Hoping monument gets corrected

Thanks, Miles Township supervisors, for taking over responsibility for the Veterans Monument in Rebersburg.

Hopefully now it will get corrected, a committee formed and a veteran put in charge — with all money donated placed into a separate fund for only the monument.

Given past mistakes made on the monument, I suggest that they work on getting the Vietnam section corrected first, because most people are still alive and they should have no problem asking them for their DD-214’s to verify their actual service history.

They need to correctly classify the people now all listed as Vietnam-era veterans as follows: Vietnam veteran, Vietnam-era veteran, veteran, then classify the people who were not veterans legally but still served in the guard and reserves during the Vietnam War.

Not everyone is a veteran, legally. This is because of current VA laws that state: Any person serving in the guard or reserves must have been “called to active duty for over 180 days to be considered a Veteran and get certain Veterans benefits.” They are not legally a veteran but still deserve placement on the monument.

No monument dedicated to veterans should be historically incorrect. Now is the time for Miles Township supervisors to shine. Get the DD-214’s and finally do the job correctly.

This story was originally published March 14, 2017 at 10:43 PM with the headline "Hoping monument gets corrected."