Help for the Heroes

November 11^th is Veteran’s Day.  It is a Day to honor our Nation’s bravest men and woman. Veterans Day, originally known as Armistice Day, was created to mark the anniversary of the end of World War I. In 1918, on the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month, the guns fell silent over Europe.  In 1954 the United States decided to stop calling it Armistice Day and renamed it Veterans Day.  The selfless acts of Veterans bring an unspoken peace to our nation that some will never fully appreciate. Those selfless acts leave many Veterans with scars for life. Our Veterans’ sacrifices are met with little to no reward once they are discharged.  Many of those that have been deployed overseas have witnessed the unimaginable so what do they do when they return? Surely there are some residual effects of being at War even if you cannot physically see them. What kind of assistance is available to our Veterans when they return home to help them cope with what they have gone through? Sad to say, but there isn’t much.

At the conclusion of WWI, Congress had established a new system of benefits for Veterans that had been in place for only a year which included disability compensation, insurance, and vocational rehabilitation for the disabled. It was not until 1944 and World War II that the GI Bill was created. Currently, Veterans have the right to disability benefits, reemployment rights, proper medical care, housing, etc., when they return to the civilian world.  (http://www.vfw.org/assistance).  However, in most instances, information about and access to these benefits are not readily available.  Fortunately, there are attorneys willing to help and in some cases pro bono. Luckily, in this day and age, we are also privy to a plethora of information on the internet — with a little research Veterans can obtain the proper help they need in order to ensure they are getting all the benefits they are entitled to. (https://www.vetcompandpen.com/)

If you’re out on Veterans Day and happen to see a Service member, take the time to thank him or her for his/her service.  That’s the least we can do for the high price they pay to protect our freedom.

 Blog post author Kari Davenport works as a litigation paralegal at The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin. Headquartered in Durham, the firm has offices throughout the state and focuses on Workers’ Compensation, Personal Injury, Commercial Truck Accidents, Social Security Disability, Product Liability and Mass Torts, Intellectual Property, Civil Rights and Eminent Domain law.