(FinancialHealth.net) – A bipartisan group of lawmakers is trying to pass a law to help roughly 3,000 Americans who helped during the Vietnam War but are ineligible for military assistance.
During the Vietnam War, thousands of US military advisers helped train and give aid to South Vietnam’s army. These Americans, who were known as the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG), arrived in 1950 and didn’t leave the country until the 1970s. Unfortunately, unlike other veterans of the war, they didn’t receive benefits like other soldiers.
Republican Representative Jim Baird (R-IN) and his colleagues plan to change that:
Today, along with several colleagues, I introduced the Forgotten Vietnam Veterans Act. This bipartisan legislation will provide benefits to nearly 3,000 veterans who currently don’t qualify for benefits they’ve earned.
Read more here: https://t.co/A72r3We9NS
— Congressman Jim Baird (@RepJimBaird) March 4, 2020
The bill, known as the Forgotten Vietnam Veterans Act, will extend benefits, including health care and the Veterans Pension, to MAAG soldiers. It will change the period of time that’s officially recognized as the Vietnam War to cover everyone who served the US. Currently, the Department of Veterans Affairs officially recognizes the war from February 28, 1961 to May 7, 1975.
If Congress passes the bill and President Donald Trump signs it, these soldiers will finally be given the financial benefits they earned when they put their lives on the line for this country. As Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), one of the bill’s sponsors, stated, Vietnam veterans deserve our “unwavering support.”
~Here’s to Your Financial Health!
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