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Title 38 of the US Code as it applies to the Department of Veterans Affairs (formerly the VA or Veterans Administration) defines the dates of the various wars and that is what we have been using in making our list of veterans. The dates they use for the US wars:
Spanish American War 4/21/1898 to 7/4/02
WW1 4/6/17 to 11/11/18
WW2 12/7/41 to 12/31/46
Korean Conflict 6/27/50 to 1/31/55
Viet Nam Era 8/5/64 to 5/7/75 except that anyone who served in the Republic of Viet Nam from 2/28/61 to 8/5/64 is also included.
Service during wartime does not imply combat experience or even service in a combat area. To be eligible as a war veteran the individual only has to have been in the armed service during those dates. If this is good enough for the VA it is good enough for us. A service person does not usually have much choice about what he or she does in the service. You go and do what you are directed to do. This may be combat or it may be guard duty in Washington, DC. To imply that some one is not a veteran because he did not serve in the Pacific or Europe or Viet Nam is neither accurate nor fair.
Walter Kephart
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