult to bear.
Most veterans navigate the transition from service successfully and contribute enormously to their communities. But others struggle — with trauma, substance use disorders, mental health problems or homelessness. Tens of thousands end up in prison.
Our commission’s work has illuminated how discharge status is linked to these problems. Research shows that veterans with other-than-honorable discharges face an elevated risk of suicide, homelessness and incarceration. For example, while 6% of all recent veterans received other-than-honorable discharges, that group makes up 18% of all incarcerated veterans.
These figures do not prove that denial of benefits causes incarceration. They do show why reaching this population should be a priority.
Among its recommendations, the Veterans Justice Commission identified two changes that could help. First, it proposes that the Department of Veterans Affairs align its eligibility practices with the original intent of the GI Bill. In addition, commissioners urged Congress to require automatic enrollment in VA healthcare for all eligible transitioning service members.
These are common sense actions that should draw bipartisan support. When veterans cannot get help early, relatively manageable problems can become crises, and families and communities often share in the consequences.
The words “thank you for your service” carry a responsibility. If we mean them, we should remove unnecessary barriers to benefits. That’s a debt we incurred and agreed to pay when we asked them to serve.
This Veterans Day, let’s do more than thank veterans for what they gave us, and ask whether we’re giving them what we promised. A nation that truly honors its veterans does not remember them one day a year. It honors them every day by keeping its word.
Retired Brig. Gen. David “Mac” MacEwen is director of the Council on Criminal Justice Veterans Justice Commission.
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