Who Counts as a Veteran in Delaware

Read this entry first. Delaware writes a separate definition of veteran into almost every program, and they disagree about discharge, about reserve service and about whether a war has to be involved. Knowing which one a program uses is most of the work of claiming it. The broad definition. Title 29, section 8811, subsection (c), in the chapter that now creates the Department of Veterans Affairs: a veteran "is any person who has served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, including the National Guard or the reserves, and who was discharged under other than dishonorable conditions." Section 8803 repeats the same words for the Department's duty to hire veterans where possible, and section 6310A borrows it for the reserved parking spaces at state buildings. There is no minimum length of service and no wartime period. "Other than dishonorable" reaches an other than honorable discharge and, on its words, a bad conduct discharge from a special court-martial, because only a dishonorable discharge is excluded. The federal definition, by reference. The anti-discrimination statutes define "military status" in Title 19, section 710, Title 6, section 4502 and Title 29, section 5953 to include a "veteran" as defined in 38 U.S.C. 101, plus current members of the uniformed forces and reserve components and dependents of servicemembers. The federal definition is a person who served in the active military, naval, air or space service and was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable, so it is close to section 8811 but carries the federal character of discharge rules with it. The eight uniformed services. Title 21, section 2718, subsection (g) defines the veteran designation on a driver licence by "uniformed services of the United States", naming the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, any reserve component and the National Guard, with a discharge "under conditions other than dishonorable". Senate Bill 76 of 2025, which is 85 Delaware Laws chapter 36, added the Public Health Service and NOAA officers by name. The military pension exclusion in Title 30, section 1106 also covers both commissioned corps. The veterans affairs chapter, by contrast, says "U.S. Armed Forces", which does not. State employment uses a third test, and it has wartime periods. The statute, Title 29, section 5935, gives preference to veterans "who served as an active member of the armed forces of the United States and were terminated honorably", with no period. The Merit Rules that carry it out define "Veteran" in chapter 19 as someone honorably separated after service between April 6, 1917 and July 2, 1921, or December 7, 1941 and July 1, 1955, or more than 180 consecutive days after January 31, 1955, not counting initial active duty for training, or in a campaign for which a campaign badge was authorized. And the state jobs site describes the same preference as open to anyone "honorably discharged or discharged under other than dishonorable conditions". Three sources, three tests, one preference. See the employment preference entry. Wartime still matters in a few places. The high school diploma in Title 14, section 159 is limited to World War II, Korea and Vietnam. The disabled veteran and prisoner of war license plates in Title 21, sections 2137 and 2138 name "any war, the Korean conflict, the Viet Nam conflict, Operation Desert Storm or other military conflict on foreign soil in which United States armed forces were formally engaged in battle". The paraplegic veteran pension in Title 20, section 1001 requires a disability from service while the United States was at war or engaged in hostilities as a member of the United Nations. The widest door. The Green Alert for a missing veteran, Title 11, section 8580A, defines veteran as "an individual who has served in the United States Armed Forces, including the National Guard or the reserves", with no length of service and no discharge requirement at all. The Veterans Treatment Court, which is not statutory, tells applicants that honorable and other than honorable discharges are both accepted. What to do with this. When a Delaware program refuses you, ask which section the refusal rests on and read that section's own words. A general discharge satisfies most Delaware tests. An other than honorable discharge satisfies section 8811, the federal definition, the licence designation, the Green Alert and the treatment court, and fails anything that says "honorably". The Department of Veterans Affairs service officers do this work at no charge.